CHOPS AND PRICES. 



11 



Almost every season, however, something has occurred in Flor- 

 ida to prevent a full yield of perfect fruit : A long continued 

 drouth through summer, a plague of red spiders causing the 

 leaves to fall from the tree, heavy rains spoiling the keeping 

 quality of the oranges, and last, but not least, visits from Jack 

 Frost forcing the temperature down to about twenty or twenty- 

 five degrees and naturally ruining much of the fruit on the 

 trees, taking its life, so to speak, and causing it to arrive at its 

 destination puffy, light weight, and devoid of juice. Notwith- 

 standing all these troubles, the crop continues to increase, and 

 authorities in Florida assure me that when all the trees already 

 planted are in full bearing (and most of them are now over 

 four years old, so that it cannot be long before all will be in 

 full bearing), the crop cannot be less than 10,000,000 boxes per 

 annum. True, the same troubles which have occurred in the 

 past may continue in the future ; still, we shall probably have 

 a crop of 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 boxes within a few years. 

 About 900,000 boxes arrived in New York last season — about 

 one-fourth of the entire yield. 



The California Orange Trade. — "California now steps to 

 the front, and just about the time, or a little before Florida 

 ends, these oranges come in to the Western markets, but 

 very few have as yet found their way east of the Alleghanies. 

 Not 5,000 boxes of California oranges in all were ever sold in 

 New York. The crop in California increases rapidly, and this 

 season it is expected that at least 2,500,000 boxes, possibly 

 more, will be sent out of the Pacific Coast State. The Cali- 

 fornia crop is expected to increase in size, possibly faster than 

 that of Florida, immense groves having been put out during 

 the past five years, and the yield later on will be simply incred- 

 ible. One of the heaviest growers of California oranges wrote 

 me lately : 6 1 do not believe you can comprehend the volume 

 of the California business in the near future. I know it is 

 almost beyond the comprehension of those right here on # the 

 ground, and I believe within five years we will have 25,000 car- 

 loads (over 7,000,000 boxes) of oranges. ' 



"This fruit up to last season had found ready purchasers 

 f. o. b. in California, in the merchants of the Western cities, but 

 on heavier supplies and a holding back of these orders it is 

 said that a considerable part of last season's crop was actually 

 sent out on consignment. To my mind more must go, although 

 the association of growers, which has just formed the Southern 

 California Fruit Exchange, may succeed in carrying out their 

 desire to sell all f . o. b. at shipping station ; still the experience 

 of Sicily twenty years ago, and Florida eight to ten years ago, 

 should certainly show those gentlemen that they cannot sell 



