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porters, and the Sicilian peasants are unrivalled in the dexterity and 

 deftness they always display in selecting the good fruit among a heap 

 of apparently uninjured although really worthless or inferior oranges or 

 lemons, for in many cases the lesions are so slight, or their outward 

 marks on the rind so seemingly trifling, that they would be admitted as 

 good fruit by all but the most experienced hands. It is almost exclu- 

 sively to the practised skill of the Sicilian packers that the shipment and 

 conveyance of the fruit in good condition, and its preservation during 

 long sea voyages, are to be attributed, and their reputation is so fully 

 recognised even in other orange and lemon-producing countries, that 

 the Sicilians are sometimes employed in Greece and elsewhere in pre- 

 ference to the native in matters connected with the cultivation and com- 

 merce of the citrus species. 



It is said that the best oranges can be safely stored for some months 

 — in the case of a late crop even up to July — provided the place in which 

 they are housed be cool, airy, and dry, the fruit be disposed in single 

 layers, and overhauled frequently in order that the diseased or bruised 

 ones be thrown aside. The least preservable varieties of the citrus family 

 are considered the blood oranges, mandarins, and ordinary citrons. 



Defects and Disease of Oranges and Lemons. 



The distinction between defects and diseases of the fruit is a very 

 well marked and natural one, comprehending under the first head all 

 those fruits which outward blemishes rather than internal lesions ren- 

 der unsaleable, or saleable at relatively low prices : and under the 

 second all fruit in which outward blemishes indicate some correspond- 

 ing internal disorganisation of the pulp, ^hich render the fruit thus af- 

 fected utterly valueless. The fruit under both categories yields little 

 essential oil, as the rind is almost always more or less impaired. 



Oranges. — Diseases affecting rather the rind, and which may be ap- 

 propriately termed skin diseases, for they usually leave the internal 

 structure of the plant unimpaired, are the following : — 



1. Unpedicled oranges, senza rosette, the absence of which may or 

 may not bring about the deterioration and even destruction of the en- 

 docarp ; in the former case the fruit is utterly unmarketable, in the lat- 

 ter it is vendable but at a loss. 



2. Hail-pitted, colpiti di grandine. The same remarks applying to 

 the previous category apply to these also. 



3. Stained, stampateo chiazzate, are those whose rind is only 

 slightly discoloured, a circumstance which would be of little import- 

 ance as it does not really impair the flavour or juiciness of the fruit, 

 were it not from the blemish diminishing its price on the market. 



4. Afflicted by earth sickness, male di terra, which obliterates the oil- 

 cells, and disfigures the fruit, so as to render it worthless in trade. 



5. Tailed, codati or caudati. are those oranges whose atrophied pistils 

 are apt to cause laceration when torn away or snapped off, whence the 

 fruit is valueless on the market. 



The second class comprises all those fruit whose structural disorgani- 

 sations have made them utterly unvendable and intrinsically worthless. 

 Such are the oranges called : — 



1. Fuffed, enfiati, whose attenuated rind, bursts on the slightest im- 

 pact, and cannot bear the lightest weight. 



