378 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1900. 
any part of the world. In comparing Queensland with the rest of the world 
we have the advantage, also shared by New South Wales and South pe 
of ripening our fruit at a time of the year that is the off season int A 
citrus-producing countries in the north of the Equator, so that our fruit ( 
not clash with theirs; their ripening period and ours being at different ie 
of the year. As regards our Australian market, our fruit ripening earlier t “ 
that of the Southern. colonies, we are enabled to dispose of a considera? 
portion of our crop in the Southern markets before the local fruit is reacy 7 
gathering. This gives us three markets—First, a local one; secondly, 
Southern one; and finally, when this demand is supplied, an oversea marke 
to Europe, America, and possibly the East. 
When grown under favourable conditions, citrus trees are heavy bearers 
in this colony, it being no uncommon thing to meet with seedling or worke 
orange trees of from fifteen to eighteen years of age, producing over twenl) 
cases of marketable fruit to the tree, averaging about twelve dozen medium 
sized fruit to the case; and I know of an Emperor Mandarin tree, a seen 
about twenty-five years old, that produced over thirty-seven cases of mark¢ 
fruit in one season. Worked trees come into bearing very early, au nm 
season I saw trees only four years trom the bud that produced as hig 
three cases of fruit to the tree, and one grower informed me thal 0 
crop from a number of trees of this age had averaged 18s. per "ot 
grown without water and without manure on land that had previously bee 
under crop in bananas. These figures show that the orange and mandarin i 
heavy bearers when grown under favourable conditions in Queensland ; but 
the same time it is hardly fair to quote them as average returns, althous, 
know of several places that have produced quite as good results as those que t 
T think that these figures tend to prove that this colony ranks very high alrea ¥ 
as a producer of citrus fruit, and that there is every reason to believe that 
will take the premier position in this branch of fruit culture of any coun 
south of the Equator. 
Whip tun 
Native VARIETIES oF Crrrus Fruits. 
If any further evidence were needed to prove the adaptability of Queenslant 
for the culture of citrus fruits, the presence of indigenous varieties in our pe 
scrubs should be ample proof. There are three varieties indigenous to ast 
colony, of which Ottrus australis, the native orange or lime, is both the pe - 
and most common. This variety grows into quite a large tree, having a diame _ 
of trunk of from 15 to 18 inches and 60 feet or more in height. It product 
quantity of a thick-skinned acid fruit of from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, ba 
no commercial value. It would probably do as a stock for im orted varie 
though as the young seedlings are such slow growers, and seedling oranges 
mandarins are so easily raised, it has not been tested for this purpose to 
extent. : 
Citrus australasica, the so-called finger lime, is a thorny bush produc? i 
fruit about # to 1 inch in diameter and 3 or 4 inches long, lite a thin * 
and an agreeable acid pulp, which is of a reddish colour in some specimens ' 
In addition to these two varieties which are met with in the Souther? pea 
of the colony, Mr. F. M. Bailey, the Colonial Botanist, has described at 4, 
which he has named Citrus inodora, the North Queensland lime, which 
met with in the scrubs of the Russell River. Mr. Bailey describes it 
bearing a greater resemblance to the cultivated species than the two 107. 
varieties. It produces a fruit over 2 inches long by 17 inches in diamer. 
* having a thin rind and juicy pulp of a sharply acid flavour, so that even. in ar 
wild state it is a desirable fruit and takes the place of the cultivated 4, 
Mr. Bailey speaks highly of this fruit, and considers that it is wort i oot 
propagation with a view to improvement, as, being indigenous to the Nort ile 
part of the colony, it is possible that it would eventually become valua 
addition to our cultivated citrus fruits. 
ane wy a 
“ps ae 
