288 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Apri, 1898. 
little of this in the bottoms of the pots, and, as soon as the roots reach it, its 
effects can be immediately seen. Being in a dry state, there is no smell while 
using the charcoal. I also use this in a powder to the soil to darken and 
enrich the flowers of dahlias, petunias, roses, and other flowers, and the 
foliage of all is improved by the use of this, combined with wood ashes. 
1 think it would be advisable for everyone to preserve all the ashes they 
possibly can in a dry condition, and distribute them over the roots of the trees | 
in the orchard and also in the garden. If the soil has been roughly dug, the. 
ashes may be scattered on the surface each day they are collected. It would 
not be amiss to utilise the ashes in this direction all the year round, since .the 
trees will be benefited thereby. They do their work slowly but surely, and 
this I have proved by experience. 
PERFUME INDUSTRY. 
AS AN ADJUNCT TO THE FARM, ORCHARD, OR COTTAGE GARDEN. 
Tx former issues of the Journal we have advocated the cultivation of flowers 
on the farm with a view to scent-making, and now, through the courtesy of 
the’ Department of Agriculture of Victoria, we are enabled to give some 
account of the Government Perfume Farm at Dunoily, Victoria. 
The farm lies about six miles west from Dunolly, in the neighbourhood 
of Mount Bealiba, and on a scil of decomposed granite. That is, it is about 
the centre of an area whose mean annual rainfall is 22 inches; whose winter 
climate is mild; whose summer temperature is up to the average of the hotter 
districts of the colony, while its soil is loose and friable, being little more than 
silicious and argillaceous sand, impregnated with the débris from the decay of 
past vegetation. For water supply, to eke out its somewhat scanty rainfall, 
there is a small dam on the farm. The water distributed frum this little 
storage helps to sustain the plants through the protracted droughts of 
summer. ; 
It may be mentioned here, once for all, that the employment of hired 
labour of the ordinary kind, at the ordinary rates current in the colony, is 
quite out of the question in connection with the growth of scent plants “and 
the preparation of crude perfumes. The work is eminently suited to the 
capacities and strength of women and children; it is indeed much better 
adapted for them, and they are much better adapted for it, than are able- | 
bodied men. The combination of light labour with patient manipulation, and 
a certain degree of skiil and keenness of perception, are exactly what they are 
fitted for. The work itself is no harder than, and probably equally enlists the 
sympathies with, dairying, tending cattle, feeding and tending pigs; all of 
which occupations are deemed, both here and elsewhere, to be within the 
range of the lighter kinds of farm labour. The work would be specially suit- 
able for yillage settlers and for that class of holders—iumerous in some parts 
of the colony—who supplement the wages they earn from the larger iand- 
owners by the cultivation of small areas on their own account. ‘Thus followed | 
it would be not a primary occupation or a fundamental source of the income 
of a family, but a sort of secondary occupation, affording profitable outlet for 
such labour as would be otherwise wasted. ‘To give some idea of the return 
to be derived from it; it may be stated that were an able-bodied man to devote 
himself entirely to this'work, with such assistance as he could get from his 
wife and from three children able to lend a helping hand, he could manage ~ 
from five to ten acres, the net return from which, reckoning the. produce at 
- the rates now current in Marseilles, would be not less than £20 per acre per — 
annum. Beyond the cost of the land itself the capital required would be ~ 
small, as will appear from the sequel. 
