PORTO RICO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



MAYAGUEZ, P. R. 



Under the supervision of the 

 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 33 



Washington, D. C. 



February, 1930 



CITRUS CULTURE IN PORTO RICO 



By Henry C. Hexricksex, Agriculturist 



CONTENTS 



Early plantings 



Commercial plantings 



Annual shipments of fruit 



Natural requirements 



Soils 



Location of the nursery 



Tree stocks and their identification. 



Propagation 



Selection of seed 



Seedlings 



Bud selection 



Page 

 1 

 2 

 3 

 4 

 4 



Propagation — Continued. Page 

 Determining the volume weight of the 



fruit 17 



Budding 18 



Preparation of the field 19 



Windbreaks 19 



Planting and cultivation 21 



Fertilizing 25 



Insect and disease control 27 



Harvesting and handling 31 



Summary 32 



The Porto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station has kept in close 

 touch with the local citrus industry from the time of the planting of 

 the first commercial groves. It has helped to solve many of the 

 problems having a bearing on the industry and has had to delay the 

 solution of others because of a lack of adequate facilities for doing 

 research work. Thousands of replantings must be made following 

 the loss of citrus trees in the hurricane of 1928, and many new- 

 groves are being planted by persons who have had no special training 

 in citrus culture. It is important that all growers should know how 

 they can avoid making mistakes which would defeat the purpose for 

 which the plantings are made. Representative groves in the differ- 

 ent districts were recently studied for the purpose of securing a 

 foundation for a contemplated campaign of systematic research. 

 Some of the data obtained are published in this bulletin and should 

 be of value to fruit growers in general and particularly to those who 

 are rehabilitating old groves or planting new ones. 



EARLY PLANTINGS 



Seedling citrus trees are found growing in Porto Rico, as in other 

 islands of the West Indies. It is impossible to trace the various intro- 

 ductions, for the seeds usually were brought in as a matter of course, 

 and no record was made concerning their origin. It is reasonable to 

 suppose, however, that a great many different lots of seed were 

 brought in from the various places where desirable fruit was found 



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