334 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Nov., 1902. 
never paid before. Crops that may not reach a certain price at times can 
always be turned into wool and mutton, and not a saat need be lost on 
stubble land, while the benefit of the manure is gained. Then comes the 
question of fruit culture, and to my mind a pretty big thing opens up here. 
No doubt quite a number of fruits could be grown for domestic use, and 
would all help to increase the comfort of home life, but there are a few which 
could undoubtedly be grown very extensively on commercial lines, with the 
certainty of very satisfactory returns. 
First of these come lemons. In my “ Notes” of 1899, I spoke in no 
undecided way of the chances for lemon culture in this district, and what I 
said then I now repeat, that the best lemons I have ever seen anywhere for all- 
round quality, I saw at Barcaldine. I told the people then what I thought 
could be done, and urged them to take the matter up. What has been done I 
do not know, for I have not had a chance to visit the district since.. But the 
matter strikes me in this way: We import from the South and from the 
Mediterranean every year an enormous quantity of lemons, and I have. seen 
Messinas fetching up to £1 4s. for cases of 300, which is equal to about 11s. or 
12s. per case,as we pack them. This isa high price, of course, and we may allow 
something off that before reaching a fair average, but even then we would 
have a substantial figure to work on. : 
We go on paying this money to other people for goods we can and ought 
to produce ourselves. We ought todo more. We ought to stop the import 
and start exporting our fruit to someone else. 
I cannot get a clear idea of how many lemons we import, because in 
records of imports they are mixed up with various other fruits; but the quan- 
tity is very large, and will increase unless we produce our own. Now, may we 
not reasonably ask how long this kind of thing is to go on? A decent lemon 
orchard properly worked, is one of the best paying things a man can have, and 
there should be no difficulty in growing big quantities of the fruit, and curing 
it in such a way as to be able to hold it for a time, until markets are satisfac- 
tory, should this be desirable, or to ship away to almost any distance. I may 
mention here that we are now buying regular supplies of lemons from Mildura; 
fruit grown on the cypress pine and mallee sandy country, and the quality of 
this fruit is a strong proof of what can be done. 
We have already tested the Canadian market in a small way, but with good 
results with our oranges. Why not supply Canada with lemons also? J am 
sure there is good money in this business, if it is only laid hold of properly. 
Why send out of the State for large quantities of stuff we can produce as well, 
perhaps, as anyone in the world? : 
I might mention such things as candied-peel and lemon syrup, which 
could also be added to the list of products, and we want these things, and are 
using them every day. ; 
Next come oranges. They can be grown, like the lemons, in almost any 
quantity, and will pay. Not only is there a good though scattered. market all 
along our railways in the inland towns, and which is supplied very largely at 
present from the South, but there is the export trade to go for. We can send 
South early in the season, and we are only waiting for the quantity to go for 
the Canadian market, and that alone is a big one. 
With organisation and proper control of all possible markets by the growers 
themselves, the output can be enormously increased, even in the State, for it is 
-alamentable thing, but a fact, that in many of our towns fruit of decent 
quality can hardly be obtained at all. It ought to be all over the place, ayail- 
able at prices that will suit both grower and consumer, and with proper 
management this can be done. Oranges pay, and pay handsomely, and out in 
this country you have a soil that will suit them well, and any amount of it. 
Why not grow them? Now, a word about olives. With the exception of a 
few trees here and there, they are not grown in the State. No one has, so far, 
gone in for them commercially, but the time has come, I think, to make a 
decided start at it, and this country is the very place for them. 
