10 



ANNALS OV HORTICULTURE. 



"It may not be out of the way for me to give some statis- 

 tics furnished me by the manager of the Fruit Exchange rela- 

 tive to the receipts of boxes of oranges from various ports in 

 the Mediterranean during the past eight seasons. True, over 

 one million boxes came last season owing to the heavy yield in 

 Sicily, but the results were so poor that no such quantity need 

 be looked for another season. The receipts of Mediterranean 

 oranges have been as follows : 









Philadel- 







Season. 



New York. 



Boston. 



phia and 

 Baltimore. 



New 

 Orleans. 



Total Boxes 



1884-85 



825,000 



320,000 



120,000 



40,000 



1,305,000 



1885-86. 



858,000 



204,000 



156,000 



35,000 



1,253,000 



1886-87, 



1,207,000 



286,000 



245,000 



60,000 



1,798,000 



1887-88 



927,000 



216,000 



144,000 



115,000 



1,402,000 



1888-89. . 



930,000 



309,000 



138,000 



119,000 



1,496,000 



1890-91 



756,000 



212,000 



106,000 



26,000 



1,100,000 



1891-92 



468,000 



140,000 



49,000 



25,000 



682,000 



1892-93 



719,000 



150,950 



90,000 



44,000 



1,003,000 



Beginnings of the Florida Orange Trade. — "Twenty years 

 ago a few oranges commenced to come here from Florida, and 

 were received mostly by houses not directly in the fruit trade. 

 Some even came to butter, cheese, and other merchants ; in fact, 

 Messrs. Walter Carr & Co. received them about 1873, and the 

 managing partner, William H. Sneckner, has assured the writer 

 that he obtained six dollars p^r box for almost all sent his 

 house for several years, and even then could not supply the de- 

 mand for this extra fine orange. Ten years ago the dealers in 

 fruit commenced to receive direct from Florida, and soon there 

 were probably one hundred and fifty firms and single merchants 

 receiving this fruit ; in fact, it is said that a nicely worded cir- 

 cular and a brass stencil were all that was needed to obtain 

 ample consignments of oranges from Florida. Of course there 

 were some unprincipled receivers who looked after No. 1, just 

 to see that the Florida shipper did not receive any more than 

 he ought to, and in a year or two a great outcry was heard 

 from the South about 'swindling commission merchants' in 

 the Northern cities. It is undoubtedly true that the growers 

 were swindled right and left, so that it is no wonder they looked 

 about for a remedy, and soon after the Florida Fruit Exchange 

 (now the greatest fruit organization in the world) entered the 

 field, and to-day stands at the head. The number of receivers 

 in this city dwindled rapidly, and, actually, to-day those of any 

 prominence here can be counted on the fingers of one's two 

 hands. 



"Th^e production increased yearly and soon made itself 

 felt by the importers of foreign oranges, as already mentioned. 



