CITRUS FRUITS IN INDIA. 47 
APPENDIX A. 
CITRUS FRUITS IN INDIA. 
The climate of India is suitable to the production of citrus fruits 
from the lower altitudes of the outer Himalayas southward through- 
out the peninsula. Although many places throughout this vast 
region are splendidly adapted to citrus fruit growing, the acreage at 
present in commercial production is so limited as to fall far short of 
meeting even the home demands. Pomelos and limes are of general 
distribution and lemons are grown to a limited extent, but it is the 
orange alone that attains commercial prominence. 
The locations of supply most widely known and largely depended 
upon are the Khasia Hills of Assam (PI. XI, fig. 1) , the Nagpur dis- 
trict in the Central Provinces (PI. XI, fig. 2) , Poona in the Bombay 
Presidency, and Gujranwala in the Punjab. The Khasia Hills supply 
much of the fruit used in the Calcutta and Assam markets. The chief 
center of orange cultivation in these hills is a narrow strip of coun- 
try bordering the south and west sides, which extends from the plains 
up to an altitude of not more than 1,500 feet. The Khasia orange 
gardens are seldom composed exclusively of orange trees, but have 
them scattered through the forests with other trees, especially the 
areca palm, from which the betel nut is derived. To the Ameri- 
can, trees of such a character in a half-wild state would scarcely 
be looked upon in the light of commercial production, but in India 
they form the chief source of supply for the entire eastern part of 
the Empire. These oranges are all seedlings and of the shape and 
flavor of tangerines. They are inferior to American-grown tangerines 
in both size and flavor. 
The Nagpur orange is the most famous orange in India. The 
supposed excellence of this fruit is so widespread that it has almost 
developed into a tradition that in no place else can such excellent 
oranges be grown as in this limited region. The writer is of the 
opinion that this popular conception is largely a fallacy. Orange 
growing at Nagpur has been known for many years, and doubtless at 
present is carried on there with more care than in almost any other 
place in India. The fruit almost exclusively produced in this region 
is a very loose-jacketed tangerine, somewhat above the average size of 
this orange. It is produced on budded trees, in the selection of which 
some care was originally used. When it is considered that the bulk 
of the oranges grown in India are from seedling tangerine trees, many 
of which develop into unusual monstrosities through lack of selection, 
it is easily understood that the competition of a large, loose-jacketed 
fruit, with such an irregular assortment, would quickly place it in a 
prominent position. The orange production about Nagpur is much 
less than would be expected, as the total supply is probably taken 
from far below 1 ,000 acres. 
