CROPS AND PRICES. 



9 



time the entire business was controlled by a few heavy import- 

 ing houses, among which may be mentioned Chamberlain, 

 Phelps & Co., Lawrence, Giles & Co., Devlin- & Rose and James 

 Robinson & Co. of New York, 8. 8. Scattergood & Co. and 

 Isaac Jeanes & Co. of Philadelphia, Dan'l Draper & Co. and 

 Conant & Co. of Boston, and Dix & Wilkins of Baltimore. The 

 business was done entirely on orders from this side, and indeed 

 these orders were all given in the fall of each season, at which 

 time the sailing vessels for the cargoes of oranges were also 

 chartered ; in fact, in September the campaign was arranged for 

 over six months ahead. This method of conducting the busi- 

 ness had existed for many years before that time, but about 

 1865 the actual growers of the oranges in Sicily, who had pre- 

 viously sold all their fruit to the firms who received the orders 

 from the American houses, began to consign the fruit here, and 

 gradually the old importers abandoned their former methods 

 and received the fruit on consignment. Later still, new houses 

 entered the field to secure their share of this profitable busi- 

 ness, which I happened to know paid one firm over $30,000 

 clean commission on their Sicily business alone, during one 

 season. The next move on this checker board some fifteen years 

 later, was the establishment here of the sons and relatives of 

 various prominent shippers of Palermo, and, with the exception 

 of three or four American houses who still hold their own for 

 one reason or another, the entire business from Sicily is now 

 handled by the parties above alluded to. 



European Oranges. — "The receipts of Mediterranean 

 oranges have fallen off materially during the past ten years. 

 In fact, none now come from Spain, and very naturally so, 

 owing to the fact that Florida came to the front about that 

 time, and a few years ago California oranges made their bow to 

 the American public, on this side of the Rocky Mountains. At 

 first the importers of Mediterranean oranges ridiculed the idea 

 that the American markets could ever be taken away from 

 them, but it is certain that hardly any of these gentlemen will 

 now entertain the views they then did, simply because it is a 

 self-evident fact that, with the constantly increasing produc 

 tion of oranges in the great States of Florida and California, 

 reaching this present season, it is expected, between 6,000,000 

 and 7,000,000 boxes, not counting at all the yield in Louisiana 

 and Arizona — small now, but growing nevertheless — we can do 

 without any oranges from Europe. True, some will come, and 

 they may do fairly well, there being still a certain demand for 

 them in the Atlantic Coast States ; however, the handwriting is 

 on the wall and he who runs may read — unless he is a blind 

 man in a business sense. 



