1 Ava., 1899,] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 177 
for horticulture, but my present position as a dealer probably gives me many 
advantages over the ordinary grower for gaining information in connection with 
the fruit industry. The other day a person came to me and asked if there was 
any demand for cumquats, or whether I could dispose of lemon juice, and I had 
to reply in the negative in both cases. This man had several hundreds of trees 
of both lemons and cumquats, and practically half his life had been wasted, 
because he had not the knowledge at the time he planted his orchard to know 
what fruit was marketable. Worked trees do not appear to stand nearly as well 
as seedlings, and if a man put all his money solely into worked trees, perhaps 
at the end of 7 or 8 years he would find that he had nothing. A Mary- 
borough man told me that as the worked trees bear more quickly than the seed- 
lings, he plants the two alternately in his orchard, and so when the worked trees 
are dying out, he has an orchard of seedlings just coming into full bearing. I 
have found that a seedling from a really first-class grafted orange appears to be 
the best, and I would not advise anyone, unless he cannot help it, to plant from a 
seedling a second time. Although many may differ with.me, T must say that 
lemons have not been successfulin Queensland. You may get a good case or 
two, but our lemons generally run to thick skins, and a good many of the trees 
‘at times die. Perhaps we may be able to get over this, and it would be a good 
thing if we could, for there is a big market for lemons in Queensland. As for 
‘soils, it is said the citrus tribe must not be planted on a clay soil ; but I know 
a person who has acres and acres of oranges on such a soil—that is, a clay 
Bibsail 8 inches below the surface. It is “stringy-bark” land, and yet it 
is a fact that he gets good crops. Perhaps it is because he irrigates his land. 
In the paper it was said that oranges could be cut green, and although I do not 
believe this has been attempted here, yet it is done in Italy, and the fruit keeps 
for months. If they could be cut green in the middle of winter, before the 
appearance of the fly, it would be a great advantage to growers, and moreover the 
fruit could doubtless be kept right up to Christmas. As for cyaniding, I have 
been informed. by a Mount Cotton grower that this process has been a great 
‘success with him. 
Mr. Gro, Witrrams (Runcorn): Root-pruning will slightly affect trees, 
but I do not think to the extent of inducing early maturity. It is, however, 
difficult to say that a tree would have borne earlier if it had been root-pruned, 
or vice versd, because you cannot test the same tree for both systems—namely, 
with or without. At the same time it is a practice of some to half ringbark 
a branch on which it is desired to produce fruit, and this is done with the 
Washington navel orange, which is a shy bearer. As for seedlings, I have a 
tree 20 years old which has never borne fruit, and Mr. Norris here tells me 
he has trees 8 years old which have not yet fruited. There are, on the 
“other hand, worked trees on the Blackall Range, 5 years old, which have been 
yielding 30s. a tree for the past 2 years. The tendency with all cultivated 
fruits is to deteriorate rather than to improve, and that is the reason why thé 
majority of seedlings are inferior to the grafted trees. Of course, with 
improvement in cultivation you get improvement in the trees, and the way to 
erpetuate that improvement is to get worked trees. As for worked trees not 
‘living long, I know of worked trees older than myself, grafted on orange stocks, 
which are still healthy and bearing, while those grafted on lemon stocks 
frequently die back after 7 or 8 years. They sucker from the bottom, 
and are absolutely worthless. The product from the best varieties of grafted 
trees will always command the best price in the English market, and I think I 
am safe in saying the best fruit is generally obtained from grafted trees. As 
for diseases, I have not had much experience of cyaniding, but the use of 
kerosene and soap will keep scale pests in check. Nearly all our indigenous 
trees harbour these scale insects, and you want to continually attend to your 
‘fruit trees, as I do not think it possible to eradicate the pest altogether. If 
eyaniding would rid the trees of the scale altogether, doubtless the process 
would be most beneficial. As for the stock affecting the scion, as mentioned 
by Mr. Peek, I have never heard of that before. Mr. Peek has made the 
