Fruits, Vegetables and General Interests. 9 



The apple crop in Europe was short in 1890. In England 

 it was about one-fourth of a full crop, the poorest known in 

 many years. France produced an average crop, while Bel- 

 gium had a half crop and Holland even less. Denmark had 

 scarcely any apples. 



Tasjnanian apples began to reach London the last of April or 

 first of May, and prices ranged from $10 to $12 per barrel. 

 These apples reach the market so late and the prices are 

 necessarily so high, because of the distance over which they 

 are transported, that they do not compete seriously with 

 American fruit. But some of this fruit found a market in San 

 Francisco in 1890, and it will undoubtedly be shipped to 

 America in large quantities in the future ; and there are so 

 many features of the Tasmanian apple industry which are in- 

 teresting and suggestive to our growers, that I have invited 

 John L. Conacher, of Tasmania, to prepare the following 

 paper for this occasion : 



'^Although the apple industry of Tasmania may be consid- 

 ered as only in its infancy, I venture to express the conviction 

 that within the next few years, stimulated by the profitable 

 returns from the almost unlimited inter-colonial, European 

 and American markets, it will become one of the staple indus- 

 tries of the colony, and fully realize the recent prediction of 

 the Fruit Farm Review in becoming a ' gigantic concern. ' That 

 the orchardists of Tasmania enjoy to a pre-eminent degree 

 every element necessary to the perfect production of the apple 

 has been fully and practically demonstrated by the magnificent 

 results obtained in the high yield per acre, combined with a 

 quality which the great English expert, Sampson Morgan, de- 

 scribed as of a very high standard, and which Dr. Hogg, the 

 English pomologist, declares (even after the unavoidably de- 

 teriorating circumstances consequent upon a journey of four- 

 teen thousand miles) as equal to English hot-house fruit. 



''The climate and soils of Tasmania are very variable, from 

 the damp but rich forest lands of the west to the dry open 

 plains of the east and the high elevated table-land of the mid- 

 lands. The best fruit districts are the valleys of the rivers 

 Huon and Derwent in the south — the former being considered 

 the 'Kent of Tasmania;' although, owing to the drier climate 

 of the Derwent valley, some experts consider the fruit raised 



A. H. 2 



