THE CITRUS THEIPS. 5 



25 cents per box. Although in seasons such as 1911 only a small 

 percentage of the fruit is culled from this cause, in one instance an 

 entire shipment of navel oranges from a 5 -year-old, untreated 

 orchard was refused at the eastern market, with the statement that 

 the oranges were too badly scabbed to be salable. In several other 

 orchards inspected that year from 1 to 2 per cent of the fruit was 

 malformed as the result of thrips feeding. 



GKADE REDUCTION. 



The most important damage resulting from the feeding of thrips 

 upon trees that have passed the period of rapid growth is the lowering 

 of the market value of the fruit by unsightly scabbing and scarring. 

 Although the eating quality of the orange is not affected thereby, 

 its commercial grading is lowered considerably and the selling price 

 correspondingly reduced. 



EXTENT OF DAMAGE TO ORANGES IN TULARE COUNTY. 



In 1909 more than 80 per cent of the oranges of Tulare County, 

 Cal., were so damaged by the citrus thrips as to lower the grade ; in 

 1910 the grading affected about 63 per cent of the crop, and in 1911 

 about 65 per cent was affected. 



To calculate the loss due to grade reduction because of damage by 

 thrips it is necessary to know the method of grading and relative 

 value of the grades. In California oranges usually are packed in 

 either three or two grades. In the 2-grade pack the quality of 

 the fruit of the first grade is about the same as would be obtained 

 by placing together the first and second grades of the 3-grade 

 pack, the quality being sufficiently lowered to include fruit which 

 would be of second grade in a 3-grade pack. 



Taking the season of 1911 as fairly representative of recent years, 

 returns received by different packing houses on a total of about 

 358,000 boxes of oranges of all grades indicate the following price 

 range between the different grades. First-grade fruit average 37 

 cents more per box than second grade; the latter 28 cents more than 

 third grade. Receipts from several carloads of fruit shipped in two 

 grades gave an average difference of 51 cents per box in favor of the 

 first grade. Examination of thousands of boxes of oranges through- 

 out the district from Mount Campbell to Porterville showed 34 per 

 cent of the fruit to run first grade, 43 per cent second grade, and 23 

 per cent third grade, so far as thrips marking was concerned. 



Statistics on the amount and value of the total orange crop shipped 

 from the entire San Joaquin Valley in 1911 are not available, but 

 from Lindsay and its tributaries, constituting much the largest 

 single citrus section of the valley, 1,525 carloads, or about 594,750 



