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not not limited to the regions of pure science, but its scope extended 

 to matters of practical utility to our fellow subjects. 



Sir Gf. Strickland said : — The lecturer's object has evidently been 

 gained with regard to the classification of diseases of orange trees, but 

 the practical merit of the lecture, in my humble opinion, lies in the part 

 having a commercial aspect where the lecturer pointed out, that by 

 planting the trees in different soils, and treating the trees in different 

 ways, oranges suited for different markets, or of different form can be 

 obtained. It strikes me, that, the principle of adjusting the supply 

 to meet the demand is the beginning of the revival of the profitable 

 growth of oranges in Malta — that has been opened out by those 

 remarks. The lecturer dwelt on the fact that the orange is a • very 

 beautiful tree ; and it would appear that most people in Malta 

 have lately been cultivating the orange for ornament as the industry 

 had not of late been yielding interest on the capital. Whether we 

 shall continue to grow those trees for appearance sake is a very prac- 

 tical question for many people. 



In past years there was no competition and oranges from Malta ob- 

 tained a great price in an exclusive trade, because word went all over 

 the world that the Malta orange meant the beautiful blood orange. 

 People bought it, and paid a high price for it Malta was for a time 

 the only locality where the blood orange flourished but other localities 

 have been made available and large groves have been planted along 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, where oranges of all sorts have been 

 grown and shipped all over the world at prices which make the Malta 

 orange cease to be a commercial commodity. I won't discuss Califor- 

 nia and Florida because they supply quite another market. As all 

 trade and all commerce involves a study of supply and demand, and 

 Malta can only supply a limited market we must look for a demand 

 which will ba remunerative for a supply that can defy competition. 

 It appears 'that the future of Maltese oranges, and Malta as a fruit 

 growing island must be based on following the example of Jersey and 

 Gruernsey in supplying articles of very excellent quality. These Islands 

 had a come down in their agricultural system, but enterprising people 

 met the crisis by producing something in the way of fruit which would 

 command a very high price because it was out of season and it was by 

 a long way the best of its kind. That was achieved in Jersey and 

 Q-uernsey, because they had the public spirit, or rather the enterprise to 

 lay out acres upon acres of glass houses, where the fruit was reared for 

 early placing on the market ; and exactly to suit the climate and the 

 crops they had to raise. 



Here in Malta, we have perhaps the counterpart of this accident of 

 geographical position and local opportunity. We have the stone with 

 which to build the high sheltering wall essential to growing the best 

 oranges. The high walls are the counterpart in a sense of the glass 

 houses But orange growers for commercial purposes should give up 

 the idea that the ordinary orange is a fruit that is worth growing in 

 Malta, we should therefore aim at growing. In the same way that the 

 blood orange appeared in Malta, or that gigantic potatoes, large toma- 

 toes early grapes and other fruit and vegetables, better sorts of oranges 

 than the blood oranges can be artificially developed, and in Malta we 

 should aim at producing an orange that would, from early appearance 



