Feb. 1, 1901. J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
receives a cheque or credit note for the the owner, 
aud thesR are Isept three or four month?, and used 
to check the amount then receivable from the associa- 
tion. The price depends upon the kind of season, 
alao upon tlie 6;rade of orange, and rung from about 
90 cents (os. 7d.) or 1 dollar (43.) up to 2 dollars 
50 cents (9i.) a box, the average being 1 dollar 15 
cents (45. 7d.). 
The first process at the packing-house is to weigh 
the frui;, and label it with the uams of the owner, 
then put it aside for the biushers. la large houses 
the brushing is done by a machine ; in smaller houses 
by bjys and girls, who use small hand-brushes. 
Generally the packing machine is conveniently 
placed so that the oranges roll down an incline to 
the sorters' table. Here imperfections only are noted, 
the quick aud critical eye of the sorter rapidly 
rejecting the "culls" as they are called— namely, 
those oranges even slightly discoloured or blemished. 
Great piles of these "culls" may be seen in 
labelled bins ready to be sold to the peddler for 10,25, 
or even 50 cents (5d.; Is., '23.) a box; if totally 
unsaleable they are returned to the owner, and 
scattered over the orchard and ploughed in as a 
fertiliser. The next process is that of grading, by 
which the oranges are sorted according to size. Tho 
grader is a somewhat intricate machine. From the 
hopper at one end, the oranges roll down an in- 
cli.jel by the aide of the revolving cylinder, along each 
side of which ai-e two long slits widening towards 
the bottom, each size falling through its own special 
chute into a box below. The three grades of market- 
able oranges are the fancy, the choice, aud the 
standard. After being graded, the oranges next come 
nto the hands of the packers, who are marvellously 
dexterous in their handling. They stand in front 
of the box to be packed, with the bin of oranges 
on the right and a bunch of tissue-paper wrappers 
on the left. Swiftly the right hand takes an orange, 
simultaneously the left hand seizes a wrapper, a 
sound of crumpled paper, aud — hey, presto ! — the 
orange is in the box. The last layer is left slightly 
protruding above the side of the box; over this 
are nailed three or four thin laths, with a space 
between so that the air may have free access ; 3.nd 
from the nailer the box goes direct to the railroa,d 
car. M.a,ny houses have a siding to the warehouse 
door. About 360 boxes, weighing 13 tons, are piled 
carefully into a car ; the car is then sealed up, venti- 
lators only being open ; a large ticket is tacked to the 
side to tell where the fruit came from ; and at last 
the oranges are ready for the swift freight train to 
carry them eastward. 
The packing-house are extremely interesting, and 
in many instances have cost from 10,000 dollars 
to 15,000 dollars ( £2 500 to £3,750) each, being equiped 
with the the latest machinery, run by electricity, 
gasoline, or steam-power. 
Quoting from the annual midwinter number of the 
Los Anqelns Times: " Last spring the assessment re- 
turned 2,072,417 bearing orange-trees and 1,227,397 
trees in their first year's growth. These citrus trees 
produced in 1897, in car-loads of 33<5 boxes each, 
7550; 15,1' 2 car-loads in 1898, and 10,350 car-loads 
in 1899. The value of the output of 1899 is given by 
the Chamber of Commerce as 7,000,000 dollars." 
Lemons are always inclu^ted in these assessments, 
as the railroad lines make no difference between 
the two shipments when reporting for the trade ; 
as a rule the shipment of oranges is nearly double 
that of lemons. To the uninitiated there is little 
difference at a first glance between an orange 
orchard and a lemon orchard ; there is the same 
precision in planting, the same glossy leaves, the 
same fragrant white blossom ; but, unlike the orange, 
rarely does one see tlie lemon in its yellow rind, 
for it is picked green, and thus the tree is divested 
of its beauty, for the green lemon is an insigni- 
ficant object. Latterly the orange, owing to the 
rivalry among the growers to be the first to ship 
erf^nges from California, has been gathered unrige 
but theso early shipments have brought so little 
profit to the growers that the fruit is generally 
allowed to remain three months longer until it is 
ripe and luscious for tlio table. Lemons are picked 
every month in the year ; while oranges blossom in 
April, and the fruit ripens and is shipped from 
December of that year to June of the following year. 
As yet nothing has been done to utilise the large 
numbers of '' cull<^," but as in France and Italy, 
manufactories will, no doubt, be started to obtain 
acids and essential oils from these " culls," when 
the enormous water-power available in the moun- 
tains, at whose feet so many orchards lie, has been 
fully developed. 
Many difficulties have been encountered in the 
orange-culture of South California, of which not the 
least has been the white scale, an insect pest 
which threatened at one time the entire destruction 
of the orchard. Hundreds of acres were ruined ; 
the trees seemed to bo covered with snow, so 
greatly infected had they become. The climax 
was reached in 1338 89, when meetings were held 
by the growers, and the idea was mooted that some 
parasitic insect should be found- to wage war upon 
this white scale. Half-a-dozen ladybird beetles 
were imported from Australia by the Agricultural 
Department, and liberated in an orchard, and in 
about a year the white scale totally disappeared. 
Other scales have caused trouble, but to no great 
extent. Fumigation is successfully resorted to each 
tree being covered witli a tent, inside which is 
liberated cyanogen gas. Tho fumigation is done 
at night to prevent ecomposition of the fumes by 
the sunlight. It is a curious sight to see a whole 
orchard enveloped in these coverings, like a huge 
encampment on a field of battle. Frost, too, is an 
always expected danger, but it is not experienced 
to the same extent as by the Florida growers, and 
frequently two or three years will pas.? without 
any damage being done. Wind is almost as great 
an enemy as frost, for the waving of the branches 
causes friction between the leaves aud the oranges, 
the latter being more or less scarred thereby. 
Great loss, too, is caused by the windfalls, hundreds 
of oranges being lost to the grower before they 
have come to perfection. Frost, however, may be 
considered an insidious enemy, and on that account ' 
it is more difficult to tight, for its efl'ects are not 
immediately apparent, instances have occured in 
which the oranges have actually been shipped east- 
wards in good condition even to the eye of the 
grower and the packer, only to be declared un- 
saleable, as, on being cut open, the pulp was found 
almost rotten. An experiment to obviate the action 
of wind and frost has been tried — to house the treef 
collectively under one immense frame- work of wooden 
laths, so placed at intervals as to admit sunlight 
and air, but sufficient to break the force of the 
wind. This scheme has been carried out success- 
fully on the Everest Banohe, Riverside County, 
with such good results that the production of 17 
acres thus covered in has far exceeded that of any 
previous year. The more common expedient is to 
plant eucalyptus trees in long rows across the general 
direction of the wind, thus forming a breakwind, 
much in the same way as the tea and coffee plants 
in Ceylon are protected. 
Notwithstandmg all drawbacks, orange-growing is 
a pleasant and lucrative occupation, especially whea 
carried on iu such a health-giving and equable 
climate as that of South California. — Queensland, 
Agricultural Joui'iial. 
THE MANURE HEAR 
WHAT MAY BE LOST BY INCOMPKTENT 
MANAGEMENT. 
It is of the utmost importance to retain all the 
fertilising elements of the manure heap. In spite 
of the knowledge gained by experiment of the losses 
which accrue from an ill-protected manure heap 
