AGRICULTURE. 
1.— HOW TO GROW FEUIT. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON , M.R.A.C., Fruit Expert to the New South Wales 
Department of Agriculture. 
The subject of my paper, “ How to Grow Fruit,” is one that I 
expect most persons will consider altogether outside the range of 
subjects usually dealt with by an Association for the Advancement of 
Science, more especially so as I purpose treating it mainly from a 
practical standpoint. 
I shall, however, endeavour to show that the progressive fruit- 
growing of to-day is by no means unworthy of being called a science, 
and that the wide-awake and up-to-date fruit-grower is largely 
dependent on the practical application of scientific knowledge for the 
profitable and successful carrying on of his business. 
There is no branch of agronomy in which science and practice are 
more closely connected than in that of fruit-growing. Every operation 
of the fruit-grower is or should be carried out on scientific lines ; and 
the best methods of propagation, pruning, cultivation, manuring, treat- 
ment of diseases, and preservation of fruit when grown are all directly 
or indirectly the result of scientific research. 
The services of the agricultural chemist, pathologist, entomologist, 
botanist, and scientific agriculturist are also being continually called 
for to assist in developing one or other of the many branches of the 
fruit-growing industry. 
The fruit-growers of these colonies are not as a rule, I am sorry 
to say, yet fully alive to the important part that science plays in pro- 
gressive fruit culture ; and t hat, therefore, taken as a whole, they are 
very far from knowing how to grow fruit, 
Ey growing fruit I do not mean growing rubbish, but the pro- 
duction of an article of the first quality that will be a credit to the 
grower and that will meet a ready sale in any market. 
No doubt our growers do produce fruit, and in large quantities 
too, but is it grown to the greatest perfection, and of the highest 
quality ? Unquestionably not ; for though there is a certain percentage 
of first quality fruit produced, there is a very much larger amount of 
rubbish consisting of worthless and inferior varieties, undersized and 
diseased fruit, which is far from being a credit to our fruit-growers. 
For many years past fruit-growing has been a very paying business, 
and growers have in many instances amassed a considerable fortune 
from the returns of their orchards, but now, with a greatly increased 
production and very much lower prices, the old easy-going methods of 
fruit culture are by no means as profitable as they were a few years 
since, and the fruit-grower of to-day in order to be successful in his 
business must keep up with the times, call in the aid of science to his 
assistance, employ improved methods of culture, grow nothing but first- 
class fruit, and work not only with his hands but with his brain as well. 
Hitherto fruit-growing in these colonies has been largely conducted 
in a more or less happy-go-lucky manner, the ease and rapidity with 
