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winter, and to tend to retain moisture in the summer months, thus 

 making the soil, and consequently the roots, warm when the weather 

 is cold and cool in dry and hot weather. Complete drainage and 

 moderate moisture are as necessary to the healthy growth of the 

 root system of the plant as pruning and spraying with insecticides 

 to the healthy growth of the branches and leaves, and the produc- 

 tion of a crop of sound, showy, and well-matured fruit. 



WHAT FRUIT TO GROW. 



The following chapter contains a carefully- selected list of fruits 

 which have either been proved to be successfully grown in the S. W. 

 division of Western Australia, or are known to thrive in other fruit- 

 growing countries bearing, with ours, strong features of similarity as 

 regards those natural conditions which are congenial to fruit trees. 



The letters E., M., and L. mean early, medium, or late respec- 

 tively, and S., A., and W. denote summer, autumn, and winter; 

 F. and C., freestone or clingstone. 



PLANT BREEDING. 



Until a few years ago the art of man had seldom been directed 

 towards improving our cultivated plants. Seeds were collected of 

 varieties exhibiting special features deemed worthy of reproduction 

 and improvement. These were planted under favourable conditions 

 and received the benefit of careful cultivation ; the rest was left to 

 Providence. Under such circumstances, a great many of our 

 choicest select seedlings, varieties of fruit trees, and plants have 

 originated; a great many more are the result,, of chance seedlings. 

 This process however is, if at times efficacious, somewhat empirical, 

 and some of our more modern fruit growers have of late brought 

 their commercial genius to bear in selecting and in mating varieties 

 embodying special features which, when blended together, would 

 approach closer to the ideal they have set themselves to create. 

 Time is thus saved, and if the result does not always come up to that 

 ideal, it often constitutes a subject which is worth putting to the 

 test, and which is finally adopted or rejected by either the breeder 

 himself or by the cultivator. 



This is effected by the process of cross fertilisation or of 

 pollination. For so doing something must be known of the 

 structure of the flower.' Inside the corolla, which is formed of the 

 variously-coloured petals, are the organs of fructification of the plant. 

 These consist of a pistil, so called because it somewhat resembles a 

 pestle, and which includes an inflated tip or stigma which receives 

 the pollen, a style or miniature tube which conveys the pollen 

 to the ovary, which in the course of development becomes the fruit. 

 They also consist of thread-like bodies called stamens, which are the 

 male organ of flowers and surround the pistil. These organs secrete 

 the pollen or fecundating dust which is contained in little capsules 

 called anthers. 



