120 CULTIVATION OF THE ORANGE IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 
In August last I visited the orangery of Mr. A. T. Holroyd, at 
i% 
p 
1 Sherwood," near Paramatta ; it was a very young orchard in compari- 
son with that of Mr. Pye, but it was in an excellent and flourishing 
state. The orangery consisted of thirteen acres, on which there are 
850 trees planted, having 70 trees to the acre. Ten of the trees, he 
informed me, yielded, this year, upwards of 550 dozen. He obtains 
for his oranges this season, wholesale, seveupence to eightpence the 
dozen, and I have been informed that twopence the dozen will pay the 
expenses of cultivation ; all above that sum is profit to the grower. 
There appears to me to be a great desire on the part of the orange- 
growers in this colony, to import the " St. Michael's orange/'— regard- 
ing it as a variety of very superior quality ; many had supposed they 
had obtained it, having ordered plants from Europe, but were not sa- 
tisfied with the result, as it did not produce the expected thin-skiuned 
variety, free from seeds. The disappointment arises, in my opinion 
from this cause, — from observations made at the Azores, I do not con- 
sider that, except as a variety, it differs from the common orange gene- 
rally cultivated in the colony, excepting any improvement may take place 
in the quality of the fruit, resulting from genial climate, soil, or careful 
cultivation. There are some very old Orange-trees at the Azores, and 
these bore thin-skinned oranges, very juicy and free from pips, and no 
doubt the thinness of the skin and freedom from seeds will be found 
to depend on the age and careful cultivation of the tree. The younger 
trees in all the orangeries I examined at the Azores, and the fruit which 
was at the same time in process of packing for England, were for the 
most part similar in quality to the common Orange produced in iNew 
South Wales, and often with an abundance of seeds. 
Mr. George Oakes — another extensive orange-grower — has been very 
successful in the cultivation of the Orange near Paramatta, and wei 
bears out what the soil and climate is capable of producing. Three 
Navel Oranges, taken from trees that will be five years old next spring* 
and that were grafted on seedlings, weighed, respectively, 22 ounces, 
22 f ounces, and 25£ ounces. Two common oranges, on a single stalfc, 
weighed together 32 ounces. Some wax- models of these and other 
Australian fruit were made by order of the Commissioners for the Pans 
Exhibition of 1867, to show what oranges could be grown in New South 
Wales, not to be surpassed in their size only, but in their equally luscious 
flavour, which large-sized fruits do not always possess. Mr. Oakes W 
