146 
'Supplement to the " Tropical dgricuUurisi" 
[Aug. 1, 1902. 
excellent condition, and keep their flavour for 
a great length of time. . 
The exact degree of temperature suitable for 
ths cold storage of fruit is not sufflcient'y well 
understood. Some people take it to be at or 
near freezing point, while others adopt temper- 
atures of say 40° or 60° Fah, This latter, I 
believe, would be a good temperature for fruits 
grown in a temperate climate, but if we are 
dealing with tropical fruits it is probably too 
low. Cold storage at freezing point may do for 
dead meat, &c., but it is not suitable for the 
preservation of fruit. Still, we must have cool 
storage, and how to obtain the desired temperature 
must be decided by ship owners and by shippers 
of fruit. 
What is required is a well ventilated hold, 
maintained at a certain minimum temperature which 
should be some 10° or 15° below that at which 
the fruit matures. Fruit will staiid considerable 
hardship, provided it is carefully gathered, well 
dried and well packed. It is not easy to say, 
however, which of these three conditions is 
essential. If a fruit is bruised in the picking, 
it is inevitably doomed to rot. If not carefully 
dried, it will almost as surely ferment and rot, 
and if squeezed or heated in the packing, it must 
arrive in a bad condition. 
The bast cases for packing oranges are those 
furnished with trays admitting one layer only, 
with bars to take the weight when set on end. 
A Tery good and serviceable case is one having 
a capacity of two cubic feet and divided in the 
centre. In a barrel the lowest row has to sustain 
the weight of all those above it, which may 
amount to something like three to four pounds 
per orange. The continued use of the barrel for 
oranges and similar fruit helps to bring our beautiful 
West Indian fruit into grave discredit. 
The package of pine-apples has to be conducted 
on the same principle, They should never be 
packed in barrels but in light crates, each fruit 
having a separate compartment. Small and in- 
different fruits are rarely worth shipping, and if 
in abundance should be preserved or sold locally. 
Mangoes can be safely sent, if picked in the 
condition known as "full," so as to gradually 
ripen during transit. In this case, it is also 
necessary to separate the individual fruits, and high 
class fruit should be packed in the manner adopted 
for apricots and peaches by European growers, 
namely in single compartments with soft packing 
material. 
The actual business of packing fruit is an 
art which only practice can perfect, and most of 
the failures are due to imperfect knowledge of 
the conditions which are necessary to success. 
A common idea exists that cultivators can, 
by planting at certain times of tlie year, get 
fruit such as mangoes and pineapples to ripen 
at certain seasons. This may sometimes be possible, 
but I am of opinion, after a quarter of a 
century's experience, that the control which can 
be exercised by the grower over the time of 
ripening is small, and cannot be dcj ended upon 
for successive seasons. If we could control wet 
and dry weather, in the sirae way as under glass 
cultivation, eomething might be done ; but until 
.we are in a position to do this, the mango 
and pine-apple season will be in June, July and 
August, the coffee crop will come in November and 
December, and cacao will ripen in June and 
November, with variations of dates in accordance 
with the season. 
There is great need for study of the possible 
means to get a crop of fruit out of season, for 
fruit out of season is well known to pay, I 
think however that more success will come, if the 
attack is carried on from a different direction. 
It is true that we might by withholding water 
imitate the dry season, and by giving water 
imitate the wet season ; but still uncontrollable 
differences would yet remain, for it is clear 
that we could not control the state of the 
atmosphere surrounding the branches even if we 
kept the roots dry, and we could not give the 
dry air coincident with the dry season, during 
rainy weather, and if we kept a plant well 
watered, its branches would still be affected by 
the drought. 
The best means to obtain the end in view, 
would be to seek plants which ripen earlier or 
later than the general crop, and by selection 
obtain varieties which come in extremelj' early, 
or conveniently late, and thus meet the demands 
of the " out of season" markets. Selection of 
this kind is carried out in Europe and America, 
and might equa,lly well answer in the tropics 
if a little attention was devoted to the subject. 
I have digressed somewhat from packing and 
transport of fruit but, I must plead the excuse, 
that we must know how to get our fruit 
before we can pack or transport it. — West 
Indian Bulletin, 
{To be Concluded.) 
NATURE STUDY LESSONS. 
First Course in the Study op Plant Life. 
Introductory. 
This first course is intended to induce scho°^ 
children to observe the external features o^ 
plants, as seen in stem, roots and leave?, and the 
modifications of leaves including the flower and 
fruit, 
Tlie second course will necessitate a fuller study 
of the structure and functions of the parts of 
plants. 
The soil, water and air will form the subjects 
of a later course. 
N.B. — It must be borne in mind that every 
fact here mentioned should be verified by actual 
observation. Examples are given for the sake 
of convenience, but where these are not at hand, 
others must be sought for in order to prove each 
statement and fix it on the memory. 
In looking at any collection of trees in Nature, 
you will observe that they differ considerably one 
from another. This is due to differences in the 
development of the parts of the trees, 
A tree may be said to consist of (1) a stem 
bearing, (2) roats below, and (3) leaves above. 
Take any tree or plant in your school garden and 
see if you cannot divide it thus. 
