744 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



APPLE GROWING IN TASMANIA. 



By J. Knight. 



Stocks Used and the Treatment of the Trees. 



When attending the recent meetings of the Fruit Nomenclature 

 Committee at Hobart, last April, opportunity was afforded members 

 for visiting the various fruit-growing districts, and in the course of 

 the tour which was made every facility was given to see the methods 

 of growing, packing, and shipping. Much may be learnt by a visit 

 to the fruit growing districts there, as the practice differs materially 

 from that adopted in Victoria. 



The system of raising trees is not one that can be recommended, 

 the old practice still exists of using seedlings as stocks, and, in many 

 cases, the stock has become so unsightly as to resemble the club or 

 mallow root form. Beyond the slight saving in raising stocks, 

 there seems no advantage in this over the Victorian system of blight 

 proof stocks. Here and there trees may be seen growing which have 

 been imported from this State, but, for some reason, the advantages 

 of a clean stock are not appreciated by growers, notwithstanding the 

 freedom of the stock from blight. 



The first thing to strike a visitor on entering the orchards is the 

 stunted character of the trees j this is not through any defect or 

 want of skill in treatment, but is the result of a system deliberately 

 adopted. In the first place the trees are planted much closer than 

 here, with usually, between 200 and 300 trees to the acre, at intervals 

 of 12 to 15 feet. And again, the training differs, as the trees 

 are shaped to branch out near the surface, and have a dense coating 

 of fruit-bearing spurs from ground to top, and it is claimed for this 

 that the picking and gathering is much more easily accomplished, as 

 it is done from the ground. The general appearance of the tree 

 would remind one of Morgan's Seedling with its line of fruit from 

 top to bottom, and, from a Victorian point of view, the fruit would 

 be regarded as somewhat stunted or undersized. 



With trees planted the distance given, in a climate such as exists 

 there, one may expect a fair return, but I was not prepared to hear 

 of what appeared to me as extraordinary yields. In some cases 700 

 to 800 bushels per acre were recorded, but 300 or 400 appears to be 

 about the average with most varieties. 



An extensive list of varieties were formerly grown, but these are 

 now limited to a few only, and among them are the Sturmer 

 Pippin and the Scarlet Nonpareil. These two varieties are the prin- 

 cipal ones now cultivated as they have been found to be specially 

 adapted for the soil and climate. 



Some Natural Advantages. 



Whatever .disadvantages the fruitgrower may have through the 

 rugged nature of his country, there is a wonderfully compensating 



