1 Sxpr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 209 
Clover pasturage is recommended for flavouring the honey. 
We have in the Museum of the Queensland Department of Agriculture 
several samples of Queensland and Jamaican honeys. These samples do not at 
all bear out the statements of the Hnglish experts. Two bottles of Queensland 
honey are very light in colour and show good setting properties, whilst a sample 
of the Jamaican product is very dark, darker even than golden syrup. We 
cannot understand why it is that the home buyers so persistently run down 
Queensland honey—why they talk so much of the Hucalyptus flavour, or 
why they harp upon its dark colour as contrasted with other colonial 
honeys, when optical evidence shows that our honey is many degrees 
lighter in colour than the Jamaican. As to the old cry of Hucalyptus 
flavour, honey produced on the vast plains of the Darling Downs, and in 
other plain districts utterly devoid of Hucalyptus or of any other timber, 
cannot possibly be so flavoured. With regard to clover, we presume that the 
Red Clover is meant. Red Clover is not grown in Queensland, except in 
perhaps a garden plot. The humble bee which is requisite for its fertilisation 
is not yet introduced here, and we question very much if it would be of any 
advantage to grow the plant extensively, seeing that lucerne and other fodder 
plants supply all requirements in that direction. During the honey-gathering 
season we haye the maize flower, which attracts millions of bees. We haye seen 
also Teosinte flowers borne down by the weight of the bees on them, and these 
certainly cannot produce any Hucalyptus taint in the honey derived from them. 
When our products come to be placed properly before the English buyer, 
without the intervention of the middleman, Queensland honey may be 
appreciated at its true value. 
Horticulture. 
NOTES ON SCENT-YIELDING PLANTS. 
By NAT SINE. 
No. 2. 
Lemon (Citrus lemonum).—This well-known essential oil is obtained from the 
rind of the lemon either by distillation or expression. hat which is produced 
by the latter method has a much finer and more lemony odour than the distilled 
roduct. 
‘ This essence is largely produced in Sicily, where the lemon, orange, and 
bergamot are extensively cultivated; suitable land for lemon cultivation often 
reaching the extraordinary price of £100 per acre. 
In Sicily the lemon is grafted on the bitter orange, as, if grown from the 
seed, the fruit is liable to be affected by the disease known as “ gumming.” 
At one time old trees used to produce from 3,000 to 5,000, but nowa- 
days only average 1,000 lemons each, the falling off being due to neglect in the 
matter of cultivation. Jiemon-growers would find it profitable to put all refuse 
fruit through a still for the oil, for which there is a great demand in European 
markets. 
This last season, many lemons grown in Southern Queensland were unfit 
for market on account of the fruit being “gummy.” It is highly probable 
that the growers never troubled to extract the oil from the rind of this fruit. 
In Sicily it costs 1s. 4d. to extract the essence or oil from the rind of 1,000 
lemons, which return from 12 oz. to 16 oz. of oil, worth at the least 10s. per lb. 
This oil should be preserved in well-closed vessels, and kept from light and heat, 
as it has a tendency to oxidise rapidly and lose its fine odour. A very fine oil is 
algo distilled from the leaves of the lemon-tree. 
