514 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



year the ground around them is cleared away to adepth of 40 centimeters, 

 forming a circular ditch with a diameter of two meters into which two 

 baskets of manure, or about 20 kilograms, are deposited, whereupon 

 the ditch is covered with the earth previously removed, placing it so as 

 to form a shallow ditch around the tree. This operation is resorted to 

 in January and February. Small trees are manured twice a year, for 

 the first five years, viz, in March and August. 



Ordinarily, however, when trees prosper, manuring is resorted to 

 only every three years, the quantity used being about 40 kilograms to 

 each tree. 



Pruning. The first pruning is made after the expiration of the third 

 year. The height from the ground depends on the quality of the land 

 in which the trees are planted, as well as the desire for either high or 

 low trees. When the land is exposed to northern and southern winds 

 it is better that the trees should be low, but inversely should this 

 exposure not obtain. 



In Palermo, as in all Sicily, the orange and lemon gardens are pruned 

 from December to June, while the trees are devoid of fruit, the process 

 being governed by the gardeners 7 interests and experience rather than 

 by any theoretical suggestions. 



Gardeners take care to clip or clean the trees yearly, cutting off all 

 old and useless branches. Pruning is resorted to every three years. 



PICKING AND CURING.* 



Oranges are picked from November to March, and lemons from No- 

 vember to August. The first picking is generally made in November, 

 the second in December or January, and the third in March or April. 

 During the summer months, however, such as are verging on maturity 

 are picked from time to time. 



Oranges and lemons for export are picked prior to maturity, and thus 

 shipped to ripen on the voyage. 



Oranges and lemons for export are not cured, but simply selected 

 with a view to bearing the long voyage. Those not shipped, and for 

 which a sale is hot readily found in the markets of Palermo, are pre- 

 served from March to August, in well ventilated caves or grottoes, to be 

 sold to ice cream dealers for: the purpose of making ice-cream^ jellies, 

 lemonade, etc. 



* In a subsequent dispatch Consul Carroll says that, " in connection with preserving 

 oranges and lemons after being taken from the trees, it may be proper to say that 

 this consulate is often applied to for information as to the supposed or alleged means 

 resorted to here for that purpose by California and Florida fruit growers, and to re- 

 peat, for the information of fruit growers in the United States, that there is no proc- 

 ess resorted to nor known hereto preserve the fruits in question other than folding 

 them in fine tissue-paper, which is changed from time to time, and the fruit examined 

 and all contaminated oranges and lemons eliminated from the baskets or boxes in 

 which, for the time being, the fruit may be placed. Precaution is also taken to place 

 or keep the fruit in question in a dry equable temperature. 



" Oranges and lemons are generally picked before maturity. " 



