Report of the Principal of the School of Horticulture. 879 



REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL OF THE SCHOOL OF 

 HORTICULTURE. 



C. Bogue Luffmann. 



Introductory, 



The success of the students of the School of Horticulture, and 

 that of the fruitgroAver of the near future, is largely dependent on 

 the quality and plan of the Burnley Estate. Throughout Victoria, 

 considerable areas once regarded as perfect fruit-growing land, have 

 become practically exhausted through the irregular system of taking- 

 all and returning nothing to the soil. It follows that a more precise 

 system of soil conservation must be established if we are to obtain 

 permanent and profitable occupation of the existing orchards. 



It is possible through the medium of the Burnley Estate, and an 

 extension of the various methods adopted thereon to small reserves in 

 country districts, to lay the foundation of a system of soil manage- 

 ment and fruit, production in strict accord with local conditions and 

 demands. The failure to observe the true nature of raw material 

 and influence of phenomena in the form of climate, has gone far to 

 interfere with the success of numberless adventures in fruit produc- 

 tion 



Apart from an admirable site and sufficient area when gauged by 

 acres, the Bui-nley Estate holds, as a natural quantity, nothing favor- 

 able to the making of either orchards or orchardists. 



A poor class of river clay, patches of river-washed sand, over a 

 sour bottom of basaltic boulder country, with no means of either 

 under-draining or deep cultivating, offer nothing of an inviting 

 character on which to start to teach a country's people how they may 

 win an existence from a few acres of more or less arid and unirri- 

 gated land. 



The recognised work of the year has therefore been the making 

 of an estate which will, as far as possible, serve the needs of the 

 fruitgrower and settler on a few acres. By persistently acquiring 

 all available soil and litter from outside sources, by trenching and 

 sub-soiling wherever practicable, and by draining and manuring as 

 far as means would permit, the larger proportion of the estate of forty 

 acres has been entirely transformed. The gain is incalculable ; since 

 a permanent foundation has been laid and a means to instruct, which 

 can never fail of its object. 



School Work of the Year. 



This has been on the whole very satisfactory, since the work 

 provided has proved interesting and congenial. The general 



