Los Angeles daily herald., 1885-12-29

loss, will be careful to ship only good
and ripe fruit in the future. In this
way the complaint will soon cease
sweet as those from Italy. Any one
who will take the trouble and be sure
of getting ripe American oranges can
even now satisfy himself that in
sweetness and aroma they cannot be
equalled, much less be surpassed, by
the imported fruit.
Ii is really to be wished that the
press, which goes TO Sc much trouble
TO defend the American hog against
all attacks, would at least cease to
cry down our domestic citrus fruits in
such an unwarrantable way. Our
hog has a great advantage in having
the German "Reichskangler" (Bis-
marek) to scratch it. Ii he had for
bidden the import of American or
anges, nobody would have dared to
doubt their sweetness and excellence.
II he did he would have been rated a
traitor or in the pay OF the reptile
fund" Nothing would sooner put a
stop to the calumnies to which our
oranges are now exposed than a SINH
lar exclusion by Europe. Of course,
such prohibition would have to orig
mate in Spain or Italy, because other
European countries would like to see
the price OF oranges and lemons low
cred by American competition. Al
ready an experiment male by export
ing oranges from Florida TO England
resulted in a success. The fact that
they sold at higher price than Mes
sina oranges and left a profit to the
shipper is evidence that the new
world can compete successfully with
the old in this branch of commerce.
The only obsiacle-certainly very
important one--is that the United
States cannot so far produce enough
oranges to supply its own demand.
Florida marketed 175 millions Of
oranges, $50 millions were i'm
ported. Not until the United
States have succeeded in stopping
the demand for foreign citrus fruits,
can they think about conquering an
European market for their oranges,
lemons, etc. There can be no reason
able doubt but that they will succeed
in doing this in time. If the Ameri-
can press wishes to hasten this time,
it will have to quit spreading the idle
story that the American orange is not
as sweet as the Italian. Perhaps
then our export of citrus fruits will
play not much less important role
than that OF pork. The export of this
latter product for the ten months end
ing with October amounted to fifty
millions OF dollars; the import Of
lemons and oranges for that time to
quite four millions. II the United
States succeeded in driving European
citrus fruits out Of the market, not
only here but also out of the markets
of northern and middle Europe, an
export OF nearly forty-fiye mil
lion dollars would take the place of
tn. import.
In order to accomplish this end-if
it ever will be accomplished-many
thousands of orange and lemon trees
will yet have to be planted in Florida
and California. But why not? Soil
and climate are there, and there will
he no lack of industrious hands. The
proportion in which domestic citrus
fruit is crowding out foreign fruit is
very promising. While in the first
ten months of the year 1884 the i'm
port of oranges and lemons amounted
to 50 800 900, the import of the eur
rent year for the ten respective
months fell off to $4,100,000. If the
development of the culture of citrus
fruits continues in the same ratio, the
will cease in few years
entirely and America will not only
supply Europe with pork but also
with citrus fruits.