1 Aprit, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 
in) 
“I 
peat 
‘The Orchard. 
FRUITGROWERS, PAST AND PRESENT. 
By A. J. BOYD, 
Queensland Agricultural Department. 
Tuer present condition of the fruitgrowing industry, as compared with its . 
position thirty years ago, is well worthy of attention. I think that a short 
account of the usual method adopted by old-time orchardists (not including, of 
course, fruitgrowers who had graduated in the business, although they were , 
like plums in the midshipman’s duff —few and far between) to establish private 
nurseries and orange groves will be a good object lesson for those who are but 
now entering into the business. j 
The first thing to be done was to secure a bit of land. In those days, 
land near Brisbane could be bought for £1 per acre, or by means of a land- 
order given to immigrants on arrival in the colony, which represented £40 in 
cash. a 
The land, good, bad, or indifferent, being secured and a portion of it 
fenced in, the next thing to be done was to set to work to clear and cultivate 
it. Some men, quorum pars fut, which, being interpreted, signifies “‘of whom 
Twas one,’ would take a look round at their neighbours’ older holdings. 
There they would observe what the farmer was pleased to call his orchard. 
This usually consisted of a clump of self-sown peach-trees, which served the 
dual purpose of fowl-roosts and supports for the family clothes-line. Often 
the family dog was chained to one of them, and the family swing hung 
suspended betweeu others. 
The observant new-comer, having read something about “scented orange 
groves” and ‘“‘spice-laden zephyrs,” determines that he will eschew the peach 
and go in systematically for an orange grove. By systematically is not meant 
here growing on a system, but it implies going in wholesale for planting 
orange-trees. Having nothing to guide him, no neighbouring groves from 
which to gain a lesson, no guide, philosopher, and friend in the shape of an 
expert in the science of fruitgrowing, he goes about the work in a blind, 
ignorant fashion. He has a general idea that fruit trees should be planted in 
straight rows, and that this canbe achieved by the help of a clothes-line and 
some pegs. As to the distance at which they should be planted, he has not 
the remotest idea. The trees are very small, he thinks, and 10 feet apart will 
’ be ample, and allow of getting in 435 trees to the acre; the reasoning being 
that the greater number of trees he can cram into an acre, the greater will be 
the future profit. He now marks out his ground, and looking along his line of 
pegs he sees that they are in exact line, but when the idea strikes him to look 
across the lines at right angles he discovers that the pegs are not in line in 
that direction, so he first shifts one, which necessitates shifting a hundred 
more, and then he finds that in trying to mend matters he has only made 
things worse, so he at last determines not to bother any more but to dig the 
holes for his trees—none of your little holes, but large capacious chasms, 
4 feet square and 4 feet deep. He finds a stiff clay bottom, which greatly 
