Commercial Horticulture hi Victoria. 861 



.COMMERCIAL HORTICULTURE IN VICTORIA. 



By ('. B. Lujf'maun. 

 The Present Condition of the Industry- 

 Allowing for the limited nature of local population and markets, 

 an unusually large area exists under fruit trees. Nor are there 

 wanting defects in clioice of situation and subjects Avliich must ever be 

 inseparable from the settlement of a new country. The most 

 grievous losses have ariseu from starting with insufficient kuowledge 

 of the fruit industry, and thereby attacking many badly endowed and 

 unsuitable areas. The wide-spread ignorance with regard to the 

 nature and extent of foreign markets, and the absence of co-operation 

 in the matter of production and ])re])aration have also been a common 

 •cause of failure, or but pai'tial success. It requires to be frequently 

 iind emi)hatically stat-ed that the remote foreign markets for fresh and 

 <lried fruits are limited as to wants and seasons, and highly exacting 

 regarding quality ; Great Britain, Germany, and France are the only 

 <;'0uutries in Europe capable of absorbing a limited number of our 

 fresh fruits, and in exceptional years, certain kinds of dried fruits 

 also. A small trade has already been found, and may be continued at 

 important ports of call on the great sea routes of the Mediterranean, 

 Indian, and Pacific Seas, viz., Naples, Ceylon, Bombay, Calcutta, 

 Madras, Batavia, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. We may also 

 expect a limited trade with South Africa, chiefly iu apples, since that 

 'Country is too hot and arid to furnish the hard fruits which thrive in 

 Victoria. 



Of fresh fruits we m;iy, in greater or lesser quantities, regularly 

 ■export apples, pears, lemons, and grapes ; and of dried fruits less 

 regularly, and to fewer quarters, raisins, currants, sultanas, apricots, 

 and prunes. 



The canning and preserving industrj^ is in a very fair way to 

 ■establish itself on a moderate but firm basis, and it does not appear 

 that the State can give much aid in this particular, till communities of 

 g'rowers arrive at a common understanding in the matter (»f producing 

 and preparing for definite markets. 



Up to the present very little has been done in the direction of 

 maintaining heart and vitality in our orchard lands. The average 

 soil and climate demand a constant and heavy dressing of the soil 

 with ingredients other than water and chemical manures can supply. 

 Pig and poultry raising, and the growth of coarse fodder crops 

 provide the only certain means of keeping orchard land in good 

 heart, and the trees in profit over a long term of years. An unduly 

 large proportion of orchards laid out have failed to yield paying 

 returns, solely on account of the deficient nature of the soil. 



In the chief fruit growing centres, sufficient experience of useful 

 species and varieties has been gained to ensure much safer planting, 

 and better methods of cultui-e than have been adopted in the past. 

 Still the present state of the fruit industry is not satisfactory to the 



