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Fruit Culture. 



By Albert H. Benson, Department of Agriculture. 



Few parts of tlie world possess greater natural facilities for the pro- 

 duction of fruit in greater variety than the Colony of New South Wales. 

 Owing to the extent of country, and the great differences in climate, 

 ranging from that of the temperate regions on our higher table-lands 

 to that of the tropics on our north-eastern seaboard, from a moisture 

 laden atmosphere and a rainfall of over 100 inches per annum to a 

 dry desiccating air and a rainfall of from G to lO inches per annum, 

 and with every graduation between these extremes, we are able to grow 

 every kind of fruit from mangoes to gooseberries, or, leaving out a few 

 extreme tropical fruits, all the cultivated fruits of the world. Not only 

 are we able to grow this great variety of fruits, but many of them of 

 such quality and to such perfection, that they cannot be excelled if 

 equalled in any other part of the world. 



On the north-eastern seaboard of the Colony, we have a climate 

 and conditions that are almost tropical, and in a few favoured localities 

 quite tropical. Here the rainfall is heavy — the air is laden with 

 moisture, and in sheltered positions frosts are almost unknown. The 

 soil generally is of great natural fertility, aud the land in its virgin 

 state is covered with a dense impenetrable scrub composed of masses 

 of most luxuriant vegetation with immense trees interspersed. Here 

 all the fruits of the semi-tropics flourish — the mango, custard apple, 

 banana, and pine-apple, grow side by side, and the passion-fruit and 

 guava grow wild, and produce an abundance of the finest fruit without 

 any cultivation whatever. These fruits spring up every where that 

 they have a chance iu the scrub, as the fruit is eaten readily by birds, 

 and the seeds are distributed widely in their castings. 



The orange, lemon, and citron, grow here with very little attention, 

 and though many of the trees are found to be badly infested by scale 

 insects and other pests owing to an entire lack of attention, there are 

 in my opinion few districts where they will pay better or where they 

 can be grown to greater perfection, provided that only the choicest 

 varieties are planted, and that the trees and orchard arc thoroughly 

 attended to. The common or rough lemon and the citron, grow with- 

 out the slightest trouble, and it is not at all an uncommon thing to 

 meet with these fruits growing in the scrub from chance seedlings 

 producing fruit in abundance^, and holding their own against the 

 indigenous vegetation, thus showing the adaptability of citrus fruits 

 to the soil and climate, and the ease with which they can l)e grown. 



In the central seaboard district, which cmln-accs the Hunter and 

 its branches on the north, and extends to about Kiama on the south, 

 we have a large tract of country where the orange and other citrus 



