39 



Officers of Customs and of the Laboratory are required to exercise 

 strict economy in arranging for the transport of the plants &c, and 

 other expenses, so that the charge to the Importers m iy be as small 

 as possible. 



JAMAICA ORANGES IN ENGLISH MARKETS. 



From Thomas Kemp, Esq., to Hon. Chairman of the Board of 



Agriculture. 



Kingston, Jamaica, February 22nd, 1902 



Sir, 



I left Jamaica on the 30th November on a short visit to England to 

 see the Christmas Fruit Market in Covent Garden, and also to follow 

 the fruit sent from this side to the other and watch the changes it 

 undergoes As 'he Orange business looms large before us just now, I 

 took special care to watch this fruit daily, and the conclusions I h ive 

 come to, I now beg to offer. 



It is a fact to be faced, that a very large per centage of Jamaican 

 Oranges arrive in the Mother Country in a more or less rotten condition, 

 and that this is so, is certainly not creditable to those who have been 

 engaged so long in the business. As Oranges arrive from other 

 countries in a sound state, surely the cause for our failure can be found- 

 I inspected a certain number of boxes of Oranges each day on board 

 for 10 days, and found boxes with bad fruit from the first; Oranges 

 however that I repacked on the eleventh day, I opened on the 3rd 

 January, and found that no more waste had taken place A good 

 deal has been said from time to time that the fault lay in the packing, 

 but after seeing Jamaica packages opened up *ide by side with those 

 from other coun'ries, [ have no hesitation in sying that in only a 

 few cas'\s can this be attributed, as the majority of the Jamaican 

 Oranges I saw were just as carefully packed as any in the Market. 



I further saw Jamaica Oranges in Stirling that had been in the 

 Fruiterer's shop six weeks, and found them in sound order, and good 

 to eat. This fruiterer told me a story that I heard very frequently in 

 London, Edinburgh an 1 Glasgow, namely, that the Ja a aica Orange was 

 a splendid fruit, but owing to the waste in the boxes, the business was 

 too r sky, and they did not care to handle them 



Enquiring as to the effect the colour had on the Market, I found in 

 some instances that people had to be persuaded to try them, after 

 which there was n ■ difficulty, and in fact I think the colour is, and 

 will be in future, quite a decided advantage, as it will be a distinguish- 

 ing mark for the .Jamaica Orange, and better than any brand mark. 



Mv conviction therefore is, that it' an Orange will k ep three weeks 

 it will keep three months, and that they shou.d be kept in the packing 

 house here until all that will not keep, go wrong. An Orange here 

 costs very little but by the time it is put in England it costs a great 

 deal, therefore the shippers should face the loss here. At present I 

 am not quite decided as to what length of time oranges should be 

 kept before being packe I, but that the ordinary four days, which I 

 find is the usuil time now in vogue to keep them before packing, is- 

 too short, I am quite convinced. 



