43 



and the Orange Cling were introduced by the Department of 

 Agriculture. They are good peaches. He had fruited them 

 this year and had excellent results. The department had brought 

 those from California. There -were a great many more newly 

 introduced, but these three had been really proved. About 30 

 had been introduced in the last two years, and they had not come 

 into fruit yet, but from the description in America he thought it 

 was worth trying them in different parts of the colony. As to 

 plums, he recommended all parties to plant them. There was 

 no country in the world equal to Victoria for plums. They had 

 no disease and no drawbacks as they had in America. That 

 included prunes, which he thought would be one of our largest in- 

 dustries, and it would pay even if we grew enough to have to 

 distil them as they did on the Continent. 



A Member of the Conference. — They are very hard to sell. 



Mr. Drapbk said they could be sold at Bendigo for distilling, 

 and they were very good as prunes. There were specimens in 

 the present exhibition equal to any introduced on the Continent 

 or in America, grown and cured here. Some from Mooroopna, 

 last season, could not be beaten. He had asked one of the whole- 

 sale buyers what he could give for them, and he said Is. a pound 

 for 5 tons of them. That was at the last exhibition. We were 

 still importing prunes, and he thought that there was no reason 

 why we should import either raisins or prunes. The growers 

 were protected by the duty. He would call attention to the ex- 

 hibits of the Department of Agriculture, containing about 100 

 varieties of dried fruit. He thought the Department of Agricul- 

 ture was showing them all the way to do the drying and bottling, 

 and all he desired was for the department to press on and get 

 cheap freightage for fruit to England. He thought this was one 

 of the most important things, and was certain that we could com- 

 pete with any part of the world. It had been mentioned yester- 

 day that the falling off in exports was due to the short crop, 

 but he attributed it to the bad treatment by the shippers. One 

 eye witness told him that he saw 130 cases in one solid frozen 

 lump on one of the ships. There must be something done to get 

 a cheaper and better way of exporting fruit. At present there 

 was no proper control over it. 



Mr. Kavanagh stated that his association, at Mooroopna, sent 

 away last season 200 cases of grapes. It was the first time of 

 send'ing them to the London market, and a portion of them brought 

 Is. a pound, while others, exported, were unsaleable, and he 

 thought what Mr. Lang and Mr. Draper had said fully accounted 

 foi- it. One of the men who packed those grapes was in his (Mr. 

 Kavanagh'a) employment, and it happened that he gave two cases 

 of the same grapes in charge of the cook on board of the vessel. 



