30 BULLETIN 134, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



beach, by any railroad, and all of the 2,000,000 cases are hauled in 

 carts each year, over a very bad road. (PI. VIII, fig. 1.) 



The foregoing description applies to the fruit sent by sea. A very 

 small amount of the crop that is sent by railroad is also packed in 

 boxes and handled in the way described. But nearly all of the fruit 

 shipped by railroad is simply conveyed in loose carload lots. From 

 10,000 to 15,000 tons are exported from the Valencia district in this 

 manner, while 400,000 to 450,000 tons are shipped by sea. Where 

 the fruit is to be shipped by railroad in loose carload lots, the packing 

 house occurs alongside the railroad. These packing houses are even 

 simpler than those already described, for they consist simply of a 

 roof, the sides being left open. The earth is graded up to the height 

 of the floor of the car to facilitate the transfer of the fruit. The floor 

 of this open-air packing house is covered with rice straw, as are also 

 the floor and sides of the car. The cars are usually of the pattern 

 of our stock cars, with lattice work on the sides to allow for plenty 

 of ventilation. (PL VII, fig. 2.) 



The oranges are brought from the field directly to the railroad 

 packing house, where they are piled on the floor. Women hero give 

 the fruit the sawdust treatment, if needed, and the culls are discarded. 

 It is now ready for the car, where it is carried in baskets and filled 

 to the depth of a couple of feet. Such fruit goes mostly into France, 

 or to other parts of Spain. 



PRODUCTION AND EXPORT. 



From figures kindly furnished by Mr. Claude I. Dawson, American 

 consul at Valencia, the total production of oranges for the season 

 1912-13 amounted to nearly 7,000,000 cases of 165 pounds each. 

 This amounts to about 38,500 California carloads or 45,117 Florida 

 carloads. Of this amount 5,573,627 cases were shipped by sea, as 

 follows : 



Cases. 



Great Britain 2, 253, 076 



Germany 1, 374, 829 



Holland 501 , 645 



Norway and Sweden 84, 374 



Austria-Hungary 18, 110 



Denmark 17, 103 



France 6, 033 



Russia 1, 000 



The overland shipments to France approximated 1,200,000 cases, 

 and the remainder of the crop was consumed in Spain. 



According to the figures of the United States Bureau of Statistics 

 there were shipped into the United States from Spain in 1912, 9,000 

 pounds of oranges and lemons (not separately listed), valued at $204. 

 The only records the writer was able to obtain in Spain of orange ship- 



