The herald., 1896-11-10
Local, Eastern and Foreign
Commercial Dealings
WALL STREET SPECULATION
Major Berry of VisaIia on Dried Bart.
lett Pears
Australian Oranges in London-The Ital-
ian Olive Crop of 1896 Not Large
The Supply of Sponges.

Major c. j. Berry, manager of the Visa
liza Fruit and Land company's orchardnear
Visalia, stated to a representative of the
Hanford Democrat few days since that
he received nine and half cents per pound
for his dried Bartlett pears last season,
and there was demand for all he had.
He states that Germany would buy all the
dried pears cured if they were properly
dried. His method of drying pears is as
follows: He picks his pears when ma
tured. but before they are ripe places them
on trays that are placed one on another
where they are left to thoroughly ripen.
When they are fully ripe he cuts them in
half sulphurs for twelve hours and then
places them in the sun skin side down for
one day, after which they are placed in
sweat boxes and piled up in a. dark room
until ready for market. 1t is important
that the fruit should be ripe and that it
should be sulphured twelve hours and kept
III q Ozark room after remaining in the sun
one day. Our pears are free from Goblin
moth and the woody fibre found in the
meat of fruit raised in other portions of
the state, and this creates a demand for
them at good prices.
Having inspected the 1140 boxes of or
anges from New South Wales (says the
Fruit Grower. Fruiterer, Florist ana Mar
ket Gardener of London) as far as quality
Der l, of finest selected fruit, is all which
could be desired. 1t is large, firm, fleshy
the English markets go. For the kind of
fruit enumerated, the sale, especially at
this time Of the year, is unlimited, the only
points being, can the quality be kept up,
and can sufficient quantities be depended
upon? II the two questions answered
in the affirmative, then we assert there is.
great opening for Australian oranges in
England. In examining numbers and 3.
the fruit was, of course, smaller. thicker,
presentable in every way, especially the
number 8. Grade number was passabe.
we DO not think i will pay to make ship
as the cost of transit amounts to As Id
per box, about % cents. The fruit was
sand and the largest quantity being ship
ped loose in barrels.
GERS Review of London. England, Messrs.
M. Gaddini & Co.. Lucca state that "A
splendid towering in our olive groves was
yield of olives. but bad weather and very
heavy, rains came later. which have in fact
ceased. The damage to the fruit. in con-
sequence of this unfavorabe weather is sn
serious that we calculate about one-third
or the entire crop has been lost. Prices of
oil on spot are. therefore, well sustained
and the more so as one hears still more Sc
rious news from thu. Riviera and Provence
mouche huiliere, has reappeared there.
and is doing much harm to the oil trees"
one du SffeGt f of the war in Cuba has been
by, fully one-half The Cuban sponge
fishermen get license to fish in Cuban
waters only upon condition that they shat!
serve in the navy if required and so many
have been called upon for this service that
the harvest of sponges has been materially
reduced.
Cuba furnishes less than a third of the
sponges used in this country. but the cur
tailment of that supply helps to put up
prices that haye been advancing for years.
The supply of sponges comes from Flor
ida. Cuba. Nassau. Mexico and the Medit-
erranean. Ordinarily about two-thirds of
the supply. in value, comes from American
waters.
The demand for sponges has increased
naturally. while the worlds supply has not
kept pace with it. 1t has within recent years
actually diminished. owing to careless
methods of fishing and to everlasting to
supply the Increased demand.
The sponge is of slow growth: it takes
two or three years for it to attain a COM
mercial size. In all countries in whose
waters sponges grow there are laws against
the pulling of little sponges until they have
reached a certain growth, just as there are
laws against the taking of Holsters and
of some fishes under specified sizes.-St
Louis Interstate Grocer.