■jOti 



THE TROPICAL AGHiCULTURlST. 



[Apeil I, 1884. 



if at all, ns it has been proved by authoiitics like Liebig, 

 Mulder, Schleiden, and others, that the tanning substance 

 contains no mineral ingredients, its formula being 0,^ 

 Hio 0„. This is an important point, as we run no risk to 

 exhaust the soil of the necessary ingredients for further 

 cultivation by !;eeping it under wattle crops for from five 

 to eight years. I may, nevertheless, be allowed to quote 

 a passage from Schleideu's " Principal Lines of Scientific 

 Botany." He says, page 141 — " Many plants seem to be 

 apt to produce organic acids whenever they are in want, 

 of saturating an inorganic base, and, vice versa, tn organic 

 base when they are destitute of an inorganic acid. This 

 is, for instance, the case with quinine in the cinchona- 

 bark, a substance so similar in its representation to tan- 

 nin. Taunin seems to be modified according to the various 

 plants in which it occurs, and appears to lodge in ' cellute ' 

 defective in vitality." 



Dr. Krause, chemist in Berlin, has carefully examined 

 over forty prominent kinds of tanning material in use on 

 our globe, and pubUshed an elaborate treatise thereon, from 

 which we learn that the highest percentage of tan is de- 

 rived from plants grown under the influence of sea-breezes. 

 This we find also confirmed by reliable investigations of 

 the Board appointed by the Government of Victoria in 

 1878 to consider and report on the subject of wattle-bark. 

 The report states that the highest degrees of tanning 

 have been obtained from broad-leaved wattles grown in 

 the Geelong, Portarlington, and Queenscliff districts, all 

 coast lands — certainly important hints for our futui'e wattle- 

 culture. In various localities of this colony, situated al- 

 most as low as the sea-level and up to an elevation of 

 2,000 feet, we find the wattles very different in their growth, 

 verdure, and cxterienr altogether. The reasons for this may 

 be attributed chiefly to the more or less congenial soil, 

 partly to the difference in the quantity of rainfall, and 

 last but not least, to the variable contents of vapour in 

 the air. The forest reserve of Woolundunga, more elevated 

 than, any other, bears me out in this assertion by interesting 

 data, not unlikely, that the highest located belts of 

 wattles therein, showing the most luxuriant verdure, will 

 also produce the highest percentage of tannin. I may 

 mention here that careful analysis of the above Board have 

 clearly shown that limestone formation has a deteriorating 

 effect on the percentage of tannin in the wattle, as the 

 quantity of it obtained from wattles cut in such lacalities 

 show a decrease of 13 per cent. Most likely very few of 

 our farmers when casting their eyes, perhaps with con- 

 tempt, on the rugged-looking wattles in their paddocks, 

 may imagine to what extent and magnitude of business, 

 wealth, and comparative happiness, private as well as public, 

 the cultivation of these insignificant plants may lead if 

 carried on under a system of uninterrupted rotations, and 

 worked in a proper forestial style. I may therefore urgedly 

 request tlie farming class before things turn to the worst 

 to give this apparently trifling affau- their serious and 

 mature consideration,and finally a scrupulous trial, as dilatori- 

 ness has often been the ruin of many a well-laid scheme, 

 and delay has often caused a failure where prompt action 

 would have resulted in unbounded success. 



IE the locaUty in which an intende.d wattle plantation 

 is to be established shows no material difficulties, an equal 

 division of a certain area of such laud into as many culture- 

 sections as we have years in view to keep the wattles in 

 growth — say, eight or nine— to attain a full size and matm- 

 ity of the trees, and consequently to obtain the jwssibly 

 highest peacentage of tannin, the introduction of a rotation 

 system of crops and consecutive sowings will be necessary. 

 This niaj* be simply accomplished in such a way that, 

 conmienciu.g with the first crop of bark at five and a half 

 yeiU-8 old, the ne.st year will turn out two crops, and the 

 following — id est. after the seventh year reckoiK'd from 

 sowing — three, ami being now in full swing, every year 

 ought to yieldthi-ee crops of bark, whilst fresh sowing in 

 their places is a matter of course. A systematical mode of 

 cultivation ought to be also the leading rule in such plant- 

 ations. Careful ploughing, for instance, not less than six 

 inches deep, of three combined furrows for the reception 

 of one seed row at the time and in distances of six feet 

 apart from another, would not only furnish the young 

 plant with suibcieut loose soil (harrowing same not to be 

 forgotten) hut it would at once intx'oduce regular propor- 

 tions iu tbc plantation, would admit easier work and manage- 



ment, and above all give the young wattle an impetus to 

 form a straight trunk, matter so important for facilitating 

 the stripping work, and meantime allowing an income from 

 the valuable wood. Before I conclude I may be allowed 

 to allude to the value of our wattle bark in comparison 

 to others. The bark of Acacia pygnantha, our golden wattle, 

 is as yet surpassed bj^ no other in the world in regard to 

 the high contents of tannin and the facilities ofi'cred in 

 its culture, the former having amounted under different 

 tests up to 45 per cent. The demand for tan substances is 

 yearly increasing in the European markets ; and in Ger- 

 many, for instance, it has grown to such a critical extent 

 that, according to trustworthy forest journals, it has been 

 found necessary to cut down fine oak trees of thirty years 

 growth to obtain the so much appreciated glossy bark, the 

 contents of which showing only from 13 to 16 per cent of 

 tannin, whilst our wattle bark, according to latest accounts, 

 received in the London market, the highest price given to 

 any tan materials. 



Trusting that you will excuse this rather lengthy attempt 

 on account of the importance of the subject. — I am, &c., 

 A\'. L. HoMETEE, Upper Mitcham. 



A GREAT DISCOVERY IN FRUIT CULTURE. 



Pure food makes pure blood, and no food is so pure as 

 fruit. An abundance of fruit ensures the health and pro- 

 sperity of the people. Xo crop is so rich and productive. 

 Few objects in nature are so beautiful as a fine tree adorned 

 with blossoms in spring, or laden with fruit in autumn. 

 Our troubles have been that the pro])er culture of fruit 

 has not been understood, and that our gardens and orchards 

 have therefore been uncertain and often unproductive. The 

 science of Fruit Culture has not existed. Its discovery, 

 just now, we consider one of the most important events 

 of this century of great discoveries — reaUy more important 

 than the discoveries of steam ^nd electricity. The new 

 method of fruit ciUture, or more probably a revival of an 

 old one known and practised perhajis for ages in China 

 and .Japan, comes to us from North "Wales in a letter by 

 Mr. E. K. Ivvnastou. and an illustrated pamphlet by 'Head 

 Gardener," the pseudonym of Mr. Kynaston, entitU 1, -'Out- 

 Door Fruit for the Miilion. How "to grow it iu large and 

 continuous quantity by simple and inexpeis- ve means," 

 with the motto — " "Who loves not fruit, ripe glorious froit 

 — a priceless boon from the great Creator's hand?" 



Mr. Kynaston, who modestly calls himself " Head Gard- 

 ener," appears to brf a gentleman of education and pro- 

 perty, who has devoted himself to fruit culture mth the 

 enthusiasm of a discoverer and benefactor. If the man who 

 makes two blades of gi-ass grow where one grew before is 

 a benefactor, what shall we say of Mr. Kynaston ? 



At the opening of his pamphlet Mr. Kyn.aston tells us 

 that after long years of practical hortieultmal exiJeriencc 

 he succeeded in growing English fruits in unprecedented 

 quantities, continuously, by simple, inexpensive means. He 

 was always his own head-gardener. Living on property of 

 his own, after some experience abroad, he planteil more 

 than twenty years ago a choice and varied selection of 

 fruit trees. He says: — 



'• In about three years' time the young trees commenced 

 bearing, and have borne from that period amuially increas- 

 ing crops, until at last the fruit bung for thickness like 

 leaves upon the trees ; and shelf after shelf, closet after 

 closet, room after room had to be devoted to its storage 

 and ^^reservation. 



'• Iu the autumn of 1S75, the garden being as usual loaded 

 almost to its utmost, the writer hand-picked himself tlu-ce 

 trees to ascertain the exact count of fruit upon each. The 

 tree (a dessert pear of excellent flavo\ir), nailed to » wall 

 7 feet high, yielded /04 marketable jjears. The second tree, 

 also a pear, somewhat larger than the first, yielded a count 

 of 74S. and as the fruit was of the preserriug order — very 

 large and solid— the crop filled four huge bask«t.«, each 

 one a load suilicient for an average man to lift and carry. 

 From the third tree, an espalier apple, of very moderate 

 size, 700 choice russets were gathered, leaving some seven 

 or eight dozen behind as l>eing below a regular marketable 

 standard. Thus for three young and conii)arativcly small 

 trees, no less than 2,1-52 count of good sound keei.i;ig fruit 

 was gathered, and as there were some 25 distinct vaiieties 

 of pear trees in the garden — all fairly well loaded accord 



