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assign in a great measure for it. In irrigating the orange tree, 
it should never go within 3 feet of the bark.” Mr. G-. W. Knight, 
nurseryman, at Bendigo, also stated before the Commission that 
he had an avenue of limes about 14 or 1,5 feet high entirely de¬ 
stroyed by this disease. He then commenced to grow lemons 
grafted on the Seville orange to replace these, and they are re¬ 
ported as being healthy, strong, and vigorous, without any evident 
sign of disease. Mr. E. II. Acres, of Heywood orchard, near 
Parramatta, experienced this disease some 25 or 30 years ago, 
(speaking in 1888), and claims to have checked it. He was 
asked the question—There is a disease known in Victoria as the 
Sydney disease or bark rot; what is the cause of it ? and he re¬ 
plied—“ It arises from too much moisture round the roots of the 
tree, and yet there is such a thing as overdraining the ground. 
I have seen orchards in which owners have gone to great expense 
in draining, and have done too much. About 25 or 30 years, ago 
I noticed the trees just showed the disease at the surface, and 
sometimes down the roots. I had been reading something about 
the effects of lime, and I told one of the men to scrape away the 
decayed part of the bark and treat it with stone lime mixed to 
the consistency of dough. This was done, and it seemed to stop 
the disease.” 
Mr. Skene, nurseryman and fruit-grower of the Mildura 
settlement, who had thirteen years’ experience of orange-growing 
in Florida, and had then been two years at Mildura, attributed 
this disease chiefly to deep planting, and claimed to have cured 
many trees by lifting them up, letting the air get round them, and 
applying some lime. 
In Queensland this disease has been known at least as far back 
as 1876, for the report of a board appointed to “inquire into the 
causes of diseases affecting live stock and plants,” published in 
1876, contains the following :—“The orange family suffer occa¬ 
sionally from a disease of the bark near the root ; a gummy 
secretion exudes and the tree dies. This happens occasionally 
after a slight bruise from a gardener’s tool. The disease has not 
been carefully examined.” 
It appears, however, that the disease has not as yet caused 
much trouble there, for Mr. Corrie states, in his address at the New 
Zealand Conference of Australasian Fruit-growers that—“The 
very serious bark diseases, and forms of collar- and root-rot which 
have wrought such devastation in some of the old world groves, 
so far, have not caused much anxiety in Queensland, and such 
fungus diseases as exist cannot be said to have interfered with 
the industry.” 
Treatment .—This will • be based upon a knowledge of the 
immediate cause of the disease—in this case a fungus—and of 
those favouring conditions which have been found by experience 
to predispose or render the trees susceptible. 
