4 



a market, and at the same time, would, if persisted in, only lead the> 

 shipper to absolute ruin, as many know to their cost. 



The man who ships a box of Jamaican wild oringes cannot tell even 

 approximately whether half ■ f the ora- ges are good keepers, whether 

 they are sweet or arid, neither can he tell whether they have only a 

 few s< eds or are filled with them. How much less can the man 

 abroad who hu\s tium ? He i«» simply gambling; he hopes for the 

 best, but ca* never be certain. Not that I mean to say we have no- 

 oranges n Jamaica worth cuLivaiinj?, on the contrary, I believe we 

 have seedl ng oranges that are fai superior to • any that have been im- 

 por ed, but up to the present there has Deen no systematic classification 

 or propagation, or even the stud\ of them, therefore the man who de- 

 sires 10 laun< h out in orange culture must for the present fall back on 

 the varieties that have been imported from abroad, and which have been 

 tested for years. It is to aid the young planter, that is, he who has 

 absolutely no knowledge, that I desire to give my own hard-bought ex- 

 perience of five years' standing. 



In laying out a grove, the planter must first settle in his own mind 

 whether he will plant only eaily, medium or late ripening varieties, or 

 whether he will have some of each so as to extend over a season com- 

 mencing say September and finishing about the end of May. Having 

 done this he can start selecting his varieties, taking into consideration 

 the different qualities, commencing with suitability for shipping, for we 

 have practically no home market ; then their flavour, manner of 

 growth, and general healthiness. For early ripening 1 should favour 

 the following as from my experience I believe them to be best. 



"Boone's Early" or "Parson Brown" The latter, although not quite 

 so early, yet is sweeter. Boone's early, except when on the fair road 

 to bright colouring, is insioid. Both are very good growers and the 

 trees are of a healthy habit. 



A medium season orange is not so easy to choose, for, besides 

 a host of seedling oranges, we have the old and standard European and 

 navel family to deal with. If you only want to cultivate one variety, 

 your task becomes easy, for as an orange combining all the good quali- 

 ties and possessing none of the bad, the navel as cultivated in Jamaica 

 stands out alone. 



In this island we have several varieties of navel orange Whether 

 they weie imported in iar away times or not, I have been unable to 

 gather, and although I have been working on the subject for some 

 months past, I have only been able to tiace the history ot two trees Of 

 these I shall sj.eak further on. Most of the native varieties are not at 

 piesent worth propagating until some cne works on them and tones 

 down their bid points, t-ome are extremely acid, otheis have seeds 

 (which is a decided fault in a navel orange) and yet others have a very 

 thin rind and the flesh is coarse. 



One variety which I discovered about four years ago, and have been 

 fertilizing for that time, trying to improve rt, has a very thin skin, 

 too thin I think for shipping, and except very T ripe on the tree is 

 distinctly acid. So far the experiments have failed to make any differ- 

 ence. 



[The fruit was on exhibition and shown by Mr. Levy.] 



