123 



The- <>r oranges go ing "puffy," tlu,- 



heavy rainfall -hortly before the fruit 



ripen- the usinjr of stable and 



ird; nitrogenous manures are harmful 

 : they should be used only when the 



\vth. 

 \lniicr tJ , should be picked at least four 



them even I< 



-ent rain. I know of a very successful ex- 

 who pickes his ten days or a fortnight before packing. The 

 fruit should nmediately before packing. 



\ ing. care in picking, and care in packing are 

 -entials for the succe ful fruit exported. 



SITE FOR CITRUS ORCHARD. 



In deciduous planting, as \ve have already stated, we almost 



always have reason to deplore the absence of data as to whether 



or no. As in deciduous trees, where the seedling 



and o r t "f grafted tree will thrive, it does not follow that 



the more delicate and more valuable fruit will also do well : we 



ler, however, that in citru^ growing it can be practically 



a fact that when seedling oranges will gro\v and 



thrive, improved varieties will also do so. \Ye are, therefore, 



: aced in the position of having data in citrus growing 



practically all over South Africa. This helps us considerably. 



In fact. \ ler very good work has been done in orange 



growing as regani -.dually proved all through the 



Color. hroughotit the Orange Free State and Transvaal, 



at all and the most favourable sites for 



planting. The opening up of the higher tableland for citrus 



planting would have been quite a problem without such data, as 



:i demonstrated that it is only certain locations that are 



at all suit; prevalence of frosts in the higher veld. 



One - be perfectly free from frost, whereas another, a 



few hundred yard- away, is -wept by ; I winds which 



would render the planting of citrus trees a fatal investment. It 



:~ive at this knowledge, and it is the yea 



settlement mainly bv the Dutch that has given us this valuable 



knowledge. Take Florida; every grower knows how the 



State has bee- >ional frosts, which have - 



through wide lie country, cutting down to the ground 



- and thoii-a- "chards. We take 



the Florida situation in this way. The old Portuguese settlements 



nd Inxir which, as the 



