298 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1902. 
Orchard Notes for October. 
By ALBERT H. BENSON. 
Keep the land well cultivated, and, if dry, see that it is well stirred, but not 
turned. Attend to the disbudding of all young trees, for, if superfluous growths 
are checked now, they are converted into fruit-wood, and the vigour of the tree 
is thrown into those shoots which are to form the future branches of the tree. 
Disbud all vines, rubbing out all superfluous shoots, leaving only as many canes 
as the vine is strong enough to mature fruit to perfection on. 
Sulphur all vines ‘to prevent oidium, as, 1f there is any muggy weather 
during the month, this disease is sure to make its appearance. Where Black- 
spot is present, spray the vines with Bordeaux mixture; and if caterpillars 
are troublesome as well, then add 1 oz. of Paris green to each 2 gallons of 
Bordeaux mixture, and both pests will be destroyed by the one spraying. 
When using Bordeaux mixture, there is no necessity to use sulphur for oid 
as the Bordeaux mixture answers equally as well. Don’t spray when the vines 
are in blossom; but with varieties that are shy setters it is often a good plan 
to sulphur when in blossom. 
The nursery should be carefully attended to; where not already done the 
ties of all grafts should be cut and the scions should be trained so as to make a 
single upright stem. Where buds have been put in, they should be started 
by cutting back the stock sufficiently to cause them to grow, but the stock 
should not be cut hard back all at once, but by degrees, always leaving a portion 
of the stock above the bud to tie the young cles to. Plant pines and bananas. 
during the month, selecting suckers from healthy plants and from plants that 
are good croppers, and that produce good fruit, as a careful selection of suckers 
always pays well. Continue the treatment for Maori or Rust Mite of the orange 
recommended in the Notes for September; and where orange bugs, either the 
green or bronze, are present, destroy every mature insect that can be found, so 
as to prevent them breeding, as the killing off of the first crop will materially 
lessen their number for the season. Hand-picking, though slow, is probably the 
best remedy, though, before the insects are fully grown, large numbers may be 
destroyed by driving them on to the main branches of the tree and sweepin 
them off with a broom on to a cloth, from which they can be gathered Atl 
killed. Take every possible precaution against the fruit fly by destroying every 
infested fruit that you can. If there are maggots in cumquats or any other 
fruits, destroy everyone, as the cleaner the sweep that is made of the first crop 
of flies the less trouble there will be throughout the season. Where Scale 
' Insects have been introduced on young trees into clean districts, every care 
should be taken to keep the pest from spreading ; and in cases where the young 
trees are badly affected, it will pay the grower to destroy them at once, as the 
first loss will be the least. Where leaf-eating insects of any kind are trouble- 
some—such as caterpillars of all kinds, the larvee of the fig beetles, or the false 
ladybirds that attaci all kinds of cucurbitous plants, potatoes, &c.—they can be 
readily destroyed by a spraying of Paris green, 1 oz. to 10 gallons of water, with 
lime added in as large a quantity as can be got through the nozzle of the pump: 
without choking, as this will tend to make the poison stick on better to the 
leaves, branches, or fruit. 
