Commercial notes and scientific information. 59 



and more become customary for foreign buyers to purchase a great part of their 

 requirements for forward delivery before the beginning of the manufacturing season. 

 The exporters in Sicily in their turn were in the habit of covering themselves against 

 such sales by making contracts with the manufacturers. 



The heavy losses suffered this year by those export houses which have carried out 

 their obligations in the matter of delivery (several firms are said to have not carried 

 out their engagements or to have done so only partially) have been due to the action 

 of certain manufacturers. Seduced by the knowledge that they could sell their new 

 oil for double the price at which they had undertaken to supply it to the exporters, 

 numerous manufacturers have altogether or in part failed to keep their engagements 

 with the exporters, and the latter, in order to deliver what they had sold, have been 

 forced to purchase the missing quantities elsewhere at high prices on which they lost 

 money. These circumstances, which had never occurred before, have caused the 

 financial position of the manufacturers to be subjected to a more stringent investigation 

 than in the past, and it has been discovered that most of them were unable to give 

 satisfactory security for such large amounts as were represented by this year's trans- 

 actions. The Sicilian exporters, therefore, will next season be face to face with the 

 problem whether it is or is not possible to continue the present system of selling for 

 delivery. At present it seems that the probabilities are that it will be found impossible 

 to do so. 



As regards the prospect of the next lemon crop, all that can be said at present 

 is that the trees are in full leaf and that the copious rainfall of last winter has given 

 them a strong and healthy appearance. The only critical point is that the flowers have 

 developed too far in advance of the season and that later on, in the month of May, 

 the young fruit will be too much exposed to the destructive action of the moist south 

 winds. It is not known at present whether the cold spell and the few nights of frost 

 that have been experienced in some districts have done any serious damage to the trees. 



Mandarin Oil. Last season's crop has been a very bad one. High prices have 

 been paid for the fruit for export, and as a result the oil became extremely dear right 

 at the beginning of the time of production. 



Orange Oil, bitter. Although the stocks in September of last year were very 

 low, the price of the oil nevertheless declined during the months of September and 

 October from 19 c4i to 17.75 oM. In view of the high prices of the fruit these figures 

 left no profit to the manufacturers, and for that reason very little oil has been produced. 



The cold, snowy and frosty weather which prevailed here from the beginning until 

 the middle of February has wrought much havoc among the bitter orange plantations, 

 and as a consequence the value of the oil rose rapidly almost from day to day. It 

 will probably advance still further in the course of the summer. 



Orange Oil, sweet. In my last report I pointed out that the prospects of the 

 new orange crop did not warrant high expectations. The flowers did not set well, and 

 only a quantitatively small crop was to be looked for. Until well into the month of 

 August the development of the fruit took place under normal climatic conditions, but 

 at an unpropitious moment, in the month of September, extremely heavy rains, unusually 

 plentiful for this part of the world, set in and continued for several weeks. These 

 rains caused the oranges to swell suddenly, a condition which usually has an injurious 

 effect upon the oil-content of the fruit. As a matter of fact, the earliest manufacturing 



