424 FKUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



Let me add, in conclusion, that Jamaica is admirably adapted for 

 orange cultivation. The soil, the climate, the rapidly increasing steam 

 facilities for transportation, and the cheapness of laud seem to me to 

 combine to make of this island an especially desirable field. As I have 

 said, the fruit actually grows wild, and without other cultivation than 

 keeping down the bush. If the same intelligent care and attention were 

 given to the growth of the tree and to the proper packing of the fruit 

 for market that obtains with us in the United States, it would prove a 

 most profitable and pleasant occupation to all engaged in it. But the 

 cultivation is regarded as secondary to the use of the land for cattle 

 or sheep pasturage, and the care and handling of the fruit is still, as a 

 rule, of the roughest and most careless description. Nearly 50 percent, 

 of the fruit, on an average, is either spoiled or seriously damaged before 

 it reaches a market, and the greater portion of this great loss is due to 

 rough and careless handling. 



GEO. E. HOSKINSON, 



Consul. 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



Kingston, Jamaica, March 27, 1884. 



JAMAICA. 



REPORT BY CONSUL HOSKINSON. 

 (Repnblished from Consular Reports No. 41.) 



In further continuation of the subject treated of in my dispatch of 

 the 27th of March, I have now the honor to forward, in a connected 

 form, the notes of an experienced observer and cultivator of the orange 

 tree. 



GEO. S. HOSKINSON, 



Consul. 

 UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



Kingston, Jamaica, April 14, 1884. 



[Inclosure. Consul Hoskinson's report.] 



Varieties. Of oranges, the varieties principally grown are native seedlings, some 

 of which were prior to the emancipation planted by the slaves near their dwellings 

 and attended to by simple methods of cultivation. Many of the trees now furnishing 

 fruit for export are the reman ts of those planted by the slaves, such as the irregular 

 groves now to be found on sugarestates and coffee plantations. Some of the trees are 

 native seedlings -spontaneously springing up in pastures and guinea-grass pieces. 

 Since emancipation the colored people have planted orange trees in their small free- 

 holds in the mountains. This has been done to a large extent in the parish of Man- 

 chester, where sweet oranges of good quality have been long grown, and where the 

 soil and climate conduce to excellence in the quality of the fruit. Besides the na- 

 tive seedlings superior kinds of sweet oranges (of unnamed varieties) have been is- 



