84 



dug up and their places supplied with healthy plants. A number of 

 experiments have been tried by various growers working in co-opera- 

 tiou with us in digging up the plants when they first begin to show 

 signs of the disease, cutting off the bases above the diseased portions, 

 and then resetting them. This process, however, has not proved 

 satisfactory, some of the plants seeming to recover while others go 

 back again. We have made a few experiments in treating the disease 

 by spraying the bases of the plants and soil with Bordeaux mixture, 

 but results thus far have been entirely negative. At the present time 

 therefore we can only suggest eradication, the taking out of diseased 

 plants as soon as they appear and replacing them with fresh, healthy 

 suckers. 



"We are also inclined to think, from the results of a few experi- 

 ments, that one of the primary ways of controlling this disease is the 

 rigorous selection of healthy plants. By this means we believe the 

 trouble can be entirely overcome." 



BERGAMOT ORANGE. 



The Bergamot Orange is a well marked variety of the common 

 Orange. Ihe flowers are much smaller with a delicious and peculiar 

 odour ; the fruit are somewhat pear-shaped, the rind is of a lemon yel- 

 low colour, abounding in essential oil of a peculiar fragrance, and the 

 pulp is greenish. 



The cultivation is strongly recommended by Mr. J. Ch. Sawer, 

 Author of " Odoragraphia" for the production of the Oil or Essence of 

 Bergamot. The fruits are used for this purpose when they are full 

 grown but still unripe and greenish. One hundred fruits are said to 

 yield from 2^ to 3 ounces of essential oil. 



The principal locality where the Bergamot orange is cultivated is 

 near Eeggio in southern Calabria, but it is also grown in Sicily and 

 the South of France. 



Low ground near the sea seems to suit it best and the ground is 

 well tilled and irrigated. 



FluckigerandHanbury state that the essential oil "was formerly made 

 like that of lemon by the sponge process, but during the last 20 years 

 this method has been generally superseded by the introduction of a 

 special machine for the extraction of the essential oil. In this ma- 

 chine the fruits are placed in a strong, saucer-like metalic dish, about 

 10 inches in diameter, having in the centre a raised opening which 

 with the outer edge forms a broad groove or channel ; the dish is fitted 

 with a cover of similar form. The inner surface both of the dish and 

 cover is rendered rough by a series of narrow, radiating metal ridges 

 of blades which are about J of an inch high and resemble the backs of 

 knives. The dish is also furnished with some small openings to allow 

 of the outflow of essential oil ; and both dish and cover are arranged 

 in a metallic cylinder, placed over a vessel to receive the oil. By a 

 simple arrangement of cog wheels moved by a handle, the cover, which 

 is very heavy, is made to revolve rapidly over the dish, and the fruit 

 lying in the groove between the two is carried rourd, and at the same 

 time is subjected to the action of the sharp ridges, which, rupturing 



