66 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [L Juxy, 1902. 
Qrehard Notes for July. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON. 
Thefremarks that have appeared in the Orchard Notes for the last three — 
months anent the handling, packing, and marketing of citrus fruits apply 
equally to the present month. 
The pruning of all kinds of deciduous fruit trees should be completed 
during the month. All prunings should be gathered and burnt, and the tree 
should then receive a thorough spraying with the lime, sulphur, and salt wash, 
which is the best all-round winter spray, acting both as an insecticide and a 
fungicide. After pruning and spraying, the orchard should be well ploughed, 
so as to bury all weeds and trash that may have accumulated, to sweeten the soil, 
and to break up any pan that may have been formed by summer cultivation. 
Cirtrus trees, from which the fruit has been gathered, should be pruned 
now, the pruning to consist of cutting out all dead branches or brangher havi 
borers in them, as well as all branches, thorns, or twigs growing in the 
centre of the tree which are not required. The centre of the tree must be kept 
well opened. up, as, unless this is done, the superfluous wood only forms a harbour 
for all kinds of insect and fungus pests, and, in addition to this, where the tree 
is not well pruned out in the centre, it is impossible to do good work with the 
spray pump. 
As already stated, all the prunings from the tree should be gathered and 
burnt, as this is the surest way of destroying any scale insects, borers, or fungus 
pests with which they may be infested. If you have no spray pump, then the 
above mixture should be applied with a brush. It will destroy all scale insects 
with which it comes in contact, and will remove all moss and lichen as well as 
stop the spread of canker or bark rot. 
The planting of deciduous trees can be continued throughout the month, 
but it is not advisable to delay it more than can be helped, as when the trees 
are planted, even though they make no leaf or wood growth, they begin to 
threw out adventitious rootlets which are ready to start work as soon as the 
first top growth takes place. Don’t plant too deep: the depth at which the 
young trees stood in the nursery is the right depth ; trim the roots carefully so 
as to remove all bruised portions; spread the roots out well, so that they 
may get a good hold of the ground, and always spread a little fine top soil 
round them, as this will be conducive to the rapid formation of new roots. 
Cut back hard at planting, and don’t be afraid that you will spoil your tree 
by doing so. Failure to cut hard back prevents the formation of a strong, 
well-grown, symmetrical tree, and always tends to injure the future vigour and 
growth of the tree. 
See that all trees that are planted, whether deciduous or evergreen, are 
free from pests, as it is much easier to keep disease out of the orchard by 
planting clean trees than it is to stamp out disease once it has got a fair hold. 
‘Where the trees are infested with scale insects of any kind, they should be 
treated by hydrocyanic acid gas, as recommended and described from time to 
time in this Journal. If this treatment of the young trees is carefully carried 
out, there is every chance of their remaining clean for a considerable time after 
they are planted. 
Do not plant rubbish ; only plant those trees that your soil and climate are 
adapted for. Do not try to grow fruits that will only end in failure, as no 
grower who is dependent on fruit culture for his living can afford to grow 
fruits that can be produced both better and cheaper by others under more 
suitable conditions; but he must confine his energies to the culture of those 
fruits that prove a commercial success. 
Tt costs just as much to prepare the land for and to plant, prune, spray, 
manure, cyanide, and generally look after an inferior variety of fruit tree, or a 
variety of fruit tree that is unsuitable to the climate, and from which no 
return of any value can ever be obtained, as it does to grow a variety that is 
