fidible Products, 



28 



[July, 1909- 



a matter of general interest aud infor- 

 mation, a brief resume of the experi- 

 ences of the Bureau with these varieties 

 is here made public. 



Early in 1902 the standard _ sorts in 

 common cultivation in Florida, Cali- 

 fornia, Matta, Italy, and Japan were 

 introduced and planted at Malate, 

 Manila at sea level ; also near Abucay, 

 Bataan Proviuce, at an elevation of 

 about 200 meters ; and atLa Trinidad, 

 Benguet, at an altitude of 1,500 meters, 

 The story is best aud most briefly told 

 by saying that the results have been 

 so far most disappointing. Tbe trees 

 were, in trade .jargon, " two-year buds " 

 and are now approximately years old, 

 and under fair condition should be pro- 

 ducing one and one-half boxes (200 to 

 300) oranges per tree. The Japanese 

 varieties are the only kinds that have 

 proven productive, but the fruits have 

 deteriorated so badly as to be hardly 

 edible, and are practically worthless. 



Of the other foreign varieties, those 

 planted in Benguet Province have 

 nearly all died, and those in Bataan, 

 though grown upon an inviting-looking 

 soil with good drainage and protection 

 from high winds, have fared but little 

 better. In Manila, the trees of most 

 varieties have made a fair growth, but 

 only one tree (a St. Michael sweet) has 

 matured any fruit, and of that only to 

 the number of three. The Valenica late, 

 Malta blood and the famous Washington 

 navel have, up to the age of six years, not 

 fruited. The three fruits of St. Michael 

 sweet were quite up to standard in all 

 respects, expect colour, remaining bright 

 green when otherwise perfectly mature. 

 This last feature was to be expected,- 

 and, while we are not prepared to say 

 that there are no places in the Philip- 

 pines where these foreign varieties may 

 not prove productive, the prospective 

 planter should fully realize that he can- 

 not hope to produce anything but 

 bright-green uncoloured fruits. This, 

 from a commercial aspect, is a more 

 serious defect thau is apparent at first 

 glance. The eye does much to influence 

 the palate, and the influence is clearly 

 shown in higher price generally brought 

 for the brilliant, highly-coloured Cali- 

 fornia navels over the intrinsically 

 finer fruits from Jamaica and Florida, 

 handicapped as these latter are by the 

 dull greenish russet colour which chat- 

 acterizes oranges grown in the Tropics. 



This feature is common to the Philip- 

 pines as well as to all tropical countries. 

 We see it in the closed-skinned "cajel" 

 so common througout the Visayas and 

 in the free-skinned tangerine or "naran- 

 jita" so abundant at certain seasons in 

 pur markets, 



These oranges are at their very best 

 while still bright green. When begin- 

 ning to colour, as they do toward the 

 close of the season, it is an index of 

 incipient decay which may not be 

 exhibited in disintegration or in any- 

 thing worse than loss of juice and 

 flavour. 



The experiences of all orange-growing 

 countries conclusively show that the 

 orange, although cosmopolitan in the 

 mere matter of existence, is most fasti- 

 dious in the soil requirements which 

 bring its fruit to perfection. Witness 

 the heavily loaded trees in and about 

 Santa Barbara, California, whose fruit 

 is discarded while the local markets are 

 supplied with fruits brought from Los 

 Angeles and Riverside counties— 100 or 

 more miles away. Nearer home, note 

 the superlative excellence of the naran- 

 jitas grown at Tanauan aud at Santo 

 Tomas, aud observe how utterly inferior 

 is the fruit of the same tree grown at 

 near-by Calamba, and still worse on 

 seemingly like soil at Lipa — less than 15 

 kilometers distant, 



On this account it is not denied that 

 in this particularly favoured district 

 satisfactory results may be achieved 

 with imported varieties of oranges, 

 with the odds nevertheless greatly in 

 favour of better success being obtained 

 through careful selection and cultivation 

 of the native tangerine. It is not 

 claimed that this orange is free from 

 defects, but these defects could be 

 partly eliminated in a single generation 

 of careful seed selection in the orchard. 

 In the commercial essentials of produc- 

 tiveness, juiciness, flavour, aud shipping 

 qualities, these oranges are unexcelled ; 

 and the selected fruits of Santo Tomas 

 or Tanauan at their prime are superior 

 to the showy but insipid California fruit 

 that reaches this market in cold storage. 



From ex-General Malvar, a large 

 grower in Batangas, we learn that there 

 are many thousands of hectares of 

 typical orange lands still unplanted to 

 orchards, which offer an inviting field to 

 the planter ; especially to the one who 

 would grow only selected stocks, and 

 improve a little on the spontaneous 

 methods now in vogue. The writer saw 

 a single tree in Tanauan, the crop of 

 which sold for P10 on an estimated yield 

 of 2,000 oranges, or one-half centavo per 

 orange. As a few dozens of selected 

 fruits from this tree sold for 21 centavos 

 per dozen, there is hardly a doubt that, 

 had the tree been thinned down to one- 

 half (which could have been done at a 

 cost of less than PI), the remaining 

 thousand fruits would have found a 



