500 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



nine hours 7 work. The women select and wrap up the fruit. Men are 

 employed to pack the fruit and handle the boxes ; they get from 40 to 

 50 cents a day. The stevedores handle the boxes with great care. The 

 steamers give all possible ventilation to the fruit during the voyage. 

 Fruit possessing the greatest keeping qualities is sent in sailing vessels 

 to the United States. The duties paid on oranges and lemons enter- 

 ing the United States are as follows : On oranges in boxes, capacity 

 not exceeding 2J cubic feet, 25 cents per box; half-boxes, capacity not 

 exceeding 1} cubic feet, 13 cents per half-box ; bulk, $1.60 per thousand ; 

 barrels, capacity not exceeding that of the 196-pound flour barrel, 55 

 cents per barrel ; packages not especially enumerated or provided for, 

 20 per cent.; on lemons in boxes, 30 cents per box ; on half-boxes, 16 

 cents; in bulk, $2 per thousand ; in packages 20 per cent. 



Exporters frequently buy the fruit on the trees. Below is given the 

 cost of preparing and shipping a box of oranges or lemons: 



Cutting, selecting, and packiDg in the groves $0.15 



Box, paper, nails, and hooping 30 



Transportation to Messina (average) "20 



Repacking, shipping charges, store rent, and brokerage 14 



Freight, per box, by steamer to New York 30 



Total 1.09 



A few firms export fruit to the United States on joint account. Fruit 

 is generally shipped on consignment. Consignees 7 commissions and 

 auction fees are 6 per cent. 



Years ago oranges were preserved in sand for from four to five months, 

 merely for family use. This practice no longer prevails ; it would not 

 pay on a large scale, such enormous warehouses would be required and 

 so great would be the expense of handling the fruit. Preserving 

 oranges in bran has been tried ; it proved too heating. I have heard 

 of a successful shipment of oranges packed in beech sawdust. The ves- 

 sel carrying the cargo left Messina in December and reached St. Peters- 

 burg in May. Spanish grapes packed in cork-tree sawdust keep from 

 September to March. Preserving oranges by the fumes of sulphur 

 has never been attempted here, lest the fumes might cause the fruit to 

 dry up. % 



The maturing of oranges and lemons is affected by the altitude, lati- 

 tude, excessive heat in certain localities, irregular rain-fall, and the 

 nature of the soil. 



Sicily is mountainous in character, and is agronomically divided into 

 three zones : 



(1) Marine zone, in which fruit ripens earliest. 



(2) Middle zone, extending from 1,500 to 3,000 feet above the sea- 

 level. 



(3) Mountain zone, where the temperature is too low and the climate 

 too damp for citrus culture, 



