FRUIT CULTURE. 121 



producers as well. The Cape of Ciood Hope is paj-iuf^ consideraLle 

 attention to fruit-culture, aud in all the colonies of Australasia the 

 industry is very much on the increase. 



With this very great increase in the production of fruit the only 

 chance of making fruit-growing pay in the future will be to grow 

 nothing but the best varieties, and only such as the district is suited 

 to, and which it will produce to the greatest perfection. If this is 

 done I believe that we will be able to hold our own markets easilv, 

 and I also believe that it is possible for us to raise fruit of such 

 quality that even with the great increase in production it will be able 

 to hold its own in every market. In order to do this the fruit- 

 growers of the future will have to be a very different individual from 

 the fruit-grower of the past. He will have to conduct his business on 

 the strictest commercial lines, and use his brains as Avell as his hands. 

 He Avill have to employ in^provcd methods of culture, systematically 

 prune and thin his trees, keep his orchard in a state of vigorous health 

 by the eradication of all insect and fungus pests, and by the application 

 of manures when necessary ; grov/- nothing but the finest fruits that it 

 is possible to produce, and when he has grown them market them in 

 the best possible manner. The fruit-growing of the future will be a 

 science, and no one will make a success of it unless he keeps al)reast 

 of the times, and takes advantage of all the assistance that improved 

 machinery can give him, as well as of ail the information on diseases, 

 &c., published by scientists in all parts of the world. Fruit-growing 

 in New South Wales, if properly conducted, will, I believe, have little 

 to fear fi-om foreign competition, as we possess sevei'al advantages 

 that the older fruit-growing countries do not. In the first ])lace, we 

 can grow a greater number of fruits to perfection than any other 

 country of the same size on earth. Secondly, we have a large area of 

 the best fruit-growing land which is available for fruit-culture at a 

 very low price. Thirdly, the rainfall over a large portion of the country 

 adapted for fruit-growing is sufficient for the successful culture of 

 deciduous fruits without iri-igation, provided that the land is kept in a 

 state of perfect tilth. 



Fourthly, our large belt of artesian country with its probably 

 inexhaustible supply of water, and water that can be utilised Avith 

 the least expense, is capable of producing all kinds of drying fruits 

 at a rate that few countries if any can compete against. 



Fifthly, if our growers will lay themselves out to grow the right 

 kinds of fruit for exporting to Europe, we have a large market for 

 choice fruits during the European winter when the local fruits are 

 out of season. Owing to the reverse of the seasons here, their off 

 season is our harvest, and we can thus supply them with fruit at a 

 time that there will be little European or North American fruit, save 

 oranges, on the market, and in the case of citrus fruits, the same rule 

 applies as our fruits ripen at the time that these fruits are scarcest 

 in Europe. 



Despite the advantages this Colony possesses for the building up 

 of a big fruit industry, it will depend 'entirely on the energy of our 

 growers whether this Colony will take the place that it shouKl in the 

 fruit production of the world, or whether it will be inished aside by the 

 more enero-etic oTowers of other countries, who even though they may 



