crops of various kinds are taken from the
ground, but seldom after the trees are in full
bearing, unless by the very poor. They are
planted twenty-five or thirty feet apart, and
soon attain a height of thirty feet. Great
pains are taken to keep them thoroughly free
from the attacks of insects and also well
pruned; an operation which is performed
every year. The cultivator in short devotes
the whole of his working hours and all his
best energies to the care of his quinta, not
only during its early growth, but when it has
arrived at maturity; for, upon its produce, his
main dependence is placed, quite as much
indeed as that of the Irish cottier upon his
potato-field. The orange is his staff of life.

The cost of sheltering one acre of orange
trees amounts to fifteen pounds sterling;
eight pounds for the plants, and a further
sum of about two pounds for placing them in
the ground. For seven years they give no
yield; during the next three years they
produce a half crop, and at the end of that time
may be said to be in full production. Some
of these trees attain a great age and an
enormous size; more than one we have heard of
as measuring seven feet round the base of the
stem. Their yield is also great, reaching in
favourable positions and in good seasons to so
much as twenty boxes, of a thousand oranges
each, from one tree; as many as twenty-six
thousand fruit have been known to be gathered
from one of these prolific trees, and it may
therefore be readily believed that during the
ripening season, large supports have to be
placed beneath the branches to prevent the
great weight of fruit from breaking them
away from the trunk.

The appearance of the many quintas
throughout the undulating face of Saint
Michael, halt hidden amongst dense shades of
deep green foliage is extremely picturesque.
Some have their little cottage and patch of
garden-stuff; others of ampler dimensions
have their "casinhos," and their rich pleasure-
grounds and ornamental work; but all are
surmounted by a tower of wood and a little
flag-staff, whence on saint-days, and Sundays,
and festivals, pennants and flags wave gaily in
the sunny breeze, aping the fun and frolic
that is going on below. On these occasions,
be the occupants rich or poor, no work is
attempted.  Pic-nics, tea-parties of all kinds,
with singing and dancing, and love-making on
the soft green sward and under the shade of
heavily laden fruit trees, whose golden
treasures dance in the summer sea-wind, are the
only occupation of the people at those times.
In those cool, pleasant retreats, the maiden
and her lover, the priest, the peasant, the
noble, the trader, the busy townsman, all
congregate; and, with the bright blue
sky above, the rich green turf below, the
merry sound of pipe and tabor, the song
of birds of gorgeous plumage, the laugh of
children around and about, the fragrant
perfume of orange, and citron, and myrtle
blossoms, floating in the air,—there amidst
all this grow to maturity the ripe, rich fruit
that within but one short week, by the potent
aid of wind and steam, shall be after some
tossing and tumbling, thrust into London
faces in London thoroughfares, with the
London cry of "only four a-penny—fine
Saint Michael's!"

In the quintas of the Azores, the orange
trees blossom in March and April, when
copious showers, added to the growing warmth
of the sun, give new life to vegetation. In
the best situations the fruit will begin to
ripen by October, and in the following month
a gathering may be made of small quantities
for the London market, where the first
arrivals of the season always command high
prices and ready sales. They are, however,
not in full profusion until January, before
which time the Portugese seldom taste any.
By the end of February the whole crop will
be off the trees, and the greater portion
away from the islands. In this way the
trees have not a very long respite between
the gathering and the blossoming; they may
in fact be said to be producing all the year
round. A variety of other fruits will be
frequently grown in these quintas, such as
limes, guavas, citrons, lemons, &c.; but only
for the local consumption, oranges being the
sole article of export.

In Spain and Portugal the orange trees are
planted and cultivated much in the same manner
as in the islands, but without the necessity
for shading by high fences. The Porto and
Seville orange trees do not attain a similar size
to those of the China and Saint Michael's, nor
do they produce nearly as abundantly. The
usual annual yield of a Seville tree will be eight
thousand. Previous to the reduction of the
duty on foreign fruit, the importers were
exceedingly particular in regard to the size
of the oranges received from Spain and
Portugal. None beyond a certain dimension
were shipped to our market; and, to enable
the packers of the fruit to determine which
should go and which be rejected, it was usual
for them to have a metal ring in their hands
with which they rapidly gauged the fruit, as
they received it from the country boats.
Such oranges as passed through the ring were
left for packing; those which were found too
large were flung into the river; and we have
been assured by a traveller that during the
gathering season he has seen the Douro
completely covered by the rejected fruit.
Thus we see one of the destructive effects of
protective duties. The waste they occasioned
in this way of all sorts of foreign produce, was
enormous. But, happily, no such waste takes
place now. Under the present system of low
duties, oranges of all sizes are brought to
market, and can now be afforded at a price
equal to that of our own home-grown apples.

Lemons are brought in large quantities
from Sicily, where they are cultivated on
precisely the same principles as the orange in