I2O 



The following are the instructions of the Transvaal Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to growers for handling oranges for export, 

 which seem to us very practical and simple : 



All fruit must be cut and not plucked from the trees ; it 

 should be cut as closely as possible, and care taken that the skin 

 is not injured in any way, as the slightest scratch is sufficient to 

 cause decay. 



Fruit should be picked into sacks carried by the pickers and 

 emptied carefully into the boxes which are to convey it to the 

 packing house. Handle each fruit as you would an egg. Pick 

 no fruit for export which is under three inches in diameter. 



Pick none which bears marks or injury from scale insects. 



Be careful not to include any fruit which has been stung by 

 insects. 



All oranges and naartjes must be allowed to remain for three 

 or four days after picking, before they are delivered at the pack- 

 ing house. 



Fruit must be conveyed to the packing house in boxes. The 

 Inspector has instructions not to receive oranges, etc., sent loose 

 in a wagon or in sacks. Fruit so sent will not receive the Go- 

 vernment stamp. Arrangements should be made with the mana- 

 ger of the packing house as to the quality of fruit to be delivered 

 weekly and the days on which it may be sent in. 



CITRUS EXPORT AS IT STANDS TO-DAY. 



The last three or four years the export of oranges has taken 

 a decided step, .in fact a leap, forward. Considerable enterprise 

 has been shewn throughout the Union in districts where oranges 

 of good quality are grown, both by growers and also by dealers 

 and exporters to see that the best of the fruits are exported to 

 Europe. The result has proved a very marked success and a 

 most profitable venture for all concerned. Seldom do we now 

 hear of consignments reaching the European markets in bad con- 

 dition, and seldom is a consignment now sent that does not bring 

 to the grower a handsome return for his labour and enterprise. 



The Washington Navel (as we have for years impressed on 

 planters) has fulfilled all the expectations of its most sturdy and 

 consistent advocates, and to-day the South African Navel has 

 made for itself a place in the European market from which, see- 

 ing that we are so carefully protected with strict Government 

 inspection and standardized cases, it will be impossible to dis- 

 lodge it. 



That there is a brilliant future before the growers of Wash- 

 ington Navels few to-day will dispute, and fortunate is the grower 



