PRODUCTS OF THE ORANGE FAMILY. 



445 



the country to the north and south of the capital. In the month of 

 June the market price of oranges in Adelaide is dd. a dozen. Every 

 year somewhere about 50,000l. worth of oranges are exported from 

 New South Wales and South Australia to Victoria and those of the 

 other colonies where the cultivation of this agreeable fruit does not 

 appear to be attended with much success. 



It is a good many years since the first orange trees were planted in 

 South Australia, and although now there are considerable plantations, 

 and every year numbers of young trees are coming into bearing, some 

 time will elapse before the colonists are able to supply our own con- 

 sumption of that most delicious of fruits. Thousands of pounds are 

 sent away every year for Sydney oranges, without which not more than 

 half the local demand that exists could be supplied. In regard to 

 quality, the fruit produced by the local growers bears favourable 

 comparison with that received from the sister colony, and this will be 

 even more the case as the trees get older and our horticulturists 

 become better acquainted with the proper methods of orange culture. 

 Lieutenant Field, E.N., is said to have introduced the orange tree here 

 early in 1837 ; others state that the first trees were planted by the late 

 Mr. George Stevenson in the year 1840, or thereabout, at North Ade- 

 laide, and they are, therefore, now about 35 years old. One of them 

 has been known to yield 190 dozen of oranges, which is the largest 

 authenticated yield taken from one tree in the colony, although several 

 of those at Ashford are computed to bear 150 dozen and upwards. 

 When the success of Mr. Stevenson's experimental planting became 

 known, several other colonists, without much delay, set to work to 

 secure themselves more or less extended plantations of a tree of such 

 high European reputation as the orange, so that there are now a good 

 many hundreds of trees in bearing ; but, for a variety of reasons, com- 

 paratively few have attained anything like the productiveness for 

 which the tree is credited in Spain and other parts of southern 

 Europe, where trees are spoken of that yield some thousands of dozen 

 of fruit in a year. 



United States. — Oranges are cultivated in Florida as easily and 

 produce as quickly as the apple, and yield in full bearing from 1000 

 to 2500 per cent, per acre to the owner on the ground at current 

 prices, and with but trifling labour. The superior ripe fruit must 

 end ere long in supplanting the half-ripe foreign fruit of which now 

 there are nearly 1,000,000,000 of oranges and lemons imported into 

 the United States annually, to New York alone 500,000,000, or half 

 of the entire amount. On one property on the St. John's Eiver, the 

 Sanford Grant, of 25 square miles, which was purchased in 1868 at 

 about ^1 per acre, lands for orange culture have been sold of late 

 years at an average of ^50 per acre, and up to ^150 per acre. Land 

 purchased at ^250 an acre and planted in orange trees, has been 

 sold three years after at ^1000 per acre. 



Green peas, strawberries, tomatoes, &c., can be grown the winter 

 through in the open air, in profitable union with the orange culture. 

 The banana, guava, and breadfruit also thrive there. 



Thirty or forty vessels are constantly engaged in carrying fruit to 

 New York from the West India islands. They draw their supplies 



