Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1919 — WHAT MAKES ORANGE RUSTY [ARTICLE]

WHAT MAKES ORANGE RUSTY

Spider-Like Insect Crawls Over Fruit and Punctures Outer Skin. The juiciest and sweetest orangea are the rusty ones. An exceedingly tiny spider-like inject is responsible. While the, fruit is ripening on the tree It crawls over the orange and punctures the outer skin with ever so many minute holes. For this purpose it Is provided with an awl-Hke instrument incomparably sharper than the finest cambric needle. It punches the holes to get at the oil contained in little glands just beneath the surface. Upon this oil it feeds, apparently. If you rub a lump of sugar hard ’and persistently upon the skin of an orange it will soon become saturated "with this oil (from the ruptured ■glands), which has a very strong flavor. It is the so-called “essential oil” art orange. 1 The oil, leaking out of the glands punctured by the “rust mite," forms a coating which, as it dries, is turned to a rusty color by contact witt). the >ir. It is in effect a varnish, which, being impervious to moisture, presents the juice from evaporating.