THE AOBIGULT 



URAL JOURNAL. 



75 



Naartjos .sliould be transplanted in the 

 second and third year. They re(|iiire 

 s;'ood soil. "Wliere niy soil is too li.^ht, 1 

 put on ant-heaj). All alon^;,- the Const 

 wc have ant-heaps ten feet high, and 

 more in diameter. The soil ot wliieli 

 they are composed is of the most ten- 

 acious character, and is just the thing- 

 wanted for sandy lands. Our soil is in 

 great need of lime, and T hope when the 

 Port Shepstone railway is opened that 

 we shall he able to get it at a moderate 

 price. I give my trees bone dust. Tn 

 setting out naartjes I always plant just a 

 trifle above the general surface. No 

 earth should be thrown up against the 

 stems, or canker will follow. In manur- 

 ing it should always be borne in mind 

 that the side roots extend for a long way 

 from the stem, and that they are never 

 deeper than twelve inches from the sur- 

 face. Proper priming is most essential. 

 At eighteen or twenty inches from the 

 ground let the tree branch out. I can 

 show yon an object lesson in this matter. 

 One tree, which T pruned up to two feet 

 six inches is as miserable a specimen as 

 can well be conceived, and the next, with 

 a short stem, where the soil and other 

 conditions are identical, is about as fine 

 a specimen as a grower can wish to see. 

 The wood is hard, and the outer bark is 

 closely attached to the wood, and will 

 not stand the direct rays of the sun, 

 especially when the themometer regis- 

 ters — as it does some times — 90 to 

 95 degrees in the shade. The fruit 

 should be all off by the middle of Sep- 

 tember. The ' Spanish Lemon ' is also 

 a good citrus for planting. The demand 

 locally is small, but in England they 

 would sell well. Some years ago I sent 

 a small lot to Messrs. Wm. Draper & 

 Sons, of Covent Garden, one of the lead- 

 ing fruit broking firms in London, and 

 the' lemons were valued at 12s. per 100 

 there in Octobei' or November. 



Poultry as Weedbrs. 

 Mr. Seymour considers poultry a 

 profitable "and most useful adjunct to the 

 business of the orchardist. He has one 

 acre of naartje trees enclosed by an 

 eight-feet fence of wire netting, and in 

 the enclosure are RO fowls, and hardly a 



single weed. This fence cost .£15, he 

 having round hard wood uprights. Had 

 iron standards been used — ohl light 

 li'aiuway rails would serve excellently — 

 the cost would have been nearly £25. Of 

 course the enclosing of larger areas 

 would cost mucli less proportionately. In 

 protecting the naartjes from theft the 

 benefit has been great, an ordinary fence 

 being no protection against the astute 

 thieves who abound in the fruit districts 

 of the Coast. The poultry thrive 

 s})Iendidly, rarely dying from sickness, 

 and, besides keeping the weeds down 

 inost effectually, they devour the insects, 

 and particularly all that may infest 

 fallen fruit." 



General Observations 

 " You have said," I remarked, " that 

 in this Coast fruit industry there is 

 always a glut or a famine, that fruit goes 

 at remunerative prices or at a slaughter. 

 AYhat is the remedy ? " 

 " Well, first of all comes 



Cold Storage. 



If cool storage, at moderate rates, were 

 only availal)le in this, as in most other 

 Colonies, the business aspects of the 

 fi'uit industry would be all that could l)e 

 desired. Growers would find that suc- 

 cess in their enterprise would be practi- 

 cally assured — the gambling element 

 would be eliminated. What we want is 

 to extend the time for selling. Cool 

 storage would enable the regulating of 

 the su])ply ; it would enable us to pro- 

 vide the market with fruit for several 

 more weeks of the year. Indeed, if it 

 would only help us over two or three 

 days the benefit would occasionally be 

 immense. Mangoes and pines, during a 

 single night, in a hot place, such as our 

 present Durban market house, often be- 

 come almost unsaleable. With cool 

 storage, of course, goes the providing of 

 properly insulated railway vans. These 

 vans, in the event of the shipping com- 

 panies affording facilities, would take 

 their contents to the ships lying along- 

 side the wharves. Irrespective of sliip- 

 ]nng, however, such vans are most desir- 

 able, if not absolutely necessary, for 

 sending fruit during the sunimer months 



