nS 

 OLD ORCHARDS. 



The late Mr, Leibbrandt (Keeper of the Archives) stated 

 that the citrus family were introduced by the Dutch East Indian 

 Company mainly from St. Helena, where they had been planted^ 

 very many years before by the Portuguese, and doubtless were 

 also obtained from India and the East, as the ships of the Com- 

 pany were trading throughout the Eastern seas ; and seeing the 

 attention the Company were bestowing on Agricultural Develop- 

 ment, every step would doubtless have been taken to secure and 

 safely land the very best varieties from all the ports of call of 

 the Company's ships. We should gather that no fruits intro- 

 duced in these days gave greater prospects of bringing wealth and 

 benefit to the country than oranges. Undoubtedly they flourished 

 exceedingly wherever planted, and wherever the settler trekked" 

 further inland orange trees were invariably planted by him, and 

 almost invariably thrived. The French Huguenots in particular 

 took up the matter of orange growing with great spirit, their 

 orchards in the Drakenstein Valley and French Hoek being cele- 

 brated at an early period. In fact, wherever citrus trees would 

 grow in Africa they have followed the colonisation of the country, 

 both amongst the early English settlers in the East and the Dutch 

 as they trekked through Natal and the Transvaal. 



There is no doubt that citrus fruits are very much at home 

 in Africa ; we think that some of our old orchards will hold their 

 own with any in the world for health and vigour. We have our- 

 selves seen many of the older groves along the Mediterranean in 

 France. Spain and Northern Italy, and have seen none of them 

 approaching in general health and appearance even our average 

 grove at the Cape. However, the ravages of the Australian bug 

 and the mat di goma (root rot) have played havoc amongst our 

 oldest and finest groves ; the great majority of these have now 

 already disappeared, and of the remainder collar rot is taking 

 them off very rapidly, or, if not killing them out, at least injuring 

 them to sufficient extent to render them of not the same account 

 either in appearance or bearing capabilities that they formerly 

 were. 



CITRUS EXPORT AS IT STOOD IN 1909. 



Owing to the very great general improvement in our South 

 African citrus groves the last few years, the result mainly of 

 increased knowledge in coping with scale insects and mal di goma, 

 the increase in the crop has made rapid advances, and a highly 

 satisfactory step forward in quality, and the day is now here, in 

 our opinion, when we must look at our export markets to take 



