Fruit Growing in the Gulf States. 215 



18 to 24 varieties. They are not all named, and of 

 those that are, the names are unfamiliar. Amongst them 

 are the Giant, Green, Red, Fig, Sherlocks, Common 

 Chinese, Martinique, which variety is grown in Jamaica 

 for the fruit trade, and the Manilla, from which the well 

 known fibre is obtained. No mention is made in the 

 report of any use being made of the plantain or banana 

 fibre derived from the stalks. My readers will not have 

 forgotten the interesting specimen of paper stuff made 

 from the edible banana by Mr. CROSS, who reported on 

 the West Indian fibres at the Colonial and Indian Exhibi- 

 tion and sent to the Society by me in 1886. 



The orange is probably the most important fruit of 

 the more southern parts of America. In Louisiana and 

 Florida more fruit has been raised than suffices for home 

 consumption. Orange growing in Florida has been 

 attractive to numbers, including many young English- 

 men, who have gone out with hopes of unchequered 

 success. The report from which these extracts are made 

 speaks of the greed and fraud of land agents, and of reck- 

 less extravagance and speculation being common among 

 growers in that State until the "great freeze'' of January, 

 1886, which proved the severest shock to the orange 

 industry ever known in the Gulf States. Orange culture, 

 we are told, is no longer an easy and agreeable way of 

 making an immense fortune, nor is Florida a modern 

 El Dorado. 



But like most reverses, the " great freeze" has taught 

 useful lessons, and amongst them that orange culture is 

 but on a level with any honest agricultural pursuit. A 

 successful orange grower, like a successful cane planter, 

 must be devoted to his work and everything appertain- 



