442 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



Fertilisers. Before irrigation commences the soil is well manured with 

 sheep dung. The manure is spread over the whole soil of the groves and 

 then mixed with the soil. 



Priming. There is but very little pruning done, and not before the 

 tree is four years oid. 



Picking. The oranges and lemons are picked from November to April. 

 Stage of ripeness, January, some nearly, some entirely ripe. The fruit 

 in my district is not exported, but consumed by the home trade. 



Planting and propagating. The distance planted apart is from 20 to 25 

 feet ; trees are propagated from the seed and from cuttings. Seedlings 

 which are grafted when two or three years old are preferred. The 

 orchards are various, from 1 to 15 acres. 



Maturity. Age of fruiting the fifth year, the largest crop about in the 

 fifteenth year. Maturity at thirty-five to forty years. 



Disease. Since a few years a disease is spreading in some localities 

 among the orange and lemon trees, similar to the phyloxera in vines, 

 which threatens to destroy the groves, as no remedy has been found yet 

 for this disease, bu tthe gardens near Acca have up to now not suffered 

 from this disease. 



JACOB SCHUMACHER, 



Consular Agent. 



UNITED STATES CONSULAR AGENCY, 



Acca and Haifa, December 5, 1889. 



HAIFA. 



REPORT OF CONSULAR AGENT SCHUMACHER. 

 (Republished from Consuhir Reports No. 41.) 



Only one variety of oranges is cultivated in my district, and is 

 named, after the city of Acca, " Accawy." It has the form of the round 

 Spanish orange, with reddish-yellowish flesh ; it has a fine flavor, 

 and is very juicy. Blood oranges and mandarines are cultivated so 

 little here that there is no rule for their treatment. The orange of my 

 district is about 3J inches in diameter ; the skin is smooth, thin, and 

 contains considerable oil. 



Several sizes of lemons grow here ; the largest is about 4 J inches 

 long by 3 inches in diameter. The skin of the lemon is thick and con- 

 tains much oil. At the age of four to five years both orange and lemon 

 trees begin bearing and remain fruitful thirty to forty years. 



We have two kinds of lemons, sweet and sour ; the sour bear as seed- 

 lings ; on the sweet the orange is grafted. This manipulation of grafting 

 on sweet lemon trees has lately proved to be the most profitable, as the 

 size of the fruit increases with the age of the tree, while ttiose grafted 

 on sour lemon trees become smaller after fifteen years, The trees are 



