158 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Jury, 1902. 
Tn view of the amount of oranges annually put upon the market, I think the time 
has certainly arrived that there should be better facilities in_the way of sheds an@ 
depots for the purpose of cleansing, grading, and packing. ‘This is also a matter of 
the utmost importance, which should be taken up unanimously by the growers | 
themselves, and all associations connected, and could easily be met b e | 
amalgamating to further the object; and I sincerely trust the time is not far distant 
when the necessity of such an introduction will be seen by all who have the welfare of 
the fruit-growing industry at heart, not only in the district, part of which I have the 
pleasure to represent, but in the whole of the fruit-growing districts of the State. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Joun Wirnrams (Mount Gravatt): Mr. Cooksley touched upon 
worthless trees, and there is no more important matter at present in connection 
with the fruitgrowing industry. It is a standing disgrace to us, and to the 
farmers in particular, that this thing goes on. We cannot blame the farmers 
altogether. Their natural vocation of tilling the soil instils into them a 
heaven-born innocence. A gentleman goes about with pictures, and catches 
the farmer at the tail of the plough. ‘The farmer sees the pictures, and is 
clean gone over them. Although the traveller puts a big price on them, he 
tells the farmer he can have four months in which to pay, and he generally 
gets an order. There are none of you farmers who would buy a horse on the 
strength of a picture, and yet many will buy: trees with but nothing else to 
guide them. Mr. Johnson touched very well upon citrus trees. There is one 
point that should not be lost sight of in connection with citrus culture, and 
that is the advantage of sending early oranges to catch the Southern 
markets. We can do a great deal in that direction. 
Mr. L. G. Corrie (Brisbane): I thoroughly agree with Mr. Rose in his 
position for a pineapple orchard; but I hardly agree with what he says about 
manuring. The so-called diseases are largely due to difficulties of drainage or 
poverty. One point to which sufficient attention is not given is the selection 
of plants, a great many people paying very little heed to it. There hag 
been a lot of in-breeding in Queensland, and it is a wonder our pineapples are 
as good as they are. In Florida, owing to the cold snaps, they have to grow 
amost of their pineapples under bush-house shelters. The Ripley Queen there 
develops a disease known as Ripley Spike, the plants having a tendency to 
sucker instead of fruiting. One man planted a certain picked lot of plants, 
as well as some ordinary ones. The result: was, when an officer of the 
Department of Agricuiture came down to have a look at them,that from the 
selected plants only 4: per cent. were showing this difficulty, and of the other 
plants 60 per cent. This shows there is something to be gained by the selection 
of plants. The low price of pineapples is probably due to want ot proper 
distribution. At our last conference, I sawin Warwick smooth leaved pine- 
apples which had been imported from Sydney. The person who was selling 
them could not tell me where they had originally come from, but I was inclined 
to think that they were Queensland pineapples that had reached Warwick vi 
Sydney. Of course they might have been Island pines, but still I think they 
came from this State. I would have liked Mr. Cooksley to have referred to 
nuts and olives in his paper. Central packing-houses are most desirable. We 
want a lot of one class of thing. We want a district to try and stick to one 
class of fruit. Little shipments will be of no use when you want to deal with 
fruit on commercial lines. There are lots of places in Queensland to which 
fruit does not reach, and canning, therefore, even for the requirements of 
a number of our own people, is very desirable. I take it we shall have 
a better market for our fruit now that intercolonial freetrade is coming. 
We have fruits they cannot grow elsewhere, and those fruits should be a 
specialty for Queensland. As for mangoes not being’ liked in Sydney, 
I think that has arisen through bad sorts having been sent 
down. If any of you are going to Brisbane, I would advise you 
to look at the fruit cases that have just come to the Department of 
Agriculture. I had my eyes opened when I saw them. They are good 
