1 Dec., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 587 
Qrchard Notes for December. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON. 
In the Orchard Notes for November, I called special attention to the import- 
ance of marketing fruit properly, emphasising the necessity for careful handling, 
even grading, and attractive packing if satisfactory prices are to be obtained. 
Those remarks apply equally to the present month, or, in fact, to any month of 
the year, as there is always more or less fruit of one variety or another to be 
marketed ; and it is simply wasting time and money cultivating, pruning, 
manuring, or spraying an orchard —in fact, doing everything possible to produce 
good fruit—if when the fruit is grown it is not put on the market in such a 
manner that it will realise the highest price. Careful handling, grading, 
packing, and marketing will secure a ready sale for good fruit in any market, 
even when the same fruit badly handled and unattractively got up would be 
unsaleable. Growers would do well to take a lesson in packing from the 
Californians who have been shipping apples, or from the Italians who are 
shipping lemons, to this colony, as those fruits, even after a long and trying 
voyage and one or more transhipments, reach here in better condition and in a 
much more attractive state than our local fruit, which is often only carted a few 
miles. 
Keep down pests wherever met with; gather and destroy all fly-infested 
fruit. Destroy orange bugs before they become mature by hand-picking or 
by driving them to the trunks of the trees, by tapping the other branches with 
light poles, the insects being brushed off from the trunks and main branches on 
to a sheet placed under the tree to catch them, from which they can be easily 
gathered and burnt. 5 
All caterpillars, cut-worms, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, or other insects 
destroying the foliage should be destroyed by either spraying the same with 
Paris green, | 0z. to 10 gallons of water, or by dusting them with a mixture of 
Paris green and air-slacked lime, 1 0z. of Paris green to 5 lb. of lime. Keep 
the orchard well cultivated, especially in the dry districts ; and where there is 
water available for irrigation, in such districts all citrus trees should receive: a 
watering during the month unless there is a good fall of rain, when it will be 
of course unnecessary. 
Pineapples, bananas, and other tropical fruit can be planted during the 
month, showery weather and dull days being chosen. The rainy season is the 
best time to transplant most tropical plants. Where it is desirable to go in for 
green-crop manuring, or for raising a green crop for mulching, cow peas can be 
sown, as they will be found to make a very rapid growth now, which will be 
strong enough to keep most weeds in check. 
See that all surface and cut-off drains are in good working order, and not 
choked up with grass, weeds, &c., as heavy rain may fall during the month, and 
there should be a get-away for all surplus water, which would tend to either 
wash the soil or sour it; stagnant water round the roots of the trees being 
exceedingly injurious at an y time, and especially so during the heat of summer. 
