416 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



The fruit is uot irrigated, and the land is not cultivated, not even by 

 cutting down the brush and weeds with a machete. 



No expense for cultivation. Trees well matured average a yield of 

 4,000 oranges per year, which are sold on the tree at $10, but which 

 bring in the Guayaquil market from $3 to $4 per thousand. The home 

 market is usually well supplied, and more luscious fruit is not elsewhere 

 produced. 



LEMONS. 



The lemon family in Ecuador is of three sorts large sour, limes, and 

 sweet. The trees come into bearing at from two to three years of age> 

 and continue to bear up to about twenty years of age. 



The trees are all seedlings, and come up by chance. 



Neither trees nor fruit are troubled with insects. 



There are no orchards; but if there were, the trees, to produce well and 

 bear good fruit, should be from 40 to 50 feet apart, for the same reason 

 as given regarding oranges. The trees that come up promiscuously 

 are often transplanted into hedges and set near together, more for the 

 purpose of making a fence than realizing from the fruit, which is of 

 market value. 



The trees are not detrimentally affected by sea breezes, and they ap- 

 pear to thrive anywhere. 



The trees are not cultivated or irrigated. 



It is difficult to say what the yield would be under good treatment, 

 but it certainly would be very large. The price of the fruit is too low 

 to make the business of lemon growing profitable in Ecuador. 



HORATIO N. BEACH, 



Consul. 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



Guayaquil, February 24, 1884. 



VENEZUELA. 



REPORT BY CONSUL BIRD, OF LAQUAYBA. 



ORANGES. From general information and from considerable personal 

 observation, it may be stated that the Valencia orange is the only va- 

 riety known in Venezuela, the besc of which grow in the vicinity of the 

 city of Valencia, Venezuela, 40 miles in the interior and about 1,825 feet 

 above the level of the sea. They seem to thrive best with moderate ex- 

 posure to the sun on hilly or undulating land, on soil composed of black 

 loam. The average temperature best suited to their growth would ap- 

 pear to be 77 P., with extremes of 85 and 70. The fruit matures best 

 in a moderate season of rain, but irrigation is never practiced. The 

 cultivation of this fruit is proceeded with after the most primitive fash- 

 ion, being propagated by grafts on seedling stocks and receiving no 

 fertilizing nor pruning whatever. The orchards are of small extent, 



