1 Juve, 1902. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 501 
(rehard Notes for June. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON. 
The marketing of citrus fruits is still one of the principal operations in 
many orchards throughout the State, and the remarks anent this matter that 
have appeared in these notes for the past two months should be borne in mind 
and acted upon, as, no matter what the quality of the fruit may be, it always 
sells best when well packed and attractively got up, as the better it looks the 
better it sells. 
T cannot lay too great stress on the extreme importance of handling the 
fruit carefully and of sweating it prior to shipment. The common practice of 
pulling the fruit from the tree and packing and shipping it straight away is 
responsible for a very large proportion of the loss so commonly met with in 
marketing the fruit early in the season. The skin in the earlier stages of 
ripening is rigid and full of moisure, so that it is easily bruised, the cells of 
the skin being ruptured. Fungus growths of various kinds attack the injured 
skin, with the result that the fruit soon becomes completely rotten, and is 
covered with a mass of greenish or bluish mould. This loss can be reduced to 
a minimum by cutting the fruit instead of pulling it, and by handling it like 
eggs instead of like road metal. In addition to the ordinary loss on the fruit 
by bad handling a further loss takes place when it is found necessary to 
cyanide the fruit, as, for example, when it has to be shipped to the Southern 
States, as the gas at once finds out every bruise, case-mark, or injury to the 
skin, such as plugging—viz., pulling the stem out—and turns the same black, 
thereby greatly detracting from the value of the fruit. 
Tn many parts of the State deciduous fruit trees should be pruned during 
the month, al I strongly advise fruit-growers to read my remarks on this 
subject which appeared in a previous issue of this Journal, as thorough pruning 
is seldom earried out, many trees being allowed to grow of their own sweet will 
without let or hindrance. This neglect to properly prune fruit trees is con- — 
ducive to the rapid spread of many insect and fungus diseases, as when trees are 
allowed to grow into a dense bush it is impossible to keep them clean by means 
of any of the ordinary methods adopted for the eradication of disease, such as 
spraying, &c.; and when they are allowed to straggle all over the place the 
straggling limbs are very apt to become more or less diseased. 
Old neglected trees of good varieties, and of which the roots are still 
healthy, should be cut hard back, and all dead, broken, or badly diseased 
branches should be cut off and a new head be allowed to form ; but where such 
trees only produce inferior fruit that is of no commercial value, they should be 
either destroyed or, if wished, they may be grafted on next spring with 
good valuable varieties. Old neglected trees are the breeding-grounds of 
many diseases, and when they are of no value whatever they should be 
destroyed, as they are a menace and source of infection to the neighbourhood 
in which they are growing. 
Do not be afraid to prune too heavily, as it is better to lose a crop and 
thereby get your tree or trees into a healthy state than to leave them in an 
unhealthy and unpruned condition and get a poor crop of inferior fruit. 
Prune hard, and gather up and burn all prunings ; do not let them lie about, 
but burn them up, as by doing so any diseases that may be on the wood that 
has been pruned off will be destroyed. Where trees are hard cut back and 
only the main limbs are left, it 1s advisable to follow up the same pruning with 
a dressing that will destroy all insects or fungus pests still remaining on the 
tree, and for this purpose the best remedy is to paint the stems and branches 
with the following mixture, prepared thus :—Boil 2 lb. of sulphur and 1 Ib. of 
quicklime in 2 gallons of water for about one hour, then add fine clay to the 
mixture till it is as thick as paint, and apply with a brush. Fine flour can be 
used in the place of the clay if desired, and will render the mixture more lasting. 
Where San José, Greedy Mussel, or Parlataria Scales are present, this 
method of treatment is the most efficacious, and is even better than spraymg 
