November 1, 1909 
EDITORIAL. 
HE first fruits of the season are 
coming now apace after a brief spring 
following quickly upon a long wet winter. 
Strawberries were the first of what will 
now be a big list of summer products. 
Those who have strawberry beds in the 
early sun kisscd spots are taking a good 
price, and very fine are the early fruits. 
Following hard ufon these the main crop 
is comiug and under favourable weather 
Conditions theseason promises well. This, 
however, is a doubtful prophecy if the ex- 
Perience of last year goes for anything. 
Then the fruit was really beautiful for 
about one month, when the sun gathered 
abnormal strength and burnt up the crop 
in about half the time it should have 
lasted under fair average conditions. The 
Weather is a great factor in the growth of 
all crops, but strawberry culture is pecu- 
liarly sensitive to adverse conditions. Few 
Crops pay better for cultivation but much 
“of the profit depends upon the quickly 
gathering heat and dry weather conditions 
Up to the present everything is in t! eir 
favour, and with a fair alternative of sun- 
Shine and rain we can heartily wish the 
growers the best of good fortune. 
The prospects for pip fruit are also good 
and if the sprayer has been kept well 
S0ing the fruit that has set should 
develop into a record for the apple export 
trade. It is a pity that the growers and 
buyers cannot come to some sensible 
arrangement regarding the standard size 
Of cases. Ourown opinion is that the 
fruit should not be sold by the case as at 
Present, but like most other produce by 
the weight, A standard price of so much 
Per pound weight would be fairest method 
for both grower and buyer. The retail 
buyer has to pay by eight and soshould 
the wholesale. In that arrangement the 
Standard case should bé fixed to weight 
aba fair ayerage size for convenience in 
Packing and handling, and the con ents 
Paid for according to weight. Under 
Present conditions a bushol of forty lbs 
Weight really contains any number of Ibs 
°ver or under the quantity according to 
ize and density of the fruit by measure. 
Ment in a cate. | Bat if ‘forty: Ibs.) weight 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
of fruit were weighed and sold as such the 
the grower and buyer would know exactly 
what they were doing and the fruit would 
be taken at its proper value. The standard 
size of case would not then be a consider- 
ation in value. Few things are more 
disheartening to a grower than to find 
that he is not getting fair value for his 
labour, and capital. The caprice of the 
market he cannot avoid, and does not 
complain about, because the two factor® 
in that consideration are weather and 
consumption, over both of which he has 
no control whatever and like the philoso- 
pher his business makes him, he simply 
puts up with it But the conditions of 
marketing he has a perfect right to com- 
plain of if he does not get a fair value for 
his product as a product apart from the 
fluctuation of market price, 
Many orchardists are ready always to 
look atthe blue side of their incomes, 
and with a kind innate pessimism prate 
about the -growing competitior from 
abroad If their complaints were listened 
to by everybody -progress would be no 
more. In factitis l.rgely due to this 
blue aspect of orchard work that Aus- 
tralia is not now the leading apple grow- 
ing country of the world. Where are the 
markets for produce they are continually 
crying. They do not realize the fact that 
people all over the world are essentially 
and naturally vegetarian in diet and the 
habit of meat eating is not natural but a 
fictitious growth because fruit is too ex- 
pensive an article of diet. 
There never was and never will be suffi- 
cient fruit produced to satisfy the capacity 
of consuming mortals in the matter of food 
But the economics oi feeding comes so 
much into consideration of diet that 
people eat that food which will sustain 
them the longest at the cheapest average 
rate meat is the article which supplies 
that need, If fruit could be supplied at 
a sufficiently cheap rate for everybody to 
buy enough they would always buy it. 
As acasual illustration we need not go 
further than the eastern people who live 
almost solely on vegetarian diet. 
The Chinese live almost exclusively on 
rice, but this habit of food supply and 
demand would not continue if the price 
were not maintained at the economic value 
of a low rate of production. 
_ So it should be with western nations 
whose taste for food covers a very wide 
range end who find that meat gives them 
the greatestvalue in cousumption, The 
argument is thus held that with a growing 
expausion of out put the consumption 
awill be equally well maintained ‘and the 
paying price proportionately carried. 
- the birds, 
““SPRING.”’ 
“Gentle Spring! in sunshine clad 
Well dost thou thy powers display! 
Fcr Winter maketh the heart sad 
And thou—thou maketh the sad heart 
light.” 
—LONGFELLOW. 
With the advent of Spring all Nature 
blossoms forth afresh. All things and 
creatures lying dormant through the 
Winter leap to joyous life in tha earth, 
the air, in the trees, and hedges. Every 
blade of grass, each newly budding 
branch, speaks of reawakened hope. The 
air, lingering softly among the trees, 
whispers gently of the coming glories of 
later Spring, We look at these wonders 
and feel an intoxicating glow creep into 
our veins, a great peacefulness steal into 
our troubled hearts; and as we take in 
great breaths of the warm faintly scented 
air, we find ourselves making new vows ; 
casting aside the broken pieces of our 
love, our hope—our starting 
afresh, as the earth does when the Spring 
sun casts his gentle rays over her surface. 
Richard Jeffries says :—‘ Earth is always 
So it is, but never 
ideals ; 
beautiful—always.” 
quite so beautiful as in the Spring-time. 
Consider the grasses, the trees, the birds, 
the butterflies —they are all tokens, 
showing before our eyes earth made into 
life. We cannot sit under the budding 
trees, by the flowering hedges, hearing 
the insects, watching the 
swaying branches, and not feel our 
troubles dwindle—feel them grow small 
and insignficant beside these wonders of 
creation, this vast revival of Life. The 
sunbeams drifting from tree to shrub, 
slanting across the grasses, brings into 
strong relief every different tint of the 
leaves, verging from palest yellow to 
richest green. Out of the darkness 
under the sod they have come, the earth 
upon which we tread so thoughtlessly, 
scattering our comedy and tragedy of 
life. What lies beneath we do not 
pause to consider, indeed many “have not 
‘the time” to.think about the matter at 
all, Were they to ‘stop and study the 
great -inysterious beauty, they. would 
marvel that it had so long. escaped their 
notice, and wonder that they had neyer 
