52 Agricultural and Horticultural Resources. 



heavy crops of beautiful flavored fruit, equal, if not superior 

 to those of English orchards, both in size and quality. 



The Fig Trees grow to perfection, some varieties bearing 

 their two crops in the year freely. The leading varieties are 

 green and white Provence, green and brown Ischia, and 

 Smyrna. It may be expected, that dried colonial figs will 

 eventually supersede those imported. 



The Black Mulberry Trees are reared with ease. Their 

 compact habit renders them very ornamental, whilst they 

 prove bearers of very superior fruit. 



Oranges and Lemon Trees. — Although there are some few 

 orangeries in favorite spots around the vicinity of Melbourne, 

 yet they are generally planted in smaller quantities in the 

 warm places of orchards, or in clumps on lawns more for the 

 sake of ornament and variety than for profitable purposes. 

 The most suitable situations for them are on warm declivities, 

 having a good deep friable, dry, porous soil, in which they 

 will attain the. height of 15 feet, and form fine compact bushy 

 heads. Single trees are known to have produced in one 

 season upwards of 200 fine sized well ripened oranges ; such a 

 crop, however, is considered as yet an exceptional one. 

 Hitherto the cultivation of oranges has not been remunerative 

 in this colony, since oranges are largely and cheaply imported 

 from New South Wales. In cold situations the orange and 

 lemon trees are here neither healthy nor productive, but they 

 prosper in the northern districts. 



The Vine. — Amongst the branches of husbandry yet to be 

 extensively developed, the cultivation of the vine will be one 

 of the most important in this 'colony, the climate throughout 

 the greater part of our territory being exquisitely adapted 

 for the prolific growth of vines, although the severity of hot 

 winds and long continued droughts occasion sometimes rather 

 severe losses of fruit, and cold winds and early spring frosts 

 are detrimental to the expanding flowers of vines planted in 

 low and damp localities. The blight has, during showery 

 seasons, in some localities affected the vines. 



The vineyards hitherto established in various parts of 

 Victoria comprise approximately an area of 600 acres. It 

 seems, however, that their extent is annually increasing with- 

 out a corresponding increase in wine manufacture, and, thus, 

 notwithstanding some failures of grapes through the long 

 lasting drought of this season, the Melbourne market is more 

 plentifully supplied than ever with table grapes, prices 

 ranging from l|d. to 6d. per lb. There have been instances 



