FRUITS OF QUEEySLAXD. 41 



Queensland possesses many advantages respecting the growth of this fruit 

 as compared with other countries in which it is grown commercially, which 

 may be briefly enumerated as follows : 



1st. Freedom from loss by freeze-outs; 



2nd. The ease with which the fruit can be grown, and its freedom from 

 disease; 



3rd. The large area of land suitable to its culture, and the low price at 



which suitable land can be obtained; 

 4th. The fine quality of the fruit; 

 5th. The superiority of our fruit for canning purposes; 



6th. The low price at which it can be produced, and the heavy crops 

 that can be grown. 



These are enough reasons to show that in the pineapple we have a fruit well 

 suited to our soil and climate, a fruit in the cultivation of which there is room 

 for great extension, and which will provide a living for many industrious 

 settlers. 



THE MANGO. 



This magnificent fruit, which is practically unknown outside of the tropics,, 

 has become as hardy as a forest tree throughout our eastern seaboard, wher- 

 ever it is planted out of frost. It has been named, and well named too, the apple 

 of Queensland, as it stands as much neglect, and can be grown with as little 

 care and attention as, or even less, than that given to the apple-trees in many 

 of the Somerset or Devonshire orchards. It will not, however, stand frost. 

 Droughts and floods have little effect on it; it will grow in any soil, from a 

 sand to a heavy loam, amongst rocks, or on a gravelly or shaley land. 

 Naturally, it does best in good land, but there are hundreds of cases where 

 trees are doing well and bearing heavily on land that is by no means fruit 

 land. The mango is one of our handsomest fruit trees; the symmetry of its- 

 growth, its large glossy leaves, the delicate colouring of its young growth, 

 which is of different shades in different varieties, the abundance of fruit that it 

 produces, varying in colour from dull-green to yellow, red, or even purplish 

 tints, all render it conspicuous. As well as being one of our handsomest, it- 

 is also one of our most widely distributed fruits, being found growing luxuri- 

 antly the whole length of our eastern seaboard. A few trees are also to be met 

 with inland in districts that are free from frosts, so that it stands both the dry 

 heat of the interior and the humid heat of the coast. As a tropical fruit it 

 naturally reaches its greatest perfection under our most tropical conditions, 

 the trees there growing practically wild, requiring little if any attention, 

 making a rapid growth, coming into bearing early, and producing heavy crops 

 of fruit. Further south the growth is somewhat slower, though the trees grow- 

 to a large size and bear heavily. It is one of the easiest of trees to grow, as 

 it is readily propagated by means of seed. In many plantations thousands of 



