102 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 1 Juny, 1899.] 
Orchard Notes for July. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON. 
Tue pruning of all kinds of deciduous fruit trees should be completed during 
this month. All prunings should be gathered and burnt, and the trees should 
then receive a good winter spraying with the sulphur, lime, and salt wash. 
After pruning and spraying, the orchard should be ploughed, so as to bury all 
trash and weeds that have accumulated, as well as to sweéten the soil and 
break up any pan that may have been formed by summer cultivations. 
Citrus trees, from which the fruit has been gathered, should also be gone 
over carefully; all dead branches, or branches with borers in them, should be cut 
out and burnt. The inside of the tree should be thoroughly well thinned out, 
care being taken not to open up the head too much. As a general rule the 
pruning of citrus trees is greatly neglected in this colony, the trees being 
allowed to grow into a dense mass, sina forms the best possible harbour for all 
kinds of scale insects and a breeding ground for various fungus diseases. Such 
trees cannot be kept clean by spraying, as it is impossible to get the spraying 
material used on to all parts of the tree. On the other hand, when the inside 
of the tree is well thinned out, there is little harbour for pests, and those that 
are present can be reached by spraying. In the Orchard Notes for June, I 
recommended a dressing of sulphur, lime, and clay or fine flour, to be applied 
as a paint to the trunks and main branches of citrus and other fruit trees after 
they have been pruned; and I can only repeat what I then said, viz. :—That 
where San José, Greedy, Mussel, or Parlatoria scales of deciduous trees, and 
Red, White, Circular, Black, Mussel, or other scale insects, and fungus growth 
of all kinds of citrus trees are present, this method of treatment is even more 
efficacious than the sulphur, lime, and salt spray for deciduous trees, or the 
resin, soda, and fish-oil wash for citrus trees. Painting the trunks and main 
branches does not, however, do away with the necessity for spraying, as the 
smaller branches, twigs, and leaves can only be reached by means of the 
i a The best results are obtained by painting the large wood and 
spraying the rest of the tree. Planting can be continued throughout the 
month. Don’t plant too deep; the depth at which the tree stood in the 
nursery row is the right depth°to plant. Cut back hard when planting ; don’t 
be afraid that you will spoil your tree, as if you don’t cut back hard you will 
never get a symmetrical well-grown tree, and your failure to cut back will 
always tend to injure the future growth and vigour of the tree. 
Don’t plant rubbish, and only plant those trees that your soil and climate 
are adapted for, Remember that the climatic conditions of this colony, with 
the exception of the Stanthorpe district, are altogether different to that of the 
colder parts of the southern colonies, and that therefore we cannot grow the 
sime fruits here, in our tropical and semi-tropical districts, that are grown 
successfully in the south. I wish to call attention of all fruitgrowers to this 
very important matter, I especially wish to warn fruitgrowers and intending 
fruitgrowers not to plant varieties that are unsuited to the climate, and advise 
aul such to consult the Department of Agriculture as to the suitability or other- 
wise of the fruits they wish to plant, as I am certain that they will find it to 
their advantage to do so. >", 1 
It costs just as much to prepare the land for and to plant, prune, and 
look after an inferior variety ora variety of fruit that is unsuitable to the 
climate, and from which no return of any value will ever be obtained, as it does 
to grow a variety that is suitable to the climate and that will produce superior 
fruit that will meet with a ready sale; therefore, no fruitgrower can afford to 
spend time and money growing unsuitable varieties, and the sooner that this 
‘is realised the better for the fruitgrowing industry of this colony. 
