H7 



THE CITRUS INDUSTRY. 



ITS INFANCY. 



:i.Mderable attention has been devoted of late years to the 

 >pment _ *.nd lemon industry in the Cape 



.\. \atal. and in the Transvaal, and \ve consider that this 

 -pirit of enterpn- Greeted into a proper channel, as 



there is undoubtedly mum for very many more orange and lemon 

 orchards than we at present have. The development of orange 

 orchard planting in the \\"e>t began in 1892. in which year it was 

 recognised that tl f the Australian bug were numbered, 



thanks to the : the two ladybirds: the Vedalia, which was 



imported from California in the latter end of 1891 by the Govern- 

 ment, and also the Kodolia. which, as far as we know, is in- 

 digenous to this country and possibly a South African species. It 

 has generally been claimed that the credit was almost entirely due 

 to the work of the imported Vedalia: we. however, differ in this, 

 our idea being that although the Vedalia was the more useful 

 inject of the two, being a greater glutton, our local friend had 

 already got the bug under, throughout the Colony, before the 

 Vedalia had established himself sufficiently to warrant his being 

 uirned out among the bugs from the specially constructed houses 

 which Mr. C. D. Rudd had built for their accommodation. In 

 the Eastern Province we cannot but think that the ravages of 

 this pest were not nearly as severe as in the West. In our Pro- 

 vince hardly an orange tree but was so badly affected, and such 

 a beastly sight that it was cut down either just above the ground 

 or at three to six feet above, and very many thousands of orange 

 trees of above fifty year- of age, and standing like forest trees, 

 were grubbed out and burned. We consider the reason that the 

 West suffered worse is that the Rodolia made its appearance in 

 the East, perhaps had always been there : and in those parts was 

 in sufficient force to prevent the entire destruction of the tree, as 

 happened here. 



We may here state that the Australian bug (Iccrya Purchasi ) 

 lias been one of the most terrible pests that have affected vege- 

 table life, and has been known all over the world. In the latter 

 So's and early QO'S the State of California was ravaged by this 

 pest, and the growers were threatened with total ruin, which 

 would have practically been a collapse of the southern part of the 

 State of California. The State Board of Horticulture, however, 

 grappled with the question, and sent one of their Entomologists 

 Australia to discover, if possible, a parasite; this was in a 

 time successfully done, with the same little friend that 

 California gave us a few years later, to wit, the Vedalia Cardi- 

 nalis. 



