OSAKGES AND LEMONS IN THE AZOBES. 531 



THE AZORES. 



BEPOBT BT CONSUL DABlfET, OF FATA.L. 



[RepuDlished from Consalac Report No. 41i.] 



ORANGES AND LEMONS IN THE AZORES. 



The lemon, never raised in large quantities in these islands, proba- 

 bly because its quality did uot make it a favorite, has become quite ex- 

 tinct as an article of trade in consequence of the liability to disease of 

 the tree roots. The orange of the Azores, the China orange, is a fine 

 fruit, but of so perishable a nature as to be incapable of resisting a long 

 voyage. In Fayal and Terceira it has ceased to be exported, not be- 

 ing able to compete in price with oranges sent from other countries in 

 the markets of England, the only markets really within the reach of so 

 delicate a fruit. At the island of St. Michael, which has always been 

 immensely in advance of the others in point of quantity produced and 

 exported, the trade, for the same reason, although yet an important one, 

 has diminished very seriously. From the United States consular agent 

 at that island I have obtained the most of the following information 

 regarding the orange culture. The varieties preferred are the " selecta, " 

 and the "'navel '' orange, the Latin names of which he could not obtain. 

 The trees come into full bearing at the age of eight or ten years, and 

 continue to bear until forty or upwards — in by-gone times to a much 

 greater age. They are obtained from seedlings, on which at the proper 

 age the best varieties are grafted, and also by the system of layering; 

 the former are naturally longer-lived trees. 



The orange tree at St. Michael appears to be subject to a drying up 

 of the branches without any apparent cause and without the presence 

 of any insect or fungus. No remedy has yet been discovered for this, I 

 am told (may it not be from exhaustion of the soil, probably ?). It is 

 customary to set out orange trees about twenty-five feet apart. The 

 best orange gardens are some 2 miles from the coast-line. The spaces 

 between the trees are sometimes filled with corn or vegetables, but the 

 more sagacious cultivators abstain from this. Where the garden is de- 

 voted exclusively to oranges it is hoed twice a year, but as a rule not 

 manured; never irrigated. The cost of cultivation is estimated at $20 

 per acre. 



An acre yields abont 40 boxes of a size to contain some 400 oranges ; 

 the value at the present time problematical, as the exportation is done 

 by the garden proprietors banded into large companies. Formerly, 

 when more or less of the fruit w^s bought by speculators on the trees- 

 all expenses being for this account — it was sold at from $1.50 to $2 the 

 " English box," a package equivalent to three Sicily boxes, or contain- 

 ing from 600 to 900 oranges, according to size of fruit. In a good year 

 as many as 250,000 or 300,000 of such boxes were exported from St. 



