150 Australian Life 



experts in dealing with the peculiarities of soil 

 and climate encountered. 



As already hinted, the difficulty of the man on 

 the land is not the growth, but the disposal of 

 certain kinds of produce. I remember dining in 

 Melbourne once, and enjoying some canned apri- 

 cots which came, as I learned on asking, from 

 America. Three days later, I was assisting to 

 destroy an orchard of apricot trees two acres in 

 extent, their owner having decided to replace 

 them with orange and lemon trees. The trees 

 were in their prime, and had never failed to yield 

 good crops of first-class fruit. But the grower, 

 who was a practical man, had found that they 

 afforded but an insignificant return, while an ad- 

 jacent area under fruit trees of the citrus order 

 gave handsome profits. The reason, he declared, 

 lay in his distance from the state capital and the 

 rapidity with which soft fruits spoiled in the hot 

 summer. These are difficulties that will be obvi- 

 ated with the further settlement and development 

 of the country, but in the mean time, they scarcely 

 serve to explain why Australia, with its remark- 

 able capacity for growing fruits of all kinds, 

 should be an importer instead of an exporter of 

 dried and preserved fruits. 



This is but one example of many industries 

 that are languishing, although possessing possi- 

 bilities that have been proved beyond any ques- 

 tion. The future of many of them and especially 

 those of Northern Australia is inextricably in- 



