THE CUBA R E V I E \Y 



31 



der any other kind of management is not 

 a serious business undertaking." 



"In ever}' co-operative association there 

 should be a division for the purchase, sale 

 or maufacture of supplies of every kind 

 used in the production, packing, handling, 

 shipping and marketing of the crop. The 

 association should be prepared to purchase 

 fertilizers, materials and equipment for 

 spraying and fumigation, pruning or har- 

 vesting, orchard machinery, or any other 

 equipment on which a saving can be made 

 by co-operative purchase. It should be pre- 

 pared to purchase the supplies for fruit 

 handling and marketing, such as box shooks 

 or packages, picking boxes, nails, wrapping 

 paper, and all kinds of packing house 

 equipment." 



"The condition in which fruit reaches the 

 consumer depends largely on the care with 

 which it is handled. The most common 

 rots of citrus fruits are directly related to 

 the mechanical bruising of the fruit, most 

 of the diseases not having the power of 

 penetrating a healthy, uninjured skin. The 

 association must therefore provide rigid 

 rules for picking. It must either super- 

 vise the harvesting, grading and packing 

 of the fruit and provide for the most rigid 



inspection of every lot before it is accepted 

 by the association for shipment, or else 

 the harvesting, grading and packing" must 

 be done by the association." 



"One plan is to grade and pack the fruit 

 at a central packing house owned and con- 

 trolled by the association. The growers 

 pick the fruit, haul it to the packing house 

 and there it is graded and packed by the as- 

 sociation. The objection to this plan is that 

 no two growers handle the fruit with equal 

 care, and the different lots of fruit there- 

 fore var_v in physical condition and in 

 susceptibility to decay. Under this system 

 there is a wide variation in the percentage 

 of decay that develops in the fruit of 

 different members while in transit to 

 market." 



"The most satisfactory plan in the citrus 

 fruit industry is to have the association 

 train gangs of laborers who shall pick the 

 fruit of all the members. The laborers 

 should be paid by the day, as contract or 

 piece-work places a premium on rapid, 

 careless work. In this way the picking can 

 be standardized, the quantity of fruit that 

 passes through the packing house can be 

 controlled, and the grading and packing 

 can be uniformly done." 



DYNAMITE IN THE ORCHARD 



The United States government has used 

 dynamite successfully in ditching opera- 

 tion as was mentioned in the December 

 Cuba Review, but in California it has long 

 been used in breaking up hard clayey soils 

 preparatory to planting fruit trees. 



Trees planted in spaded holes must fight 

 their waj' into the compact subsoil which 

 has never been disturbed, whereas expe- 

 rience has shown that when planted in a 

 dynamited hole the ground, being thoroughly 

 broken up under the surface soil, makes 

 an easy path for the roots, so that they 

 spread out and have a large area from 

 which to draw water and plant food. 



One grower advising this method of 

 opening the ground adds also that trees 

 be set in wet weather, as this insures a 

 storage of moisture under the tree. This, 

 it is said, is the chief reason why planting 

 trees with dynamite is beneficial. 



Another claim is that trees planted with 

 dynamite come into bearing much sooner 

 than when planted by the old way. A 

 Georgia orchardist reported that he had 

 been using dynamite for tree planting for 

 eighteen or twenty years and that in the 

 planting of peach trees by this method he 

 gained two years in six as compared with 

 the old method. In other words, he got 

 as much fruit from a tree planted with 

 dynamite at four years of age as he got 

 at six years by the old method. 



It was also found in one orchard that of 



two trees planted at the same time, the one 

 in a spade-made hole and the other when 

 dynamite had been used, the former had a 

 fine bushy and vigorous tassel of roots 

 about a foot long, while the latter had two 

 roots going down some three feet or more, 

 and it had a great quantity of medium and 

 short growth roots. — California Fruit 

 GroTver. 



COMING EXHIBITS OF PRODUCTS 



Growers of citrus fruit in Eastern Cuba 

 will form a new society holding an exposi- 

 tion at Camaguey from February 3rd to 

 10th. The city has offered yearly cash pre- 

 miums, ample grounds and buildings for a 

 fair and this offer has been accepted. In 

 addition to this exhibition of Cuba's val- 

 uable products there will be others at 

 Havana. Isle of Pines and at La Gloria, 

 ^lost of these sections will also send ex- 

 hibits to the Havana exposition. 



The Cuba Railroad Company, helping 

 along the work, has agreed to make a half 

 rate to all exhibitors, and will haul all ex- 

 hibits by express free, to and from Cama- 

 guey. _ 



A circular will soon be issued to all 

 owners of boarding houses in Havana by 

 the Health Department instructing them 

 not to allow dogs to be kept in those 

 places. Fines will follow the violation of 

 this order. 



