1 Jury, 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 149 
for citrus trees. The fruitfly also destroys thousands of fruit in a season, besides 
which, owing to the want of a little common sense in departmental reciprocity, 
growers cannot export without risk of probable loss. Every year our production of 
oranges and mandarins is increasing, and the time has now arrived for finding fresh 
markets for our produce. 
If we are to export our oranges to British and foreign markets and compete with 
those already in the field, it will be first necessary that we ascertain what markets we 
can best dispose our fruit in during our fruit season. To ascertain this properly, 
Queensland must send a live man to view what Cousin Jonathan and others are doing 
in the fruit industry elsewhere. 
Secondly, we must have central packing and curing houses in each producing 
district where the fruit can be graded, packed, and cured in a proper manner. 
Tf we do not export one brand, and that the best, it is better not to export at all. 
But before we can export at all, itis first necessary that we turn our attention to the 
cultivation and cleansing of our orchards, for unless we extirpate our scales and fruit- 
fly, we cannot place our fruit on our own market, much less export it. For many 
years citrus-growers have been fighting scale diseases with little or no success. J 
visited an orchard the other day that had been twice cyanided in one year, and 
although twelve months had not elapsed since it was done, there was more scale there 
than before it was cyanided at all. 
Owing to our citrus fruits maturing in the winter, the demand for same is limited, 
but there is no reason why we should not cure and store them, placing them on the 
market during the summer months when there is a greater demand for them. In 
Victoria, the successful lemon-growers cure all their best lemons, and practically keep 
out the Messina fruit. In Queensland, we grow lemons to no advantage. What is 
done with the lemon in Victoria can be done with both orange and lemon in Queens- 
land. Why not doit? Ata fruit show the other day, I saw some lemons that had 
only been a few weeks in a curing-house; a better lemon has not been grown in 
Queensland; but, if they had been left on the trees until they coloured, they would 
haye grown to the size of citrons, and would have been of no commercial value. If 
our citrus-growers are lacking in education as to the curing process of citrus fruits, I 
would urge them to approach the Government, and ask them to put up a packing and 
curing house in a central district (on similar lines as the teal mill system), where 
growers could have their fruit cured at a nominal expense, and marketed to the best 
advantage. 
In conclusion, let me urge upon growers the necessity of keeping before them the 
importance of the industry under discussion, and which will serve as the stepping- 
stone to fortune if only patient perseverance, continued with unflagging industry, is 
associated with daily work. 
Keep a watchful eye upen all the enemies of plant life which are calculated to 
destroy your trees or crops, and fight them to the death. Keep in touch with the 
department which controls and aids our fruit culture, and do not hesitate to question 
them when in doubt as to the best means of arresting and destroying the diseases of 
plant life. Cultivate only such fruits as your soil is suited for, and do not operate 
upon more land than you can keep in thorough order, always remembering that weeds 
‘ow apace, and after having surmounted the difficulties of opening up all orchards do 
not allow the grass to creep over the ground as an evidence of attempting more than 
can be managed. 
Remember that success will attend those who use care in packing, and to reflect 
credit upon yourself as a grower and the industry in general, is to be particularly 
careful in grading and in the style of packing adopted. 
To our Department of Agriculture I would offer the suggestion that they proceed 
on the lines of progress, and supplement the good work done by them by seeing that 
our State does not lack for want of information and education whether in growing, 
packing, drying, curing, or marketing, and by so doing it will render the fruit industry 
of our State second to none in Australia. 
PICKING, PACKING, MARKETING. 
[By C. Arrnow, Brisbane. | 
In this paper I do not intend to give general theories or faddist’s opinions, but 
observations and experience gathered during the quarter of a century in which I have 
been engaged in fruit culture and sale. 
Pickine.—Little should need to be said en this, as a few years of experience 
should teach growers all that is necessary, yet thousands of cases of fruit are wasted 
each year through want of care here—markets are spoilt and prices reduced by half. 
