PREFACE 



To the Second Edition. 



To W. PATERSON, Esq., the Director Department of Agriculture 

 of Western Australia. 



For several years past, the demand for the HANDBOOK OF 

 HORTICULTURE AND VITICULTURE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA has 

 been so persistent that a second edition of the work, long] since]out 

 of print, had to be taken in hand. 



In this volume much of what appeared in the first one] "is 

 reproduced, but to such an extent has the work been re- handled 

 that it is only in name that it may be said to be related to the 

 HANDBOOK issued by the direction of the Bureau of Agriculture. 



Owing to the pressure of work on the eve of my leaving 

 Western Australia for a visit to the vinegrowing districts of 

 Algeria, Spain, Portugal, and the South of France, I have delegated 

 to one better qualified than myself the care of preparing the 

 chapters dealing with the description of the more common insect 

 pests of our orchards, and of those beneficial insects which do duty 

 as natural checks to these pests ; and in the hands of our 

 entomologist, Mr. G-. Compere, the subject will be dealt with 

 authoritatively. 



To Mr. Lindley Cowen, the late Secretary of this Department, 

 the idea of bringing out this book belongs, and I have endeavoured 

 to carry out as best I could the plan he had thought out. . 



I have also to acknowledge the valuable assistance given to 

 me in bringing this book out by Mr. G-. Chitty Baker, the editor of 

 the Journal of this Department. 



In collating the mass of information which will be found 

 grouped within the several chapters of this HANDBOOK I have, as 

 far as possible, acknowledged the sources whence that information 

 was derived ; and the value of those sources, together with the 

 personal experience I have been able to gain in questions dealt 

 with in the following pages, will, I hope, be of some benefit to 

 those who may consult this book. 



A. DESPEISSIS, M.R.A.C. 

 Department of Agriculture, 



Perth, W.A., 30th June, 1903. 



