FRUITS OF QVEESSLAXD. 63 



improved varieties of oranges are grown here to perfection, the lemons especi- 

 ally being of high quality, and curing down equal to the imported Italian or 

 Californian article. The soil in many of the inland districts is well suited 

 to the culture of citrus fruits, and when the trees are given the necessary 

 water, and are uninjured by frost, they produce excellent fruit. I stated, some 

 short distance back, that there is probably no country in the world that is 

 better adapted to the cultivation of or that can produce the various kinds of 

 citrus fruits to greater perfection or with less trouble than the eastern seaboard 

 of Queensland. To many of my readers this may seem to be a very broad 

 statement; but I am certain that, if suitable trees are planted in the right 

 soil and under favourable conditions, and are given anything like the same 

 care and attention that is devoted to the culture of citrus fruits in the great 

 producing centres for these fruits in other parts of the world, we have 

 nothing to fear either as regards the cost of production or the quality of the 

 fruit produced. In order to exemplify this, it may be interesting to compare 

 our capabilities with those of the principal citrus-producing districts north of 

 the equator. To begin with, I will take Florida, which more nearly approaches 

 our climatic conditions than any other citrus-growing country that I know of, 

 and which is noted for the excellence of its citrus fruit, and we find that we 

 have all its advantages except that of proximity to the world's markets, with- 

 out its disadvantages. We have a better and richer soil, requiring far less 

 expensive artificial fertilisers to maintain its fertility, and at a very much lower 

 price. We can grow equally as good fruit; in fact, it is questionable if Florida 

 ever produced a citrus fruit equal in quality to the Beauty of Glen Retreat 

 Mandarin, a Queensland production. We get as heavy, if not heavier, crops, 

 and our trees come into bearing very early. We have no freeze-outs similar to 

 those which have crippled the industry in Florida so severely in the past that 

 many of their wealthy growers are actually covering in whole orchards of many 

 acres in extent as a protection from frost. This covering-in is accomplished 

 by means of a framework of timber having slat-work or panel sides and tops 

 in fact, by enclosing their orchards in a huge elaborate bush-house, which 

 is further protected by the heat produced by six large heating stoves or sala- 

 manders to each acre of trees enclosed. If it pays the Florida growers to 

 go to all this expense in order to prevent freeze-outs and to produce first-class 

 fruit, surely we can compete with them when a seed stuck in the right soil 

 under favourable conditions will produce a strong, vigorous, healthy tree, 

 bearing good crops without any attention whatever. 



In comparing Queensland with the citrus-producing districts of Southern 

 Europe, we have the advantage of better and cheaper land, absence of frost, 

 more vigorous growth, earlier maturity of the trees, and superior fruit; but 

 with the advantage of cheaper and more skilful labour, especially in the 

 handling and marketing of fruit, and proximity to the world's markets in 

 their favour. 



As compared with California, our soil is no better than theirs, but it costs 

 much less, and their citrus industry is dependent on artificial irrigation, their 

 natural rainfall being altogether inadequate for the growth of citrus fruits. 



