‘1 Aprit, 1898.] - QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 277 
‘trees, and he gathers sweet lemons. What can it mean? ‘There was no one 
to tell him what was the meaning of those pretty little green shoots that 
‘sprang from the root-when the main stem died off. The wily auctioneer and 
the more wily Sydney agent are things of the past; they exist no longer, and 
cannot be inquired of. But all is not told. 
Some of the trees made noble stems “twelve inches in circumference, 
sir’’; but, somehow, in spite of the amateur pruning-knife, branch after 
branch withers away, the “ dieback”” becomes conspicuous, and then the stems 
and branches become covered with a whitish-grey substance which spreads into 
the topmost shoots. What can it be? The glossy green of the leaf becomes 
“hidden under a covering of a black, scaly, smut-like substance ; little black and 
grey round-backed shells fasten in myriads on to the underside of the leaf, arid 
multiply exceedingly till they extend to the branches, which soon present the 
similitude of the sealy leg of an old Spanish rooster, and little mounds of 
-wood-dust accumulate like small voleanoes around minute holes bored in the 
stem. He awakens at last to the fact that this is a disease, and he hies him to 
_a learned seedsman, who forthwith sells him many pounds’ worth of a cunnitg 
medicine yclept “‘Gishurst’s Compound.’’ With this hewashes his trees, but with- 
out avail—the disease increases. By-and-by he observes that more of the upper 
branches are beginning to die back, and acting under the advice of a neighbour 
he mulches his trees with various kinds of manure. Finally he goes to work 
with saw and knife, and cuts away allthe dead wood. He is next told that the 
‘land should be drained. The simplest way to drain it is to cut trenches con- 
necting the holes in which the trees stand. Still no good result follows, tree 
‘after tree dying uway. ‘The next man who comes along tells him that the tap- 
‘root has gone into the cold, stiff clay, and that the only salvation for his 
orchard is to cut off the tap-roots and insert a slab beneath the tree. Shafts 
are then sunk alongside each tree and a drive put in. The tap-roots are cut, 
“and the requisite slabs are inserted. Surely, now that the trees are drained, 
“manured, and prevented from going down into the clay with their roots, things 
must improve. So they do for a time, but now six or seven years have elapsed, 
and for one good orange-tree he has twenty whose fruit would not even be 
bought by the most unscrupulous manufacturer of pumpkin and pie-melon 
strawberry jam. Besides this, they are dying at the rate of a couple of 
_ hundred a year. So he comes to the conclusion that orange-growing is a 
, delusion and a snare, and cannot by any possibility become a paying business. 
He gives it up, and goes away a disgusted man to grow corn and potatoes some- 
‘where else. 
All this has actually taken place, and the writer was amongst the victims. 
_ Had the same amount of energy and capital been expended in the present day 
-in a district suited for the citrus fruits, no such misfortune could occur, 
, To-day we have a fruit expert, whose life has been spent in the study of fruit 
cultivation. Qn starting an orchard, the beginner has merely to apply for 
instruction to the Department of Agriculture, and at once full directions are 
‘given as to the proper method of starting an orchard with great probability of 
SUCCESS. 
___ Mr. Benson, the fruit expert, who is also Director of State farms in Queens- 
‘land, will make a journey to the locality and keep in touch with the tyro 
-orchardist, taking care to see that each successive step is properly carried out. 
No swindles, under his direction, are possible in the way of imported fruit 
“trees, whilst our own nurserymen naturally only sell trees true to name, if 
only for their own credit’s sake. When disease appears, full assistance is given 
to combat it, and all possible endeavours are made to keep new pests out of 
the colony by means of rigid inspection of trees and fruits and seeds arriving 
y 
