14 
DTE STUFFS. 
The foregoing remarks will very nearly apply to this section also, for, with the exception of madder, 
few plants yielding dye stuffs have been tried. This has been grown here occasionally, and without 
difficulty, but never on a scale sufficiently large to prove whether it will be a commercially profitable 
product or not. Indigo is recommended for the warmer parts of the colony, and there can be little doubt 
that it would grow well in such. 
TOBACCO. 
The growth and preparation of tobacco for market is pointed out by many of your correspondents 
as a branch of industry capable of great and profitable extension. When this Avas commenced a few 
years since, expectations Avere too highly raised. It was supposed that money must needs flow freely into the 
pockets of either the groAA'er or manufacturer, or both. But the .skill had in too many cases to bo obtained 
by the usual costly e.xpcrience, and with the inevitable result. 'I'here Avas some profit, and much loss ; 
and it has been learned, here as elseAvlicre, that tobacco is only to be grown successfully with much care, 
and that it only grows of superior quality on certain limited tracts of land. The reason for this has yet 
to be discoAmred, but Avill be fotmd probably by a minute analysis of soils in comparison with the produce of 
each. Otherwise the requisite kuoAvledge is here both for groAving and manufacturing, and Avith a Avider 
dissemination of thi.s, and the addition of a little more chemical knowledge, the supply of enough for our 
own consumption at least may, in the opinion of your correspondents, be soon provided. 
FI.OAVER-FAKMING, 
In connection Avitli the industries of the south of Europe, flower-farming was naturally suggested to 
many minds as an employment for children, if not for adults. Even in some parts of the south of England, 
land devoted to flower-growing for the perfumers gives a larger return than under any crop that can be 
raised in the same space of time, or with the same outlay of money, and Avhy should it not do so here, 
Avhero so many more highly-sceutcd A’arieties of floAvers can be raised easily without special care or protec- 
tion ? This question can only be answered by practical experiment, Avith the guidance of such information 
as any moderately skilled gardener possesses. With floAver-farming may be connected the groAvth of aromatic 
plants, for essential oils required by others than perfumers. 
TEA. 
Since this plant was first grown at the Botanic Gardens here, it has been tried in different parts of 
the colony, and tea has been recommended as a commercial product by several of your correspondents ; 
but the Chinese say that it will not pay at the present I'ate of labor. They haA’e no doubt about the plant 
thriving in many localities ; but even Avhen offered land and plants free, and whatever profit they could make 
of it, as they Avere by one of your correspondents, they would not give up gold-digging in favor of 
tea-groAA’ing. Baron Von Mueller formerly recommended the use of rollers heated and Avorked by steam 
for the preparation of the tea. 
HOPS. 
Wherever beer is made, hops form a serious item of expenditure, and it is plain that, within a very 
few years, this may be reserved Avholly for the benefit of the colony. Hop gardens have been made in 
Gippsland and in the Ovens district, and the plant tried successfully in many other parts of the colony. Of 
the prospects of tliis branch of industry in North Gippsland a settler near Bairnsdale says — “Hop- 
growing . — The writer has expended a large sum of money in this direction ; soil and climate admirably 
adapted, but labor scarce and dear at picking time. With cheap labor this industry may bo extended almost 
indefinitely in the valley of the IMitchell. Hop plants, tAvo years old, produced last year 11 cwt. to the acre 
and upwards Avithin half a mile of Bairnsdale.” Did space allow I could add the testimony of many other 
growers of hops in Gippsland. A gentleman residing near Oxley Avrites to say that he has eleven acres 
of hops, Avhich will be in full bearing this year, and look Amry promising. These have since yielded upwards of 
half a ton to the acre. The only difficulty experienced in Gipissland is the picking and drying ; but proper 
kilns have been erected this year, and as properly saved colonial hops always fetch the highest prices, they 
will admit for a time of a somewhat extra cost for picking. 
NATIA'E GUM. 
The collection of this, and of a few other products of our forests has been pointed out as a source of 
employment for a limited number of people. 
Objectors to the introduction of new industries, and the extension of those which promise well 
othenvise, say that no satisfactory progress can be made while capital is so scarce and labor so dear. 
Agricultural banks are recommended as a cure for the former evil ; but that is not a phase of the subject 
with which the Commission has to deal. The labor question is no doubt a serious one, commercially 
speaking, but there is every year a greater available amount of labor amongst the small settlers noAV 
becoming so thickly scattered over the country. Even though no immediate pecuniary return should be 
insured for this, a large proportion of it might be most beneficially expended on some of the aboA’e-named 
industries, calculated either to increase domestic comfort at once, or give pecuniary returns at a future 
day. In regard to dried fruits, for instance, it is suggested that if children Avere taught that the produce 
of a few extra vines, or apricot or apple trees, would afford materiak for better fare all the year round, 
they AA’Ould be likely to take some trouble to have these, and dry the fruit afterwards; or, to rear 
mulberries, if shown that every mulberry cutting put in and sufficiently protected would, in three or four 
years, give them leaves worth a shilling annually for feeding silk-Avorms. Such inducements may suffice 
to have all the petty industries thoroughly tested, if full information be supplied to the bulk of 
the small settlers, and the more important ones named wdll be tried by the commercial test of profit 
and loss. But for all, the advantages of soil and climate are manifestly Amry great. On this point 
