PRODUCTS OF THE OEANGE FAMILY. 



443 



In 1870, 283,712 large, or London boxes, were shipped to Great 

 Britain, and 6798 boxes to the United States. In the export of this 

 fruit to Great Britain 243 sailing vessels and 30 steamers were em- 

 ployed. The value of the oranges shipped, taking each box at 5s. 4cZ., 

 was 77,814Z. The shipping season extends from October to April. 

 There is occasionally a considerable crop of what are called summer 

 oranges {redolta\ which are very inferior, and scarcely cover prime 

 cost and freight when sold in the English market. The oranges 

 which ripen in the summer months are not only deficient in sweetness 

 and flavour, but are far more susceptible of damage in transport. 



New South Wales. — Oranges and lemons are grown without diffi- 

 culty in this colony where the soil is heavy ; they do not thrive at 

 Sydney on account of the sandy soil. In favourable situations they 

 are as fine as can be wished. One man (according to Mr. Atkinson) 

 has made as much as 1500Z. per annum from 3 acres of orange 

 garden. 



The mandarin orange, a celebrated Chinese fruit, is said to be 

 better at Sydney than it is at Canton. It is a very beautiful dark 

 orange-coloured fruit, with a highly perfumed rind, scarcely thicker 

 than brown paper, and not adhering to the pulp, which is exceed- 

 ingly sweet, and of a difierent flavour to any other orange. 



A considerable portion of land is devoted to the orange, par- 

 ticularly in Cumberland, where a fine market and an accommodating 

 railway are to be found. Thousands of cases come down to Sydney 

 annually from the Parramatta orangeries, and are shipped to Mel- 

 bourne, South Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, &c. The profits of 

 orange-growing are, when the practical management of the tree is 

 understood, very considerable ; but in many cases the trees have been 

 exhausted by being allowed to bear heavily year after year, without 

 any attempt to recruit their jaded powers by the administration 

 of manure. Most of the orangeries are new ; but in some of the 

 older ones the trees have attained a height of 35 feet, the diameter 

 from the extremities of the branches being 33 feet. From trees of 

 this size, of which there are few in the colony, 12,000 oranges are 

 occasionally picked in the year, which, at 6d. a dozen wholesale, would 

 give 25L as the value of the yield of a single tree. The plantations 

 are generally young, and the trade in oranges and lemons is likely to 

 assume large proportions ; but the growers will have to master the 

 principles of drainage and manuring, and apply them, before they will 

 be able to preserve their trees in a healthy state. 



A paper by Dr. George Bennett, F.L.S., " On the Introduction and 

 Cultivation of the Orange in New South Wales," published in the New 

 South Wales Catalogue for the Paris Exhibition, 1867, and in the 

 Intercolonial Exhibition Official Eecord, Victoria, 1866, may be con- 

 sulted with advantage. 



In the immediate vicinity of Sydney there exist orange groves as 

 extensive and magnificent as any which have ever gladdened the eyes 

 of travellers in Spain or the Azores ; the orange and other mem- 

 bers of the citron family grow luxuriantly in the valleys of the Hunter 

 and the Clarence; and, indeed, all along the coast districts of New 

 South Wales, over a belt of country 300 miles in extent. Some of the 



