Notes from Abroad. 
* 
BY DR. VVM. C. RICHARDSON, TAMPA, FLA, 
When Doctor W. C. Richardson ad¬ 
vised me early in January that he was 
about to visit the Citrus sections around 
the Mediterranean I asked him to write 
something on his observations. He kindly 
consented to do so and mailed the letter 
from Paris thinking it would reach me 
at Jacksonville in time to be read to the 
Society. It failed to reach me in time 
and I am doing the next best thing— 
printing it in the proceedings. Personal¬ 
ly and on behalf of the Society I thank 
Dr. Richardson for his most instructive 
and interesting letter.—C. T. McCarty. 
Paris, France, April 25, 1906. 
C. T, McCarty, Esq., President Florida 
State Horticultural Society, Florida 
U. S. A. 
Dear Sir: In accordance with your 
request to write you relative to things 
of interest that I might see on rny cruise 
around the Mediterranean, in the way of 
horticultural matters, I take occasion to 
say that the first stop was at Funchal Is¬ 
land, of Maderia. This island grows 
some oranges of a rather inferior quality, 
and all sub-tropical fruits and vegetables 
flourish as extensively as the small limits 
of the island will permit. Sugar cane, 
however, seems to be the principal arti¬ 
cle of cultivation. 
The next place visited, was Cadiz, 
Spain, located on an almost barren little 
peninsula, and aside from the splendid 
harbor, its commerce as the chief port of 
South Western Spain, and the manufac¬ 
ture of salt by evaporation, it has little of 
interest in a business way, but is rich in 
art treasures and historical associations. 
A visit to the interior, some hundred 
and fifty miles, revealed quite extensive 
orange groves, and many quite large olive 
orchards. The orange trees are planted 
in squares in regular order, eighteen or 
twenty feet apart, and do not seem to 
grow anything like as large as our Florida 
trees. In the gardens of the palace of the 
Alcazar there are many very old trees, 
one of which is said to have an authentic 
history of over six hundred years ; It is 
a bitter sweet, and the man showing us 
through the place said that sweet oranges 
injected into the bitter stock, he meant 
budded, were growing in the grounds 
and bearing abundantly at ages of two 
and three hundred years. These trees did 
indeed look thrifty and healthy, but they 
were no larger than our fifteen or sixteen 
year old trees. All the unprotected or¬ 
ange and other sub-tropical trees had been 
nipped with the cold to the extent of los¬ 
ing their leaves, but this did not seem tr. 
worry the Spaniards any, and they ap¬ 
parently treated it as nothing unusual, or 
of any consequence. Spanish oranges 
are not of the best quality, and aside from 
color have little to recommend them; 
they are tender, thick skinned and of a 
negative flavor. 
