Lats 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 


The Handbook 


Horticulture and 
Viticulture 


of 


Western Australia. 


By A. DESPEISSIS, M.R.A.C 


THIRD EDITION. 


New York 
State Cullege of Agriculture 


At Gornell University 
Ithara, N. GB. 


Library 


Cornell University Library 
SB 357.046 


e handbook of horticulture and viticul 


924 003 


mann 


Cornell University 


The original of this book is in 
the Cornell University Library. 


There are no known copyright restrictions in 
the United States on the use of the text. 


http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003326539 


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POL, 


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WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 


The Handbook 


Horticulture and 
Viticulture 


of 


Western Australia. 


By A. DESPEISSIS, M.R.A.C. 


THIRD EDITION. 


SB 357 


DAVE 23 


ERRATA. 


‘‘After the book left the Government Printer, and before distri- 
bution, the following errata were noticed, and it is desired to draw the 
reader’s particular attention to the corrections and additions on this 
page.’’ 

Page 21.—Flooded or ‘‘Blue Gum’’ read (E. rudis) not (E. 
Salinga). 

Page 21.—Jam (Acacia accunuinata) should read (Acacia acum- 
inata). 

Page 21.—Delete ‘‘Manna Gum’’ (#. Viminalis, La Billardieré). 


Page 21.—Spearwood (E. Doratozylon, F. Von Miieller) should read 
(Jacksonia sternbergiana). 


Page 2?.—Zamia (Cycas sp.) should read (Macrozamia Fraseri). 


Page 175.—Second line from bottom, delete ‘‘inches’’ after ‘‘six’’ 
and insert ‘‘feet.’’ 


Page 492.—Tenth line from bottom, ‘‘ouzydase’’ should read 
(‘‘oxydasi’’), and insert before ‘‘through’’ the words ‘‘in the enzyme.’’ 


Page 573.--Eighth line from bottom, ‘‘B. solannicola’’ should be 
“*B. solanicola.’’ 


Page 576.—Twenty-second line, ‘‘Meso termis Darwini’’ should 
read ‘‘ Mastodermes darwiniensis.’’ 


Page 580.—First line, delete words ‘‘in addition so secreting a 
honeydew. ’’ 


Page 581.—Eleventh line from bottom, after ‘‘repanada’’ add ‘‘syn. 
Coccinella transversalis.’’ 


Page 583.—Fourth line, delete word ‘‘flies,’’ read in lieu ‘‘ wasps. ’’ 


Page 584.—Twelfth line, from ‘‘cabbage’’ delete words ‘‘the inner 
leaves are seldom attacked though larva may occasionally be seen in the 
heart itself, the damage is usually to the outer leaves; with,’’ and add 
the word ‘‘and’’ before ‘‘cauliflower,’’ in the 8th line from bottom. 


Page 585.—Third line from bottom, the word ‘‘Heminoptera”’ 
should read ‘‘ Hemiptera.’’ 


Page 586.—First line, ‘‘ Anoplosthetus’’ should read ‘‘ Anoploste- 
thus.’’ 


Page 587.—Fifth line, ‘‘Centonides’’ should read ‘‘Centonides.’? 


Page 588.—Fifteenth line, ‘‘Colombyforma’’ should read ‘‘ Colom- 
bymorpha.’’ 


Page 590,--Fifteenth line, ‘‘armigera’’ should read ‘‘ obsoleta,’’ 


Page 591.—Fifth line, after the word ‘‘successful’’ add ‘‘total 
prohibition reimposed 21st September, 1912.’’ 


il. 


Page 592.—Nincteenth line, after the word ‘‘season’’ add ‘‘owing, 
however, to the longer season two broods have been proved in Western 
Australia.’’ 


Page 592.—Thirtieth line, after the word ‘‘with’’ add ‘‘in Western 
Australia the first ‘brood moths emerge September, October; second 
brood December, January.’’ 


Pave 594.—Fourth line trom the hottom, delete ‘‘summer’’ and 
read in lieu ‘‘ December.’’ 


Page 59$.—Twenty-eighth line, ‘‘Leptos’’ should read ‘‘Leptops.’’ 
Page 601.—Sixth line, delete words ‘‘they vary in.’’ 
Page 601,—Seventh line, delete words ‘‘and usually.’’ 


Page 602.—Twenty-seventh line, delete words ‘‘ fairly wet ground,’’ 
and insert in lieu ‘‘in well-drained soils watered during summer.’’ 


Page 604.—Fourth line, add ‘‘syn. Pthorimaca opereuletla.”’ 


Page 6(04.—Eleventh and twelfth lines, delete words ‘‘ occasionally 
seen on tomatoes,’’ aud insert in lieu ‘‘a serious pest of tomatoes and 
Cape gooseberries. ’’ 


Page 606.—Second line from bottom, “Symnus’? should read 
“*Seymnus. ’” 


Page 607.—Twenty-eighth line, after ‘‘find’’ add ‘‘until recently.”’ 


Page 611.—-Fifteenth line, add ‘‘ (Note: Scutellista cyanea is now 
well established in Western Australia).’’ 


Page 614—Fourth line from bottom, add ‘‘attacks and controls 
Red Seale in Western Australia.’’ 


Page 617—Third line, after ‘‘svale’’ add ‘‘(Aphelinus fucipen- 
nis).’? 

Page 621.—Illustration ‘‘Strawberry Beetle’? should be ‘‘Straw- 
berry Bug.’’ 


Page 626.—Twenty-fitth line, after word ‘‘fly’’ add ‘‘once the eggs 
are deposited.’’ 


Page 627.—Fifth line from bottom, ‘‘ Louwchoea’’ should read ‘‘ Lon- 
ehaca.’? 


Page 650.—Transpose names ‘‘Orcus Australasiae’’ and ‘‘ Chilo- 
menes quadrapustulatus.’? 


Page 632.—Plate inserted in error. Correct illustration page 256. 


PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 


The increasing demand for the “Handbook of Horticulture and 
Viticulture of Western Australia,” and the fresh stimulus given to 
land settlement under the scheme of the Repatriation of Returned 
Soldiers, have made it desirable for the Department of -A\gricul- 
ture to bring out a new edition. 

The subject matter dealt with in the first two editions has im 
the third been carefully revised, and much additional information 
included. 

In collating the mass of information which will be found 
erouped within the several chapters of this Handbook I have, as 
far as possible, acknowledged the sources whence that information 
was derived; and the value of those sources, together with the 
personal experience I have been able to gain in questions dealt 
with in the following pages, will, I hope, be of some benefit to 
those who may consult this book. 


A. DESPEISSIS, M.R.A.C. 
Department of Agriculture, 
Perth, W.A., 10th February, 1921. 


CONTENTS. 


Introductory ... sigs Hi ad Bi ae a Sas itt 18 
Western Australia as a Fruit Land sin we wee ai oi 3 
Our Soils i is ais a wii aie vit ss ais 15 
Ringharking and Clearing Land... 
Preparing Land for Planting ier eis ie re sits atic 34+ 
Drainaye = ia ni ae ae tel ce sesh fe ol 
Shelter Trees ... ae sip sot ees 2 eb x6 as +4 
Fenciny si 8 sie ve aig 8 Sia one si 5] 
Laying out the Ground ont su wit ~ ae ne als 5b 
Planting and Cultivation... pit eats dite ate se a 63 
Coafting ei is sit wide sis sit ae 4 wt su 
Budding Bi oss wee ane ws bet ees Soe bag 119 
Pruning src zits ge sins is 23 He wi dae, | EEG 
Vine Pruning ... a eine sii sane ate se = coe a 
Fruit Tree Pruning ... . lin Pe wee a we LT 
Summer Pruning and Thinning of Fruit. ates shi ain ax TRO 
Manures and Manuring ee Boe ren tiie es pee eee (ct) 
Trrigation and Root Management ... = te ae a an DIG 
What Fruit to Grow eee ae a8 — nis wi axe 2 
Small Fruits... ie sists a as son isp qe vee EE 
Tropical Fruits Sit nae pee aa a2 an fais ee | 
Fruit Drying ... een tees es eee erg ane ae oe B45 
Drying Vevetables ... te ssa wc cee - wise ax Dah 
Fruit Candying es ene ee ed os ee ee a Bod 
Canning and Fruit Pulp... 48 we Be ae ae a BO 
Pulping Fruit ... ae ai wee sie sat sisi sia sae, BT 
Jellies sig es ae ae a tia Sea oe was ROD 
Gathering and Marketing Fruit... vie a3 axe 228 sees 
Wine Making ... ae eit tie eas ee oe wi we H00 
Unfermented Grape Juice... ‘ aie ae ae Se Poe (10) 
Vinegar from Wine and from Cider tite at nite ae we HD 
Infertile Crapo Vines oe a oe hp slats ec vee SOS 
Insect and Vungoid Pests... as ‘eee seep ‘as sae wan SE 
(arden and Orchard Crops, their pests and remedies ... i gu OMe 
Plant Fumization ver out — wT eas wes os wep «= 
Fangus Diseases sud ais ss ae Boy gen ae ae NE 


Perscription of Insects, injurious and beneticial ... ae a ase alk 
1 


THE HANDBOOK 


OF 


HORTICULTURE AND VITICULTURE 


OF 


WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 


By A. Dusprissis, M.R.A.C. 


HE awakening of Western Australia as a fruit-producing 
State dates only from the beginning of the gold rush a 
couple of decades ago. It is concurrent with the develop- 

ment of the wonderful gold belt which has since been proved to run 
through it, from the Great Australian Bight, in the South, to Cam- 
bridge Gulf and the tropical Kimberleys, in the North. 


Previous to that epoch, sufficient had been achieved by the 
older colonists to show that Western Australia could produce grapes 
and fruit of great excellence, but the gardens of the State were few 
in number and far apart. Yet, fruit was then more easily procur-* 
able than it has since been, and the requirements of the 50,000 odd 
consumers were liberally satisfied; indeed, fruit was then so cheap 
that no market value was attached to it. It was mostly consumed 
on the spot, and the surplus rotted under the trees, and was not 
worth carting away. In those days consumers were producers 
themselves; long distances and lack of rapid communication mili- 
tated against the marketing of fruit, and methods of picking and 
packing for distant markets were not familiar to fruit-growers, nor 
had they any experience regarding those varieties which, better than 
others, lend themselves to long keeping and travelling. 


With the discovery of gold came the rush of gold-seekers. The 
constant stream of population which then set in soon taxed the 
resources of the farming districts; supplies of all sorts were soon 
exhausted, and all the commodities of life had to be largely im- 
ported. The ever-increasing flow of population continued its course 
to the inland goldfields. 


2 


Every new-comer proved a consumer. Even the settlers 
deserted their farms and rushed to the arid interior in quest of gold. 
Famine prices were offered and given for all products of the soil. 
Then a new current set in, and whilst the main stream of popula- 
tion continued to pour into the Coolgardie and the Murchison gold- 
fields, a smaller stream spread over the moister coastal districts. 
Gold was to be won from the ploughed fields as well as from the 
quartz reefs. 

A great many may claim to have first discovered that Western 
Australia was teeming with gold, but the pride of having discovered 
that the State was teeming with latent horticultural and agricul- 
tural wealth must belong to the proprietors of the West Australian 
newspaper. At their instigation, the late Mr. L. Lindley-Cowen set 
out on a voyage of discovery through the agricultural districts of 
what is known as the South-West Division of Western Australia— 
a province covering an area of country 350 miles from North to 
South by 100 to 200 miles from West to East. From every point 
of that territory which he visited Mr. Cowen, in a series of articles 
which at the time attracted attention, as well as enlightened the 
settlers, old and new, described the achievements of the pioneer 
agriculturists of the country, and prognosticated the era of wonder- 
ful development which every branch of agriculture bas since entered 
upon. 

That Western Australia bids fair to eclipse the other States of 
the group as a fruit-producing territory is firmly believed by all who ' 
have paid any attention to the cireumstances which favour or retard 
fruit-growing as an industry. Its soil is virgin, and for ages with- 
out number has supported gum trees and shrubs of various sorts 
without a rest, and been fouled by their residues, until at last it 
welcomes fruit-trees, with the same eagerness as does a corn sick 
’ field some other crop in the course of the rotation. 

Its climate is consistent and not capricious. When going be- 
yond well-defined and moist zones for the purpose of starting fruit- 
growing, the settler has himself to blame for courting failure unless 
he can counteract the unreliable rainfall by artificial irrigation. 
Anyhow, his crops are not periodically threatened of destruction by 
hail-storms, such as are at times experienced in other parts of 
Australia, 

Untrammelled by errors which, in the Eastern States, have 
defeated the aims of the earlier fruit-growers, and proved a source 
of loss to them, Western Australian growers start with the experi- 
ence of others, and are reaping the fruit of the knowledge dearly 
bought. Thus they are able with comnaratively few faults to start 
a clear course on embarking into fruit-growing on commercial lines. 

This State besides possesses amongst all Australian States the 
incalculable advantage of being from 1,200 to 2,000 miles nearer 
the European markets; or, in other words, its perishable fruit 


8 


crops, because of its geographical position, are produced from four 
to eight days nearer the consumer’s table. 

Another advantage of no mean importance is that the popula- 
tion of Western Australia—very small until the discovery of gold— 
has since been increasing steadily and rapidly, as the mineral and 
agricultural resources of the country are being developed. Such 
indeed are the demands of the local market that a ready sale, at a 
profitable price, is obtained for all fruit of good quality; and, whilst 
preparing for extensive fruit export, the grower is enabled to dis- 
pose locally at highly remunerative prices of small pareels of fruit 
he may gather from his young trees. 


WEST AUSTRALIAN FRUIT LAND. 


From Cambridge Gulf, in the tropical North, to the Great 
Australian Bight, in the temperate Southern regions, Western Aus- 
tralia unfolds a coast line of over 1,200 miles capable of growing, 
according to latitude or elevation, some sort of fruit or other. 

Under the regulating influence of the monsoons, the rainy sea- 
son follows the dry one with almost clockwork precision; and thus, 
within the coastal zone, the grower knows what to expect, nor is 
he confronted either by a sweeping deluge or a prolonged drought 
from one season to the other. 

Farther inland great waterless tracts of fertile land occur, 
which, with the spread of settlement, disclose favoured spots with- 
out number where artificial irrigation is rendered possible, and 
where fruit-growing offers great possibilities. 

In this handbook no reference will be made to that part of 
Western Australia extending from the Kimberley districts on the 
North to the latitude of the Murchison River 28deg. S. 

Few settlers, hitherto, in that vast stretch of country, until re- 
cently given almost entirely over to pastoralists, have paid system- 
atic attention to horticulture. The cause is easy.to discover. Few, 
if any one, of those who in the past have lived at the Nor’-West and 
the North of this State have had any idea of permanently settling 
down. Whilst there their whole attention has been engaged in more 
or less nomadic occupations; the small cultivated patch has proved 
sufficient to supply the requirements of the homestead, and no in- 
ducement had until now offered to plant largely, owing to the lack 
of frequent and quick means of communication with the markets of 
the South. Sufficient is, however, known to state that at several 
places where facilities offer for irrigation, or where the soil is 
naturally moist, the cultivation of tropical plants and fruit trees 
has been attended with such success as points to great possibilities 
in that direction. 

One of the most successful undertakings of that nature is that 
of the Trappists’ Mission at Beagle Bay, about 21deg. lat. S., where 
some 10 aeres have been planted, chiefly with bananas, mangoes, 


4 


guava, figs, tamarind, date palm, cocoanut trees, oranges, and 
lemons, which all thrive well. 

In a report on the capabilities of the East Kimberley district, 
Mr. R. Helms, then biologist of the Bureau of Agriculture, said:— 

“The greatest prosperity of the country will begin when the 
cultivation of specially tropical products is taken up in earnest. 
It will then be that the country becomes populated, for a couple of 
hundred acres, well tilled and planted with suitable crops, enables a 
man to acquire an independency. The country possesses not only 
the rare advantage of being perfectly healthy, but the land best 
suited for the growth of tropical products is free from timber. It, 
therefore, requires no coloured labour to produce cotton, sugar, 
cocoa, tobacco, rubber, or fibre, and other profitable articles of com- 
merce. Europeans can do the work, and no great capital is required 
to prepare the land, the grubbing of trees in a tropi:al forest being 
always a great expense. Moreover, irrigation can be carried out at 
a minimum of expense. In a number of places it will be found that 
water can be conserved in such a way as to enable large areas to be 
watered by gravitation; but where that method is impracticable, 
windmills may effectively be employed, as a steady breeze generally 
blows throughout the day.” 

My own observations made in the course of official explorations 
to ascertain the agricultural capabilities of the Nor’-West and of the 
tropical Kimberleys lead me, with some reservations, to support 
these views, and whenever population is attracted to these little 
known provinces of Australia important settlement may be looked 
forward to in favourable places where easy transport and com- 
munication are provided. 

The section of Western Australia that will be more particularly 
considered in this handbook is that comprised between the Mur- 
chison River, 50 miles North of Champion Bay, lat. 28deg. S., to 
King George’s Sound, lat. 35deg. S., and an imaginary line enclos- 
ing a somewhat triangular-shaped territory, about 50 miles broad at 
the Murchison end to 300 miles at its base, from the Leeuwin to 
Esperance. 

Such area is shown on the maps issued by the Lands Depart- 
ment of Western Australia as the South-West Division. 

That a great extent. of this country is admirably suited for vine 
and fruit growing is abundantly demonstrated by the suecess which 
has accompanied the enterprise of settlers in the various districts 
of the State. 

The variety of climatic conditions and soil make it possible to 
grow in this division of Western Australia almost any fruit of the 
cool-temperate as well as semi-tropical climates. 

A better understanding of the requirements which underlie the 
pursuit of modern fruit-growing—one of the most interesting and 
profitable branches of agronomy—brings out several features in the 


: 5 
West Australian climate which point to the particular suitability 
of this country for fruit-growing. 

For the purpose of illustrating this statement, no more con- 
vineing means offer than comparing the climate of the South-West 
Division of this State with the climate of some of the most noted 
fruit districts of the world, and especially California, in—Ist, tem- 
perature; 2nd, light; 3rd, air humidity; which are all climatic 
conditions, absolutely necessary to fruit ripening. According as 
these three conditions are met with in a more or less suitable degree 
the fruits ripen with greater or less perfection. 


TEMPERATURE. 


When compared with the chief fruit-growing districts of Cali- 
fornia, the West Australian climate shows to advantage, its chief 
characteristics being—Ist, freedom from extremes of low and high 
temperature ; 2nd, an abundance of sunshine; 3rd, summer atmos- 
phere, with a low percentage of humidity. 

The following table, which gives the lowest thermometric read- 
ings during a period of five years, at six places which can well serve 
as land marks in dealing with the fruit-growing districts of this 
State, compares favourably with some Californian stations where 
fruits of the citrus tribe, for instance, are known to attain to great 
perfection :-—— 


Deg. Fah. Deg. Fahr. 
Geraldton -. 38 San Francisco ... .. 28 
Perth... ads ve 82 San José _ we 22 
Bunbury ae ww. 35 Los Angeles... ws 728 
Albany ... aes w. 82 San Diego a8 we 382 
York... aus gees 29 Sacramento ass ive 19 
Katanning ae aa 2 Fresno... es ae 18 


If, on the one hand, temperature must not be too low for the 
profitable cultivation of trees such as those belonging to the citrus 
tribe, which retain their foliage all the year round, it must not, on 
the other, rise to too high a degree in the summer months without 
exposing the trees to sun seald. 

Careful experiments made tend to demonstrate the fact that 
“a temperature above a certain minimum of heat is found neces- 
sary for germination, another for chemical modification, and a third 
for flowering, a fourth for the ripening of seeds, a fifth for the 
elaboration of the saccharine juices, and a sixth for the develop- 
ment of aroma or bouquet.” 

The same botanist who laid down the above rule (Boussin- 
gault) determined that, in the case of the grape vine, while a mean 
of 59deg. Fahr. during the growing months will allow the plant to 
flourish, a much higher mean temperature is necessary during the 
summer and autumn months from the time the seeds are formed 
until full maturity, to bring the fruit to perfection, and there must 


6 


be a month the mean temperature of which should not fall below 
66.2deg. Fahr. 

The following table gives the average summer temperature 
during the growing months at various Western Australian and Cali- 
fornian points :— 


pias Fahr. a Fahr. 
Geraldton... 75-5 San Francisco ww. 594 
Perth ... a wa» 72-9 San José ac .» 56°2 
Bunbury oa ve 7005 Los Angeles ... soe: OORT, 
Albany Se we 67:3 San Diego... we 68-4 
York ... wee eos 77-2 Sacramento ... we 71:4 
Katanning... we 7201 Fresno sae ww. 84-1] 


These tables show that, compared with the most noted Cali- 
fornian fruit-growing centres, the South-Western Division of West- 
ern Australia is possessed of a summer climate warm enough for 
the growth of any of the fruits of temperate zones; while the winter 
never severe enough to frost-kill these fruits, is, however, sufficiently 
cold to insure for them the three‘or four months of rest they need. 

With the exception of Albany and similarly situated localities, 
abundant warmth occurs for the ripening of all kinds of grape 
vines, of all temperate climate fruit, a most exacting one as regards 
warmth. Even in Albany, the early grapes do ripen, unless exposed 
to the chilling Southern breeze; while only a few miles inland the 
later-growing grapes as well reach maturity. Elsewhere, such as in 
the northern portion of the Eastern division cn the eastern side of 
the Darling Ranges, the great excess of summer temperature over 
that absolutely required for the proper maturing of the grapes re- 
sults in higher sugar formation in the juice. When to this higher 
summer temperature is associated a longer growing season, we find 
combined the elements conducive to the production of a second 
crop. 


Licur, 


Light also plays an important part in the prefect maturation 
of fruit, and an abundance of it, in conjunction with a congenial 
degree of atmosphere, results in better flavoured fruit, and in the 
better development of the colour, bouquet, and aroma. 

Reference to the information supplied in the meteorological 
reporis of the State, for a series of years, testifies abundantly to 
th. fine and bright state of the atmosphere during the summer and 
azutunin months at the stations mentioned above. On the faith of 
the same reports, we find that Albany is the locality with the 
smallest number of cloudless days during those growing months; 
while Bunbury, which comes next as regards a low mean summer 
temperature, as given in the above tables, is reported to have dur- 
ing the growing months an almost continuous suecession of bright, 
cloudless days, which are conducive to sugar production. Thus it 
is seen that, although the temperature in the district around Bun- 


7 


bury is fairly cool in the summer months, yet the great pureness of 
the atmosphere is favourable to the perfect maturation of grapes 
as the plant profits during those months by its full share of the 
chemical effect of the direct rays of the sun. 

Viewed in the light of practical fruit growing, abundance of 
cloudless days in connection with high and protracted heat, results 
in high sugar production, which is of great advantage in the pro- 
duction of raisin and prune, and also in the successful ripening of 
a second crop of grapes in a season. 

It is thus shown why wine for instance, made from grapes 
produced from cuttings of the same varieties, and perhaps obtained 
from the same parent vines, but grown in a hot and clear district, 
in the one instance, to another wine from similar variety of grapes 
grown in a cooler locality possessed of an atmosphere not so bright 
and clear, will present to the palate and to laboratory tests quite 
different characteristies. If, for instance, we take Malbee or Cab- 
ernet as an example, they will produce a rounder and stronger wine 
in the first district, and a wine of a lighter character and more of 
the claret type in the cooler localities: for, in the process of wine- 
making, sugar means alcoholic strength. 

In order to continue the parallel between Western Australian 
and Californian climates, and also the climate of other States of 
America, the following table is given to compare the relative degree 
of sunshine at various places mentioned below. 

In this table cloudiness is rated from 0 to 10; two observations 
are taken daily at 9 am. and 3 p.m. 


Geraldton 2e7 Sacramento, Cal. ... 2-0 
Lawlers 341 San Francisco, Cal. ... 4-0 
Kalgoorlie 3:4 Fresno, Cal. ... 2-1 
York ... 3-0. San Diego, Cal. 4-2 
Perth ... 4-4 New York, N.Y. 5-0 
Bunbury 5*5 Philadelphia, Pa. 5-0 
Katanning 5-2 New Orleans, La. 4:4 
Albany 5-0 Jacksonville, Fla. 4:5 


VaLue oF Dry Arr. 


For the purpose of fruit-growing. it can safely be stated that a 
moderately dry air, especially during the summer and autumn 
months, is in many respects more desirable than a vapour-laden 
atmosphere. 

In the first case, pests, and blights of fungus origin—moss, 
lichens, ete.—are not anything like so troublesome as in more humid 
localities. 

The oidium of the vine, for insrance, is much more troublesome 
in moist than in dry seasons; and, for the same reason, in the moist 
air districts close to the sea, than in districts situated further inland, 
where the atmosphere is drier. 


8 


For another reason is dry air of value to the fruit-grower. It 
favours the better penetration through the atmosphere of heat and 
light, and their access to the plant. The effect of the chemical rays 
of the sun, which, although not appealing to our senses in the same 
measure as its thermal rays, are nevertheless essential in bringing 
about the perfect ripening of fruit. Now, a layer of vapour-laden 
atmosphere floating over the earth acts as a sereen, which, although 
pervious to the heat rays, shuts off in a great measure the chemical 
rays of the sun. A practical illustration of this fact has been 
noticed by everyone. However hot the season, fruit will ripen 
slowly and rot on the plant if the atmosphere is dull, moist, and 
muggy; whereas in a dry and bright autumn, fruit will be corre. 
spondingly luscious and richly flavoured, and will put on the 
brightest of those tints of colour by which each variety is differen- 
tiated from the other. 


MEAN MONTHLY RELATIVE AIR HUMIDITY—AUGUST TO APRIL— 
AND MEAN ANNUAL, (SATURATION = 100.) 


Mean 
Annual 
— Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apl. (12 
Mths). 
Geraldton one) 74 74 72°6 70 75 73:6) 67 72°6) 67 71°6 
York ... ee | 71°86] 73 66 53:3) 59 54:3} 53-3) 63-6) 54 63 
Perth ... nr) 73°6) 69 69 63°6] 63:3) 61-6; 62-3) 60:3) 61:3 66-2 
Bunbury ie 75 76 73 67°6] 65-3] 68-3} 68 71-3) 72+3 73 
Albany see | 77°83) 77-6) 77 72:6) 80-3) 74:3] 80-6) 75 75:3) 76 
Mean 
Annual 
_—_ Apl. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept.) Oct. | Nov. (12 
Mths) 
Los Angeles ... ae | 73-1) 75-2) 73 75:4) 76:2) 72-9) 74-3) 66-6 73:3 
Fresno aS seis 59-3) 52-7) 42-7) 34°7) 384-7] 43-6) 55-1) 64-1 48°3 
Sacramento ... vs | 67-6] 67°6] 66-1) 58-9) 59-8} 59 62-4] 66-8] 63-6 


THE RAINFALL AND WaTER SUPPLY. 


The rainfall of the zone running along the sea-coast of Western 
Australia for a distance of 80 to 100 miles from the coast is regular 
and rehable. More abundant in close proximity to the seashore, 
and also on the higher tableland of the Darling Ranges which 
fringes the coast-line some twenty miles inland for a distance of 
about 300 miles, the rainfall gradually decreases the farther inland 
we go. 

Practically, there are only two seasons, the “dry” and the 
“wet.” Both are influenced by monsoonal action. In the Northern 
part the wet season sets in during the summer months, commencing 
in November and lasting till April. During that time smart cv- 
clones, locally called ‘‘willy-willies” and ‘‘eock-eyed bobs,” at times 


9 


sweep over the land, causing occasionally damage to stock and 
property. These cyclones are more frequent north of Broome than 
south of that place, where they mostly strike the coast and do aot 
extend their influence far inland. In the South, from the Murehison 
River to the Leeuwin, the wet season, on the other band, sets in 
after Easter, generally May, lasts through the winter and erds in 
October, with a few occasional showers during the summer months. 
During those winter months the weather is made up alternately of 
heavy showers and clear, sunny intervals. Ninety per cent. of the 
rain falls on an average in these six or seven months. In the South- 
Western corner the moisture-laden clouds which are carried on one 
side over the Sovthern Ocean, and the other over the Indian Ocean, 
impinge over the range of mountains which rise a few miles from 
the coast-line, and runs parallel with it for a distance of over 300 
miles, and there dissolve into heavy rain. Once blown over these 
ranges, farther to the eastward, these moisture-laden c'ouds meet 
with no obstruction to bring about their precipitation, an] thus ars 
earried away into the vast unsettled interior, where the farther from 
the coast the drier is the climate. 


The following takle gives the average rainfall in Western Aus- 
tralia at points located in the several divisions of the State :— 

Height : Average | Average | No. of 

Locality. above Sea No. of | Rainfall, | Years of 

Level. Wet days.in Inches.| Average. 

| 


East Kimberley— 


Wyndham... iw 28s ie 55 27 32 
Hall’s Creek ».. ae ons ete ais 21 28 
West Kimberley— 
Derby ... bile ies ss ow ans 27 33 
Broome di sale ae ius 65 24 29 
North-West Diviston— 
Wallal de ss se ae eas 13 22 
Port Hedland sae asi sits 24 13 21 
Roebourne ... aa at sagen | 201), 12 32 
Onslow we aint ate ae 25 | 8:7 33 
Gascoyne Division— 
Carnarvon . 9°3 36 
Sharks Bay ... 9-2 25 
Hamelin Pool 7-9 33 
Wooramel 8-9 20 
S.W. Division— 
Abrolhos Pe es aids 25) 50 13-4 22 
Northampton wes ste | 52 20 37 
Geraldton he : 15 | 80 18-6 41 
Dongara x 30 | 70 19 26 
Yandanooka ... bes Aer Baer 9 Cl 18 ae 
Carnamah .... an is 880 | 


: 10 


AVERAGE RAINFALL—continued. 


Height | Average | Average | No. of 

Locality. above Sea| No. of | Rainfall, | Years of 

Level. |Wet days. | in Inches.| Average. 
Dandaragan ... ae ae a 80 26 31 
New Norcia ... até ae 600 he 21 36 
Moora ... = sas #60 or 75 18-5 21 
Wongan Hills Bibi hsb ag ja 17 6 
Gingin sits je as se ses 30-5 30 
Rottnest igs see vey ae 94 32 10 
Perth ... dee Like Se vies 110 34. 43 
Kalamunda ... se bes Sei ste 42 10 
Guildford ies =e ods 30 91 33 39 
Rockingham ... ee eel se 95 33 21 
Toodyay sii ae =i 470 at 21 39 
Dowerin we aie si ae oa 15 14 
Northam sie ah 34 491 80 16°7 38 
Kununoppin ... oi Ben a ae 13:3 6 
Tam min 3s ss ae 730 aE 14-3 7 
Kellerberrin ... eee ie 807 68 13 26 
York: 22s hae ate ants 580 88 17°5 42 
Narrogin ie ane is 1,114 ais 19-5 cee 
Wickepin oA aks ie Ae aie 16-7 7 
Williams Ls si sis ie sie 21 34 
Wagin wise ca yea 840 80 17°55 28 
Katanning... ee oe 1,022 90 18 27 
Kojonup Se ja8 see obs 90 22 34 
Bridgetown ... age aia 505 ads 33-7 31 
Canning Waterworks se site ss 41 31 
Jarrahdale ... se ie 128 ome | 45-8 36 
Pinjarrah igs sia 23h 28 ee 38 40 
Marradong ... or ad or 80 28 21 
Wickepin ar dé sit 92 17 7 
Collie ... sis re sie 604 w88) 38 19 
Bunbury ea aad ihe 18 sit 36 42 
Busselton sis ei at = me 31-4. 38 
Cape Leeuwin vis ie si ts 37 22 
Boyanup aise da wha 123 eis 33 23 
Karridale a re ove seg ee 49 25 
Cape Leeuwin ie ss 30 160 38-5 17 
The Warren ... cats eos Rn 168 41 15 
Mt. Barker ... aie a he 105 29°5 31 
Pallinup oe ha oh oat 74 14-5 shin 
Albany sis des sss aa 170 36 42 

Eastern Division— 
Lawlers see es ia oe 40 8 22 
Kalgoorlie... 86 ane ous 40 9:7 23 
Boorabbin .... $86 aut aid 60 7:5 aed 
Eucla Division— 

Esperance... ie ela sisi 100 25°3 39 
Israelite Bay ee eis = 60 15 34 
Balladonia ... sia sist wt 44 9-7 25 
Eyre ... vi sia re ss 65 112 15 
Eucla ... — we sn abe 60 10 43 


11 


Apart from the rainfall, which is thus seen to be fairly well 
distributed all over the coastal zone, the country is watered by 
means of springs, swamps, and brooks. Rivers are few, and, except 
in the South-West corner of the State, do not run all the year 
round; but they all form along their course chaplets of pools, which 
afford a supply of water for stock or for irrigation. 


Although the country, on the whole, looks somewhat lacking in 
fresh running streams, there is underground an immense store of 
water, which is reached by sinking wells, varying in depth from 
5ft. to 100ft. Many of those wells, however, more especially in the 
inland districts, are often too highly mineralised to be of any use 
for the purpose of watering plants. 


Soaks abound over the country, and almost invariably follow 
on the process of clearing land of trees prior to cultivating; wherein 
their presence is made manifest on the surface by the look of the 
green patches during the dry months, when all vegetation looks 
brown and languishing around; there water may be obtained by 
shallow excavation. Indeed, in the Eastern districts, some 100 
miles or more from the coast, and until wells and dams are sunk, 
soaks constitute the chief source of water supply. 


In those drier districts, strewed over the surface of the country, 
occur bold, bare outcrops of cap slab granite, from 10 to 100 feet 
in height, covering from 10 to 60 or 8M acres. These outcrops rise 
from sandy and loamy flats. Thev seem to have been provided by 
Nature for the conservation of water in that arid region. After 
even the lightest rainfall they shed water like a house-roof; in very 
many cases, somewhere at the foot of those denuded rocks, fresh- 
water soaks oceur in natural dams or basins filled with sand, which, 
when cleaned, supply for stock or for trees a valuable supply of 
fresh water. 

Nowhere in the South-West Division of Western Australia need 
fruit growing be checked by dearth of water, as, apart from natural 
sources of supply, any amount commensurate with the requirements 
of the orchardist can, at a reasonable cost and with little trouble, be 
impounded in tanks and dams excavated by means of a plough and 
an earth scoop. 


But, apart from the source of visible water, attempts made of 
late years to obtain fresh water by artesian boring have proved 
eminently successful. The first bore put down was in 1894, at 
Midland Junction, when, by means of a hand plant, an abundant 
supply was struck at a depth of 500ft., and the bore now discharges 
through a 4in. lining 260,000 gallons of water per day. 

Since then many more bores have been put down along the 
coastal plateau from the Greenough Plains to the Preston River. 
Brackish and mineralised water has been struck in several instances, 
but. as a rule, pure, fresh artesian water, suitable for all domestic 


12 


purposes and for irrigation, is struck at depths varying from 230 
to 1,000 feet. Around Guildford alone, four or five bores have 
been successfully sunk, the details of which are thus given in 
the Western Australian Year Book, published by the Registrar 
General :— 


“The Woodbridge Estate bore, completed in 1896, depth 236ft., 
cost £418; discharges at the surface 150,000 gallons per day. The 
Bebo Moro bore, 1896, put down to a depth of 308ft., cost £265; 
yield, 86,000 gallons per day. The Waterhall Estate bore cost £474, 
depth 691ft., with a daily supply of 194,000 gallons. The Lock- 
eridge hore, at a depth of 798ft., daily supply 123,000.  Guild- 
ford Municipal bore, 1,202ft., supply 1,000,000 gallons per diem. 
These figures are given to show that almost anywhere on the plains 
stretching between the hills and the sea artesian water can be struck 
at a moderate cost, wherein the height of the surface of the ground 
does not exceed 30ft. to 40ft. above the sea-level.” 

In many cases, however, especially in those districts with a scanty 
rainfall, more highly mineralised soil and indifferent drainage facili- 
ties, the advisableness of using artesian water or any water at all 
for the purpose of irrigation is one which should receive careful 
consideration, as it is well known that under such conditions irriga- 
tion almost invariably raises the salt line to an extent which may 
prove injurious to fruit-trees. 


SELECT VARIETIES OF FRUIT ACCORDING TO CLIMATE. 


In broad lines, the temperature and the rainfall of various 
regions of the State have been rapidly mapped ont. In both re- 
spects they are shown to be favourable to the successful cultivation 
of fruit-trees, from tropical as well as from temperate climates. 
The physical or the chemical characteristics of soils can be altered, 
but the main features of climates are always the same, and cannot 
be disregarded in the selection of crops. Thus, soil supplying the 
requirements of the grape vine may be met within Scotland, as 
well as in the most renowned districts of the south of Europe; yet 
malt liquors and whisky contribute to the wealth of the Scotel: 
farmers, and brandy and wines that of the vine-growers .of the 
sunny south. 

But apart from the influence of latitude, altitude and aspect 
also tend to modify climate. Snow is met with under the equator 
on mountains of high altitude. According.to the explorer Humbolt, 
the thermometer falls one degree for every 340ft. of elevation; and 
under the influence of this law the climate is cooler, and conse- 
quently fruits ripen later on the hills than they do in the low land. 
An instance of this is afforded along the trunk railway line running 
from the sea over the hills to the eastward. There we see that 
under the influence of otherwise similar climatic conditions the 
maturation of fruit crops and grapes is retarded by two or three 


13 


weeks on the Darling Ranges, at Mundaring or Chidlow’s Well, at 
an altitude of about 1,000ft. above the valley of the Swan. 

If we proceed another 100 miles eastward, we notice that this 
period of maturation of fruit is entirely reversed under the influence 
of intervening causes. 

At Tammin and Kellerberrin, for instance, with an altitude of 
200ft. only less than at Mundaring or Chidlow’s Well, and some 
750ft. above the Swan, grapes and fruits come to maturity a week 
or two earlier than they do on the coast. There the retarding 
influence of altitude is counterbalanced by the more active light, 
the lesser degree of air humidity, and probably by the greater degree 
of heat absorbed by the soil. 

Due consideration to local climatic conditions should, therefore, 
influence fruit-growers in the selection of what to plant, with the 
idea of avoiding a glutted market. Thus the settlers at a greater 
altitude within the influence of the coastal climate should cater for 
the later market, whereas those located further inland in the 
brighter but drier regions will, with earlier varieties, have a good 
hold of the early market. But here, again, other points have to be 
considered, and good carrying capabilities must not entirely be over- 
looked when seeking for earliness in ripening. 

Aspect will also modify the climate to some extent. Many 
tender plants will thrive in sheltered spots which would succumb to 
exposure to the rigours of the climate only a short distance away. 
Low lying damp hollows subject to late ground frosts often prove 
fatal to potatoes or to those vines which break into leaf early in the 
season, although these would have been quite safe on a warmer slope 
only a stone's throw distant. Then again an eastern aspect, other 
things being equal, will generally hasten the ripening of fruit by 
several days. Clay bands or ridges of rocks running across a field 
will, by throwing up the water, often modify the climatic conditions 
either for good or evil within a row or two. 

Exposure to winds, the colour and the texture of the soil, or 
in other words, its power of absorbing and of retaining heat and 
moisture are all factors which to some extent modify a local climate. 


OUR SOILS. 


Great stress has been laid on the merits of the climate of the 
several districts of Western Australia capable of producing fruit, 
but, before pronouncing on the suitability of any given area, either 
for agricultural purposes, or more especially fruit growing—a branch 
of agriculture which is being more particularly discussed in these 
pages—the fact that the soil is in some measure suitable for the 
purpose one has in view, must be ascertained. 

In the pursuit of fruit-growing, soil must give precedence to 
climate in as much as the first can, by means of judicious manuring 


14 


and cultivation, be made to lend itself to the special requirements 
of the plant, whereas in the second instance, the welfare and pro- 
ductiveness of the plant is mainly dependent upon the nature and 
peculiarity of the climate. 

It is a well-known fact that soils are more or less suited to 
different sorts of trees, and it is one of the leading features of 
Western Australia that the nature and character of the soil is 
extremely variable; the line of demarcation of one kind being in 
many instances somewhat abrupt and sharp in its delimitation. On 
closer examination, however, the soils which are met with in the 
agricultural districts of this State belong to only a few well-defined 
types. These are often intermixed together in various ways, and 
cover, generally speaking, small areas only. Their recurrence at 
frequent intervals, according to the contour of the locality, lends to 
the country a motley appearance; a characteristic which has been 
appropriately expressed by the word “patchy,” which applies more 
or less to the whole of the territory comprised in the South-West of 
Western Australia. Most conspicuous amongst the soils of that 
division are the following :— 


TRoNSTONE GRAVEL. 

With which the Darling Ranges are mostly covered. The soil 
consists of ferruginous claystones, or laterite ironstone, showing as 
coarse pea gravel, varying in size from that of shot to that of 
marbles. In colour it varies from a light yellow to a dark red, 
according to the amount of oxide of iron it contains. It is generally 
mixed with a fertile loam, the result of its own disintegration, or it 
consolidates into a hard conglomerate which, broken up, makes a 
very good top dressing for roads. 

Where mixed with a fair proportion of loam, this soil is capable 
of producing a high-class wine, clean {o the taste, rich in colour, 
and of pleasant bouquet. Fruit trees generally do well on it. Gener- 
ally speaking, it is costly to clear and, on account of the uneven- 
ness of the surface, cultivation in many places is rendered difficult. 

This ironstone gravel is generally well drained and easily pene- 
trated by plant roots. It is poor in lime and also requires liberal 
applications of phosphates and of potash. Good results have been 
obtained by using explosives to erack the subsoil where it is in- 
tended to set trees, or by blasting the ground in the winter in 
proximity of trees already planted. By this means the pipe-clay or 
the rocks which constituie the subsoil are fissured and a deeper 
range is provided for the roots. 

In gullies and in favoured spots a rich deposit of brown and 
red loam, varying in depth from 6 to 24 inches, cover this soil, and 
wherever land of that description occurs, fruit trees or vines bear 
well and thrive. 


15 


The predominant bush plants or standing forest trees generally 
give an indication of the nature of the soil and of the subsoil. The 
gravelly ironstone is generally known as “jarrah” country (Eucalyp- 
tus marginata, Smith). Where there is a certain depth of brown 
loam on the surface, the jarrah is associated with the native grass- 
tree or “blackboy” (Xanthorrhoea), of which there exists two dis- 
tinct varieties. Pockets of deep loam amongst the ironstone gravel 
are indicated by the presence of the red gum tree called “marri” by 
the natives (E. calophylla, R. Brown). which is widely distributed 
on the coastal and hill portion of the South-West. 


The blossoming time of this gum is of partieular interest to 
the fruit grower or the vintner. An early and abundant blossoming 
—February and March—means little damage to grapes, figs. apri- 
cots, cherries, ete., by the birds generally known as “honev suckers.” 
When the blossoming, on the other hand, does not coincide with 
the time of ripening of some of the varieties of fruit named, the 
damage resulting from the bird pest is more or less apparent. 


Where jarrah, red gum, and blackboys grow together and 
attain large proportions, the soil is deeper. well-drained. fertile, and 
suitable in every way for the purpose of fruit and vine-growing. 
The “blackbutt” (E. patens, Bentham) is at intervals met with 
amongst these trees on the better class of soil. This tree is very 
hard to burn or to split. A few shots of gelignite in the trunk are 
of great assistance when burning. The occurrence of pipe-clay. 
either on the surface or at a shallow depth, is revealed by the pre- 
sence of White gum tree or Wandoo (£. redunca, Schauer). White 
gum alone is an indication of a cold. retentive porridge made up of 
pipe-clay and gritty sand. soft and slushy in the winter months and 
hard in the dry summer season. Small blackbovs growing amongst 
white gums are an evidence of the presence of this stratum of loam 
on the surface, and, similarly, jarrah and white gum are indicative 
of a mixture of ironstone gravel and pipe-clay. Lime and phos- 
phates, associated with drainage, are necessary for the raising of 
good crops on such soil. 


Over the same area frequent outbursts of trap rock and vol- 
canic dykes run through the country or occur in patches. and are 
easily recognised by the occurrence of boulders of blue metal em- 
bedded in a rich red loam of volcanic origin. Where such dykes 
occur, or appear as if churned up with the ironstone gravel, trees 
and all sorts of crops grow well, and oranges thrive splendidly, 
particularly when watered in the summer time. 


In the gullies alongside the brooks and around the springs. as 
well as on low alluvial soil bordering water-courses. the Flooded 
gums, often associated with blackboys. mark out fertile strips of 
land, rieher in potash, but which after a few years cropping require 


16 


the application of phosphates. In the south-west the Yate tree 
(Z. cornuta, La Billardiére) grows on such land. 

Fresh water can be obtained almost anywhere on this forma- 
tion at a depth of 12-35ft. on reaching the pipe-clay bottom, whilst 
springs often break out on their own accord after ring-barking the 
forest trees or clearing the land for cultivation. 


CHOCOLATE SOIL. 


Known locally as the “jam” land along the Avon valley and 
Great Southern Railway, or “wattle” country on the Irwin-Chapman 
and other northern areas. This kind of soil is very widely distri- 
buted, and extends from the Murchison and the Irwin over the 
Victoria Plains, up the Avon Valley to Wagin and Katanning. It 
is overgrown at the north by the “wattle,” and southwards by the 
“raspberry jam tree,” a kind of Myall (Acacia acuminata, Ben-- 
tham). On the whole, this belt of country is drier than the preced- 
ing one, but much easier to clear and to cultivate, and eminently 
suitable for the cultivation of fruit-trees and vines, as well as of 
cereal crops and mixed farming. 

The soil consists of a chocolate loam, sometimes of great depth, 
varying in texture from a heavy loam, where in its natural state the 
“York gum” tree (E. loxophleba, Bentham) predominates over the 
wattle or the jam tree. Such land makes splendid corn land, and is 
more generally found on the slopes of the undulating country which 
constitutes its home. On the flats the soil is often of a lighter 
character, and there the wattle or the jam bushes predominate. On 
the river banks and in patches over the country, a lighter loam still 
is found and is generally overgrown by the above-named trees, in 
company with the banksias, of which there exists several varieties, 
and at times with the “sheaoaks” (Casuarinas) and the broom bush 
or “stinkwood” (Jacksonia cupulifera), which generally indicates a 
moist soil, Cattle and horses, as well as sheep and goats, like the 
foliage of this pasture bush. 

Considered on the whole, the chocolate loam or wattle and jam 
or York gum land is one of the best balanced in the elements of 
plant food in the South-West districts of the State, and were it not 
for, in some seasons, a scanty rainfall, would carry enormous crops 
of grain, hay, or fruit. Fields not long cleared and cultivated yield, 
in average seasons 16-26 bushels of wheat to the acre, and 30-40 
ewts. of hay. Richer patches of land occur in this country, where 
the ‘‘manna gum’’ tree grows (Acacia microbotrya), noted for the 
gum it yields. Those patches are generally of voleanie origin and of 
great fertility; blackboys of very large size also grow on such soil. 
At places over that country salt patches are not uncommon, and 
generally follow up the clearing of the land. Their occurrence is 


17 


more noticeable in what would have been the most fertile land in 
the field, in hollows, or at the base of sloping ground, where these 
salts accumulate. 


SaLt PatcHEs 


Two sorts of salt patches occur in the drier regions of the State: 
the “white” patches caused by formation of crust or efflorescences on 
the surface of the soil of salts, which present the appearance of 
hoar frost on the ground. These salts mostly consist of common 
salt (chloride of sodium), with chlorides and sulphates of calcium 
and magnesium. Unless present in large quantities, these salts are 
comparatively harmless. 


The second, the “black” salt patches, are more injurious to veve- 
tation, and in addition to common salt contain Glauber’s salt (sul- 
phate of soda), and with it a varying amount of a substance mest 
destructive to vegetable tissues, viz., carbonate of soda or sal. 
soda. The presence of this salt is always indieated by the colour of 
the soil in the black salt patches. The latter salt has, on the tissues 
of plants, a corrosive action; it- dissolves the humus contained in 
the soil, and thus gives it the characteristic black colour often 
noticeable in such patches. The presence of this chemical salt in 
the soils is, even in small quantities, detrimental to the growth of 
roots of the plant, whereas the salts found in the white patches are 
only injurious when their accumulation becomes excessive, especially 
at the surface. 


The reclamation of salt patches for the purpose cf bringing 
them under cultivation rests upon three chief points :— 


1. Draining to carry away the excess salt and preventing 
fresh amounts being drawn up from the subsoil below. This 
is the one efficacious and radical way of reclaiming salt 
patches of any sort. The underdrainage in deep hollows is 
not only often impracticable but is generally costly. Be- 
sides, there is often found, in conjunction with these 
noxious salts, other chemicals of high fertilising value, such 
as sulphates, nitrates, phosphates of potash and soda, which 
would run away to waste in the drains and be lost to the 
soil. Should this be the ease, it would in many instances be 
advisable to alter the poisonous substances in the soil and 
neutralise their injurious effect, so as to place them beyond 
the means of causing any injury, and this can be effected 
by— 


2. Neutralising the corrosive salts by means of chemicals and 
changing their nature into that of the more innocuous ones. 
To best effect this, some cheap substance, which by chemi- 


a 


18 


cally reacting on the sodium carbonate would transform it 
into an inactive salt, is necessary, and is readily found in ; 
gypsum or sulphate of lime, which by a mutual shuffling 
or interchange of the basie and acidic elements, become 
respectively carbonate of lime or limestone and sulphate 
of soda or Glauber’s salt. The gypsum, moreover, renders 
insoluble the humus taken up and dissolved by the car- 
bonate of soda, and thus retains it in the soil. 

3. The injurious substances having been neutralised, it is essen- 
tial to reduce the surface evaporation which would tend te 
accumulate on the surface layers the soluble salts sucked 
up by means of capillary attraction. This is best effected 
by means of deep cultivation, frequently repeated, and by 
growing crops which root deeply and cover the ground, and 
also salt-loving plants such as plants of the cabbage and 
of the beet tribe or such plants as asparagus, saltbushes, 
and a variety of others. By such means the successful and 
profitable cultivation of the soil would, in mild cases, be- 
come feasible. 


Besides neutralising the injurious effects of the carbonate of 
soda, gypsum has a correcting effect on the physical conditions of 
the soil, which often becomes glutinous and forms a clayey hardpan. 
It coagulates the glutinous substance formed by the carbonate and 
destroys the puddled condition of the clay, thus enabling the roots 
to penetrate and the waters to drain through such soils. 


Limits oF SALT In WATER. 


Where irrigation is contemplated it is advisable to have it chemi- 
cally tested, if the water available is from under the surface or from 
pools or lagoons and is brackish to the taste. 


It is generally considered that the maximum of salt which arable 
soil should contain is equivalent to .03 chlorine. 
As regards water, the amount of chloride of sodium in potable 
water for continuous use should not exceed :— 
For human consumption, 50-60 grains per gallon, or 4oz. 
For irrigation, 100 grains per gallon, or 1oz. 
For horses and cattle, 480 grains per gallon, or loz. 
For sheep, 600 grains per gallon, or 1'0z. 


These figures, which are suggested by Mr. FE. A. Mann, State. 
Analyst, can, however, as he explains, be stretched within certain 
limits, thus: for irrigation a more highly mineralised water van be 
used provided it be applied only occasionally and to the roots, so 
as not to burn the foliage during the hot, or summer weather. Stock 
also, on sappy food, can stand more salt in the water. 


19 


Forest ALLUVIUM LAND. 


Throughout the interior, from the Irwin towards the Eastern 
Goldfields railway line, and far beyond, stretches of country occur 
which are now mostly under tall Salmon Gum trees (E. salmono- 
phloia, F. von Miieller). These stretches of country were formed 
by running water wearing away the old rocks and carry img the finer 
soil down in their course and depositing it on the lower level. They 
show as large clayey and loamy flats, often many miles wide, of land 
of fine agricultural value. 

With the salmon gum is associated the Gimlet wood or fluted 
gum trees (EZ. salubris, F. von Miieller). Both these Eucalypti 
yield a large percentage (4 per cent.) of excellent oil on distillation 
of the leaves. and it would seem that the dropping of the leaves 
and bark on the surface of the soil has a noxious action on the 
natural herbage. Soon after the trees are destroyed, either by ring. 
barking or sapping, the natural grasses grow plentifully, and all 
this country, which until lately was reputed barren, has since been 
proved to constitute, when cleared, ploughed up, and brough under 
cultivation, corn Jand of great value. 

Wherever on these forest lands a few Morrell gum trees occur 
(E. longirostris), there the soil is richer still, and the ears of corn 
crops fill well and weigh heavy, as is the case when the land has 
been liberally dressed with phosphatie fertilisers. These soils 
would be benefited by green manuring or by feeding sheep on 
turnips in the field, to add to the store of humus. This formation 
rests on marl or limestone. All these trees burn readily, and on this 
account the cost of clearing is much reduced. As these lands occur 
in a somewhat arid zone of country, their true value has for a long 
time been overlooked. By means of water conservation in clay 
tanks, and after ring-barking, the look of that country soon im- 
rroves, a good growth of grasses and trefoil spring up, whieh turn 
the drought-stricken-looking forest land into nourishing pastures. 


Sanxpy Sorrs. 


Seattered more or less over the several formations above de- 
seribed, and especially in the intervening lower helt between the 
foot of the ranges and the sea. are patches of soil varying from a 
coloured sandy loam to a pure white vand. That country, which is 
apparently the result of a considerable subsidence of the coastal 
front. supyorts shrubs of different sorts, banksias. she oak (Casu- 
arina), bastard jarrah, and in places, where a clay or a gravelly 
subsoil is met, either white or red gums, with at times blackboys, 
and also near the coast the Willow Myrtle or Peppermint tree 
(Agonis flexuosa, de Candolle), and on the limestone coast hills east- 
ward of the Darling Range the tooart (E. gomphocephala, de Can- 
dolle). This land is of limited agricultural value, but in manv 
places the soil assumes a darker colour, varying from orange to 


20 


dark grey, and wherever limestone or a loamy subsoil underlays the 
sand at a small depth, and where the ground is moist, there vines 
and stone-fruit trees grow well when liberally manured. 


Swamps. 

Many swamps occur through these sandy patches where rushes, 
the “Paper bark” (Melaleuca lewcadendron, Linné), and ti-trees 
abound. These swamys can generally be drained, and when thus 
reclaimed can be turned into market gardens of great fertility. In 
many instances, especially along the coast, the soil is made of an 
accumulation of silt, mud, and vegetable detritus, which settling in 
the water collected in basins bottomed by calcareous hardpans, form 
a rich black mould. 

These hardpans consist of a conglomerate of greyish mud in 
which are thickly embedded fragments of sea-shells, and which after 
being subjected to the process of weathering, crumble down readily 
and assume the normal condition of a soil rich in lime, phosphates, 
potash, and organic matter. They prevent the penetration into the 
deeper soil of roots as well as of water, and their breaking up prior 
to the cultivation of those marshes is necessary wherever they occur 
close up to the surface. The pick or the crowbar readily breaks 
them up into lumps or slabs, but should they be found at a greater 
depth, one of the readiest and at the same time cheapest ways of 
breaking them up is by blasting with explosives, which so shatter 
and erack the hardpan that not only can roots penetrate through 
the clefts, but the stagnant water also sinks by gravitation, and the 
land is generally drained to such an extent that it gradually softens 
and crumbles down until ultimately the hardpan completely disap- 
pears. Where fruit-trees have already been planted without break- 
ing up this hardpan they sooner or later, whenever their roots reach 
the retentive hardpan, languish and flag; in such cases one or two 
cartridges of dynamite exploded on each side of the tree in the win- 
ter time when it it dormant will, without injuring the tree, remove 
the obstruction and bring relief. 

Fertilisers and manures will be necessary for the production of 
paying crops in sandy soils, z.e., field peas well manured and 
ploughed in when in blossom. 

Having been intermixed more or less, these several typical soils 
of the South-West division of Western Australia give rise to a 
greater variety of soils, some of which, like those of a sedimentary 
nature, occur along the course of existing or old river beds, usually 
deep, well drained, and fertile. 


RING-BARKING AND CLEARING LAND. 

Mr. L. Lindley-Cowen, late secretary of the then Bureau, now 
Department of Agriculture, thus summarises in this chapter the 
practice and the opinion of experienced settlers from various parts 
of the agricultural districts of this State:—“To new-comers unac- 


21 


quainted with the readiest methods of converting bush land into 
fruitful farms and orchards, much valuable information will be 
gathered from the teachings of others.” 

Following are the common and botanical names of the trees 
referred to in the returns on ring-barking reviewed below :— 

Jarrah (Hucalyptus marginata, Smith) 
Red Gum or Marri (E. calophylla, R. Brown) 
Flooded or ‘‘ Blue” Gum (Z. salinga, Smith) 
White Gum or Wandoo (2. redunca, Schauer) 
Spotted Gum or Bastard White Gum (Z£. accedens) 
Peppermint (.{gonis flexuosa, de Candolle) 
Yate (#. cornuta, La Billardi*re) 
Sheaoak (Casurina Fraseriana, Miguel) 
Paper bark (Melaleuca sp.) 
York Gum (£. lovrophleba, Bentham) 
Jam (Acacia accuminata, Bentham) 
Manna Gum (£. Viminalis, La Billardiére) 
Salmon Gum (Z. salmonophioia, F. von Miieller) 
Morrell, or Parker’s Gum, or Mallee of Victoria (Z. oleosa, 

F. von Miller) 
Fluted Gum, or Gimlet Wood (Z. salubris, F. von Miller) 
Mallet (#. occidentalis) 
Blackboy (Xanthorrhea) 
Wattle ( Acacia leiophylla, Bentham) 

»  Badjong (1. microbotrya, Bentham) 
Karri (EH. diversicolor, F. von Miieller) 
Spearwood (£. Doratoxylon, F. von Miller) 
Tooart (Z. gomphocephala, de Candolle) 
Blackbutt (H. patens, Bentham) 
Zamia (Cycas Sp.) 

The object of ring-barking or of sap-ringing is to kill the trees, 
in order that the pasture and water supply may be improved, and 
to facilitate clearing in the future. 

Trees are destroyed by ring-harking when a belt of bark 
about a foot in width 
is taken off the stem, 
whilst sap-ringing con- 
sists in cutting into 
the sap or outer wood 
of the tree as well as 
taking off the bark. 
\ The illustration here- 
” SAP-RINGING with shows the different 
\ methods, and on per- 
usal of the following 
pages it will be found 
which varieties of trees, 
in the opinion of old 
colonists in various dis- 
tricts, should be ring-barked and which sap-ringed. 

When setting about ring-barking and clearing, a few trees 
should be left standing. Shade is quite as grateful in the hot 
summer months to stock as feed. 


22 


SoutTH-\WeEsTERN DIstricr. 


Varieties of Trees—Jarrah, red gum, flooded gum, banksia, 
white gum, blue gum, peppermint, vate, blackbutt. 


Method and Time of Destruction——Great diversity of opinion 
exists apparently, both as to the method of killing the trees, 
whether by ring-barking or sap-ringing, and also as to the period 
of the year during which the work should be done. There is, how- 
ever, a Unanimous opinion that jarrah, red gum, banksia, and black- 
butt should be destroyed by ring-barking, and yate, peppermint, and 
flooded gum ly sap-ringing. In the ease of blue gums the advo- 
eates of sapping and ring-barking are equally divided, while in 
the case of white gums the advocates of ring-barking are in a large 
majority. Our correspondent does not enumerate the trees in his 
locality (Bridgetown), but advises “all to sap when the trees are in 
flower”; while another correspondent would “advise all new-comers 
to adopt ring-barking.” 


In regard to the time of the vear when the ring-barking or 
sapping should be done, there is a wide range of opinion. All the 
months in the year are recommended, except April, May, and June. 
There is a slight preponderance of opinion in favour of ring-barking 
the trees from October to February. One correspondent at Jayes 
reports having killed jarrah and white gum in three days by ring- 
barking in February. July to October apjears to be the best 
period for destroying the red gum; January, February, and March 
for the blue gum, white gum, flooded gum, peppermint, yate, and 
black-butt. All, with one excertion, ueree that the banksia may be 
killed by ring-barking at any period of the year, the dissentient 
being in favour of the months of January, February, and March. 


Yate requires ringing in January, as if rung at that time it 
will die in a few days, and will not throw up suckers, which it will 
do if rung in winter months. . . . . . White gum you can 
ring at any time when the bark strips freely; in fact, it is no use 
ringing any tree if it will not bark freely. 


Blackboys.—The grazing capacity of land is much increased 
by cutting down blackboys or grass trees or chopping off their head. 
Stock much prefer cleared land and grass, trefoil and herhage 
soon become noticeable. Where the cost of handling and railing 
blackboys permit of their trucking to some distance, it is found 
that a ready market now exists for them. The Rowley Forest 
Laboratory at Maylands is capable of handling large quantities of 
these at their works, which is concerned with the extraction from 
Blaeckboy and Zamia of sago, tar, colouring dyes, perfume, ete. 


*(MIOYLLOYIUDN) dol, ssely 10 skoqqov[a 


23 


Murray District. 


Varieties of Timber.—Jarrah, red gum, blue gum, banksia, shea- 
oak, paper bark, wild pear tree. 


Method and time of destruction—Jarrah, ring-barking. Red 
gum, Mr. Richardson recommends ring-barking, while the Murray 
Horticultural Society recommends sapping. Blue gum, sheaoak, 
paper bark, wild pear, sapping; banksia, ring-barking. 

August to December for all trees except banksia, which may 
be rung at any time, and paper bark and wild pear, the best period 
for ringing these being returned as doubtful. “The blue gum can 
be killed at any time of the year within 24 hours if it is properly 
sapped,’ according to the Murray Horticultural Society’s return. 
The honorary secretary of this society, in returning the form, 
writes:—“It is the general opinion here that ring-barking and 
saprping tends to toughen the roots of the trees, making the trees 
harder to pull up for some time after, so if you cannot afford to 
wait for two or three years to allow the roots to rot it is a better 
plan to pull up the trees green, as the heavy tops help to bring 
them down. But having waited the time mentioned, the clearing 
of land is made all the easier, as the trees come down willingly.” 


Great SourHern Ratiway District. 
Varieties of Trees—White gum, York gum, jarrah, jam, shea- 
oak, stinkwort, wanna gum, flooded gum, red gum, yate, salmon 
gum, Parker’s gum or morrell, mallett or fluted gum. 


Method and time of destruction—Sapping is recommended 
for all the trees mentioned above with the exception of the salmon 
gum, which our correspondent advises should be ring-barked. York 
gum and flooded gum are liable to throw up suckers, it is said in 
another return. “Sap ringing is desirable in each case for immedi- 
ate results, but ring-harking is preferable if one can afford to wait 
the results for say four years.”_Wagin-Arthur Farmers’ Alliance. 
The Katanning Farmers’ Association advocates destroying the white 
gum and jarrah either by ring-barking or burning around the butts; 
and ring-barking, jam, sheaoak, and manna gum, and sapping 
York and flooded gums. Stinkwood if eut down dies out. York 
gum and jam should be rung when the sap is well up. The bark 
will then fall off every limb and the roots can be burnt right out. 
Flooded gum is very difficult to kill. Firing round the trunk in 
the month of March very often has the desired effect. Two corres- 
pondents state their exj:erience has shown that ring-barking and 
sapy ing may be carried on all the year round with successful results 
if the work is properly performed. The Wagin-Arthur Farmers’ 
Alliance advises that the work should be done during December, 
January and February, while the Katanning Farmers’ Association 
advocates ring-barking or sapping, as the case may be, in Septem- 


24 


ber and October, for all trees except manna gum; the period for 
this variety being extended from September to March. Sheaoak 
may be treated at any time. 


YorkK DIsvrict. 


Varieties of Treés-—York gum, white guni, salmon gum, jam, 
blue bush, native cassia, manna gum, morrell gum, flooded gum, 
sheaoak. 

Method and time of destruction—-The Beverley branch advises 
ring-barking all the eucalypti, while the York branch advocates 
sapping without any reservation. The Greenhills Progress Asso- 
elation advises that old York gum trees should be sap-ringed, and 
that young ones should be ring-barked; that white gum, salmon 
gum, cassia, and jam should be sap-ringed, and that the blue bush 
should be cut down. It will thus be seen there is a preponderance 
of opinion in favour of sap-ringine. 

From January to April is the opinion of the York and Bever- 
ley branches for ring-barking or sapping all trees, while the Green- 
hills Association advises November to April for ring-barking York 
gum, and May to October for sapping this tree. November to May 
is the period advised for destroying white gum and cassia, and 
“any month” for the remaining trees. 


Mr. W. Padbury filled in a return embracing his experience 
in the Eastern Districts, the Victoria Plains, and at Yatheroo. His 
remarks may be inserted here. He says:—“I would not cut through 
the sap of trees on land I wanted to cultivate; as when the tree 
is dead and the tree-puller is put on to it, if it has been eut 
through the sap, it is liable to break off and leave the stump in the 
ground. I prefer using the tree-puller in clearing, to the ordinary 
erubbing, as it pulls more roots clean out, and in ploughing after- 
wards you do not find so many obstructions. For red gums, white 
gums, salmon gums, and York gums, I find sapping the best, and 
the time I do it is as soon as the bark will run after the first 
winter rains until the sap goes down again. With flooded gums I 
find you must eut through the sap, as they will not die otherwise. 
My experience is that trees that have been sap-ringed do not 
generally throw out so many. suckers. Some trees takes two or 
three years to die, according to the nature of the tree and the land 
on which it grows. I think when the sap is well up, say Septem- 
ber, October, and November, is the best time for ring-barking, as 
the tree dies more quickly if the work is done at this time.” 


Effect of the destruction of the trees upon the water supply and 
growth of native grasses —There is an unanimous opinion expressed 
that a most marked increase takes place in both the water supply 
and the number and vitality of the native grasses that spring up 
after the trees have been dstroyed. 


und Jarrah forest ring-barked prior to clearing. 


(Red Gum) 


Marri 


25 


Norroam District. 

Varieties of Trees.—York gum, jam, morrell, white gum, gimlet 
wood, salmon gum, manna gum, wattles, sheaoaks, flooded gum. 

Method and time of destruction——-Mr. Gregory advises ringing 
salmon and flooded gums, sheaoak, and jam, and sapping white and 
York gums. This, in the main, is also the advice of the Irishtown 
branch, while Mr. Throssell advises sapping all the trees except the 
jam, which should be rung. Mr. Dempster furnishes an interesting 
note on the destruction of York gum. He writes:—‘All trees 
or serub ean be killed at once by sapping, but the ‘York gum 
throws out shoots for years after the top of the tree has been 
killed, and the cost of keeping under the suckers is more than that 
of ringing in the first instance. I have not yet met anyone who can 
speak positively as to the best time of the year for ringing these 
trees. Occasionally some die, and give no further trouble, but as a 
rule they will not, under the present system. Killing the tree slowly 
by barking, I think, is the most effectual. I have an idea, sup- 
ported by facts, that goes to prove that by killing the tree slowly 
the strength returns to the soil, for the best results I have ever seen 
from ringing have been by the slow process.” 


Toopyay District. 


Varieties of Trees—White gum, jam, York gum, red gum. 

Method and time of destruction—White gum, ring-barking; 
York gum, ring-barking or sapping; jam, sapping; red gum, not 
stated. 

White gum should be destroyed from September to October; 
York gum, February to March; jam, at any time; red gum, not 
stated. The secretary adds in a note: “The branch is of the 
opinion that the red gum should never be interfered with on the 
pastoral lands, as these trees do not ue any harm to the feed and 
are invaluable as shade.” 


Cost per acre of clearing before and after the destruction of 
the timber.—Before, £3; after, £2 10s. to £2 15s. The secretary 
writes as follows:—‘For agricultural purposes, the branch is of the 
opinion that grubbing when the timber is green is preferable to 
killing the timber by ring-barking or sapping before clearing. The 
cost per acre of clearing after ring-barking is from 5s. to 10s. less, 
but this is from two to three years after the ring-barking has been 
done.” 

GERALDTON DISTRICT. 


Varieties of Trees—Wattles, York gum, jam, flooded gum. 

Method and time of destruction—Wattles, York gum, and jam, 
by ring-barking; flooded gum by sapping. 

November or December, when the sap is down, is returned as 
the best time for destroying the trees. 


26 


Effect of the destruction of trees upon the water supply and 
growth of native grasses—The effect is very great upon the water 
supply. Even within six months after ringing, the supply gets 
stronger; the grass grows thicker and is appreciated more by stock. 

Mr. McKenzie Grant, Newmarracarra, writes :—‘Ring-barking 
I find is only the beginning of clearing the land, as the saplings and 
young shoots keep springing up, and have to be grubbed out year 
after year.” 

Cost per acre of ring-barking, sapping, and clearing.—The 
clearing of the land ready for the plough, either for farming or for 
fruit growing, is much reduced after the timber has been killed by 
ring-barking or sapping. A better burn is secured, the toil of grub- 
bing out the trees is lessened, and when felled the dead roots displace 
and bring up to the surface a smaller quantity of the raw subsoil. 

“Ring-barking” consists in cutting around the siem and through 
the bark to the growing wood a double ring eight or nine inches 
apart and with the back of the axe knocking out the strip ring 
between. This will interfere with the downward flow of the sap 
and the trees first linger and then die. 

“Sap ringing” consists in driving the axe through the bark and 
the eambium or growing wood in two rings likewise a few inches 
apart. This operation causes the trees to die quicker, but sometimes 
results in suckers growing round the butt. 

“Frill ringing” in done by driving the axe through bark and 
cambium round the stem, pressing oulward at the same time. This 
done, a solution of arsenic is poured into the fresh wound with the 
view of poisoning both ascending and descending sap, and leads 
to the speedy killing of the tree and the prevention of suckering. 


The average cost per acre of frill-ringing, sapping, and ring- 
barking is 1s., 2s., and 3s. respectively, and this small expenditure 
reduces the cost of clearing, after the timber has been cleared, fully 
one-half. 

As regards clearing proper, the cost ranges from £1 5s. per 
acre, when the trees are simply removed by the method known as 
“Mullenising” or burning on the spot, without grubbing out the 
roots, to £25 and £30 per acre,as in the case of mixed Karri and Red 
gum serub in the south-west portion of the State. The cost in each 
case is governed by the character and density of the trees and the 
skill of the bushman, and no estimate of the cost ean be given. The 
use of explosives, traction. engines, and of tree pullers, by reducing 
the cost, nas made it possible to clear trees, roots, tops, and all at 
prices which under the old method of hand grubbing was absolutely 
out of reason. 

Tree clearing and water supply and growth of native grasses.— 
There is a decided consensus of opinion that the destruction of tim- 


27 


ber improves both the water supply and the growth of the native 
grasses. 


Especially is this noticeable on the Salmon gum country, which 
prior to killing the timber is devoid of herbage. The effect is strik- 
ing, as different species of grasses put in an appearance the first 
winter afler the timber has been ring-barked and grow luxuriantly. 
Since this fact has been demonstrated the salmon gum forest Jand 
has come into great favour. 


The effect is also very great upon the water supply. Even 
within a few months after ringing, the supply of subsurface water 
gets stronger. 


Jam acacia in the Avon Valley and along the Great Southern 
Railway seems to be the only tree around which grass grows and 
keeps green to any extent, and on that account, and because of the 
value of the wood for fencing posts, it is generally allowed to grow 
on farms in the making. 


CLEARING : HOW TO DO IT, AND HOW NOT TO Do IT. 


The removal of timber from virgin land preparatory to 
ploughing, is known in Australia as ‘‘grubbing and clearing.’?’ 
The cost of doing this -vork, of course, varies very greatly, as will 
have been gathered from the earlier chapters. The chief 
factor in the cost of clearing 1s the quantity of timber that 
has to be removed, and there are also subsidiary causes which 
regulate the price at which the work ean be done, as, for instance, 
the nature of the soil, the time of the year at which the work is 
carried on, the variety of timber, the proximity to the labour 
market, and the mechanical aids that may be employed. Taking 
all these things into consideration, and speaking generally, the 
spring and early summer are the best periods of the year. in which 
to do this work. If the iand is clay, or at all inclined to be stiff, 
it will have been well soaked by the winter rains, and be easier 
to remove from around the roots of the trees. Land cleared in the 
spring and ploughed the same season is less prone to throw up 
suckers from the fragments of roots that are bound to be left on 
the ground, no matter how carefully the work is done, than land 
cleared or ploughed in the autumn or winter. Another advantage 
of clearing in spring and early summer is that the rains are less 
frequent and the timber has a hetter chance of burning. Light 
sandy soil covered with banksia and other woods that burn readily, 
may be cleared at any time of the year. The new settler may think 
that anyone who has sufficient strength can do grubbing and clear- 
ing as well as the next one. This is a great mistake. One cannot 
exalt clearing into an art or a science, but there is a knack in 
doing the work that, simple as it looks, requires a good deal of 


28 


practice before one can become master of it. So much is this the 
ease that if the inexperienced settler has the money at his com- 
mand, it is wise for him to get this most laborious work done by 
contract. 


If he has not, and is compelled to do the work himself, the 
hints conveyed in the following notes may be of use to him. If I 
now give, in skeleton form, the outline of a specification for clear- 
ing, it will, I think, with a little explanation, convey to the mind 
of the new settler the chief features of the work that has to be 
done, and the proper way in which it should be performed :— 


1. All trees to be grubbed completely round and out to a 
depth of not less than 18 inches, and all roots to be 
run to the same depth, or until they can be broken 
by the hand. 

2. All underground blackboys to be grubbed out below the 
crown. 

3. All zamia palms to be grubbed and completely removed 
from the ground. ; 

4. All serub large enough to impede the progress of the 
plough, or that cannot be completely turned in in 
ploughing, to be grubbed out. 

5. The timber and serub, after having been grubbed, to be 
burnt, and the ashes spread as far as they can be cast. 

6. All wood not absolutely required for burning the butts 
and stumps of trees, to be left on the ground. 

7. No holes to be filled in until they have been examined by 

or his agent; when passed, to be filled in three 
inches above the level of the surrounding ground. 

8. The whole of the ground to be left ready for the plough, 
‘and the contract to be completed in a workmanlike 
manner on or hefore . 

9, If the contract is not completed on or before the date 
abovementioned a penalty of shillings per day 
for every day over the specified time, to be paid by 
the contractors, and deducted from any money that 
may be due to them. 


Such is the rough framework of a specification for a grubbing 
and elearing contract. The first clause is self-explanatory. ‘The 
secoud and third clauses refer only to that part of the country 
where zamia palms and underground blackboys are to be found. 
The latter, if not grubbed well below the crown, that is, 1.here the 
leaves sheot from the bole wil! continue to spring up perennially. 


Clanses 4 and 5 need no explanation, unless it is to say that 
the reason for having the ashes spread is that they are a 
valuable potash manure, and should be made as much use of, and 


29 


spread over as large a surface of ground as possible. Clause 6 is 
inserted at discretion. If work is very plentiful, and the settler 
has a large area, it may be omitted; but if the area is 100 acres 
or less, the economy of firewood cannot begin too soon. It may 
appear to the settler that there is plenty of wood for all the 
world, and for ever; but even if there was, there is no sense in 
wasting it. There is no sense in wasting anything, so far as my 
experience goes. But, as a matter of fact, it does not take very 
long, if clearing is vigorously pursued, to exhaust the wood sup- 
plies on a 100-acre farin; for it must be borne in mind that, even 
with the most careful management, about 80 per cent. of what 
would otherwise be available for firewood has to be used in burn- 
ing the trunks and butts of trees that cannot be utilised. 


It is important that no holes should be filled until they have 
been examined for roots, and when they are filled in they should 
be heaped up a little, in order to allow for the settling down of 
the loose soil that must eventually take place. It is for the person 
letting the contract to say whether he will supply tree pullers, 
tools, explosives, and rations. As a rule, the contractors supply 
themselves with all these things, and it is better, as it saves 
possible complications, that they should. 


Before going any further, I should like to impress upon the 
minds of not only new settlers, but old settlers also, the desirable- 
ness of having all contracts made in writing. Memory is so apt 
to play us false; black and white, never. The risks to both sides 
of acting upon a verbal agreement are infinitely greater than 
committing oneself to any serious error in signing a written con- 
tract that has been mutually agreed upon. 


To return to clearing, and the new and inexperienced settler 
who has, perforce, to undertake the work himself. 


On clearing the lighter soils, which generally, in this State, 
mean lighter and easily removed timber, there is very little to be 
said. Common sense in this, as in everything else. must be the 
settler's best guide. It may be that it will be considered desirable, 
the first year, to leave all the large timber standing, in which case 
it should be ring-barked at once, no matter what time of the year 
—and grub out only the small stuff, sav 12 inches in diameter and 
under. If the Jarge trees are not too thick, this can be done with 
advantage, and the ground ean be ploughed—‘‘scruffed up’’ is the 
better expression, as it is hardly ploughing, under the cireum- 
stances—with a stump-jump plough. This plough, as its name 
implies. is constructed in such a manner as to permit ground of 
the very roughest kind being worked. If an obstacle which cannot 
be cut through is encountered by the share, the movable beam is 
raised by the tractive force, and, after the obstacle is passed, the 


30 


share falls into the land again and recommences work. The stump- 
jump plough is, however, an expensive item—a double-furrow 
costing about £17, and a treble-furrow £23—the small settler will 


Stump-jump plough. 


be hardly able to afford, and unless he can get the work done by 
contract, an ordinary single-furrow plough will have to be called 
into requisition. Ploughing only partially cleared land with a 
single-furrow rigid plough is a most exhilarating, but not alto- 


31 


gether satisfactory, operation, but still it can be done with a 
little care and without damaging the implement. If the land is to 
be cleared outright at once, which is by far the best way, if time 
and means permit, the settler must gird up his loins and make up 
his mind to tackle the job bravely. If a big tree has to be got out, 


? 
Weighs aks 
i Lustusastiinn; 5 huge 


YAS 


it is no use playing round the roots. Dig the soil away well round 
the tree, so that you have plenty of room to work. There is nothing 
gained by chopping off the roots close by the trunk, for you must 
remember that every root has to be traced until it is well out of 
the way of the plough that is to follow clearing. Again, the tap 
root has to be got at, and this cannot be done unless you give 
yourself ample room to work round and under the tree. If the 
tree has plenty of top, when the main lateral roots are cut, in all 
probability it will fall; but if there is little or no top, then either 
the tap root will have to be eut, or the agency of fire will have to 
be invoked. Don't be too ready with the fire stick. Grub well 
round the tree to the full depth before you think of starting the 
fire. Once you have started your fire, do not think of letting it 
go out. Clearing is not eight-hours-a-day work. Last thing at 
night and first thing in the morning the fires have to be gone round 
and put together. <A sapling from six to seven feet long is used 
as a lever for putting the logs together whilst burning. 


A second and more expeditious method of clearing is by means 
of a tree-puller or ‘‘forest-devil.’’ Several of these machines, 
both for horse and man power, have been invented and perfected 
in this State, and will be foand satisfactory in everv way. Where 
clearing has to be done quickly and on a large scale, the tree-puller 
is almost indispensable; but on a small piece of land, and especially 
when it is intended for vines or fruit trees, I am inclined to think 


32 


that the slight extra cost of clearing entirely by hand is money 
saved in the long run. 

A third method is by the use of ‘‘explosives,’’ and this I have 
found both expeditious and profitable, especially on ring-barked 
country where the timber is dead. I have always used dynamite 
in preference to either powder or rackarock, the only other ex- 
piosives I have tried. It is not necessary to use sufficient explosive 
to blow the tree down, but merely to loosen the ground about the 
roots and create a vent under the butt of the tree. When the 
timber is dead, a fire-stick will generally do the rest. A hole 
should be bored with a 134 or a two-inch auger, not in the butt 
of the tree, but immediately under it, in the fork of the roots. 
Augers 2ft. 6in. long may have a 15in. piece welded on by a black- 
smith so as to make the length 3ft. 9in. From Mlb. to lb. of dyna- 
mite, or preferably gelignite, will be quite sufficient to shake up the 
roots and create a vent for the fire under the largest tree. If the 
tree be a green red gum (marri) and very sappy, give the bore a 
slight incline for drainage. Press gently into the hole 3 to 9 plugs 
of gelignite, according to the size of the tree, and using a smooth 
wooden thumper and never an iron rod. In the last half-plug, 
which can be eut without danger, make a hole with the blade of 
a. knife and insert with care a ‘‘detonator.’’ Into this fit a piece 
of fuse a couple of inches longer than the hole, place inside the 
hole, pressing gently. Fill the hole with earth or sand gently 
pressed, fire, and retire to’a safe distance. The result of the ex- 
plosion is that the trunk is generally splintered to matchwood, and 
when dry, about March or April, if exploded before Christmas, will 
burn readily without stacking large quantities of small wood around 
the butt. The hole should be bored to pretty well the core unless the 
tree be pipy, in which case the charge will fizzle out without the 
necessary concussion to splinter the tree. 

Large and unwieldy stumps can be treated similarly. The 
most arduous part of this method is the boring of the holes which 
has hitherto been done by hand, but an ingenious boring plant 
carried from tree to tree on a wheelbarrow has lately been designed 
by Myr. Gordon Hester of the Blackwood, which does the work 
mechanically with notable speed and therefore at a greatly re- 
duced cost. 

On stiffish clay land, where the ground is very hard, a con- 
siderable saving in time, and consequently money, is effected as 
deseribed, to loosen the ground round the trees. Gelignite may be 
had in 5lb. packets, costing 8s, 9d.; detonators cost 1s. per doz., and 
fuse 1s. per coil, pre-war prices. 

At one time it was thought the royal road to-clearing had been 
found in the use of ‘‘saltpetre and kerosene.’’ I have tried the 
following method myself, but must say have only found it to be 
advantageous with timbers that will in any case burn readily. A 


Red Gum (Marri) before and after blasting. 


Government Traction Engine pulling forest trees on Soldiers’ Settlement 
blocks. 


Forest trees pulled down by Traction Engine. 


33 


hole, eighteen inches deep, is bored with a 114 inch auger down the 
centre of the stump after the tree has been felled. Into this hole 
two or more ounces of saltpetre are put, or it is filled up with 
kerosene and plugged up. In fine weather, in the spring, the plug 
is removed, and about a quarter of a pint of kerosene is put in if 
the saltpetre has been used, or the hole is again filled up with the 
oil, if oil has been previously applied. This being set on fire, it 
is said the stump will continue to burn away quietly until both 
stump and roots are consumed. Personally, I am of opinion that 
a little dynamite properly applied, or one of the other methods 
of clearing mentioned in this chapter, are cheaper and more satis- 
factory in the end, where the hard burning wood of Western 
Australia is concerned. 


There is a fourth method which is certainly the most ex- 
peditious, but it requires a large amount of capital, and would 
only pay where a large area of country had to be cleared. I refer 
to the use of ‘‘traction engines’’ fitted with long wire ropes, by 
means of which the trees can be pulled down as they stand with- 
out any preliminary preparation, and then ‘‘snigged’’ up into 
rows eight or ten chains apart, and there left for all time or to be 
burnt off at leisure. If this process 1s followed, there is nothing 
to do but to fill up the holes and set the stump-jump plough to 
work. 

This method of clearing land in the big timber country of the 
South-West has been carried out with much success by the Gov- 
ernment, a charge per working hour being made to cover the cost 
of wages, fuel, and depreciation. The chief objections raised are 
that trees sometimes snap under the strain of the wire rope and 
the stump has to be extracted. Moreover, when large size green 
trees are pulled down a great mass of the earth constituting the 
subsoil remains attached to the roots, leaving cavities in the 
ground which have to be filled with that cold, raw, tenacious soil. 


Burnina OFF. 


With some varieties of trees it is much easier to get them 
down than to get rid of them after they are down. This is 
particularly the case when the timber has not been previously 
killed by ring-barking. The usual method of getting rid of the 
timber is by burning it, first eutting the smaller limbs up into 
convenient lengths for handling with an axe or crosscut saw. The 
larger limbs and butts of the smaller trees should be also eut up 
and pulled up to the largest trunks by horse power. The mistake 
is sometimes made, by those who have not done this work before, 
of stacking up all the small timber on the trunks and setting fire 
to the whole lot at once. This should not be done except in the 
ease of trees that are dead and consequently dry, and ‘that are 


34 


known to burn freely. The fire should be diverted on one side and 
kept up as much as possible so as to drive out the sap or the 
moisture gradually. Burning olf is at best, under the most 
favourable circumstances, a tedious process, and though it may 
seem very slow work, it is quicker in the long run to economise 
the smaller stuff and add a little to the fires as needed. It 
occasionally happens, in spite of the greatest economy, there are 
still butts unburnt which are too large to be moved whole ana 
which cannot be split by the wedge and maul. When this occurs, 
it has to be decided whether it is cheaper to haul more timber to 
the spot or break up the butts by means of explosives. 

Another way which has been recommended to me, but which 
I have not tried, of getting rid of the huge butts of red gums and 
other trees that are full of sap and refuse to burn except under 
the most intense heat, is to throw earth up to them and treat them 
in the same manner as if burning chareoal, In burning off, in 
fact, in the whole operation of clearing for the plough, it should 
not be forgotten that it is one hundred per cent. labour, and in 
order to cheapen the process as much as possible, not cheap labour, 
which is very often dear labour in the long run, but mechanical 
appliances and every other available means should be employed 
to assist the capable labourer in his work. !n the rudimentary, but 
necessary, work of clearing, brains should come into play as well 
as hands. The foregoing remarks are not intended as a complete 
discourse on the whole art of clearing, but merely to indicate to 
the newcomer the several methods which may be followed with 
advantage. In this, as in everything else, a little practical experi- 
ence is of more value that a whole library of theory.” 


PREPARATION OF LAND FOR PLANTING. 


The locality of the future orchard or vineyard having been 
selected, and the land cleared on a site best suited for the purpose, 
a few words on the preparation of the land will be found of use. 

In this country where high winds must occasionally be ex- 
pected within the coastal zone, naturally sheltered sites should 
as much as possible be sought for. This will apply equally well 
to inland districts, where the hot scorching North-Easterly winds 
at times blight the tender foliage of plants. Fruit trees must have 
shelter. If nature does not offer it, artificial means will have to 
be resorted to. Deep gullies and damp, drafty hollows are as 
unsuitable for them as the denuded summit of exposed hills; it 
often happens that the blossoms will not set in either situation. 


Fruit land requires more thorough treatment than soil set 
apart for general farming cultivation. 

_ In planting a vineyard or an orehard, it should always be 

borne in mind that the work is being done for a long succession 


35 


of years, and that future success depends very much on the 
way it is first planted. No return will be expected for the heavy 
outlay it involves for the first two or three seasons, although for 
a long succession of years to come the grower may expect to he 
recouped for the money, thought, and care spent in first 
establishing the plantation. In order to achieve success, the 
work must be carried out thoroughly and intelligently. Be well 
impressed with the fact that a 20-acre vineyard or orchard, well 
planted and carefully tended, will produce a crop nearly as heavy 
as 40 or 50 acres of trees merely stuck in a soil badly drained, 
unaerated, and only partially stirred. The vines and trees, more- 
over, in the properly planted and thoroughly cultivated orchard 
or vineyard will be more luxuriant, longer-lived, the crop more 
healthy, more abundant, the produce will be easier to handle, 
superior in quality, while at the same time the toil, risks, and anxiety 
of the grower, will be considerably lessened. 


The nature of the soil influences appreciably the character of 
the produce, and, to a certain extent, the different classes of trees. 

The grape vine, for instance, although one of the hardiest of the 
cultivated plants, does not yield the same type of produce in all 
kinds of soil. 

A typical and congenial soil for vines and fruit trees is a 
friable, easily worked loam, deep in preference, with a healthy 
subsoil, naturally well drained, to which both air and warmth can 
penetrate from the outside, and which at the same time is 
sufficiently retentive of moisture to invigorate the roots of the 
plant and permit it to resist the severe droughts. Our red gum coun- 
try typifies that class of soil. 

The object the vine-grower has should, to a great degree, in- 
fluence his selection of soil for planting his vineyard. 

For table grapes and raisins it may be stated that the richer 
the soil the finer will the grapes be, and the more handsome the 
well-filled bunches, with well-set ewutlen berries. 

The choicer ‘‘wines’’ on the other hand, are produced in soil 
of a poorer description, especially on light sandy loams and iron- 
stone gravel. In the case of wine, it often happens that quantity 
is adverse to quality: on very rich alluvial flats, for instance, the 
must contains sometimes an excess of albuminous matter, which 
affects the keeping quality of the wines, while bouquet is lessened, 
and a peculiar earthy flavour, disagreeable to the palate and the 
nose, is distinctly perceptible. 

A sandy soil generally gives a dry thin wine, and if the season 
be moist the colour may be poor. The wines, however, produced 
on these soils are generally straight to the taste—that is to say, can 
be blended with most other wines, without changing their respective 
characters. 


36 


A heavy clay soil, on the other hand, produces a fuli-bodied 
wine, heavy, rich in extract, and in some cases may impart to it a 
peculiar taste known as an “earthy taste.” 

Between these two widely different soils, there are other inter- 
mediate ones that partake more or less of the character of the one 
or the other, according to the respective proportion of their sandy 
of their clayey constituents. 

On limestone formations, the wine will be delicate to the taste, 
with a fine brilliant colour and a pleasant flavour, which in the 
drier localities may be inclined to be fiery. 

Voleanie soils will produce vigorous dry wines. 

Besides the geological character of the land, the natural flora 
which cover it give some indication as to its suitableness for wine- 
growing and fruit-growing. 

A slope always assists drainage, but more especially in the 
drier districts of this State a vineyard always looks more luxuriant, 
and gives a better yield on the flats and on slightly undulating 
country, the reason being that during the long, dry and hot summers 
which sometimes prevail, the slopes often get too dry, and the vine 
suffers considerably. During the heavy downpours of rain, too, that 
come down occasionally, a quantity of soil is sometimes washed down 
the steep slopes, leaving the land denuded and deeply cut by the rush 
of water down the incline. 

In cooler climates, such as the centre of France and the 
banks of the Rhine, the slopes are generally planted in vines, in 
order to utilise the full amount of sunshine and warmth; but in 
this country of light and heat, shelter from the wind is of far 
greater importance, and should mostly be studied in establishing a 
vineyard or an orchard. 

Generally speaking, in our singularly genial climate and 
wherever moisture is_sufficient, many fruit trees will grow and 
produce some fruit in almost any soil, except dry, puré sand or wet 
undrained swamps. The several sorts of fruit trees grown, however, 
accommodate themselves more readily to the different classes of soils, 
and in that respect the likings of each kind should be studied and as 
far as possible satisfied. 

As a rule, the light sandy loam which is very prevalent, by 
reason of its warmth and the “available” plant food it 
contains, is quicker than stronger soils; it is also more easily 
cultivated, but it soon runs out, and vinloxy the drain on its 
store of plant food caused by continuous cropping is made good 
by applications of fertilisers, the vigour of the trees is checked, they 
are comparatively short-lived, and soon become unproductive. Such 
trees very often fall a prey to the attack of insect and fungoid 
pests, unless these are vigorously kept down. Peaches, nectarines, 
almonds, figs, vines, mulberries, melons, and tomatoes will, with eare 
and liberal manuring produce good crops on such soils. 


37 


Deep trenching, wherever the subsoil is of a heavy nature, or 
top-dressing with clay, swamp or river mud, or farmyard manure 
will considerably alter and improve the texture of such soils. So 
also will green manuring or the ploughing in of some green crop, 
preferably a leguminous crop which is a cheap nitrogen gatherer. 


A deep gravelly loam constitutes a better orchard soil, and the 
hardier fruits will do well on it provided the climate suits. 


Strong loams are about the best all-round orchard soils. The 
trees grown on them do not, as a rule, bear quite so early as on 
more sandy loams, as the growth of wood is more vigorous and 
fruit-buds are not so soon formed and matured, but they are more 
vigorous and hence less liable to the attacks of pests, and they live 
and bear longer. Apples, pears, gooseberries, raspberries, straw- 
berries, and all kinds of fruit will do well on. such soils, which, 
besides being richer in the constituents of plant food, retain 
moisture better than does a light sandy loam, which does not happen 
to rest on a stronger subsoil. 


Heavy loams, with a large admixture of clay, make very good 
fruit soils if well drained, either naturally of artificially. Apple, 
pear, plum, apricot, cherry, and quince will thrive on such 
soils, and withstand the attacks of fruit pests with better result. 
On the heavier soils, pear and plum will do best of all, provided 
the climate suits the pear, which, in this respect, is more particular 
than the plum. Such soils are not so suitable for vines; in wet 
weather they are difficult to cultivate. 

Heavy clay, unless deeply drained and limed, should better be 
left alone by the fruit-growers. 

The site of the vineyard or orchard having been selected, it 
remains to clear it, if it has not yet been previously put under 
cultivation, and to prepare the soil for the plough. Autumn is the 
best time for ploughing, when the rain has softened the earth. 
Hand trenching is always a very costly operation, and, except when 
the patch to be planted is very small, is not practicable. 
The vine, however, like all other fruit trees that oceupy the ground 
for a number of years, does best in a thoroughly stirred soil. The 
character of the soil regulates, to a great extent, the depth of the 
ploughing—a moderate depth is sufficient in rich loose loams, while 
conversely, in poorer soils or heavy clays, the plough should be run 
deeper. Where the ground is still raw and sour, with a cold sub- 
soil close to the surface, it is advisable to have a leading plough 
turning a moderately deep furrow, followed by another plough with 
the mould board removed and stirring the ground deeper without 
bringing it to the surface. 

It is reckoned that one inch of rainfall, covering one acre of 
ground, is equivalent to 100 tons of water per acre; similarly, taking 
the density of the soil as two, as compared with water, we get for 


38 


every inch deeper we stir the soil 200 tons of earth per acre, which, 
by being broken up become more easily penetrated by the rootlets of 
the plants in search of food. The soil at the same time is more thor- 
oughly acted upon by air, warmth, and water, and reduced by their 
combined agencies during the process of weathering is rendered more 
healthy, more mellow, and quicker as a feeding ground for the plant. 
A deeper subsoiling has, besides, the advantage, which should not be 
overlooked, especially in a hot and dry climate, of promoting the 
growth of the roots well below the surface, and thus lessening the 
effects of drought. 

In first ploughing or subsoiling in heavy and retentive soil, the 
furrow should always be in the direction of the fall of water, which 
might otherwise lodge in the subsoiler’s tracks, and rot the roots of 
the plants in wet seasons. 

Although heavy soils are those: most benefited by ‘thorough 
tillage, it is generally advisable, and experience has demonstrated 
that even in loose and shifting sands, a deep stirring is always accom- 
panied by a corresponding vigour and increase of yield. 

In most cases surface ploughing with deep subsoiling wherever 
practicable, should be recommended. 

The most economical and the best plan of ploughing this class 
of land is to turn with an ordinary plough, worked by two or four 
powerful horses, according to the class of land, a furrow seven to 
eight inches deep, and follow up with a strong plough with the 
mould board detached, or a subsoil plough, drawn by a team of 
three to four horses. 

The work can to a great extent be made lighter for the team 
in setting the plough so as to turn a narrower furrow, but the soil 
should be broken up as deeply as possible. 

In some instances, deep subsoiling or trenching may be un- 
necessary, or not to be recommended, such as, when the surface 
soil consists of a very thin layer overlaying a substratum of loose 
and rubbly stones. In that case, the naturally brashy character of 
the subsoil, hy permitting the roots to penetrate it, renders deep 
tillage either unnecessary or even unadvisable. 

Under colder climates, when the soil does not receive much 
warmth from the sun—and this does not concern the Australian 
grower—the soil is stirred as little as possible. It is the custom 
there to plant thickly, so as to dwarf the vine and favour the growth 
of superficial roots, which will benefit by the full amount of heat 
from the sun’s rays, while the grapes will be richer in sugar and the 
wine of a better quality. In Champagne and Burgundy, for in- 
stance, the soil prior to planting is only ploughed about 10 inches, 
as against 18 to 20 inehes in the South of France and in Algeria. 

In Australia a thorough stirring of the soil to the depth of 14 
to 16 inches, according to localities and to soils, would certainly not 


39 


be excessive, and would soon repay its cost over and over again by 
the surplus yield resulting. 

The best time for ploughing is after the autumn rain has 
softened the soil. After ploughing a thorough harrowing should 
be given, and as much couch and noxious weeds as possible removed 
and burnt. 

The land is left in this rough condition all through the winter, 
then harrowed and ploughed crosswise—not subsoiled—late in the 
winter, and prepared for planting by means of more harrowing and 
rolling, if necessary. 

Late ploughing in the winter will leave the ground dirty, as at 
the cross-ploughing a quantity of seeds of weeds will be brought to 
the surface, which will germinate and soon overrun the field; while, 
on the other hand, by early autumn and winter ploughing these 
seeds will germinate and be eradicated before planting time, while 
the land will be given a chance of getting thoroughly sweetened by 
the mellowing action of rain and air during the winter months, also 
the cuttings, as well as rooted plants, will in consequence strike 
better. 


DRAINAGE 


is essential to the healthy growth of fruit trees. In well drained 
orchards the trees develop uniformly, but it often happens that even 
when the natural drainage is good, patches occur where the trees 
go off. There drainage is indicated. 

Damp soil, on which sheep ecantract foot. rot, liver rot or fluke, 
marshy stretches overgrown with rushes, sedge, or other water- 
loving plants, will not, unless properly drained, grow healthy fruit 
trees or vines Marshy patches and water-logged soils are often to 
be met with on level flats or in hollows; occasionally also they oceur 
on hillsides, when a bank of clay or a ledge of rock causes an 
accumulation of water and prevents ils free escape. Whenever such 
conditions occur the soil must be artificially drained. 

Moving water supplying moisture to the roots of plants and 
bringing air and warmth in its train is invigorating and life-giving; 
but stagnant, lifeless water, on the other hand, by favouring the 
decomposition of the organic matter in the soil, makes it sour, 
causes the emission of noxious gases, rots the rootlets of trees, 
limits the depth of soil they are able to feed on, starves them out, 
renders them liable to the attacks of diseases, and is utterly adverse 
to the healthy growth of trees. 

There is a widespread idea that in a dry, warm country, wi'h 
only a scanty rainfall during the growing months, the more water 
the soil retains, the better for the plant. This popular fallacy, how- 
ever, stands no discussion. In the winter or the rainy season, such 


40 


soil is tarned into a slushy bog, on which the operations of plough- 
ing and digging are carried on under great difficulties and with little 
if any good results. During the hot, dry summer months, on the 
other hand, these quagmires dry up and turn as hard as bricks. 
What few roots the plants have been able to preserve from rotting 
during the winter months in turn dry up and perish in the baked 
soil in which the plant has been thus placed. 


Draining may be said to sweeten the soil by checking the 
formation of the sour products of fermentation and rotting of the 
organic matter it contains; it also removes the excess of saline 
matters in the soil, and prevents alkaline salts from rising from 
below. It equalises the temperature of the soil, and prevents any 
possible chill to the plant. It restores to health plants suffering 
from attacks from fungus diseases. It brings warmth to the roots 
in the winter time and keeps them cool during the summer months. 
It deepens the layer of soil the roots of plants feed in. It favours 
the absorption and the circulation of air and moisture, and thus helps 
to pulverise the soil and unlock its fertilismg elements, which are 
made available for the rootlets. Drainage of cold, damp ground 
favouring a higher temperature in the soil, hastens the growth 
of plants, and thus often brings on maturity of the fruit several 
days earlier. 


Drainage is effected by several methods, viz., open drains or 
underground drains. Open drains again comprise arterial and 
surface drains. 


Arterial Drainage embraces a comprehensive scheme for 
draining a large patch of country. This work is generally under- 
taken by the State, as its benefits extend not only to one or two 
particular settlers, but to the whole district at the same time. Such 
schemes have been carried out by the Government in the vicinity of 
the Harvey agricultural area, at Hamel, near Busselton, and other 
localities. The size of these drains depends upon the gradient; the 
less the gradient, the greater the capacity of the drains. In order to 
keep it clear of silt, a gradient of at least one foot per mile is 
necessary. Streams of smaller size require a gradient of three feet 
to four feet per mile, whereas minor ditches require at least eight 
feet per mile. In order to guard against the erosion of the sides and 
the banks being undermined by the water, the soil is eut open at 
an angle which varies according to its nature. In sandy soil an angle 
of 45deg. is required; in loamy soils, an angle of 60deg. or 70deg.; 
whilst clay may be cut almost perpendicularly, as it has much 
tenacity. 


A velocity of three inches per second will remove fine clay; of 
six inches per second, fine sand; eight feet, sand; twelve inches, fine 
gravel; and 24 feet will carry off pebbles. Where the ground is 


41 


not too full of roots, an able-bodied’ man may dig from eight to 
ten cubie yards per day. 

Surface Drainage is the more widely used system adopted by 
fruit-growers. Its chief objection is that it at times interferes with 
horse-cultivation. It is chiefly used for draining boggy land, and 
often prepares the way for deep drainage. 

For draining a slope or cutting off water rushing from a rising 
catchment area on to a low flat below, these drains should be made 
almost at right angles with the flow and empty into a main drain 
below. The cost of making them is small, and if scoured before 
the wet season sets in they often prove amply sufficient for draining 
a piece of ground. 

Sinkhole Drainage—Amongst the limestone coastal ridges, 
swamps are often met with which have a retentive marly bottom. 
Underlying that hard pan, sand and limestone are again found. 
That marl is rich, but as the surface soil above is shallow, and for 
the greater part of the year partly under water, the ground is unfit 
for fruit culture. In other places a rotten ironstone conglomerate 
sometimes called “‘coffee rock’? occurs below black mould. In such 
hollow localities, where water cannot be carried away by any of the 
other methods of drainage, holes sunk through the retentive hard 
pan often carry the water away into the porous soil below very 
economically. This is done with the pick or by blasting. 


Deep Drainage, if costly, is, for cultivated fields, the most 
suitable system of improving wet land. Teams and implements 
ean’ run without obstruction; weeds and rubbish are swept away, 
and have no chance of taking a hold of the land, and the greatest 
amount of benefit is derived from cultivated crops. It dispenses 
with open ditches and prevents surface wash, and consequently 
often great waste of fertility. The method consists in onening 
deep furrows or ditches, filling them partly with brushwood, logs, 
stones, or setting draining pipes in them and covering them up 
with the soil thrown out when excavating the ditch. 


The grass trees (Blackhoys, Kingya), which are plentiful in 
the moister region of Western Australia, where drainage is chiefly 
required, supply excellent material for drains A trench is dug to 
the required depth, sufficiently wide to allow two blackbov trunks 
being laid side by side, the scales facing the way the water runs. 
Over these a third blackboy stem is laid, the three forming a 
triangular prism. The trench is then filled with earth, which is 
trampled down to counteract subsidence. and a crown one or two 
inches high is raked together along the line of trench to throw off 
heavy storm-water, which might earrv away the freshly-dug earth 
in such places where a slone occurs. Blackhboys, and more especially 
grass trees, on account of the resinous matter which is contained 


42 


in their seales, last a great. number of years. Other material as well 
may be used, such as branches and stems of ti-tree or of jamwood, 
which stand a long time in the wet ground without rotting, are very 
suitable material. An effective material for filling drains, is sand 
whenever it can be scooped or carted from an adjoining area. A 
box drain, four to six inches square, and constructed of jarrah board, 
and bored with holes made with an auger, would answer admirably 
Rubble drains, where stone is available, are cheaply made, and very 


effective. In this method the drains are cut out in the bottom much 
wider than in pipe-making, so as to admit of two sidewalls of stone 
with a space between them. These side walls are built of narrow 
stones to a height of four to six inches, and flat covering stones, 
if available, occupying the whole width of the drain, rest upon them. 
If well done, this method of draining may be taken as almost as per- 
manent as pipe draining; its chief objection being that it does not 
exclude such vermin as rats, rabbits, ete, and these mischievous 
animals soon choke up the drains by scratching soil in them. 
Round tiles are in great’ favour in cultivated fields, but in the 
orchard I have seen instances where they utterly failed to answer 
the purpose they were laid down for. Forest, hedge row, and fruit- 
trees alike all seem to direct their roots towards the underground 
pipes where water and air freely circulate, and in many instances 
penetrate and stop up the drain as effectually as if a tow mop had 
been crammed inside. The failure of a single tile will cause much 
mischief. For this reason I feel diffident in recommending the use 
of draining tiles in the orchard. ‘This system of draining is also 
costly, and cannot systematically be done under £8 to £12 per acre 
in this State, where both pipes and labour are costly. These pipes 
measure 12 inches in length, and vary from 114 inches to 12 inches 
inside diameter. For short distances suitable pipes are two ineh 
to two and a-half inch ones near the sources; for distances, say, 
over 100 yards, they should be inereased near the mouth to three 
inches. Main drains, or collectors, require pipes four to twelve 


45 


inches in diameter. The bed of the trench should be smooth, firm, 
and even; the inclination of no drain should be less than half an 
inch or more than eight inches per chain. 

The direction of the main drain should first be settled, and the 
minor drains are then mapped out in such a manner that the un- 
dulations of the surface are taken due advantage of in the way of 
securing a free and easy descent of the water. They should be 
placed midway between the rows of trees and, if possible, parallel 
with the fall, and lead into the main open drain that follows the 
natural watercourse. Laid on sand they are not so liable to become 
displaced. Great care must be taken that, though the surface be 
undulating, the pipe-bed has a uniform and even descent, and that 
there are no depressions in it where the water could lodge, eventually 
decomposing the pipes and filling up the drains with sediment. The 
depth of the main always exceeds by a few inches the depth of the 
laterals, which should be laid in a direction generally perpendicular 
to it, althouugh where they enter the main drain that direction should 
be at an easy angle. These lateral drains, when laid fish-bone 
fashion on either side of the main drain, should not enter it im- 
mediately opposite, but should alternate to fit and adjust two pipes. 
The smaller one is chipped at one end, flute-shape, whilst a hole is 
knocked out of the larger pipe to receive it. The last pipe, at the 
outlet, is of iron, and its end is well grated to guard against the 
intrusion of vermin, whilst each of the minor pipes is also protected 
where it springs, to prevent earth and silt finding its way inside the 
drain and blocking it. Should a stoppage occur, an excavation is 
made and the cause, whatever be its natuie—displacement of tile, 
accumulation of silt, or roots of trees—-removed. A correct plan of 
the deep-drainage system is in every case necessary for future use. 

The following table gives, for thé character of the soil it is 
intended to drain, the distance apart the drain is generally set, the 
depth from the surface, and the number of 12-inch-long tiles re- 
quired to the acre:— 


: 
Soil. erry ae aa ee 

in feet. feet. required, 
Stiff clay ase een 15 3 2,804 
Friable clay ... sie 18 3 2,420 
Strong loam ... ies 21 3 | 2,074 
Gravelly loam at 30 3 | 1,452 
Light loam ... bis 33 36 1,320 
Sandy loam ... ain 40 3-6 | 1,089 


The fact must not be overlooked that, if the drain is too shallow, 
the water will run directly to it without benefiting the soil with its 
fertilismg power; if too deep, it will cease to draw, and will not 
work. 

Sand Drains—Some years ago I saw at Mr. Briggs’ farm at 
Jandakot, near Fremantle, an efficient substitute for deep-laid . 
draining pipe. Whereas these cost to lay £6 to £10 an acre, the sand 
drains, which never wear or require repairs, can be provided for less 
than half the money. This method, which has also been successfully 
used near Edinburgh, consists in cutting the trenches, which on a 
large scale is done by specially constructed trench diggers, and filling 
these drain channels with coarse sand or gravelly soil. 

“Drains will act in porous soils much greater areas than in stiff 
soils. For instance, in porous, free soil, a drain will lay dry eight 
to nine feet wide for each foot it is in depth; in soil of medium 
consistency, six to seven feet, whereas in heavy soil it will only 
draw four to five feet for each foot it is in depth. Whatever the 
case may be, if draining is worth doing at all, it is worth doing 
well; and it is money saved and efficiency attained to drain five 
acres perfectly than ten imperfectly, and leave the five until this 
work can be properly attended to. 


In conjunction with systematic and extensive irrigation especi- 
ally, and whenever the subsoil is not sandy or gravelly, but is of 
a somewhat retentive nature, drainage becomes essential to the fruit- 
grower, and in considering its cost he should bear in mind that 
fertile drained land will show an increase in the yield by 20 to 30 
per cent. compared with undrained land under similar conditions. 


SHELTER TREES. 


Much damage is caused to fruit-trees in exposed places by high 
winds howling through the orchard, breaking branches, withering 
up tender leaves, as well as blossoms, and throwing the trees out 
of shape, stunting them, and making them set early. 

Whenever natural shelter from a range of hills, a belt of forest, 
or the natural slope of the ground can be utilised, it should be taken 
advantage of. If natural shelter does not exist, an artificial one 
must be provided before or at the time of planting. If the live 
hedge can be dispensed with, however, so much the better. A quick 
hedge growing round a vineyard or an orchard harbour bird 
pest and will rob the trees of their nutriment, unless means are 
taken of preventing them doing any harm. 

Many of the trees used for the purpose, such as the olive, the 
black wattle, the white boxthorn, the mulberry, are at times attacked 
with seale insects, which, unless kept down, would soon infest the 
fruit-trees. A quick hedge is, however, sometimes necessary for the 
protection of vineyards and orchards situated near a town, a village, 


45 


or along a public road. Should a hedge be found necessary, a deep 
trench about two feet deep should be run along it so as to cut off the 
growth of the roots towards the direction of the vines or. fruit-trees. 


A short description of a few hardy plants which have proved 
suitable for the purpose, taken mainly from von Miieller’s “Extra 
Tropical Plants,” will prove of use to those who require wind-breaks 
for their orchards or gardens :— 


ALMOND TREE (Amygdalus communis, Linné).—From Caucasus. 
Resists drought well, and yields a valuable crop. The cost of 
gathering the crop in South Europe is about 20 per cent. of its 
market value. The flower affords to bees, early in the season, nectar 
and pollen. There exists hard and soft-shelled varieties of both the 
sweet and bitter almonds. Can even be grown on seashores. Fur- 
ther information is given concerning the almond in a subsequent 
chapter. 


BAMBOO-REED (Arundo Donax, Linné).—The tall, evergreen, 
lasting bamboo-reed of,Northern Europe, South-Western Asia, and 
Northern Africa, is fairly hardy, and attains a height of 20: feet and 
more. One of the most important plants of its class for quickly 
producing scenic effect in picturesque plantations, also for inter- 
cepting almost at once, the view of unsighly objects, and for giving 
early shelter. The canes are used for fishing-rods, for light props 
and various utensils. Easily transplanted at any season. Rows or 
belts of it intercept sewage or exsiceate stagnant drainage. Pasture 
animals like to browse on the young foliage. Dr. Baneroft, in 
Queensland, proved this plant a splendid “stayby” in seasons of 
drought, and recommends reserve fields of it regularly to be kept. 


‘THE Carop TREE, synonym Locust Bean (Ceratonia Siliqua, 
Linné.—One of the best, if not the best, shelter tree for this State. 
Indigenous of the Eastern Mediterranean regions; attains a height 
of 40ft. to 50ft., and resists drought, hot winds; succeeds well in 
all kinds of soils—rocky, gravelly, hilly, but thrives more particu- 
larly on calcareous subsoil, and on deep fertile loams. Would grow 
in this country at all altitudes. Splendid specimens of it grow 
near Geraldton and at New Norcia and also at Pinjarra, yielding 
annually two to three hundredweights and more of saccharine pods; 
of great value as stock food, and worth for that purpose, 
when crushed, 5s. to 6s. a ecwt. The exportation of the 
pods from Cyprus, Crete, and Syria is very large. In most of 
the Mediterranean countries horses, cattle, and pigs are almost ex- 
clusively fed, during the dry months of the year, upon the pods, 
which contain 50 per cent. of sugar and gum. The meat of sheep 
and pigs is greatly improved in flavour by this food. At Gibraltar, 
Malta, and in Egypt the fine commissariat mules are fed with a 
mixture of Carob beans and pulse; to horses and cattle 6lbs. a day 
are given of the crushed pods, raw or boiled, with or without chaff. 


‘Ab 


For a wind-break the trees should be planted in double or 
single rows, 12ft. to 15ft. apart, when their evergreen branches will 
entwine and resist the most fierce wind. The tree is very sym- 
metrical in growth, and highly ornamental in paddocks, where they 
afford in copses or singly a good shelter for stock. As a road 
border, or in avenues, it also affords a striking effect. It stands 
clipping well. It grows quicker than the Olive tree; the gathering 
of its fruits, which are knocked down by means of long poles, is 
easier, while the pods can be bagged or stored away for a long time 
without loss. In the proximity of orchards, it moreover offers over 
the Olive tree the marked advantage of being pretty free from insect 
pests, and more especially the black scale that finds in the Olive 
a favourite host plant. This disadvantage has, however, now dis- 
appeared since the fly parasites of that scale have been successfully 
introduced into this State. 


The Carob trees are propagated from seeds, which, being hard, 
require soaking for a few days. When the germ begins to show 
they are sown in seed beds, preferably in ground with a hard sub- 
soil, so as to check the downward growth of the tap-root. After 
a fortnight or so the young plants begin to show. When about 
three feet high, in one year or two, they are transplanted in a 
nursery, cut back to 12 inches or so, and the year after they are 
grafted with scions from some prolific tree, bearing large pods. 
Unless this is done, many of the irees will prove sterile. The 
frequent unisexuality of the flowers accounts to some extent .for 
the want of productiveness in fruit of this plant when few trees 
exist, or this sterility may be traceable to insufficiency of lime or 
other substances in the soil. After a year or two in the nursery the 
young trees are planted out, suckers are rubbed off, and, after two 
or three years’ cultivation, will yield three to four ewts. of fruit 
without further cultivation. On the Swan the pods ripen in March, 
when blossoming also takes place. 


BRacHYCHITON PopuLNEUS—-One of the currajongs. From 
Gippsland to Southern Gippsland a splendid avenue tree, recom- 
mended for its pyramidal growth, evergreen shining foliage, some- 
what variable in shape, and short stout branches which render it 
almost wind-proof. Succeeds well on rocky and dry ground, and is 
comparatively easy to transplant even when of good size. Leaves 
eaten by pasture animals. Allied to the “flame-trees” of Kimberley; 
makes a gorgeous display of coral-like inflorescences. 


Tue Birrer OrancE (Citrus Bigaradia)—Very suitable for 
avenue planting in the towns of the citrus belt, and much used for 
that purpose in Southern Europe, where it is trained with a clear 
stem 6ft. to 8ft. high, and a regularly-shaped crown. Very attrac- 
tive on account of its beautiful aromatic foliage, delicious blossoms, 
which furnish the Neroli oil, and golden fruit, the rind of which is 


47 


used for candied orange-peel and marmalade; produced all the yea 
round. Furnishes one of the best stocks for orange grafting. 

CYPRESS (Cupressus macrocarpa, Hartweg, and C. Lambertiana, 
Gordon).—California; grows in the granite, as well as sandstone 
formation, sometimes in Sphagnum-moors. A beautiful and shady 
tree, attaining to a height of 150ft., with a stem of 9ft. in circum- 
ference; it is one of the quickest growing of all conifers, even in 
poor dry soils; does well also on limestone soil, and is one of the 
best shelter-trees on sea-sands, naturally following the ecoast-line, 
never extending many miles from the shore in temperate localities. 
Not to be planted in places where stagnant humidity exists under- 
ground, nor where the soil is but little penetrable. Not a long- 
lived tree. 

Fie (Ficus carica, Linné), Syria and Persian Gulf—The most 
useful and at the same time most hardy of half a thousand 
recorded species of Ficus. The extreme facility with which it can 
be propagated from cuttings, the resistance to heat, the compara- 
tively early yield and easy culture recommends the Fig-tree, where 
it is an object to raise masses of tree-vegetation in widely treeless 
lands of the warmer zones for shade and fruit. Has a high reputa- 
tion as a drought-resisting tree. Can be grown even on sand lands. 
Two main varieties may be distinguished: that which produces three 
crops a year, and that which yields but one. The first crop of figs 
grows on wood of the preceding year; the last crop, however, on 
wood of the current year. 

THe “Loquat” (Photinia eriobotrya, J. Hooker, P. Japonica, 
Franchet and Savatier), a beautiful ornamental and quick-growing 
evergreen shrub from China and Japan, easily raised from seed, or 
superior varieties can be grafted not only on its own ‘stock, but 
also on the white thorn, or better still on the quince. Bears 
copiously on moist places. In Australia flowers during mid-winter. 
The flowers of this beautiful shrub are also very fragrant, and its 
fruits are about the first to ripen, about August and September. 

CamPHor TREE (Cinnamomum camphora), China and Japan. 
—The trees are very attractive for their neat, fragrant foliage. 
Endures a slight frost. The wood, like all other parts of the tree, 
is pervaded with camphor, hence resists the attacks of insects. 

Mutperry.—The White Mulberry (Morus alba, Linné), upper 
India and Western China. Provides the food for the Chinese silk- 
worm (Bombyx Mori). One pound of silk may be produced—so 
far as the food of the Bombyx is concerned—from thirty pounds 
of mulberry leaves or from a single tree. Grows easily from cut- 
tings or from well matured seeds. It is usually unisexual, and 
‘attains a very large size. Spots for mulberry culture must not be 
over moist when the leaves are to be utilised for the Bombyx. For 
sericulture purposes the trees are planted 10ft. x 10ft., and, kept 
at bush size, make good hedges or copses. 


48 


The Buack Muuperry (M. nigra, Linné) of Persia, grows into a 
large tree; valuable for its pleasant refreshing fruit, which can also 
be fermented into a vinous beverage. Well adapted for sandy coast 
ridges; the leaves, although not so good as I, alba, afford food for 
the ordinary silk-worm. It is said that wherever mulberries grow 
that most destructive frugivorous bird, the “silver-eye,” concentrates 
all its attention to its fruit and thus keeps away from the vines. 
This tree would, in that case, prove a most useful auxiliary to the 
fruitgrower in keeping this feathered enemy away from the, orchard 
and the vineyard where the ripening of the Mulberry is concurrent 
with that of the fruit crop intended to safeguard. 

Myronouan Puum (Prunus cerasifera, Ehrhart, and P. Myro- 
bolanus, Desfontaines)—The Cherry Plumtree, of which there are 
several varieties: the Red, the Yellow fruited, and the Pissardu, 
which has a rich claret coloured foliage and early white flowers and 
fruit of the same colour as the foliage. Countries at and near the 
Caspian Sea, of rather tall growth. The fruits called also Mirables 
(which name is given to some varieties of P. domestica as well), 
whence long ago the objectionable designation Myrobolan cherry- 
plum arose. Flowers very early and before the development of its 
leaves. Splendid for hedges; grows vigorously in the poorest soil; 
ramification impenetrably dense; bears almost any extent of clip- 
ping; not hurt by exposure to sea air. Planted for hedges in two 
rows 18 to 24 inches apart. 

OsaGE ORANGE (Maclara aurantiaca, Nuttall), Texas, Arkansas, 
Louisiana. This thorny deciduous shrub can be well trained into 
hedges; unisexual, resists severe frosts, on rich river banks grows 
to a great: height, valuable for all purposes where toughness and 
elasticity are recuired. The plant is not readily subject to blight 
or attacks of insects. The foliage 1s as good a food for silk-worms 
as that the white mulberry. 

Makes one of the best hedges for this climate, being, if kept in 
order, close and almost impenetrable to stock or trespassers. Propa- 
gated by sets; the line of fence having been marked, the soil should 
be stirred to a good depth. Sets should be planted in a double row, 
sets being six or eight inches apart and the rows ten to twelve inches 
apart. Press the soil firmly to the sets. If a hedge is planted on 
sloring ground a furrow or ditch should be run along the line of the 
upper side to protect the hedge from being worked away. A deep 
trench should be run between the hedge and the first line of vines 
or trees for the purpose of keeping the roots from trespassing on 
the cultivated land. Osage orange hedges are said to not harbour 
small birds as most quick hedges do, and for that reason are recom- 
mended, as small birds do enormous damage at times to the vines. 

Peprer Tree (Shinus Molle, Linné).—A fast-growing ever- 
green shrub or small tree of the cashew family, native of South 


49 


America and Mexico, and cultivated for ornament and shade in 
Southern California, Australia, and other warm dry climates; will 
bear droughts and intense summer heat of Central Australia better 
than almost any introduced plants. §. Terebinthifolia, from Brazil, 
form fine promenade trees in Victoria, Algeria, and Tunis, having 
a better habit and richer foliage than the preceding. 


Pirrosporum, of which there are several varieties, but they are 
all suitable for shade-lines when celerity of growth is not an object. 
They are perennial; always look clean. The flowers are fragrant 
and yield a volatile oil on distillation. The trees are always clean 
looking; they stand clipping well. 

THE CLUSTER Ping (P. maritina, De Candolle, P. Pinaster, 
Solander).—For ease of rearing and rapidity of growth, one of the 
most important of all pines. Trees about 15 years old can be cut 
for sawing into fruit cases. Planted closely at a distance of 8 to 10 
feet apart to ensure the growth of a straight stem with few latent 
branches and wood knots. 

This pine has been much used for consolidating the sandy coast 
along the shore opening on the Bay of Biscay. The mature trees 
are then regularly tapped for turpentine before they are felled and 
the timber utilised. This pine, which does well on sandy stretches, 
is more valued by foresters than is the P, insignis, also a valuable 
tree. 

PomEcRANATE (Punica granatum, Linné).—North Africa and 
South-Western Asia; widely cultivated for its showy flowers and 
fruit; much overlooked regarding its value as a hedge plant; will 
.grow freely from cuttings. Purposely cultivated in Algeria for 
walking sticks. Passed with very few other plants through years 
of drought in Central Australia. The best varieties are propagated 
by grafting; among these there is a practically seedless variety 
known to Indian cultivators. 

Privet (Ligustrum Japonicum, Thunberg).—The Japan Privet, 
a shrub evergreen or nearly so, promising to become a valuable 
hedge plant. Grows readily from cuttings, like the ordinary Euro- 
pean privet, Ligustrum vulgare (Linné). Both will grow under 
trees, where scarcely anything else would live. 

Quince (Pyrus Cydonia, Linné, and Cydonia Vulgaris, Per- 
soon).—The Caspian Sea, one of the hardiest of orchard trees, and 
serves-a great many useful ends. Raised hy euttings or by layers 
which strike root freely. Frequently used as a stock for other 
trees. Very little pruning is required; extensively used as a hedge 
or screen. 

Tacassste (Cytisus proliferus, Linné fil.)—Canary Tsland. A 
fodder shrub for light dry svil; finally tall, rather intolerant to 
frost and drought. Valuable also for apiarists. In some places it 


50 ? 


was found that horses and cattle dislike this plant as /nutriment. 
It grows quickly again when cut. ! 

THe Tree Tosacco (Nicotiana glauca, Gishentht siesentnd 
and Uruguay. Grows amazingly on the sandy coyntry around 
Perth, Geraldton, ete. On the Greenough flats I/saw a. most 
efficient break-wind made of this quickly- aes arborescent 
species, planted 3ft. to 4ft. apart; with stems half cut through at a 
height of 2ft. with a tomahawk, bent down almost at right angle, 
and tied up to the next plant. From these curved stems numerous 
strong shoots grow straight up, and as they are very elastic and 
almost unbreakable by the wind, make very efficient shelter hedge. 
One of the best of plants to establish, shelter and stay the shifting 
of the sand waves, where the poisonous property of its foliage is 
not objectionable. It is inadmissible to pastoral places on account 
of its deleteriousness. 

THE WEEPING WiLLow (Salix Babylonica, Tournefort, S. 
pendula, Moench).—North China. One of the quickest growing 
and most easily reared of all shade trees. Pasture animals browse 
on the young foliage. The tree is important for consolidating river 
banks, a powerful scavenger of back yards, but apt to undermine 
masonary and to get into cisterns. 


Tur Birrer Wittow (8. purpurea, Linné), Europe, Northern 
and Western Asia, one of the osiers. In deep, moist soil, not 
readily otherwise utilised, it will yield annually per acre four to five 
tons of the best rods, qualified for the finest work. Impenetrable, 
not readily inflammable; screens as much as 25 feet high can be 
reared from it in five years. This species is not touched by cattle. 
For hedges, cuttings are planted only half a foot apart, and must ° 
be entirely pushed into the ground. To obtain additional strength, 
the shoots can be interwoven. Grows well on light soil or warp- 
land, and will grow fairly well on gravelly soil, but not on clay. 
No basket willow will thrive in stagnant water; humid places should 
therefore be drained. The cutting of the shoots is done close to the 
ground after the fall of the leaves. The accidental introduction from 
abroad of destructive saw-flies (particularly Nematus ventralis), 
which prey also on the currant and gooseberry bushes, should be 
guarded against. 


Tur Common OsiER (S. viminalis, Linné), Europe, Northern 
and Western Asia. Height, to 30 feet. The best of basket willows 
for banks subject to occasional inundations. A vigorous grower, 
very hardy, likes to be fed by deposits of floods or by irrigation 
and disposes readily of sewage. One of the best for wicker-work 
and hoops. One of the best willows for copses and hedges, very 
quick growth and foliage, giving deep umbrage. 

Warttes (Acacia) —Quick growing indigenous shrubs or 
middle-sized trees of striking beauty when in bloom, and valuable 


51 


for the tannie acid contained in the bark used in making hides 
merchantable. A great variety of these offer for selection, notably 
the “Black Wattle” (Acacia decurrens) of New South Wales, and 
(A. mollissima) of Tasmania. The feather-leaved varieties of wattles 
containing, according to localities, 15 to 30 per cent. of tannic 
acid in the dried bark. Their cultivation is easy; the seeds, whick 
retain their vitality for several years, are soaked in warm water 
before sowing, and thrive anywhere, particularly away from the 
coast or ironstone gravel formations or poor sandy soil with a clay 
subsoil to retain the moisture. The bark can be stripped in from 
five to ten years, and is worth £10 a ton in Melbourne. The wood 
is tough and can be used for staves, and supplies an excellent fuel. 
The “Golden Wattle’ (A. pycnentha, Bentham), of Victoria and 
South Australia, thrives on poor coastal land, where A. mollissima 
would not grow. 


In all cases proper attention should be bestowed on the live 
hedge, more especially during the early period of the growth of the 
trees, which should be trimmed periodically te secure a eluse base 
growth. Nothing looks more unsightly and is less efficacious than 
a badly kept life fence. : 


FENCING. 


In the first edition of this Handbook Mr. L. L. Cowen (late 
secretary to the Bureau of Agriculture) thus summarised the 
question of fencing :— 

“This Handbook is intended as much as a guide to the new- 
comer as to those already settled upon the land, and it would not 
be complete without a few words on fencing. In the more thickly 
settled districts vermin have almost disappeared, and any fence that 
is sheep-proof will be found to suit the vine and fruitgrower. The 
pioneer or the settler in a sparsely populated district will have to 
fence out vermin—boodey rats, opossums, and other rodents, which 
will, if permitted, commit incaleulable havoc in a young orchard 
or vineyard. Fortunately, there is neither the rabbit nor the hare” 
to be reckoned with; but the “boodies” and ’possums will be found 
to sorely try the patience of the settler. Particularly the latter, 
and it is a question whether such a thing as a ’possum-proof fence 
has yet been invented. To fence out ground vermin is not a diffi- 
cult matter, but to fence out the ’possum taxes one’s ingenuity very 
severely. 

“Before proceeding to discuss the different classes of fencing, 
it might be well to say a word or two about the different kinds of 
timber generally used in this State. The new-comer cannot do 


*The rabbit has since invaded portion of Westeru Australia, but no serious trouble 
is anticipated from the pest in fruit land. 


52 


Lnds~ LON Nado“- LON 
) | CB 
>——__— ces (en 
— S ; 
Ady ond 
EEE memes) 


A, 


TAAIT GNNOYD 


straining and 


tying devices. 


Diagram of fence showing strut on straining post, 


53 


better than be guided in the selection of the timber by the ex- 
periences of those already settled in the district in which he pur- 
poses to make his home. It must be remembered that the white 
ants (termites) are omnipresent, and only timber which these 
voracious insects dislike should be used for posts. The wood of the 
raspberry jam (.lcacia accwminata) stand pre-eminent for dura- 
bility and its ability to resist the attacks of white ants. 
Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) is deservedly popular for fencing, 
but only good wood should be used, as in some localities, and under 
certain conditions, it is known to succumb to white ants. The 
new-comer will find a good deal of diversity of opinion expressed as 
to the value of various kinds of wood. There is no doubt that the 
white gum, for instance, growing in certain parts of the State, is a 
wood of the greatest durability, while that found growing in another 
locality, perhaps not far removed, is comparatively worthless for 
underground work. The same thing applies to other timbers, and 
the new-comer will do well to be guided by the experience of those 
amongst whom he intends to settle. 


“Charring the posts at the ends which will be in the ground 
adds to their durability, or they may be well smeared with coal tar. 
Wherever it is possible it is always better to use timber that has 
had a chance to season, in preference to putting in posts direct from 
the stump, and full of sap. 


“Where ground vermin only exist, wire netting trenched into 
the ground six inches, with two top wires, will make an excellent 
fence. But, where the festive opossum disports himself, fruit- 
growers will have to take more elaborate measures to prevent the 
intrusion of this most pestiferous and importunate rodent. In the 
first place, all overhanging trees should be cleared from around the 
boundaries. It is advisable to do this in any case, and a little more 
money spent at the first in throughly clearing the line is invariably 
a judicious investment. 


“Tt is a difficult matter in putting on wire netting to stretch 
it so as to take out the bagginess. Ordinarily this fencing is slack 
and very untidy. It needs to be thoroughly stretched. To do this 
the plan shown in the sketch 
may be used to advantage. 
A strip of board has four or 
more hooks arranged on one 
side to hold the roll firmly 
and to stretch each section 
as it is unrolled. A pulley 
attached to the é Mlloring post draws the netting tightly past the 
preceding post, where it is secured firmly with staples and the work 
advanced to the next post. 


54 


“Gates a.é a most important feature in a fence, and where 
paddocks have to be protected they are absolutely necessary. The 
following is an illustration of a cheap and very satisfactory gate 
which I have had in use now for some years :— 


rd 5 fa ———— 
— S/F i 


a een aes ] 


“The largest piece of timber in the gate is Gin. x lin., and there 
are no mortices to work loose. The timber for a gate—jarrah, 
karri, or any hard wood—can be purchased at the mills for 8s., the 
bolts for 3s., and the strap hinges top 18in. x 2in., $ iron, bottom 
6in., and hooks cost 6s. the set; total 17s. Any one who can use 
a saw and a brace and bit can put a gate together and hang it in 
two hours and a half. Putting the labour down at 1s. per hour, 
this brings the total cost of the gate up to £1, if you have to pay 
for labour. Here are the quantities for a gate 12ft. x 4ft. 6in. 
high :— 

“Two pieces, Tin. x lin. x 4ft. 6in., for hanging stile; four 
pieces, 3in. x lin. x 4ft. 6in., two each for closing and middle stile; 
two pieces, 3in. x lin. x 9ft., for diagonal brace; three pieces Tin. x 
lin. x 12ft., for rails; one piece, 3in. x lin. x 5ft., for lateh; two 
pieces, 3in. x lin. x 1ft., for packing top hinges. 

“Bolts—Two, 43in. x 3in., one each top and bottom hinges; 
two, 43in. x gin., for top hinges; eighteen, 33in. x gin., for fasten- 
ing stiles and braces. 

“Rails.—Take the three boards 7in. x lin. x 12ft. and mark off 
4in. at one end and 3in. at the other. Run a line and rip down 
diagonally. This will give you six rails 4in. wide at one end, 
tapering to 3in. at the other. Five rails will be wanted for the 
gate. The mill will do the ripping for you if you like. This is the 
only real work there is in the gate. Lay on the ground on chocks 
sufficiently high to get your hand under so as to get the bolts in 
one side of the hanging stile 7in. x lin. x 4ft. 6in., and 8ft. from 
this and parallel to it the middle stile 3in. x lin. x 4ft. Gin., and 4ft. 
further on again the closing stile 3in. x lin. x 4ft. Gin. Whatever 
the length of your gate, the middle stile should be two-thirds of 
the whole length from the hanging stile. Lay on these pieces the 


55 


five rails any distance apart you like, only be sure and have the 4in. 
ends all at the hanging stile and the saw cuts turned alternately. 
This is most important, as herein lies all the strength of the gate. 
When you have laid the rails on the top of them, place the other 
hanging, middle and closing stile pieces; get our brace and bit 
and bolts, and bolt the whole lot together, putting in a Zin. bolt at 
each intersection, reserving the two in. bolts for the hinges. 
When the gate is bolted together, turn it up on edge, square it, 
tighten up all the bolts, and then put the braces on, one on each 
side, running from the foot of the hanging stile to the top of the 
middle stile. Bolt with gin. bolts at each intersection. Then put 
on your hinges and latech—a sliding piece 5ft. long, with two chocks 
on it to prevent it shooting too far, is as good as any—_hang your 
gate, and the thing is done. A coat of Washington whitewash, 
which is about a tenth the cost of paint, and very durable, and you 
have in your gate ‘ a thing of beauty and a joy for ever.’ 

“Washington whitewash is so named from the fact that the 
White House at Washington, the official residence of the President 
of the United States, is coated with it. It is made as follows, and 
if properly made will neither wash off nor rub off, and has all the 
appearance of paint:—Slack a bushel of quick lime in a barrel, 
covering with a bag while the lime is working. Melt 1lb. of common 
glue to a thin size. Make 1%42lbs. ground rice into a thin paste with 
boiling water. Mix up lb. of whiting as you would mustard. 
When the lime is quite slaked add the glue, whiting, and rice paste, 
and half-peck of common salt. Mix well and let stand for 48 hours, 
keeping covered. Thin down to consistency of ordinary whitewash 
and apply hot.” 

Fencing MATERIALS. 


Black and Galvamsed Steel Fencing Wire. 


Per Ton.* Weight required per Mile. 


Black.) Galv. 


Gauge. 


1 Wire. | 2 Wire. | 3 Wire. | 4 Wire.| 5 Wire. 


£s. | £ 8. |No.| Yds. 


c. q. lbs. | c. q. lbs. | c. q. Ibs. c. q. Ibs./c. q. Ibs. 
10 10| 12 0; 6] 469) 3 3 0/7 2 0/11 1 0/15 0 0/18 3 0 
1010} 12 0; 8] 586)/3 0 016 0 0/9 0 0/12 0 015 0 0 
1015] 1210] 9] 727;2 119) 4 310;7 1 0)9 38 20/12 011 
10 15 | 12 10] 10] 880} 2 0 0)4 0 0)6 0 0)8 0 010 0 0 


* The prices quoted «ire pre-war prices. 


4-point thick set barbed fencing wire (448 yards per cwt.) £16 per ton. 


Wire Netting, in rolls of 50 yards. 


Mesh. Width ... .. 24in. 30in. 36in. 48in. 60in. 72in. 
ldin. Price per yard 23d. 3d. 33d. 43d. = «per yard 
2in. re » oe 20, 24d. 3d. 4d. 44d. 5d. ¥ 


” 


3in. » oe Hd. ds Sd. Bd. Bd. 


56 


LAYING OUT THE GROUND. 

After the land has been cleared, ploughed, and harrowed, the 
laying out of the ground is the next thing to attend to. 

Planting is done on—1° the square, 2° the diagonal, 3° the 
hexagonal or equilateral or septuple, 4° the quineunx. 

On extensive areas of undulating land, it is advisable to set 
off the land with a theodolite, or employ a surveyor to do the work, 
so as to ensure precision. There are, however, simple methods of 
carrying out this work which anyone can follow, and which rest 
on geometrically accurate propositions. 

In any case it is essential to start from a base line. 

A surveyed line for this purpose is generally to be found 
alongside the field of operations, as roads and boundaries lines. 

A rough computation of the area to be planted is made by 
pacing two sides of the field, length and breadth, reducing the num- 
ber of yard steps to chains, viz., 22, multiplying the number of chains 
obtained and dividing the quotient by 10. 

For conducting measuring tests, ete., on small areas, the follow- 
ing table is useful, showing the side of a square to contain :— 


1 acre ... .» 208-7 ft. or 70 paces 
anes v= 147-6, 50, 
Be yy ale w=: 120-5 =", 40 ,, 
de ge ae .. 104-4 ,, 35, 
BP ssp dee ste WS 55 254, 


> 


® C® B 
Base Line »— >» 


=.-=G } — + === g fae 


Fonee . 
Marking off squarcs, 


57 


1°. Square planting seems the simplest plan of laying out an 
orchard, but it will be seen that the others are just as easy. 


The base line having been traced, which can be done by measur- 
ing the width of a proposed roadway or headland from, say, a line 
of fence to the first row of trees or vines to be planted, pegs are set 
in the ground, so that he two lines: fence, and row of trees are 
parallel. A roadway of 20 feet at least is necessary to allow the 
horses and implements to turn at the beadland. On this line, as 
a base line, a right angle corner is traced thus:—First, along the 
base line of the given piece of ground to plant, measure with the 
tape three intervals of, say, 10 feet each, putting pegs at each dis- 
tance. Secure a flexible line, such as picture wire, marked off into 
nine or more 10-feet intervals by means of string or strips of calico; 
set one end of that line at the corner peg A, where the first vine or 
tree is going to be planted, then stretch it as correctly as guesswork 
will permit in a direction perpendicular, or at right angle to the 
base line, and at the fifth mark which shows the fourth interval drive 
down a peg; round this peg turn your wire, and bring it to the 
peg B, driven at the third interval along the base line. If the mark 
along the measuring line meets the peg B along the base line A, E, 
then the angle B, A, C is a right angle; if it does not, shift peg C 


-222+-0------90 


=-----0--+=--0 


@ oe 
Base Line s—> 


* Fence 


Setting off diagonal planting. 


58 


until the tenth mark or end of the ninth interval along the measur- 
ing line connects with peg B on the base line. It is geometrically 
true that in every instance where the three sides of a triangle are as 
3, 4, and 5 the angle opposite the hypotenuse or the longest side is 
a right-angled triangle. 

Another method, which may be used as an alternative, consists 
im guessing a triangle and measuring the diagonal distances be- 
tween the opposite corners A, D and E, C on the same ‘figure; unless 
those distances are equal to a fraction of an inch the square is not 
perfect, and by manipulating and shifting the pegs until those two 
lengths coincide the desired lines running at right angles to one 
another can be planned out. 

2° Diagonal planting has few, if any, advantages. As shown 
in Figure 2, the base line is first determined and a true corner found 
as in the case of the square. On the lines thus determined rows of 
trees will be set. The alternate rows are obtained by running with 
a line a diagonal from two squares which have already been mapped 
out. From the corner A, mark off one-fourth distance along this 
diagonal and you have the spot where the first tree along the second 
row will stand; from these points plot out parallel lines to A B, 
A C, ete., and along’ these lines mark off the required distances as 
had already been done on, the base lines. 

Another method to set out diagonal lines: start in the same 
manner as for marking on the square; stretch the planting lines 
and omit every alternate intersection. 


Base tone.» 


Hexagonal or septuple planting. 


59 


3°, Hexagonal, Equilateral, or Septuple planting, so called 
because either seven trees enter into its figure or it consists of six 
trees—disposed after the six-sided figure of the cells of the honey- 
comb—and enclosing a seventh tree, or because each tree is equi- 
distant from any other tree around it. By this method of planting 
less ground is occupied, and while the roots of every tree has theo- 
retically the same amount of ground to feed on, assuming that the 
roots spread evenly round the stem, it is at the same time possible 
to set fifteen per cent. more trees to the acre as compared with 
square planting, and cultivation can be carried out in three different 
directions. ; 

The hexagonal is as easy a method of plotting a piece of ground 
as is the square. 

To lay out a piece of ground for septuple planting: Determine 
the base line; peg along it a few equal spaces it is desired to plant 
the trees at, say, for argument’s sake, five intervals of 22 feet each, 
the distance between A and B along the base line is thus 110 feet; 
one end of two lines also 110 feet each are fastened at the pegs A 
and B and are drawn together taut until the other two ends meet 
at C. Along the lines A © and B C mark off likewise five intervals 
of 22 feet each, and fill in the triangle as shown on the figure. Once 
the equilateral triangle is set, the lines are prolonged to whatever 
limit it is intended to reach, and where they intersect pegs are put 
in. Be the piece of land regular, or the boundaries irregular, as 
happens, for instance, when a vineyard or an orchard is planted on 
a river bank, the rows will all be in symmetrical lines. Another 
easy method of laying out hexagonals with a triangle is also shown 
on the above figure. Three pieces of flexible wire, such as light 
clothes lines, are cut precisely the same lengths, their ends are 
spliced to rings two inches to two and a-half inches in diameter as 
shown in the above figure—the sides E.D, D F, and F E are equal. 
Place one of the sides, say E D, along the base line, and drive pegs 
at E and D; stretch the third angle until the other two sides of the 
triangle are taut, and drive likewise a peg through the ring. Then 
round the peg F as a centre revolve the triangle right round, 
stretch the side lines taut, and drive short pegs straight down 
through the centre of the rings at G and H. Next move the wire 
triangle to the next disiance and do likewise, repeating the operation 
until the end of the row is reached. In this way a man and’ two 
assistants can mark out three rows with the greatest accuracy, pro- 
vided that they always ascertain before driving the peg into the 
ground that the lines are reasonably tight. On flat, even ground 
the triangle can be stretched flat on the surface of the ploughed 
land; but on sloping ground a little levelling is required, the tri- 
angle being stretched as nearly horizontal as possible by raising 
one or two corners as required, and a stake driven down plumb 
to the right spot. : 

The Quincunz is a method involving groups of five trees, the 
fifth tree occupying the centre of a square. It is only useful where 


60 


long-lived and slow-growing trees such as the Olive are planted, 
when it may be desirable to set amongst them some quick-growing 
but short-lived trees, such as peaches, nectarines, or Japanese plums, 
which will begin bearing early and can be eut down to make room 
for the longer lived trees, when after ten or twelve years their period 
of usefulness is on the wane. For laying out this system squares 
are first lined, then diagonal lines are drawn from opposite corners 
of the square and a peg driven down at the intersection. 


MarkinG-OFF LINES. 

Light wire lines, No. 12 gauge, or light clothes wire, give more 
accurate results and answer for laying out either squares, quincunx, 
or rectangles. Wire lines are preferable to string, because they 
don’t shrink or stretch. A wire line 209 feet long (a trifle over 
three chains) will form the side of a one-acre block. At each end 
fasten an iron ring two or three inches in diameter for slipping on 
pegs. Along this line mark out with a piece of solder the exact 
distance apart the vines or trees are to be set at. 

Should vines be planted in a parallelogram instead of a square, 
two lines will be required, with the distances between the rows 
marked off on one of them and the distance along the rows on the 
other. 

Distance APART. 

Before planting an orchard or a vineyard it is well to consider 
and decide what distance apart the trees or the vines will be set at. 
The following table shows the number of plants to the acre at the 
distances given below. It will be noticed that the septuple system 
allows 15 per cent. more trees to the acre and the quincunx 12 per 
cent. more than does square planting. 


2 g.: 7 Ss; 

an ete ae 

3 | 3a i | ¢ |@s da eh 3 

feicei e128 |e lee) wl ele 

oO oO 

gees | oe be hie ae ee | Se] Se 

a | ee] 2 | 3 | S Ie") Be | Bf | 

a DB al o an iA B al o eal 
1 1 | 43,560 .. | 50,300 7-18 324, 134. 151 154 
2 4. | 10,890 ... | 12,575 | 20 400 109 116 125 
Pd 9) 4,840 mae 5,889 | 21 441 99 110 114 
4 16 | 2,725 sie 3,144 | 22 484. 90 100 103 
5 25 | 1,742 | 1,966 | 2,003 | 24 576 75 83 86 
6 36 | 1,200 | 1,362 | 1,390 | 25 625 69 TT 80 
vi 49 889 999 | 1,002 | 26 676 64 Fl 73 
8 64 680 762 782 | 27 729 60 67 69 
9 81 537 600 617 | 28 784. 55 61 63 
10 100 435 482 500 | 29 841 50 56 56 
11 121 360 399 414 | 30 900 48 5S. 5 
12 144 302 335 347 | 35 | 1,225 40 44. 46 
14 196 322 250 255 | 40 | 1,600 31 34 35 
16 256 170 | 191 195 


61 


[Rule.—To find the number of plants required to set an acre, 
multiply the two distances in feet at which the trees stand apart 
and divide 43560—the number of square feet in an aere—by the 
product; the quotient will be the number of plants required.] 


A certain diversity of opinion exists regarding the best distance 
to plant vines and fruit-trees. In this case, as in many others, ex- 
treme views in the matter are to be avoided, and a medium course 
should be adopted. 


If we consider vines, we must bear in mind that under the 
Australian climate, where the sum of the sun’s heat is always suffi- 
cient for the complete ripening of grapes, the question of orienta- 
tion is not so important as under cooler climates, and the direction 
to be given to the lines will be to a greater extent influenced by the 
shape of the field, the intensity of the hot winds if in the interior, 
or the sea breezes if in the coastal region. In places, also, where 
hailstorms sometimes occur and follow certain winds which gener- 
ally come from the same quarter, the edge of the lines should be 
pointed towards the direction the wind blows, and not the flank, if 
it ean be avoided. 


Lines laid along the longer axis of the field rather than in the 
direction of its shorter width also save a considerable amount of 
time and exertion on the teams, which have less turning to do. 


If the vineyard is to be planted on a slope with a very marked 
incline, the lines and ploughings should follow the contour of the 
slope and be laid at right angle to its fall, so as to prevent in some 
measure the soil being washed down the incline during heavy down- 
pours of rain. 


Whatever disposition is given to the vineyard, the land should 
be exclusively planted in vines, and no other crop or trees put in. 


In hot and dry districts where a thick growth of foliage would 
rob the ground of a considerable amount of its store of moisture, 
wide planting is generally resorted to, while in the cooler and 
moister districts, where it is desirable to promote the evaporation 
from the ground of as much moisture as possible, and besides 
encourage the growth of the roots nearer to the surface, close 
planting is the evstom. 


Tf one takes France as an example, one notices a striking 
difference between the Champagne district, where there are as 
many as 16,000 to 18,000 vines to the acre, while the number de- 
ereases the farther South one goes, being 10,000 to 12,000 in 
Burgundy, 4,000 to 5,000 in the Hermitage, 2,000 in the Herault, 
and 1,000 in Algeria. 


62 


In Australia experience has proved that the vines do better 
when planted further apart, and the following distances are met 
with :— 


Square ForMATIon. Rectangular Formation. 
per acre. per acre. 

6ft. apart ... w» 1,200 8x6 ve = 908 
7 a or .. 889 9x6 806 
8 - vex .. 680 9x7 692 
9 3 ae a DST 10 x6 726 
10 a So we 435 10 x8 545 
ll i ig v —- 860 ll x8 495 
1) Af ee. ye» 2000 12 x8 454 
14 es iv 222 ‘12 x 10 363 


The distances 12ft. by 12ft. and 11ft. by 10ft., are certainly 
excessive and an unwarrantable waste of space, the cost of periodi- 
eal ploughing, scarifying, outlay on purchase of land, clearing, 
staking and trellising, fencing, being out of proportion with the 
number of vines. For currants and sultanas and strong growing 
vines the distances might well be 11ft. by 8ft. or 12ft. by 8ft. 


In the drier districts.a superficial area of ground of 64 to 100 
sg. ft. should be given to the vine. 

The advantages of wide planting are apparent: for a 
given area of ground more vines are planted to the acre; 
the distance between the rows allows vehicles to enter the vineyard 
anywhere, for carrying away grapes or for running the burner 
after pruning, while moreover, should at any time the vines be 
put on trellis, fewer posts, less wire, and fewer holes for the posts 
will be required per acre. 


The object of reducing the number of plants per acre, as shown 
above, as one proceeds from the cooler districts towards the hotter 
or drier ones, is to equalise the development of the root system 
underground with the development of the aerial organs of the 
plant. In the South of France for instance, as well as in Algeria, 
where the object sought for is to promote a luxuriant growth and 
an abundant yield, the growth of the deeper roots must be encour- 
aged by every means, so as to make the plant independent of 
droughts, and enable it to get nourishment proportionate to its 
yield. 

So much for the distance apart vines miay be planted. In the 
case of fruit trees, a superficial area of ground proportionate to 
their natural growth must be provided for. 


Small trees like the mandarins, the navel orange, some dwarf 
apple trees, pear trees with an erect habit of growth, quince, etc., 
will require less space than the larger orange, apple, and pear trees 
or the olive tree. An orchard, however, laid out at distances vary- 
ing according to the sort of fruit grown would certainly look un- 
sightly and would moreover be difficult to cultivate; the necessity for 


63 


a uniform interval between the trees all through the orchard is there- 
fore obvious. 

Many orchards were planted at distances 15ft. to 18ft. apart, 
but these are decidedly too close. The average fruit-trees should 
not be planted at a lesser interval than 20ft., a favourite distance 
would be 22ft. or three trees to the chain, which would give 90 trees 
per acre if planted on the square, and 100 trees if planted in quin- 
cunx, and 103 if set according to the septuple formation; 24ft. 
as well as 25ft. apart are also favourite intervals for soils and loeali- 
ties where trees grow luxuriantly. 

For the guidance of those orechardists who desire to plant 
certain kinds of fruit trees in blocks by themselves, the following 
table is given of distances found suitable for setting apart :— 


Rhubarb ay aie diss .. 4 feet apart. 
Gooseberries and Currants ag des see. 18 ve 
Rock Melons ... ia sie «- 6 to 8 5 
Water Melons ... = sé see 10h 35: 12 5 
Grape Vines ... Per ae woe B y5 12 5 
Coffee ... sa ai te wa JO, 12 53 
Guavas . as vw 12 ,, 18 FF 
Bananas “and Plantains gets wwe AZ 5, 18 ba 
Persimmons ... oe re: ae) a 
Mandarins and Kumquats deg o. 18 4, 22 sh 
Oranges and Lemons.. an’ wee 22-35. 30 3 
Plums and Prunes ... ane ww 224, 25 om 
Peaches and Nectarines act site 22: gy 2D - 
Pears... abs = ww. 22,4, 25 “ 
Large Cherries. sia wag sin 22>, 25 = 
Apricots ob aa sie ~. 22, 30 oe 
Apples ... _ sis aes wee 220 43-30 55 
Figs... ise + 22 ,, 40 35 
Walnuts and Chestnuts sis «. 30 ,, 40 % 
Olives ... : : - 80 ,, 40 33 


If planted in rows i eeaiisatios in double rows of 114ft. 
to 2ft., with 4ft. between the double rows. 

Pneeonlnes= tn double rows 2ft. with 8ft. to 10ft. between 
each double row. 

Raspberries :—4ft. to 8ft. between the rows. 


PLANTING. 


Before planting a vineyard or an orchard, the question should 
have been fully discussed what special market it is intended to 
supply. Whether it is intended to dispose of the fruit locally or 
to ship overseas; to manufacture the grapes into wine or brandy; to 
dry into raisins, or to sell fresh as table grapes.. 

The. natural conditions of soil, climate, and orientations should 
also influence the selection of the varieties. Favour the 
quick ripening of early sorts by planting on well exposed 
slopes. Again, in the case of fruit trees and vines, study 
the likings of each sort; putting the yellow Bellflower apple on 


64 


the lighter patches of soil, in preference to the Newtown pippin, 
which prefers a stronger soil. Some varieties again show greater 
predisposition to diseases in low moist localities, and should for 
that reason be planted on well drained slopes; the Cleopatra apple, 
which is somewhat subject to the ‘‘bitter pit’’ disease, is a case in 
point. Other questions as well require consideration when planting, 
for instance, such self sterile fruit as the Bartlett and other pears. 
Top graft a few of these or plant amongst them some varieties 
which will supply the pollen necessary for insuring cross fertilisa- 
tion and the better setting of fruit. Pears and plums do better on 
a strong retentive soil than peaches and nectarines. Cherries do 
better on stony land on a high slope. Walnuts and chestnuts in 
well sheltered, shaded and moist situations. Almonds and figs in 
the warmest and driest parts. Oranges in rich, deep, warm soil, and 
well sheltered places. With reference te grape vine due attention 
should be paid in those places periodically visited by late frosts 
to the time the several varieties burst into leaf. Amongst those 
varieties budding late are: Carignane, Mataro, Cabernet 
Sauvignon. Amongst those pushing forth their buds early the 
Chasselas, Malbec, Grenache, Verdot, Pinot, Muscat, Black 
Hamburgh. 

Only those varieties that have been well proved as suitable in 
regard to soil, climate, or the special purpose they are grown for, 
should be cultivated, and of these, the varieties that do best in a 
particular locality more largely planted. 

Plant as few varieties as possible. You will find a readier 
market for your produce if you only keep a few ‘‘lines,’’ to use 
a term employed in commercial circles. Do not have all the sorts 
ripening at the same time; in an early district favour more 
especially early sorts, and in a late one, late varieties of fruit, as 
you will then, with your produce meet a firm market that is not 
glutted with fruits of all sorts. 


VINE-PLANTING, 


Some vines, such as the Malbec, are liable to the ae- 
cident of coulure, or of imperfect setting of the flowers, when 
grown on low badly drained ground, and do far better on deep, 
free, undulating ground. Table grapes should be planted in the 
richest soil in the vineyard, more especially if they can be given 
an extra watering from the time the berries are well set till they 
change colour, 

Let each variety stand separately. I have seen on some of 
the most famous and ancient vineyards of the Medoe near 
Bordeaux and also in the old vineyards of Spain and of Portugal 
grape vines of different kinds planted indiscriminately in the same 
field, but that practice has gone out of favour now; and although 


65 


it is advisable to blend the grapes in the fermenting vats together, 
so as to insure their several component parts getting thoroughly 
incorporated with each other during the process of fermentation. 
this blending can be just as easily made in the suitable proportions 
without the different varieties of vines being grown indiscrimi- 
nately together. 


The advantages of keeping the varieties separate may thus 
be summed up:— 

1. The vines look more uniform in the field, and a more 
delicate and may be desirable variety of vine is not 
thus exposed to be dwarfed or choked in its growth 
by more common and more rustic vines. 


2. Varieties more liable to specific fungoid or other pests 
can receive appropriate dressings to ward off or 
keep down disease. 

3. Each variety can be trained and pruned as renuired. 

4. The picking ean be done in successtun by taking the 


varieties as they come to maturity in their proper 
order. 

The best way of stocking a vineyard is by using cuttings 
wherever the spring and summer months are moist enough, or rooted 
plants when there is a risk of a long spell of dry weather as is 
the case with us. Seedlings are never raised for extensive plant- 
ing, as they do not bear a erop until the fifth or sixth year at least, 
and besides, like most other intensely cultivated plants, vines 
sprung from seeds always show a tendency to sport and vary. 

The best cuttings are obtained from the middle portion of the 
bearing canes of the previous season, the wood being well sum- 
mered, keeping well, and striking root and budding readily. The 
shorter the cutting the stronger the vine. 

Very tender cuttings are those that grow quickest: but they 
are also very apt to perish, on account of the pithy condition of 
the wood, and are not to be relied on in dry seasons and open field 
cultivation. It often happens that the resulting plants are, besides, 
of a weak constitution. On the other hand, cuttings with hard 
and tough wood do not strike root so easily, and show a tendency 
to grow more wood than fruit. Whenever, therefore, it is possible, 
the middle part of a cane, of healthy summered wood, should be 
chosen from prolifie plants. 

Cuttings 10 inches to 14 inches long are the best for planting 
in this country, and only one of the buds should show above ground 
and not two or three as are often left. The complete covering of 
the cutting and of the terminal bud under some sand or loose soil, 
delays the growth of the leaves, which are the natural organs of 
evaporation of the plant, whilst the young rootlings take hold of 
the ground and supply food for the requirements of the young 


66 


vine. If more than one bud be too much exposed to air and light, 
leaf growth out of proportion with root growth exhausts the cut- 
ting which dies as the ground gets drier. 


Short-jointed cuttings are preferable, and they should not be 
taken from a vine attacked by any fungoid pest, such as anthracnose 
or oidium, etc., as they are, asa rule, less vigorous, and there is 
always the risk of propagating the disease and infecting the young 
vineyard with the disease. ! 

The fresher cut, the better will cuttings strike. It is not 
always possible though to get cuttings freshly pruned as they may 
have to be procured from distant parts. 

When sending them on a lengthy journey it is well to tie them 
into bundles of 100 to 200 each, and put around them some straw 
very slighly moistened with water, and wrapped up in more dry 
straw and then put in cradle cases or in gunny bags, which, on 
arrival, should be opened, the bundles taken out and placed in an 
open furrow in some well drained place of the vineyard. 


The best time for planting is early in the spring, in the 
moister districts, as at that time the surface soil has been 
sufficiently penetrated by the warmth of the atmosphere to favour 
the growth of the tender rootlets. In drier places, where the hot 
weather comes early and the rainfall gets scarce as the spring 
draws on, the planting should be done even earlier. 


Cuttings should only be planted under the best conditions, as 
‘failure to strike means added cost in replanting the season after 

and a longer time before the vineyard becomes productive. Should 
any doubt be entertained as to the striking capabilities of the 
euttings—and some varieties, such as the brown Muscat, for in- 
stance, are very hard to strike—the bundles are often taken from 
the trench where they have been lying, and placed a few inches 
deep into water. After three or four days, the bark gets sappy, 
and small wart-like swellings, covered with a little gummy sub- 
stance, show at the butt. The cuttings should then be planted 
without delay, as the rootlets of the plant soon break out and 
might possibly be damaged when handled. 

A single eye cutting produces a more vigorous root system 
than a cutting 10 to 12 inches long, and a medium size one will, in 
a similar manner, strike a better constituted root system than 
long cuttings 18 to 20 inches long, in which ease a distinct system 
of roots will come out in layers out of every joint, and will not 
be so strong and vigorous as if they issued from the same joint 
as near the surface as possible, and with a tendency of striking 
deeply into the soil, in a downward direction. 


To assist these single eye cuttings striking, they are set in the 
spring in moist sand under glass frames, and when the shoots com- 


67 


mence to push upwards, fed by the tender roots in the sand, they are 
gradually hardened by more direct exposure to the air and are 
finally transplanted, when they make sturdy plants. 


Single Eye Cuttings. 


It is often necessary to keep the vine-cuttings a month or 
two before they can be planted out; they should in that ease be 
put temporarily in a trench dug in well drained and moist soil and 
banked up with earth where they will keep dormant; at planting 
time only a sufficient number of cuttings for the day’s requirements 
should be taken out. 


Rooted vines, whenever obtainable at a reasonable price, are 
much more certain to strike root and grow. In many parts of the 
Eastern States, where the spring and summer months are moist, 
cuttings are generally planted in preferenee, but in this State rooted 
vines are more reliable. Although the cost of rooted plants is five or 
six times as much as that of cuttings, the certainty and the more uni- 
form growth and early cropping are in favour of rooted vines as 
compared with cuttings. 


A small nursery should be planted to provide rooted vines for 
filling up blanks oceurring after the first season’s planting. Few 
cuttings probably strike better than vine-cuttings, and those can 
be got at pruning time for little over the cost of trimming. 


For stocking a nursery, shorter cuttings than those generally 
used for planting out in the open field are preferable; they develop 
a better root system, und are less liable to dry up after having made a 
fictitious growth, as more care and attention can be given them, and 
moisture in the ground can be better maintained by cultivation or hy 
oceasional waterings, mulchings, ete. 


68 


In the nursery lines the cuttings can be put in at a distance of 
6 to 10 inches, with an interval of 18 to 24 inches between the rows. 
The plants should be lifted up with much care so as to injure the 
tender roots as little as possible, and these should be carried to the 
field either wrapped up in a wet bag and put in a basket or placed 
in a bucket of water. ek 


A. Strong vine from short cutting, showing vigorous root sys- 
tem, growing from the same joint. B. Weaker vine from long 
cutting showing disposition of roots.—(Foez.) 


The holes having been previously dug, the bruised roots are 
trimmed with a sharp knife or a secateur, and the rooted vines 
planted in the way fruit trees are generally set; all shoots but one 
are then cut off, and on this two good buds alone are left. 


Unlike cuttings which are planted very early in the spring, 
rooted vines may be put in the ground at any time in the winter; 
they then establish themselves and take a good hold in the ground, 
and make a vigorous growth as soon as the spring sets in. 


Sandy loams do not show a tendency to erack in dry and hot 
weather; but in heavy soils the ground, contracting in the summer, 
very often leaves an open space round the cutting, especially if it 
bas been put in vertically, without having been slightly bent. In 
that case, and unless some sand can conveniently be put round the 
cutting, the hole should be well trampled down, up to about two- 


69 


thirds of the length of the cutting or rooted plant, and the remaining 
third banked up with the more friable and well-pulverised soil, 
which is left loose on the surface. 


A handful of bone-dust and wood ashes, kainit, or better still 
either sulphate or muriate of potash, worked with the earth round 
the plant will in many places provide nutriment for the young root~ 
lets, and insure the rapid growth. 


Layering an old vine stump. 


TREE PLANTING. 


The ground is marked off by means of pegs or light stakes, so 
that whichever way the rows are looked at they all seem to be in 
perfectly straight lines; then the holes are dug. 


The holes for fruit trees should be wide enough to permit of 
the spreading of the roots; the wider the better. In heavy, 
retentive soil they should not be deeper than the land has been 
ploughed, as otherwise such holes get full of stagnant water, 
and would hold it like a basin; many a fruit tree has been killed 
through the roots thus decaying instead of growing in a healthy 
condition. | 


Before the holes are dug and in order to insure that the trees 
will occupy the exact spot the stakes were in, a simple contrivance 
known as the “tree-setter” is of great use. 


O ve 7 _ oF 


Aft 


It consists of a light piece of board 1 inch thick, 4 inches wide, 
and 4 to 5 feet long, Cut a VY shape notch in the centre and either 


Aln. 


70 


bore a hole 144 inch in diameter at 3 inches from each end; or, 
instead of the holes, cut notches at each end of the board. 


To use the “tree-setter,” the V shaped notch is put against the 
stake, which marks the spot the tree is to oceupy. Through the hole 
at each end, or in the notches, as the case may be, drive into the 
ground pegs 1 to 1%4 inch in diameter and 12 to 15 inches long 
that will easily pass through the holes. This having been done, 
remove the central stake in the V notch, lift the board over the two 
terminal pegs, which are left in the ground, and dig the hole. When 
planting, replace the “tree-setter” over these two pegs, and place 
the stem so that it will fit into the V; it will then occupy exactly 
the same spot the stake oceupied when the ground was laid out. 


The hole should be three feet square, convex in the centre, or 
of the shape of an inverted saucer. This is done by heaping up 
some loose surface soil, so that when the tree is planted its base 
stands a little higher than the roots, which spread out evenly round, 
radiating outwards with a slight dip downwards. 


Whenever patches of hard ironstone conglomerate, such as are 
met with at places on the Darling Range, or of impervious peaty or 
calcareous hardpan, such as exist sometimes round ti-tree swamps m 
the coastal zone, occur, a few plugs of gelignite exploded in the 
ground will leave numerous crevices which will premote the drainage 
of the land and permit the roots of the plants to penetrate through 
the pan and gain access to the subsoil underneath. 


Selecting the trees from the nursery requires some discrimina- 
tion. The varities to be planted having been decided upon, place 
the order with a good and reliable nurseryman, preferably a local 
one with a reputation to keep up. Sixpence more on the price of a 
tree, when compared with the fruit pedler’s quotations, may have 
to be paid, but it will be money well invested. 


When buying trees it is well to stipulate that the stems should 
be smooth, the roots not too much hacked about; that the trees, if 
peaches, should be on peach stock, except when planted on heavy 
clay or in damp places, when they might be on plums; apples on 
northern spy, citrus trees on hitter orange or on pomelo, to guard 
against collar rot. It is well to require some guarantee that the 
trees are free from fungi and injurious insects, and more particu- 
larly some of the worst scale insects. 


Large quantities of deciduous nursery stock are received from 
oversea. These carry best when packed dry in bundles. If wet 
and placed in the holds of ships they sometimes heat and after a few 
days the bark and buds turn black. Citrus trees are packed with 


71 


the roots in earth and both tied in hessian, or they are placed in 
shallow cases with damp sawdust round the roots and a hessian 
cover, and they are kept in a cool and ventilated place. 


On arrival, each tree should be examined for any indication 
of root galls; scale insects, black aphis, borers, or fungoid disease, 
and unless it is accompanied with a certificate of disinfection at the 
nursery, it should be treated by dipping in warm whale-oil soap suds 
(1b. of whale-oil to 3 gallons of water), or in kerosene emulsion 
for a couple of minutes in the ease of insect pests, or in Bordeaux 
mixture in the case of fungoid disease. 


The young trees are then heeled in without delay. For that 
purpose a trench is dug in moist but well-drained soil and the trees 
placed in it, slanting towards the same direction, and loose, well- 
pulverised earth banked up round the roots and every part of the 
stems; the trees will stand in that state until required for planting. 


It happens that they are sometimes barkbound, showing a 
leathery, shrivelled bark. In that case they should be thoroughly 
drenched first and then stratified or covered up with moist loose 
earth or sand, root, stem and branches, for a couple of days or so, 
when, unless too far gone, they assume their healthy look again. 


The best time for planting all sorts of trees is when the sap is 
down, and after the autumn and winter rains have penetrated the 
soil to a good depth. That time in this State will be from May 
till August. Citrus trees are set out after the first autumn 
rain or, better still, late in the winter in August. Do not plant 
while the earth is water-logged, as its handling at that time would 
puddle it, and it would cake round the roots of the tree and sub- 
sequently crack and let in the hot air round the tender roots. 


When lifting from the trench, make, with a sharp pruning 
knife, a clean cut of any bruised root, and taking the tree 
to the hole dug on the spot it is going to occupy, with a few 
shovelsful of earth raise the bottom of the hole so that the collar or 
ground line on the stem is flush with the surface ground of the 
orchard. The tendency until a few years ago has been to plant 
trees, more especially in this State, much too deeply, with the idea 
that during our dry summers, the roots should be put as deep down 
into the ground as possible so as to insure a proper amount of 
moisture being always within their reach. Collar rot, the rotting 
of the roots, stunted growth, are all due to this defective method of 
planting, and to this cause mainly must be attributed the loss of so 
many fruit-trees planted in this country. Deep planting, insufficient 
pruning, deficient cultivation, neglect of pests, may be said to be at 
the bottom of the failure of a great many fruit trees in this State. 


72 


As a general rule, if the soil in which the tree is planted is the 
same as the one from which it was taken, the tree should be set the 
same depth as it was before it was removed from the nursery row. 
If the soil is heavier, the tree should be set a trifle shallower, if 
lighter it should be planted a shade deeper. 


Those with little experience of planting trees often plant too 
deeply and set the tree into the ground without spreading the roots 
as shown in the second figure; they at times also place stable 
manure right over the roots. Such trees generally get stunted and 


i 
~ | 
W 4 i 
; i 
} 
| 
<« 38 U Feer y = 

Wwe BV 

f Wy aime “i My, 4 


Tree too deeply planted. Tree rightly planted. Tree set too shallow. 


hide-bound and only recover when lifted up to the proper level. 
Trees, on the other hand, planted too shallow are easily blown down 
by windstorms, and their exposed roots dry when exposed to the 
dry summer sun. 


How to Manure WHEN PLANTING. 


If the trees are planted late in the season, when dry weather 
sets in, it is advisable to pour a bueketful of water around the 
stem to settle the earth well on the roots. Mulch the ground about 
the newly planted trees with a light coating of stable manure or 
of straw. 


73 


Fertilisers are sometimes used at the time of planting for giving 
a good start to the trees, but avoid putting farmyard manure under 
the roots of the plant, as it would in many cases attract insects and 
favour the growth of parasitic moulds that would be injurious to 
the tree. Of chemical fertilisers a couple of handfuls of phosphates 
and potash manures mixed will in many cases prove of great value, 
well worked with the earth round the roots. Whenever farmyard 
manure is used, it should be in the form of a mulching on the top 
of the soil, as its beneficial effect will then be twofold: the plant 
food it contains will be washed from the surface down to where the 
roots are established by the winter rains, and it will act as a screen 
which will be of benefit to the plant by preventing the evaporation 
from the soil, and by smothering any weeds that might happen to 
grow round the trees. When the planting is done on freshly-cleared 
ground, sour and heavy, lime is an excellent preparation. The 
places where the trees are going having been marked, 6lb. to 7Ib. 
of lime is spread around the stakes; the holes are subsequently dug 
and the trees put in. This will correct the sourness and the stiff- 
ness of the soil and induce a healthy growth. Some open up the 
tree-hole some time before planting, but if the ground is at all stift 
and heavy, the liming as described above is preferable. Unless this 
dressing is applied it often happens that the sides and bottom of 
the holes are coated with a viscous vlaze which prevents the tender 
roots reaching to the soil beyond. 


After all the precautions have been taken for insuring the 
proper planting of the right sort of trees, all the efforts of the 
beginner are often frustrated by neglect of another important de- 
tail. The newly planted tree must be ent back, or shortened in, or 
else its growth will be checked, and it will not uncommonly perish. 
So long as it was in the nursery, the root system of the young plant 
was unimpaired, absorbing from the soil all the nutriment the 
branches required, but when taken up, no matter how carefully, 
many of the fine feeding rootlets are torn and bruised, the feeding 
capacity of the tree is no longer in keeping with the amount of 
shoots it carries, and unless the excess of these is cut back and the 
balance re-established between the feeding and the breathing and 
evaporating organs of the plant,.it will fail to thrive. The bark 
‘will become leathery and tight, the sap will heat and ferment under 
the action of the sun, and the tree will fall an easy victim to the 
attacks of borers and other noxious insects. 


How to Tre a TREE. 


A strap made of cloth or twine is passed round tree and stake 
in such a way that when properly fixed it forms the figure “8” 
around the tree and support to which it is firmly tied. This method 
avoids friction and chafing of the bark, and a eurved stem can gradu- 
ally be straightened. 


7A 


Ax soon as planting has been done it is advisable to draw a 
plan of the orchard on which is indicated the respective position of 
each tree, with numbers which will refer to an index recording the 
name of the trees or rows of trees planted. Labels may be lost or 
torn away, but with such a plan no possible mistake can happen 
at any time regarding the correct name of any tree grown in the 
orchard. 


LABELS FOR F'RUIT-TREES. 


More especially in the home garden a variety of trees is often 
planted, and as it would be inconvenient to keep continually re- 
ferring to the map of the ground to ascertain the name of trees, it 
is advisable to attach labels to them. 


Of these several kinds are sold by seedsmen and florists. If 
the surface of the zine label is greasy, kerosene or petrol rubbed 
over it will cause the lead pencil to bite, the writing remaining long 
unaltered by the action of the air, while the metal itself may be- 
come oxidised. The zine labels at first look very neat, but unless 
they are punched with letters or definite marks the writing disap- 
pears after a few seasons. 


Cheap and convenient labels are ordinary painted pine labels, 
14% inches wide and 6 inches long. Apiece of galvanised wire is 
fastened to them at one end. The name of the tree or plant is 
written with a soft pencil upon the label, which is then dipped in 
white of lead well thinned with oil. The paint at first obscures the 
writing, but on drying the lettering comes out again more distinetly, 
and remains visible for quite a long time. 


Summer CULTIVATION 


is in a hot and dry climate even more important to the well being 
of fruit-trees as is pruning itself. In Europe orchard land is 
generally grassed. In Australia, where climatic conditions are 
totally different, the old methods have likewise been tried and have 
failed. Vines and fruit-trees, to be profitable in this climate, must 
not only be kept scrupulously clean, but the surface of the soil 
must be stirred at frequent intervals. 


Fruit land should not merely be kept clean of weeds, but it 
should be thoroughly tilled: clean cultivation is not all that summer 
cultivation implies; it is only part of it. Summer cultivation acts 
besides in a variety of other ways; it maintains the soil in a con- 
dition favourable to the growth of the roots of the plants} it re- 
tains moisture in the ground, and it also leaves it in the most fav- 
ourable condition for absorbing more moisture from the atmosphere; 
by opening up the soil it promotes its sweetening through the action 
of the atmosphere on the particles of the soil. 


75 


Moisture brought to the land ny rain gradually sinks into the 
ground, the surplus finding its way into soaks, swamps, or streams. 
A notable portion of this water, on the other hand, has a tendency 
to rise again toward the surface under the influence of that same 
capillary attraction which causes damp to rise on a brick wall built 
on moist ground, or which is noticeable on stakes driven into the 
ground, or on old tree trunks. This ascending current of moisture 
goes on more or less actively, evaporating on the surface on which 
play the sun and the wind, until after a long period of dry weather 
all the moisture has been sucked up from some depth below, and 
the ground gets as “dry as a brick.” 


By surface cultivation this wasteful escape of moisture from 
the ground is checked; the capillary attraction is, for a time, de- 
stroyed close to the surface, although it goes on without check a 
little deeper down; water continues, without sensible interruption, 
to be drawn up all the same from the subsoil, but, owing to the 
fact that it is no longer sucked up to the surface, where it would 
evaporate under the agency of sun-heat and wind, it accumulates 
in the layer of soil.in which the roots feed, moistening it, keeping 
it cool, and dissolving the fertilismg elements contained in the soil, 
thus favouring root-growth and, in proper time, fruit production. 
It is important, to achieve this end, that the surface soil should be 
as well pulverised as possible, and not ripped up into coarse clods. 
This would allow of the penetration into the deeper layers of the 
soil of too much heat and of the desiccating wind which, by evap- 
orating what amount of moisture is continuously rising under the 
action of capillary force, would frustrate the object of the grower 
to keep in the ground the moisture necessary to dissolve plant food 
and prepare it for the roots, which can only utilise it when pre- 
sented in the liquid form. A well cultivated field is also 
better prepared to absorb and imbibe whatever amount of water 
comes down in rainy weather, instead of allowing it to run to waste 
on a hardened crust into the drains or the gullies which carry it 
away to the rivers. Loose earth acts as a sponge which gets per- 
meated during the night by the damp air, condenses and retains its 
moisture, and freshens up the crop. 


The, thorough cultivation of the soil answers, moreover, another 
object. 


Thorough cultivation checks the growth of a meshwork of ten- 
der rootlets close up to the surface, and enables the deeper seated 
roots to-hold their own and earry on their functions under favour- 
able conditions. The cultivation should be so regulated that the 
principal roots of the plant are not injured and torn off; it should 
be deerer in hot and dry localities where surface roots are more 
liable to get scorched and desiccated in times of drought, than in 
moister and cooler districts. A maximum of six inches in dry and 


76 


hot places, and four to five inches in moister localities, is deep 
enough for all purposes. Unless this cultivation is every year 
carried out, the surface-feeding rootlets will soon assume upon 
themselves the duty of foraging for the maintenance of the plant, 
and thus finally cause the gradual withering up and atrophy of 
the deeper-seated roots. The result of subsequent cultivation, fol- 
lowed up by intense summer heat, may well be imagined. The 
superficial rootlets having been destroyed by the field implements, 
it might happen that the deeper ones would not prove equal to the 
tax suddenly thrown upon them after having become inactive, and 
the result on the plant would soon make itself only too apparent. 


To sum up, the object of summer cultivation consist in de- 
stroying the thirsty and hungry weeds; in intercepting the upward 
motion of moisture from the subsoil, and storing it up in the 
feeding layer of earth round the roots of plants; in enabling the 
soil to soak in and condense more water; in sweetening it by pro- 
moting the ready access of the atmospheric air; in hindering and 
preventing the invasion and propagation of noxious insects by 
exposing them to the action of a roasting sun-heat or to the 
attacks of insectivorous birds and other natural enemies. 


‘ 
FieLtp IMPLEMENTS USED IN CULTIVATION, 


Three sets of horse implements are necessary for the thorough 
cultivation of vine or fruit land:— 
A suitable plough, 
A scarifier, 
A set of harrows, 


without mentioning the hand hoes, pick, digging forks, and minor 


tools and appliances in use for working the soil close up to the 
tree. 


A considerable variety of implements are offered by the trade 
which claim to do the work they are expected to do in the best 
style and at the cheapest cost. The ingenuity of modern makers 
has been considerably taxed of late by the desire to excel their 
rivals, and the result, so far as design and workmanship are con- 
cerned, has attained to a high state of perfection when compared 
with the implements used for similar purposes only a few years 
ago. 


Where some levelling is desirable to seeure an even surface. 
an earth scoop after the surface has been “seruffed”’ up with the 
plough, is of great assistance. Another suitable implement for 
this work is a “buck seraper” made of a solid wooden beam, two 


77 


inches by 12 inches, eut level with the adze on one side. and iron- 
shod to scrape the earth. 


Buck scraper tipping over its load, 


SECTION 


Blade 4*% 
drawn to 


& curved shightly “ddemwards 


Sectional view of a buck scraper. 


A guiding handle bolted to the scraper is used for holding 
the board at an angle when paring a slice of the uneven ground. 
One length of chain at each end of the seraper and looped to the 
whipple-tree complete the implement. 


Another serviceable land leveller is thus described in the 
Settlers’ Guide issued by this Department :—‘The leveller may be 
made on the farm, all the aid it will be necessary to invoke being 


78 


that of the blacksmith to make the iron nose and even this is not | 
an absolute necessity, as our hardwoods will stand a good deal of 
friction before wearing away. 


To make the leveller, take two hardwood planks about 12 feet 
in length, two inches thick, and eight inches wide. Cut down one 
edge with a drawing knife, plane, or adze, so that it will be about 
half an inch on the edge. Put the boards together in V shape, with 
the flaring edges at the bottom inside and resting on the ground. 
Take an eight-foot board, trimmed down the same, but two inches 
narrower. Mortise and holt the ends into the side boards about 
two feet from the ends. Put two bolts through where the side 
pieces are joined to make the front of the leveller. Bolt a hovk on 
top so that the whipple-trees may be attached. Nail an eight-inch 
board across near the centre. When you want to cut down a ridge, 
ride upen the board, drive the horses on one side, and swing your 
weight so as to cut into tbe scil. If you wish to fill up dead fur- 
rows or ditches, drive along one side and throw the weight of the 
body where the soil is to be moved from, and thereby gauge the 
filling of the hole. 


Va 


Serviceable Land Leveller. 


Every year almost witnesses the production of implements 
possessing’ special merit; among those in favour at present are the 
Digging Plough, the Dise Plough, the Spading, the Acme, the Dise, 
and the Spring-tooth Harows, as well as the old Drag or Zig-zag 
Harrow, the Planet Junior Horse Hoe. 


The annual cultivation of the soil may be said to begin in the 
winter time, when one or two ploughings are done according as the 
soil is lighter or heavier, and the work of cultivation effected more 
thoroughly. 


At least one of these winter ploughings should be deep, and 
the plough should he set in the middle of the rows of-trees or vines 
to a depth of six to seven inches. When finishing off, a lighter 
plough may be used with advantage, or the depth of the furrow 
reduced to tree or four inches. 


79 


Our orchardists, as a rule, fail to pay sufficient attention to 
this deep cultivation, with the result that in the height of a dry 
summer the numerous feeders which have taken possession of the 
soil a few inches under the surface of: the ground wither ‘and dry 
up, the plant as a consequence showing signs of distress. Deeper 
ploughing, whilst checking the growth of these superficial roots, 
offers an encouragement to the growth of the deeper-seated ones. 
When an orchard or a vineyard has long been ploughed only three 
to four inches deep, it would be manifestly injurious to deepen the 
cultivation all at once to six and seven inches, as a considerable 
shock would result to the plant by tearing the superficial roots; 
but in a dry and warm summer, such as our Western Australian 


summer, due attention should be paid to the gradual deepening of 
winter cultivation. 


Various sorts of ploughs are made for the purpose; the one 
horse Vine Ploughs of the type specially constructed by Ransome, 
Sims, and Jefferies, of Norfolk; Howard, of Bedford, and other 
good makers are made for vineyard work, and answer splendidly 
for turning the last furrow or two, close up to the trees in the 
orchard, without bruising the bark. They are light, with a short 
beam, and the body thrown six inches off the centre on the mould- 
board side; they do not turn a furrow so deeply as the ordinary 
plough, and the ploughman has complete command over his im- 
plement, being able to throw it out of the furrow instantly should 
it happen to come into contact with a vine stump. 


Rs EK oft 


Tee SMe 
eda So.u BENT Lowe np i 


Se 


Digging Plough. 


A better plough still is the Digging Plough, which, in breaking 
up and pulverising the ground, approaches nearer the spade and 


80 


the fork than any in the class of work it turns out. The shifting 
principle of the handles and the adjustable head-rack make it pos- 
sible to plough the ground right up to the butt of the trees when 
ploughin® either on or off. It also possesses over the long mould- 
board wrought-iron ploughs marked advantages. It is easier in 


draught and lighter in weight; it is cheaper in price, and the spare ' 


parts can easily be obtained from the agent, and replaced without 
trouble whatever by any ploughman. An “Oliver Chilled, No. 40,” 
costing £4, with a team of two to three horses, will turn a furrow 
nine inches deep and 16 inches in width, and only weigh 130lbs., 
as against 170lbs. to 180lbs. of the wrought-iron plough, cutting 
a furrow six inches deep and only nine inches in width, Patent 
shares with reversible points may be fitted on these Digging 
Ploughs. 


Whilst the long mould-board plough half turns the furrows 
into long symmetrical parallel ribbons, the Digging Plough turns 
and pulverises the ground thoroughly, leaving the surface—especi- 
ally if the land be free and light—comparatively smooth and better 
exposed to the weathering action of frost, sun, air, and rain. It 
is made of cast-iron or steel, the steel ploughs being durable and 
light on draught. The “double furrow” plough is used in the larger 
orchards, and is also fitted with shifting handles and head-rack, 
which enable it to plough fairly close up to the trees, but the single 
furrow is generally used to complete the work. The Dise Plough 
has of late years come out as a capital implement for the strong, 
heavy soils, which are worked with difficulty with the mould-board 
plough, unless the land happens to be put in the right state for 
ploughing. The dises require no “laying,” is not clogged with weeds, 
which it cuts through, and lasts much longer than shares. 


When only one ploughing is done, the earth should be thrown 
away from the trees or vines; while when two ploughings are given, 
the first is generally away from the rows and’ the second to 
the vines or trees. In the first case, it is necessary to afterwards 
level the surface of the ground by means of a scarifier. 


Whenever weeds are high in the field, as sometimes occurs on 
neglected places, or where a green cover crop of peas or some kind 
of leguminous plants has been grown for the purpose of being 
ploughed in and enrich the lighter soils, a short-looped heavy drag 
chain attached to the beam of the plough will bend down the grass 
and facilitate the operation of ploughing. 


In order to break up the wall or strip of hard land in the line 
of the trees, the two ploughings are done crossways; and whenever 
the slope is not too great and the soil too heavy, a gang plough 
turning two furrows at the one operation will get through the work 
quicker, one man with a pair of horses doing nearly as much work 


j 
| 
i 
i 


i 


| 


81 


again as if the single-furrow plough only was used. There is little 
need to say that the horses worked in the orchard and vineyard 
should be steady and well broken in, the man careful, and the 
whipple-tree as short as possible, so as to guard against any pos- 
sibility of bruising the trees. 


THe Spiper Harness. 


Fruit trees often suffer considerable damage by having their 
branches broken and portions of the bark of their stems removed by 
the swingle-tree and long trace chains still used in some orchards. 
Particularly is this so when the work of cultivation is being per- 
formed by incompetent or careless drivers. The chance of injury 
to the trees may be reduced by employing orchard harness of the 
type shown in the plate. This harness is comparatively light, and 
the steel tube forming the bow is held up by the hip straps, and the 
traces being of leather, there is no rough surface to come into con- 
_tact with the trees. As the draught is adjustable from straight 
behind the horse, when ploughing on or off, there is no liability of 
the bow chafing the horse’s legs. 


Modern Orchard Harness. 


The same result can be achieved without incurring the cost of 
the special orchard barness by having the ordinary trace chains 
and a short whipple-tree. The chains are brought together to form 


82 


a triangle as shown in the figure, and are tied into a double knot. 
The loose end of one of the chains is then coiled round the knot to 
keep out of ihe way, while the loose end of the other chain is hooked 
on singly to the implement. 


DISTANCE TRAVELLED IN PLOUGHING. 

An observer who has given some attention to this subject con- 
tributes the following interesting notes The first column of figures 
gives the width of the furrow in inches, and the second column the 
distance travelled in ploughing one acre in miles:— 


Furrow Width. Length. 
Inches. Miles. 
ae a .. 14% 
uo set et ky aes, SES 
9 .. oe ie - se Ta 
Te we ea’ es BS 
TY se a os As ih 9 
TD.) Sass ie hs oe .. §©814 
Be ccs a “2 ro .. Th 
14... ae ec oo 28 7 
TD: ses wes se oe en 614 
iis, 4 Kis eg 
TE ks ‘bs me 6 .. 54 
US) jane 58 Fer a8 So 5% 
LS ae a ae sr = 54 
20° xe ain a was .. 48/10 


These figures are thus checked. An acre is 10 square chains, 
so that a piece of land five chains long and two chains wide will be 
exactly one acre. If this land is ploughed lengthwise every furrow 
will be five chains long. If we take the width of the furrow as 
one link, which is 7.92 inches, it will require 200 furrows to complete 
the strip, so that the horses, in addition to turning round at the 
headlands, will have to travel 1,000 chains, and as there are 80 
chains in a mile the distance will be 1214 miles. If we take a field 
of 80 chains long and 30 chains wide—that is, an area of 240 acres, 
and if it be ploughed lengthwise, each furrow will be exactly a mile 
long. Supposing a man were ploughing this with a three-furrow 
plongh, cutting approximately 24in., this would be equivalent to a 
fraction over three links. In the 30 chains there are 3,000 links, so 
that it would require 500 trips up and 500 trips down to turn over 
the whole of the ground. This would be equivalent to 1,000 miles 
which the team would have to travel in ploughing the field. Sup- 
posing a plonghman averaged three acres a day it would take him 
80 days to do the 240 acres; and if we divide the 1,000 miles by 80 
days, we would again get the figures of 1214 miles per day. 


83 


However careful the ploughing and searifying is done, it is 
not always possible, nor advisable, to come nearer than a foot or 
18 inches to the tree, round which the ground has consequently 
to be dug and turned by hand labour For this work the forked 
spade is the most convenient tool to use It has five stout cast-steel 
times about an inch wide and somewhat pointed. For loosening the 
earth about the roots of the trees and turning in manures, etc., it 
is much less liable to cut and injure the roots than the spade. 


THE SYRACUSE STRIP-DIGGER. 

Is a labour saver in the culture of grapes and berries. The 
hoe is easily guided in and out around the posts and vines, by the 
disc caster wheel to which the handle is attached. The horse is 
hitched to one side of the pole, with plenty of room for the plough 
to work under the vines or bushes. By changing the position of 
the blade, the soil can be thrown towards or away from the vines. 
The cultivator attachment may be worked with the horse hoe. 


The Syracuse Strip-digger. 


THE ScARIFIER OR CULTIVATOR. 

These implements have been so much improved of late years 
that they may be said to be as eflicient, and in some cases even more 
so, than the plough, and they are generally used in conjunction 
with the plough in order to cut and root up weeds, an1 to secure 
a fine tilth. 

The more modern scarifiers are of a lighter draught, and the 
tines are so arranged that they cover and break up the track of 
the wheels. 

In Western Australia the State Implement Works at Rocky 
Bay is manufacturing orchard and vineyard cultivators light of 


84 


draught and strong and simple of construction at prices which com- 
pare favourably with that of the best implements of the kind im- 
ported. 

Amongst those more especially adapted for orchard and vine- 
yard work are the Spring-tooth Harrows made by the Canadian 
firm of Massey-Harris and the United States firm, Osborne & Co. 

It is shown in the illustration as running on the skid, but by the 
handle and rack adjustments the teeth may be lowered to work at 
the desired depth. 


Tue Praner Junior Horse Hog, 

of which there are two sizes, the five and the nine tooth imple- 
ment, combines several of the essentials of a good agricultural 
implement; they are moderate in price, light, strong, are sold with 
or without interchangeable pieces, do very good work, and are par- 
ticularly suitable for market gardens, corn or potato cultivation, and 
small vineyards. The plates which, like the rest of the implements, 
are made of the best steel, are also secured to the standard by bolts; 
they are reversible, and can thus be used until worn out. 


The Spading Hurrow. 


Among the harrows that have of recent years gained favour 
with the vine and fruit growers, can be mentioned 


Tur Spapina Harrow. 
made by D. 8. Morgan and Co., an American rotary harrow, aa 
all of steel and iron, except the pole and seat support. 


85 


To give an idea of the construction of this implement, it may 
be said that the action of each cutter is similar to that of a spade, 
lifting and turning the soil from a depth of four to six inches and 
doing most perfect work. The spades are of forged steel, made S 
shaped, and put together in sets of three each, forming six points 
or spades. Thus in a six feet harrow of 12 sets of spades there 
are «2 small spades cutting and turning the soil. The gangs are 
so arranged that they freely float over the ground, thus enabling 
the most uneven ground to be thoroughly harrowed and left level, 
without any furrows or ridges. The draft is from the under side 
of the pole, and the seat is set well to the rear, making a perfect 
balance, and relieving the horses of any neck weight. For very 
mellow soil, or when going over roads, the rider should not ride, 
so as to lighten the machine. All parts are interchangeable; 
breakages, however, are quite uncommon, and each piece can, if 
necesary, be replaced or repaired in a few minutes. A_ cleaner, 
which is very effective in sticky soils, or long stubble and weeds, is 
supplied with the implement. 

The late Mr. L. Lindley Cowen, who used this spader at Guild- 
ford on rough, fallow ground, hard, compact stubble land, and 
cultivated vine land as well, thus described the work it per- 
forms :— 

“We have had one of the six-feet spaders at work during the 
past four years and find it lighter in draught than I anticipated, 
and far superior in the work it does to the older-fashioned disc 
and cutaway. I tried it in a heavy clay fallow, in a stubble, and 
on light loam, in every case with excellent results. A smart team 
of two horses would do from eight to 10 acres a day. For orchard 
and vineyard work it is admirably suited, as well as for general 
farm work. It appears to be strong, well made, and not likely 
to get easily out of order.’’ 

Several sizes are made, but the one horse three feet width, 
two horses six feet width, are now generally used; a new type 
machine has a forecarriage on wheels instead of the pole, which is 
severe on the horse’s neck. 


Tue Curaway Harrow. 
finds great favour fur loosening, crumbling, and lightening the 
soil. It is an improvement on the Disc Harrow, and consists of 
gangs of dises with four triangular notches eut out so that each 
dise has the appearance of four spades with their tops welded 
together; there are four to six dises on each of the two bars, which 
work in an universal joint, and can be set at any desired angle, 
and rise and fall with the irregularities of the land. The steel 
discs are dished or concave in shape, and as they revolve they lift 
and to some extent invert the soil to the depth they penetrate. The 
seat is placed over the back of the pole, which is balanced by the 


86 


weight of the driver. This implement does excellent work in 
eradicating weeds and cultivating the soil thoroughly. 


Tue Disc CuLrivators. 

have now become quite a favourite. They are made of different 
sizes. For orchard and vineyard work the one horse dise eultiva- 
tors have two gangs of four dises each and the two horse dises two 
gangs of five dises each. They have a forecarriage, carried on 
wheels, which is operated by means of a lever from the riding seat 
and can thus turn on narrow headlands in a smaller circle than 
the shaft or pole cultivators. They are very suitable for chopping 
up and turning in long weeds and trefoil and also cover crops of 
field peas in the spring time. They cut through and pulverise 
heavy clods of clay which would hardly be touched by other im- 
plements and are particularly suitable for clay soil which clogs 
the mouldboard of share ploughs or fail to be pulverised by 
others. A very good two horse dise cultivator is manufactured by 
the State Implement Works at Rocky Bay and sold for £15 each. 
The dises are British made and the framework made in Western 
Australia. The cost at present is £15 but will very likely come 
down when discs and steel become cheaper. 


Tue Acme Harrow. 
is also a very good implement (cost, two-horse £6) for reducing 
the surface of the field to a fine tilth. 

It is also a riding harrow, and consists of sets of two curved 
blades or coulters made of spring steel, one of which performs a 
paring action, and the other one.a crushing action, the implement 
performing the three operations of clod-crushing, levelling, and 
harrowing at one time. It is of light draught, simple and durable; 
unlike the spading harrow, it does not turn under the soil like a 
plough. In very mellow soil, and in covering in seed in such soil, 
the driver should not ride. 


87 


One advantage the ‘‘Acme’’ harrow possesses for use in 
orchards is, that it can be fitted with hooks and clips, which enable 
the driver to unhook the pole or shafts from the centre of the 
harrows, and attach it to either side, thus allowing the horses to 
walk clear of the branches whilst three-fourths of the harrow is 
working the soil underneath them. 


THe Drag Harrows or THE Z1c-Zac Harrows. 
are of the greatest use in the vineyard or the orchard for collect- 
ing weeds and rubbish, and keeping the surface of the soil 
perfectly mellow and friable a few days after the running of the 
searifiers or cultivators, or after a summer shower of rain has 
battered the surface of the soil down. 

I would strongly advise searifying the roadways, as well as 
the space between the vines, and keeping them clean and bare of 
weeds, as roads on which grass is allowed to grow prove a never- 
ending source of trouble and infection to the vineyard, the imple- 
ments, in turning, carrying along with them fragments of these 
grasses, which soon spread about and necessitate the almost con- 
tinuous use of hoes, searifier, and harrows. 


CATCH CROPS IN ORCHARDS. 

Fruit growers with limited capital, commencing on small areas 
where the cost of the land and of clearing is very high, sometimes 
seek a quick return by cultivating peas, beans, onions, potatoes, 
strawberries set between the rows, until the trees come into bear- 
ing. When done with judgment the practice is not injurious in 
young orchards in the the South-West where the summer is cooler 
and moister. The amount of manure and extra working is often 
an advantage rather than a detriment to the trees. 

As a rule, however, clean culture in the summer months is to 
be recommended, but there is no harm in sowing with the first rain 
in the autumn a few strips of barley to be eut green for stock, or 
sowing a cover crop, such as field peas, which are ploughed in 
towards the end of the rainy season to enrich the ground and 
improve its physical condition. <A crop of field peas sown on light 
sandy loam, when ploughed in early in the spring, not only adds 
humus to the soil but in addition assimilates from the air a notable 
amount of nitrogen ranging from 50 to 75lbs. per acre, equivalent 
to that contained in 4 cwt. to 6 ewt. of nitrate of soda or in + to 6 
tons of farmyard manures. The cost of securing this valuable 
fertiliser is that of a few bushels of seed and the extra labour of 
putting in the crop and turning it in with the plough. The value 
of the catch crop is much increased by applying at the time of 
sowing the phosphates and the potash required for the season’s 
dressing of the land under vines or fruit trees, 


88 


Cover Crops OR CLEAN CULTURE. 
are : we methods of handling fruit land which have partisans or 
detractors. The objection to cover crops is that, if the amount of 
moisture in the ground is not sufficient for both cover crop and 
fruit trees, the latter suffer. Cover crops also, unless kept under 
control with the aid of field implements, may hamper cultivation 
in the early summer when fruit land should be clean. 

Clean culture, if carried out too scrupulously, leads to gradual 
impoverishment of the soil. It cannot produce good results in- 
definitely, particularly where the soil is light and friable, when the 
leaching of nitrates and other available plant food takes place 
during periods of excessive rainfall, when the trees are dormant, 
in the wet winter months. 

Desirable cover crops are those which make a good growth 
during the winter season and which can readily be disposed of in 
the spring, when clean cultivation is the established rule. 

Of cover crops there are two classes—nitrogenous collectors, 
such as the leguminous plants: trefoils, field and cow peas, beans, 
vetches, lupines, etc.; and nitrogenous consumers, such as grasses 
and other cereals, rape, ete., which only restore to the soil what 
they have withdrawn but leave vegetable fibre and humus, which 
benefit the physical conditions of the ground. 

They all improve the physical conditions of the ground, break- 
ing up clay soil and making sandy soil more compact. They im- 
prove the water-holding capacity of the soil by adding humus to 
it. They remove and dry up excessively damp soil, by the agency 
of their leaves. On sloppy ground they bind the soil and check 
washaways during periods of heavy rain. 

Cover crops also improve the fertility of the soil by preventing 
the leaching of nitrates and available plant food as already men- 
tioned, promote nitrification, add plant food by fixing nitrogen 
from the air into the root nodules as in the case of leguminous 
crops, or by searching for plant food at depths and bringing it up 
closer to the surface, where it is reached by the feeding rootlets 
of the crop. It also breaks up plant food in the ground and makes 
it available. A fair leguminous crop sown amongst trees or vines 
when ploughed in when blossoming starts, adds pretty well 100lbs. 
of nitrogen per acre to the ground. 


MuucHine 
is often resorted to in nurseries and places where it is not always 
possible to give to the trees the amount of attention they require. 
It acts as a screen that prevents the rapid evaporation of the 
moisture from the ground, keeps the surface cool; but, on the other 
hand, it often harbours insect pests, gives to the place an untidy 
appearance, favours an undesirable growth of the young thread- 
like rootlets of the tree close up to the surface of the ground: so 


89 


that when the mulching becomes thin, or when a protracted 
drought ensues, the trees often perish. Mulching is in no way 
superior to the thorough cultivation of the ground by means of 
the harrows and horse-hoes, by means of which a dry earth mulch 
is maintained. By this means, however, the land gets parched, 
and nitrification in the soil consequently checked, unless the culti- 
vation is frequent and thorough, which is not always practicable. 
An effective method is to scatter evenly over the ground short fibre 
manure or litter by means of the cultivator or with the hoe. After 
some time, when the appearance of weeds make it necessary, the 
cultivation is repeated. By this means the moisture is just as 
effectively conserved in the ground, and the roots grow in their 
proper ‘position. On steep inclines though, where the field imple- 
ments cannot conveniently be worked, or in raising rooted vines 
and trees in the nursery, mulching is found of great use for 
smothering the weeds and keeping the soil cool and moist. 


When rotted manure is used for mulching, it is not only 
protective, but also nutritive. 


Showing at A the proper place to mulch or water. 


It is generally wrongly applied right around the stem (B), 
where there is no need for it and where it may be injurious, instead 
of in a ring (a) some distance away. When thus placed it effectu- 
ally protects the active rootlets underneath, and the drainage of 
any manure which is washed down reaches those feeding roots. 


GRAFTING 


consists in inserting into the root, the stem, or the branch, as 
the ease may be, of a plant host, known as the stock, a part of 
another plant, which is called the scion. 


90 


M. Vermorel tersely defines it: ‘‘A ‘graft is a common 
cicatrix, or healing of two wounds placed in contact.” 

It is performed in a manner and under conditions such that 
they unite, and the scion will derive from his host, the stock, the 
nourishment necessary for its growth, and will bear fruit of the 
kind belonging to the plant from which it was taken. 

On some idea of the circumstances which make grafting 
practicable, and of the methods suitable to the performance of 
this operation depend the success or the failure of the graft. To 
be successful, grafting must be made with the right kind of wood. 
The stock and the scion must be botanically related; the closer 
the relationship the more successful the graft. Grafting is not 
practicable on all kinds of plants, but is restricted to thuse botani- 
cally known as exogenous plants, which are possessed of pith, 
wood, and bark, and grow outwardly. This term is used in contra- 
distinction to that of endogenous, which refers to a class of plants 
which inerease by internal growth and elongation at the summit 
instead of externally, and have no pith, wood, and bark. Reeds, 
palms, and cereals belong to this order, and, for the reason referred 
to, cannot be grafted. ; 

In order that grafting may be successful, the growing tissues 
of both stock and scion must be closely fitted together, so that the 
nourishing fluid may be forced by one into the other. For such 
an interchange to take place the growing tissues of each must be 
fresh, sound, and gorged with moving sap; the tissues conveying 
such sap must be in contact. This growing tissue is botanically 
known as cambium, a word which means “exchange.’”’ It consists 
of a layer of extremely delicate tissue formed between the wood 
and the bark. The cells of this tissue have very thin walls, and they 
are filled with protoplasma, or a gummy organisable nutrient matter. 
It shows like a thin film of mucilage. These cells develop on the 
one side into sap-wood or alburnum, which means “whitish,” and on 
the other side into new bark, whilst at the same time fresh cambium 
is formed for the continuation of the work. 

This fusion or union of these protoplasma cells or callus forma- 
tion is more active as the temperature becomes warmer, hence 
spring time is favoured for the operation. Biological laboratory 
observations in connection with the artificial callusing of ‘“bench- 
erafted” vines show very little callus formation at 68° F. at the end 
of eight days; at 77° F. it is plentiful, and still more so at 86° FP. 
This explains the greater percentage of suecess achieved when graft- 
ing is done when spring is well on. 


OBJECTS OF GRAFTING. 


This operation, which has been practised for ages without 
number, possesses advantages which are often availed of by the 
fruit-grower. 


91 


1. It enables us to cultivate, on roots foreign to the plant 
itself, fruit-trees which, on their own roots, would fail to thrive in 
soils uncongenial. Thus the pear on the quince, the peach on the 
plum or the almond, can be cultivated on a wider range of soils 
than would be practicable were they growing on their own roots. 

2. It enables us to propagate plants which could not be pro- 
pagated true to name from seeds. This is the case with most highly 
improved plants. 

3. It is an easy and valuable means of rapidly propagating 
some sorts of plants, and of obtaining a large amount of wood 
from a shoot of a rare or choice variety. 

4. It also enables us to combat blights and pests by using 
either roots or top of varieties little subject, or not liable to, the 
attacks of such pests. Thus most apples are now worked on roots 
of the Northern Spy or the Winter Majetin, varieties proof against 
the woolly aphis; and also the choicer European vines are grafted 
on phylloxera-resistant stock. 

5. It is a valuable means of speedily obtaining large trees of 
kinds by working scions of such kinds on the top of high stems. 

6. It is a ready means of replacing varieties of little or no 

value possessing vigorous roots and substituting for their tops 
varieties better adapted to one’s requirements. 
7. It is often practised for uniling on the same stock branches 
of unisexual trees, or of plants which need be within reasonable 
proximity to become fruitful. This plan is recommended in the 
ease of the Smyrna fig, which is sterile unless fertilised by the 
blastophaga wasp, which dwells within the Capri fig. 


GRAFTING TOOLS AND MATERIALS. 

A saw, a pocket-knife, and a chisel, dexterously used, are often 
the only tools used for grafting. Those tools, however, best suited 
for the work have been described in the chapter on pruning. 

The knife, which is used for eutting and facing and preparing 
the grafts, should be kept sharp, so as to make a clean cut. 


Grafting Knife. 


The saw should be thin, fine-toothed wide-set teeth, so as not 
to clog. It should be kept well set. 

Two good patterns of such saws are here illustrated. They are 
thus described by Mr. B. M. Lelong, the late Secretary of the State 


92 


Board of Horticulture of Califormia. The lower one—a bow saw— 
is provided with a handle which fits closely into the hand. Both 
ends of the blade are fastened by means of a little screw on to a 
bolt having the other end riveted into a countersunk hole. The 
blade can thus be turned at any angle, or it may be kept in one 
position by tightening the thumb-screw at the end near the handle. 
Two small pieces of wood are riveted on either side of the bow at 
the lower end, which serves as a handle to prevent injury to the 


Pruning Saws, 


hand. The bow is made of steel, and springs a little. These saws 
can be made by anyone, and for cutting large limbs have no equal, 
as the blade being thin and narrow, and the teeth set wide, will cut 
through a limb with great rapidity, without sticking or getting 
pinched in the cut—a difficulty met with in many other saws. The 
blade may be reversed if one chooses, and made to cut by drawing 
it instead of shoving. In this way they are not so readily broken. 

The top saw is another pattern, this one having a handle about 
16 inches long, and the blade guided by it. For using it the handle 
and bow are grasped together by the hand, which sometimes is 
very awkward, especially when the large limbs or a considerable 
number have to be cut. In any ease it is more tiresome to the 
hand than the first one mentioned. 


Chisel and Mallet. 

For grafting stout branches a chisel and mallet are required. 
The figures illustrate convenient tools of that description. An old 
file can be turned by a blacksmith into a very serviceable chisel. 
The prong at the end is useful for keeping apart the split when 
the graft is being inserted. 

The mallet is not absolutely necessary, as any piece of wood 
will do, but is convenient, and one made of tough hardwood answers 


93 


the purpose well. <A hole is bored in the centre with an auger, a 
handle driven right through, and 2 peg inserted through the pro- 


jecting end of the handle at the other side so as to prevent it coming 
off. 


Chisel and Mallet, 


Tools for Bench Grafting. 

Special tools have been devised for preparing both stock and 
scion, preparatory to uniting them. This work is often done at so 
much a thousand grafts, and can be effected indoors and at any 
time in the winter. The illustration shows such an apparatus as is 
used for the purpose, and the outlines of the work turned out. 


Polygreffe Roy. 


Waxing Pot. 

Where waxed cloth or waxed paper is not used, the grafts are 
smeared with plastic grafting wax by means of a brush. 

The proper consistency is obtained by placing lumps of the 
grafting wax in a “glue-pot.” The vessel dips in a hot water bath, 
which is heated by means of an oil lamp placed underneath. The 
wax is thus kept soft, but is not exposed to burning, as it might 
should the pot be placed in direct contact with the flame. 


94 


Grafting Was. 

Several formule are given for the preparation of grafting wax. 
They all, however, contain beeswax, resin, and either tallow or raw 
(not boiled) linseed oil. 

In warm regions, where the grafting wax is apt to run, raw 
linseed oil is often preferred to the tallow, and the proportion of 
resin is increased, whilst that of the beeswax is reduced, the cost 
being thereby also reduced. , 

Wax made of the following proportions, and well pulled, will 
not erack, and will be little affected by the weather :— 


Beeswax 2s mt og Sa .. 1 to 2lbs. 
Resin aa es ar oe .. Albs. 
Tallow a Ss aes Si .. Ib. 

or 
Raw Linseed Oil .. in aa .. %4 pint. 


Slowly melt all together, stirring well to cause the ingredients 
to better incorporate with one another. When ready to pull, in 15 
to 20 minutes, pour into a bucket of lukewarm water. Then grease 
the hands to prevent the wax sticking, and pull the wax until it 
becomes light yellow and tough. Make into balls of convenient size, 
and throw into a bucket of cold water to stiffen, and use when re- 
quired. If too hard then, put a lump into warm water for a few 
minutes, and it can soon be worked with the hands. Some prefer 
to put the wax on hot and in liquid form; a small paint-brush is 
convenient for this purpose; but this method is more wasteful of 
material. The wax can be applied safely much warmer than can 
be borne by the hand, but should be well below the boiling-point 
of water. Wet the fingers before using. 


Other Coverings. 

Gum shellac dissolved in aleohol is too expensive, and it also 
eracks. 

Paint is not good, as it contains oil, and that deadens the bark 
on the rim and does not heal very well. 

Grafting clay is cheaper, and very serviceable. It is made of 
one-third part cow dung and two-third parts of clay or clayey loam, 
with a little chopped hair—as used in plastering—to prevent 
cracking. Beat and temper this for two or three days, until it is 
thoroughly incorporated. The ball of clay must not be allowed to 
dry. but must be kept fairly moist by the application of a little 
water or wet bandages. Wood ashes on the hand prevents the clay 
sticking when finishing the mould round the cut. 

Wazed cloth or wared paper are preferred by many to any of 
the foregoing. This material is got ready before the operation. 
When budding is practised it is to be recommended in preference 
to any other material, as it answers the double purpose of holding 
the bud or graft—and thus doing away with tying—and of exelud- 


95 


ing the air or the wet. It also prevents the bud or graft from 
drying. 

Two parts of beeswax and one of resin are melted over the fire, 
and calico or strong muslin is dipped into it. When the cloth is 
saturated, all the superfluous hot wax is scraped off before the 
cloth cools. This is done by drawing and squeezing the cloth 
between two sticks, or between the melting pot and a stick. The 
cloth is then spread out to cool, after which it is torn, when required 
for use, into strips of one-quarter to one-half inch wide, and 10 to 
12 inches long. 

Some people roll old calico or thin muslin on a stick, and place 
it in melted wax. When saturated it is allowed to cool by being 
unrolled on a bench. It is then cut into strips to suit. 

Tie Bands——The best of all ties is Raphia fibre, the cuticle of 
the leaves of the Raphia palm, which grows on low, swampy lands 
in Madagascar. It is damped before using, and does not cut the 
bark, on which it lies fat. 

For tying grafts buried underground, Raphia should be steeped 
in a solution of sulphate of copper, which makes it more resistant 
to rot. This fibre is sold in bundles by all seedsmen. 


Affinity of Stock and Scion. 

The closer related the plants put together the more perfect the 
graft. This rule, however, is not without exceptions; this may be 
due to the fact that the various systems of classification of plants, 
although acceptable enough, are more or less artificial and conven- 
tional. For this reason it is not always possible to state with cer- 
tainty when the degree of relationship is such that grafting either 
becomes permissible or is of no avail. In fact, numerous examples 
are on record of successful grafts having been effected on plants 
apparently wide apart in a botanical sense, and of unsuccessful 
grafts between plants very closely related. Thus from the Cornell 
University experimental station we hear of grafts of tomatoes upon 
potatoes and potatoes upon tomatoes, growing well and fruiting 
(two solanaceae of different species). The tomato on potato plant 
bore good tomatoes above and good potatoes beneath, even though 
no sprouts from the potato stock were allowed to grow, 

On the other hand, apple and pear trees, which botanists 
classify close together under the genus Pyrus on account of their 
resemblance, do not graft successfully when the apple is worked 
on the pear, and only unite indifferently when the pear is worked 
on the apple. ‘That same pear, however, worked on the quince, 
which belongs to a different genus (Cydonia) in the botanical 
classification, unites without trouble. 

A striking anomaly in the behaviour of two plants of the like 
genus, or of genuses closely related, grafted together, when the one 
is deciduous and the other evergreen, is that an evergreen scion will 


96 


establish itself on a deciduous stock, but a deciduous scion never 
takes on an evergreen stock. The loquat, an evergreen, can be 
worked on the quince, a deciduous tree, although the reverse is not 
attended with success. Experience only can teach which kind adapt 
themselves to each other. 


The popular mind is somewhat imbued with the idea that the 
resultant effect of the intimate union of two plants is often a cross 
which exhibits some of the characteristics of both parents. The 
fable of the orange becoming blood red in consequence of its being 
grafted on the pomegranate finds a fertile ground in the imagina- 
tion of a great many. Some still believe that the rose grows black 
when grafted upon the black currant bush, and wonderful tales are 
told of the marvellous union of some of the most dissimilar plants. 
Whenever such plants strike, it is invariably owing to the fact that 
one of them has struck root like an ordinary cutting and then 
pushes forth on its own independent accord. 


In a graft, both the stock and the scion continue to behave the 
one independently of the other, as if they had nothing in common. 
If a longitudinal section is made of a graft, and if that section 1s 
smoothly polished, the outlines of the original graft can easily be 
seen; in this is the more striking, when the grain of the wood and 
its colour are more dissimilar: a peach grafted on a plum offers 
a good illustration of this juxtaposition. This fact is at times very 
clearly brought to our notice by the clean rupture of the tree at the 
point of grafting many years after the tree has left the nursery. 
The only direct influence of the stock on the scion is the degree of 
vigour which it imparts to it. This is noticeable in the ease of 
pears grafted on sturdy seedlings of the wild pear, or on quince 
roots, or again on apples worked on Northern Spy or on the dwarf- 
ing Paradise stock, and, further, on cherries worked on Mazzard or 
on Morello and Mahaleb roots. 

A graft, therefore, only differs from a cutting in this much—-that 
in its case the soil is replaced by the stock. Its growth is not so 
directly influenced by the fertility of the soil in which it grows as 
by the nature and the greater or lesser amount of vigour of the 
stock which carries it. One common stock is often seen carrying 
several grafts of as many varieties, and the produce from each of 
the individual grafts is in no way influenced by the one growing 
next to it. 

If grafting does not affect characteristics of the fruit, it often 
improves the size, the sweetness of the fruit, and the productiveness 
of the plant. It is a well-known fact that most budded or grafted 
trees bear earlier and bear more evenly than trees of the same sort 
growing on their own roots. Indeed, experiments made by grafting 
and budding on seedling trees, scions and buds taken from these 
very same trees, have imparted to the limbs operated upon the 
characters of early production noticeable in worked trees; such trees 


97 


do not, as a rule, attain such large developments as seedlings, and 
it would seem that the operation, whilst evincing a somewhat dwart- 
ing or weakening effect on the plant, stimulates at the same time 
its productive capabilities. A parallel effect is noticeable when 
the process of annular incision or ringbarking is applied to bad 
setting grape vines in order to cause them to better set their fruit. 


Fruit Tree Socks. 

Of all botanical families, three—the Rosaceae, which comprise 
most deciduous fruit trees and a few evergreens; the Aurantiaceae, 
which include citrus trees; and the vitis, under which grape vines are 
grouped—lend themselves best to the operations of grafting. Even 
then, although the rose, the apple, pear, plum, peach, almond, 
cherry, and many others all belong to the order of rosaceous plants, 
still there are amongst these, as has already been stated, affinities 
which make successful grafting practicable between a few of them 
only. The rose requires a briar or some form of rose stock; the 
apple, the wild crab or some form of apple stock; the hawthorn, 
the pear, quince, and medlar can be more or less successfully worked 
on one another’s stocks; the peach, nectarine, apricot, plum, and 
almond, although doing best on their own stock, are likewise inter- 
changeable. Which of these several stocks answers best under 
particular conditions is a consideration which will be dealt with 
under several of the headings which follow. 


Apple Stock. 

The apple tree on its own root is now-a-days hardly ever 
grown. In Europe that fruit has for time immemorial been worked 
on the sturdy erab stock, or on seedling stock. This practice, how- 
ever, has little to recommend itself, as there is no advantage to 
be gained in propagating from transplanted seedling stocks which 
the Americans call “whole root” stocks, as compared with the 
ordinary root grafts. 

Where the object is the “dwarfing” of the apple, the French 
Paradise stock is used; this is also a European wild apple which is 
propagated by layering. The advantages of the dwarf, it might be 
said in passing, are closer planting and as near as 10ft. apart; 
greater ease in pruning, spraying, and picking; better resistance to 
the winds of autumn, which cause the fruit of high trees to fall 
before maturity. Although these advantages appear striking, it 
may also be said that trees on dwarf stock are better suited to the 
amateur’s garden than to the orchard owner who plants for the 
sake of the profit to be derived. 

In respect of raising apple trees, however, the old country has 
a lesson to learn from the Australian grower. The European 
methods proved a failure in Australia, where the woolly aphis 
(Schizoneura lanigeria) cankered the tree and ultimately killed it. 


98 


It is due to an observing Ballarat (Victoria) nurseryman to first 
introduce the winter Majetin as a blight-proof stock for the apple. 
The roots of this stock are, however, too fibrous, and not sufficiently 
penetrating for an ideal stock except in friable soil, and it was soon 
superseded by the more robust Northern Spy, which is now adopted 
as a blight-proof stock not only in Australia, but is now gaining 
favour in America as well. 


There are, besides, several other blight-proof kinds of apples, 
but except for special conditions none excel the Northern Spy; 
amongst these the Duchess of Oldenburg gives good results on 
sandy souls. 

For the purpose of dwarfing, the trees have to be double- 
grafted, and the structure rests upon Spy roots, French Paradise 
stem, and any fancied top required. Blight-proof stocks are raised 
by uniting together by means of the whip and tongue, graft two 
lengths three or four inches long, and of the thickness of a pencil, 
of Northern Spy wood and roots. The union is then tightly bound 
with raphia fibre or with waxed calico, and when a number of grafts 
have been prepared they are put out in nursery beds to callus. 
The work of uniting root and wood can be done indoors, and is often 
performed by lamp-light round a table at night early in the spring. 
When planted out they are set in rows two feet apart between the 
rows and one foot in the rows; one bud only is left out of the ground. 
With the advent of warm weather the scions begin to shoot, and 
all the shoots except a strong straight one rubbed off. If Northern 
Spy trees are required nothing further is done, but if other varieties 
of apples are required these young plants are used as stocks, and 
are budded six inches or so above ground. As already mentioned 
in the chapter on budding, these buds are allowed to remain dor- 
mant all through the winter, when the stock is partly cut off and, 
as a result, the bud forced into growth. In early districts, and if the 
budding has also been done early, the bud may be started into 
growth directly it has taken, and the young plant may thus be 
set out the following planting season. 


Pear Stock. 


On no account use pear suckers; they prove a source of trouble 
to the orchardist, as they themselves sucker most abundantly, and 
often prove to be more shy bearers than pears of the same varieties 
worked on seedling stock or on quince. The best pear stocks are 
raised from seeds of the more vigorous and more blight-resistant 
sorts; they need not be the best eating sorts. The seeds are raised in 
sandy loam; if too thick im the spring they are thinned out, and 
the strongest left to grow; these are budded the subsequent winter 
with any particular variety it is desired to propagate. Dwarf pears 
are raised by working the pear scion on the quince stock. For this 
purpose rooted cuttings of a vigorous variety, the Angiers, is used. 


99 


These are slow growers, but produce at an early age very fine fruit. 
Some varieties, as the Duchess d’Angouléme and the Bartlett, do 
particularly well on quince roots; whilst, on the other hand, with 
some other sorts, as the Seckel, the quality is not so good on the 
quince. As a rule, dwarf pears on quince roots require a moister 
and stiffer soil than the standard on pear roots. When manuring 
these pears, the fertilisers should, besides, be placed closer to the 
butt of the quince stock, as its roots are not so searching as are 
those of the pear. 

While some varieties unite well on the quince cthers, which would 
not unite directly on that stock, would do well double-worked, 1.¢., 
by first working the variety that makes a perfect union directly on 
the quince, and then by either budding or grafting the variety that 
does not succeed directly on the quince. Not only, says Mr. W. J. 
Palmer (Momohaki Experimental Station, New Zealand), does the 
tree become fruitful at an early period, but it is larger and of 
better quality. 

For sandy soil, such as oceurs on the littoral of this State, the 
Oriental pears (Chinese and Japanese) or their hybrids ars better 
stocks than either pear seedlings or the quince. These varieties do 
best on a light loam on a well-drained slope, whereas the standard 
or pear seedling prefers a light loam with a clay subsoil, such as 
is met with on the Darling Ranges, where pears of a great degree 
of excellence are produced. 


Plum Stock. 

Few plum stocks do not sucker; amongst them are the cherry 
plum or Myrobolan and the Mariana (Prunus cerasifolia), of 
which there are two varieties, the red and the white. This stock, 
however, does not suit greengages and some small round plums, but 
is a good stock for the: Diamond and Orleans types. The Mariana 
is propagated from rooted cuttings. Seedling plums of any free 
growing variety are also used, as also the black Damas and St. 
Julian, but these only prove partly suitable. ‘They are at times used 
for stocks for apricots or peaches as well as plums. Some nursery- 
men use ordinary plum suckers with advantage, but on this point 
opinion is divided; others layer plum wood, and eut off into separ- 
ate plants the shoots which spring up. Plum stocks are used for the 
peach in preference to the peach or the almond stocks, when the 
ground is stiff and wet, but they are often disappointing, and the 
peach top often dies back with little warning. For dwarfing the 
plum, the Sloe may be used with advantage. 

Mr. Hy. Copor,. nurseryman, Wirrabara, South Australia :— 
Plums and prunes on Myrobolan are a distinct failure compared 
with prunes on the apricot at their side. The best stock for profit, 
says he, is the apricot, and if he intended planting prunes, he 
would use the apricot. It is a matter for regret that the conditions 


100 


in this State are not very favourable to the prune, although a 
decided improvement is noticed in the moisty South-West. 


Peach and Nectarine Stock. 

Peach on peach stock gives the best result. For this purpose 
peach stones are collected in the season, and when winter comes they 
are stratified in sand or in light loam in boxes out in the open. In 
the spring they may be put out in nursery rows. Some nurserymen 
erack the hard shell with a specially constructed nut-cracker, in 
order to obtain a better germination. When a foot or two high 
the tap-root is severed from the plant by pushing a spade obliquely 
underneath the young sedlings, which thus strike stronger surface 
roots. When they have recovered, they are budded, and the plants 
either put out next winter, or, if not vigorous enough, kept in the 
nursery for another year. In grafting on peach, extra care has to 
be taken to fit the scion well and wax carefully, as the peach bark 
shrinks back badly. 


The Apricot Stock. 

According to nature of climate and of soil, stocks of various 
kinds are used. The apricot, as a rule, does not unite very readily 
with its stock, and it at times snaps at the graft under the weight 
of a heavy crop, and under pressure of a strong gust of wind. 

Apricot on apricot seedling does well on loamy soil in warm, 
moderately dry localities. Under such conditions it does equally well 
on peach stock. The resulting trees are vigorous growers, and at 
times are even too apt to waste on rank growth energy that should 
have been directed in maturing a fruit crop. Apricot roots are 
generally known by the reddish look of the bark when slightly 
seratched with the nail or a knife. Apricot on almond is not a 
desirable union; the trees do well for a few years, but generally 
die out when they begin to bear. Apricot on Myrobolan and St. 
Julian plum stocks have .the advantage on heavy wet soil, but all 
varieties do not unite very satisfactorily, and in this respect the 
American plum stock is preferable. The plum stock, as a rule, has 
a dwarfing tendency, and the union of stock and scion is never 
perfect, whilst the tree is more liable to gumming disease. 


The Cherry Stock. 

Three stocks are chiefly used—ihe AM/a:zard or sweet cherries, 
including Bigarreaus for the Heart type, and all lofty and rapid- 
growing sorts. 

The Mahaleb for small dwarf varieties 

The Morello, or common Red Pie cherry, for dwarf trees of the 
Duke and Morello classes. 


The Orange and other Citrus Stock. 
A number of stocks have been tried for trees of the citrus 
family, and while some possess special points of merit, such as rapid 


101 


and luxuriant growth, yet they are found in unsuitable localities to 
fail in other respects and succumb to disease. Of these, the most 
dreaded is the gumming disease or mu?-di-gomma. To this affection 
the rough lemon (Citrus limonum) stock and sweet orange stock are 
particularly liable, more especially the former, and for that reason 
they are undesirable stock for flat, damp localities, and all such 
foot-rot regions. These stocks should only be used for high and 
well-drained land free from hard frost, and in such localities the 
rough lemon and the lime will do better than any other stock. Trees 
worked on this stock outgrow those of almost any other stock. 
They fruit early and well, but are relatively short-lived when com- 
pared with those on the sour orange. 

The sour orange (Citrus vulgaris) is of all stocks- the most 
resistant to collar-rot, but it requires a moist, rich soil to thrive in. 
It has a deep-rooting habit, which revels in moist soil rich in humus, 
and is particularly suitable for irrigated land. Surface cultivation 
is less injurious than in the case of the shallow-rooting stock. 

The Pomelo is spoken of as another vigorous and resistant 
stock, which withstands occasional periods of drought better than 
does the sour orange: it does better in warm loealities, free from 
severe frost. 

The Trifoliate orange, the hardiest of all citrus stock, is at 
times used in frosty localities, but not in every case with uniform 
success. The Satsuma, a Japanese mandarin, is reported to do well 
on it. It is dwarfing in character, and that makes it a good fruit 
producer. When budded to other varieties it is said to bring fruit 
earlier and produce oranges of good quality. Some claim that 
vigorous stocks, such as the pomelo or the lemon, have a tendency 
to produce coarse, thick-skinned fruit; they certainly seem in some 
measure to influence the size of the fruit, and in the case of the 
Navel oranges they are said to add to the productiveness of the 
trees. 


The Grape Vine Stocks. 

In few other cultivated plants more than on the grape vine is 
the influence of the stock so noticeable The practice of grafting 
vines has for a long time been carried out, but until recent years it 
was almost exclusively restricted to the changing of varieties. 
Budding is now, in many instances, superseding grafting, with most 
satisfactory results. The systematic grafting of vines is, however, 
a more modern operation, and was devised to counteract the attacks 
of the phylloxera on the European vineyards. Quite an array of 
grape vine stocks have for this purpose been suggested, tested, and 
found wanting. Some are not sufficiently phylloxera-resistant; 
some do not readily take the graft; others are not vigorous enough; 
whilst others, again, fail to grow in limestone formations or have 
such liking for some particular character of soil, that when estab- 
lished on any other they cease to grow with sufficient luxuriance. 


102 


Of all the varieties tried the Riparia family, or ‘plain vines,” the 
Rupestris family, or “rock vines,” and the Berlandieri family have 
supplied the stocks required for vines grown on moist alluvial soils, 
or hilly and rocky localities, or on limestone country. All members 
of these families, again, have not to the same extent proved equally 
satisfactory, and a few select ones only have been found to present 
the conditions of a stock suitable for grafting vines on. Some of 
the most notable members of these families the Department of Agri- 
culture has introduced into this State, where they are now being 
propagated. Every precaution, it is needless to say, has been taken 
against the introduction, at the same time, of the phylloxera pest, 
or of the other disastrous blights and rots which prey on the grape- 
vine in Europe and America. The varieties introduced, and which 
are the most suitable for grafting vines to, are:—Riparia Glory cf 
Montpellier (Syn. Portalis), Riparia Giant Glabre, Rupestris 
Monticola, or St. George, Rupestris Martin, The character of these 
varieties will be described in a subsequent chapter. Apart from these 
resistant stocks, other partly resistant, sturdy American vines, such 
as the Labrusca family, have the greatest affinity to European 
vines, and readily unite. Some of these varieties, such as the 
Isabella, Concord, are well known to most growers. 


Ways OF GRAFTING. 
A number of ways have been devised for uniting together two 
subjects, a stock and a scion, with the view of building up a com- 
plete plant. 


Inarching 
consists in bringing together two plants growing alongside one 
another. This is effected by inlaying a piece, cut slanting, of a 
stem or branch of one plant into a stem or branch of another plant, 
tying them fast together. 


Whip Grafting. 

The method is thus described and illustrated by B. M. Lelong, 
of the State Board of Horticulture of California :— 

This is one of the most simple of the divers methods of graft- 
ing young stocks, and is operated either in the field or indoors— 
on the bench. In grafting seedling stocks (one or two years) in 
the field, the stems of the stocks are eut off at the collar. The 
stems are cut by simply drawing the knife upwards, making a 
smooth, even, sloping cut an inch cr so long; then, reversing the 
knife, about a quarter of an inch from the centre of this cut 
(towards the end) a slit or tongue is made downwards. The slit (f) 
in the stock should be made as near the top as possible, as, if made 
lower down, it would interrupt the flow of sap. The extremity of 
the scion must not protrude below (d) on the stock. The slanting 
cut is best made just above a bud if possible, this acts as a pre- 


103 


ventive to the wood dying back. The scion is then prepared (which 
should always contain three or four buds) in like manner as the 
stocks; at the lower end of 
the scion a sloping cut is 
made downwards, and, by re- 
versing the knife, a slit or 
tongue is made in it upwards, 
which should correspond with 
that in the stock into which 
it is then inserted. One of 
the buds should be at the 
lower extremity to assist the 
union. 

The bark of the scion and 
the bark of the stock must 
be placed in close contact on 
one side; the other is im- 
material, as soon as it heals 
over. The union of the two, 
scion and stock, should be 
complete and fit firmly. The 
grafts are then either waxed 
over or wrapped with waxed 
paper. 

; ; This completes the opera- 
> Aine Seem ,%aTRE sloRtne cut. tion. ‘The earth may then be 
tongue, B. The stock. d. The sloping banked on either side with a 
A chats, anioleneee of page ie hoe, and nothing more is done 
cut or tongue. C. The scion inserted, until they begin to start, 
peace der. wasine. when they require attention, 
especially in keeping them clear of weeds and all undesirable 
growths, suckers, ete. 


Roor GRAFTING. 


For root grafting the seedlings of one or two years’ growth are 
taken up and the best roots eut into pieces about four inches long. 
These are taken indoors, washed free from all dirt, and grafted as 
follows: the operation is performed in the same manner as on 
the seedlings, out of doors as previously described. The oblique or 
sloping cut or tongue is made in the root; and the scion, which 
should be three or four inches long, is likewise prepared and in- 
serted, as shown in Fig. 8. 

It is then waxed over, either with wax or waxed paper; the 
latter, however, is much preferred. The grafts are then put -away 
jn sand until planting time, in Febriiary,* in the following manner: 


* August in Australia. 


: 104 
On the floor of the propagating house or shed sand is spread out 
from six inches to a foot deep, then the grafts are put in it, stand- 
ing thickly, and covered with sand. The entire graft, to within an 
inch or two of the top, may be covered without injury to it. They 
should, however, not be kept too wet, as the bark of the grafts is 
liable to decay; and, again, they must not be allowed to get dry, 
as the bark of the graft will shrivel, and adhesion is avoided. Dur- 
ing the time they are thus stored away the parts united (scion and 
stock) knit or callus over, and shortly after planting begin to grow. 


1. The root showing sloping cut at A, and the tongue at B. 
2. The scion showing sloping cut at A, and the tongue at B. 
3. The union of scion and stock ready for waxing. 


CLEFT GRAFTING. 


This method is mostly practised on stocks too large to be whip 
grafted, although it is also operated on young trees successfully. 
It is also the method followed for field grafting grape vines. The 
operation should be undertaken just before active growth takes 
place and before the vine begins to bleed freely, or some time after, 
when. the shoots of the stock plant are 3in. to 4in. long. At that 
time the callusing gum is less likely to be washed off by the running 
sap, which in the first instance has not started to run, and in the 
second has to a great extent been used up by the now growing 
shoots. 

On the Swan the middle of September or even the beginning of 
October give satisfactory results. A good day’s work, when the work 
is well done, is 200 to 250 vines, 


105 


; The stock is frst prepared by being eut squarely off, as shown 
in Fig. 2. at g; a sloping cut is then made in the stock at f, and 
the top shaved smoothly at g, so that the point of union between 
the bark and the wood may be plainly seen. The blade of the knife 
is then driven into the stock, as shown in Fig. 1, to split it as 
represented. It is always best to prevent the stock from splitting 
or cracking clear through. This is avoided by using the knife pro- 
perly. The point of the knife is driven in, as shown in Fig. 1, at C, 
and the blade is driven in at B, and instead of forcing the knife 
down farther to produce the split, it is drawn upwards and towards 
you, and a perfect cut without cracking through is made, as shown 
in Fig. 2, at h. The scion (Fig. 2, 1) is cut precisely in the form 
of a wedge, with the part eut for insertion about an inch or an inch 
and a-half long. It should always have a bud at the shoulder where 
it is to rest on the stock, and the outer edge thicker than the inner, 
and inserted so that the point of union between the bark and wood 
on both the stock and scion will exactly coincide, as shown in Fig. 2, 
at":C.* 


5 


' 


1. A. The knife as used in splitting. B. The point of the split. C. Length 
of split; the position (shown at B and C) shows how cracking of the stocks 
i voided. 2 
ia ay A, The scion, showing how it is prepared—wedge-shaped—with a 
sloping cut. B. The stock prepared to receive the graft. f. The sloping cut. 
g. The horizontal cut. h. The split. C. The scion inserted in the stock, show- 
ing the close fit of both, and ready for waxing. 


* This method of grafting will be found useful for changing varieties of 
vines and grafting stumps of vines already growing.—-A.D. 


106 


On larger stocks the stem is sawed squarely off, and the surface 
dressed or shaved off with a knife. The knife is then driven into 
the stock as shown in Fig. 1, and should be to one side of the pith. 
The split is kept open with a knife until the scion is inserted. It is 
always best not to split too deeply, to allow the graft to work its 
way down a little and be held firmly, otherwise the graft will loosen 
and will not adhere. Then, again, the operator must see that stocks 
do not close so firmly on the scions as to crush the ends. To avoid 
this a small wedge is driven into the split on the opposite side. 
This, however, is seldom required where two grafts are inserted, as 
shown in Fig. 2. In most instances both scions grow, and as they 
are too close together one is afterwards removed. There is more than 
one way to shape or face the scion, but the point in question should 
be the most expeditious one, and it has always proved that when 
the work is done rapidly the grafts take better, not because it re- 
quires carelessness (which must not be inferred), but because the 
sooner the graft is in position in the stock, with less handling or 
whittling, the better. Where time is no object, the following is a 
very good method of preparing scions. 

The end of the scion is fist cut (obliquely), then a cut is made 
at @ and b but deeper at a, then a shaving is taken by drawing the 


Fig. Fig. 3. 

Fig. 1.—The stock split, ready to receive the scions. 

Fig. 2.—A.B. The scions inserted, ready for waxing. 

Fig. 3.—A. The scion; a.b. The horizontal cut severing the chip on either 
side; ¢. The wedge. d. Pith. ¢. Point of scion, cut obliquely. 

Fig. 4.—Graft inserted in stock obliquely, 


107 


knife from the end towards a and b. This scion differs from the one 
previously described only in the method of preparation. It is in- 
serted in a like manner. The method of inserting the scion and the 
splitting of the stocks is not confined to those described, and growers 
generally find a way which the method operated can, in some way 
or another, be improved. For instance, where the splitting is done 
obliquely instead of parallel, the grafts are better. This is especi- 
ally so in grafting prunes. The bark of the scion and stock come 
obliquely together, and the scion is held firmly in place. 


The accompanying figure illustrates a method of renewing the 
top of citrus trees or of vines by means of cleft grafts. When vines 
are grafted the operation is best done in the early spring when the 
sap begins to move. The top of the vine is sawn clean off half an 
inch to an inch below the surface, the earth around having been 
removed with a spade or a hoe, the stump split with a chisel, the 
two lips of the split trunk foreed apart by means of a small hard- 
wood wedge. To guard against the split following curly fibres the 
stump can be sawn straight for an inch or two and then split by 
means of the chisel. One or two scions of the sort it is desired to 
grow are cut two eyes long. The basal side of the scions is cut 
bevel shape, and sharper on the inner side than the bud side, which 
is close to the stock. These scions are then pushed gently down the 
cleft, where they fit snugly and smoothly, with the inner bark of 
both stock and scion in close contact. The hardwood wedge is re- 
moved, the lips of the split trunk close in on the wedge-cut scions, 
and nothing else is done except to bank 
moist earth in a small mound over the 
ent. This earth absorbs the dripping 
sap from the old trunk and keeps the 
wound well drained. The use of graft- 
ing wax -vould check the flow of the sap 
and prevent the formation of the knitting 
tissue or callus gum. September is the 
best time for grafting vines. At that 
time the stock is beginning to burst into 
leaf; the scions, which consist of last 
year’s wood, should have been kept back 
in cool sand. 


Cleft Graft for Old Trees 
or Vines. 


BENCH-GRAFTED VINES 
take four years before they bear a good crop. 
1st year they are calloused in nursery beds. 
2nd year they are transplanted to the vineyard, where they 
will establish themselves permanently. 
3rd year they will grow stronger, and are shaped and 
trained, but they will not grow bearing-wood until the 
4th year, when they bear. 


108 


THE SumMER Bup or “YEMA” GRAFT OF THE VINE. 
Following on the devastation by the phylloxera of the Victorian 
vineyards, reconstitution by means of resistant stock grafts has 
of late years been vigorously carried out. This work, entrusted to 
Mr. F. de Castella, the Government Viticulturist, has been crowned 
with signal success. After a voyage of investigation through the in- 


Figs 1s 


Grafting under the Bark. 


Fig. 1.—A. The scion, side view, showing thickness of cut at points @ and Db. 
B. Scion, transverse view, showing how faced at c. ©. The stock, 
showing how it will cut off, and the incision made to receive the graft. 

Fig. 2.—-Operation complete.—Stock grafted with two scions and applicable to 
stocks with one scion, A. Twine, showing how it is tied. B. Waxed 
top surface. @. Waxed on the side covering graft. D. Graft waxed 
at the end. #, Terminal bud, waxing at end not required. 

fected regions of Southern Europe, Mr. de Castella introduced and 

adapted to Australian requirements many methods which have 

proved greatly beneficial in connection with the task entrusted to 
him. Amongst these the summer bud or “Yema” graft has simpli- 
fied field grafting, and has proved a distinct advantage to vine- 


growers. 


109 


In prefacing his remarks on the subject, Mr. de Castella points 
out that a vineyard on resistant stock may be established by— 
1° Planting nursery-raised “bench-grafts.” 
2° By “field-graftinge” European or “Vinifera” grape vines 
on established resistant vines or stock. 


Field grafting is more in favour in Spain and Portugal—where 
the spring is warmer—than in Northern Europe. In our warmer 
Australian climate results are generally very satisfactory. 


“Yema” means in Spanish, a bud or eye—the germ of any- 
thing, in fact. Whereas “budding” is practised above ground, on 
green herbaceous canes, with the wood-core of the bud removed, 
the summer bud graft consists in cutting deeply into the wood of 
the vine, almost to the pith; the wood-core of the scion-bud is not 
removed. That bud is taken on the shoots of the current year, well 
summered and carrying ripened buds. The main differences to 
be found between the “Yema” and ordinary grafting are, 1° the 
season when it is earried out; 2° the very small dimensions to which 
the scion is reduced. 


Victorian modification of Yema Graft (Rounce’s). 


A. Preparation of stock. B. Outer view of scion bud. 
C. Inner view of same. D. The completed graft. (F. de 
Castella.) 


110 


The fig. illustrates the method which consists in cutting into 
the wood of the stock, a socket into which a piece similarly shaped, 
carrying a bud, is carefully fitted and bound with raffia fibre. 


This graft does best where there is but slight difference in 
character between stock and scion, as in the case when a one or 
two year old rooted vine is grafted in the vineyard, for it is essen- 
tial that the cambium layers of stock and scion correspond as 
accurately as possible. If the stock is of a larger diameter than 
the scion, the “cleft graft” should be preferred. August is the best 
season in Spain, and this corresponds to February in Australia— 
a convenient one when there is a slack time before vintage. When 
fitting the scion, the stock can conveniently be bent to elongate the 
socket while inserting the scion. 


After grafting, the whole stem of the vine is mounded up with 
loose soil which maintains an even, dry temperature. The growing 
canes are not cut off, but continue to grow. thus maintaining an 
improved condition of the sap which helps the knitting process. 


During the winter when hoeing, this mound is removed, and 
the tie is cut if it has not already rotted away. In ease of failure 
the bud-graft is seen shrivelled, and can be rubbed off with the 
finger. The summer bud-graft is inserted about three inches above 
ground, and should it fail then the vine can be cleft-grafted. A 
modification of this graft has been introduced in Rutherglen, as 
illustrated on page 109. 


With scions of the same diameter as that of the stock—about 
half an inch or under—the buds are so firmly held that no tie is 
necessary. One man makes about 350 grafts in a day. 


It is important that the stock he well in sap and have plenty 
of life in it as happens after summer rain. .Vines planted in August 
are usually fit for grafting in February. 


When a number of vines are to be grafted, the season, being the 
hottest of the year, buds should only be cut for a few hours’ require- 
ments, and they should be kept in a piece of wet bag. The knife 
found best adapted for this work is shown in the figure, and is made 
by Messrs. Barker Bros., of 262 Victoria Street, Richmond, Victoria; 
it has a stout wooden handle such as can be firmly gripped, and 
should be sharpened to a razor edge. 


After mounding up, and if the buds are tied to the stock, it is 
advisable to inspect one or two occasionally and see whether the 
string wants cutting. It generally rots without interference. <A 
short stake of about two feet is driven alongside the stock. 


Knife made by Messrs Barker Bros., Victoria, for summer budding. 
The blade does not fold. The lower knife_is generally used for budding 
citrons, roses, etc. (F. de Castella.) 


Ricser Scoaicur. 


111 


In the winter time the canes are roughly shortened to facilitate 
cultivation, and these are further pruned in August as shown in the 
figure. The spurs left at the higher level will grow, draw the sap 


Young resistant vine in Same vine seen in October, or early 
August, twelve months after November. The stock shoots have 
plantation. The stock was bud- been severely stopped at ¢, ¢, and the 
grafted at b the previous Febru- shoot from the bud graft has been 
ary. The canes were roughly tied to the stake. The stock may. be 
shortened during winter at ¢, ¢, cut back at a, either in August-Sep- 
c, ¢, to facilitate cultivation ; tember, or aS late as December. On 
they are further pruned in no account should it be now finally cut 
August at a, a, @ back at y; this must not be done until 


the following winter, which will be the 
second one after the vine was grafted. 
(F. de Castella.) 


past the inserted bud and cause it to send up shoots, which are tied 
to the stake lest it snaps at the point of union. When growth shows, 


112 


the growth on the stock plant is eut back, but a stump of wood still 
left above the graft to he removed at pruning time in the winter. 


Cut worms should be particularly watched as the shoot bursts 
out, and poison bait laid to prevent any damage. 


Suckers issuing from the stock or roots from the scion are re- 
moved as in the case of the cleft graft. 


When these details have been attended to, strikes averaging 
80 to 90 per cent. are usual, and should the Yena-graft fail, then 
the opportunity offers next spring to cleft-graft the vine. 


Vine BorTur GRart. ‘ 


An ingenuous method of grafting vines in full growth, or for 
the matter of that many evergreen or herbaceous plants, is described 
and illustrated by the experimenter, Mr. W. C. Grasby, the agricul- 
tural editor for the Western Mail, in the issue of the 5th Febrary, 
1920. The method referred to by Charles Baltet in a work on 
grafting and budding has for some years been successfully applied 
to vines by Mr. Grasby, and although not of great commercial im- 
portance is interesting in connection with home gardens. 


Time for the Work.—The method of bottle-grafting, says Mr. 
Grasby, may be adopted either in spring, when the vine is starting 
into activity, or any time later in the season after the season’s growth 
has become sufficiently matured for the operation. I believe, however, 
that the best time is either in March or the beginning of April,* 
the actual time depending upon the conditions of the vine. At this 
time the wood to be used for scion has assumed a brown, woody, 
mature appearance, and at the same time the vines are normally 
still in a state of growth so that healing of the wound and the growth 
of the scion and stock takes place quickly. The objec{ is to obtain 
a dormant graft ready to start after the vines have been pruned the 
the following season. 


Method of Grafting—The method to be adopted for the March 
or April grafting will be best understood from Fig. 1. It will be 
noticed that the scion consists of a piece of wood with one bud above 
the point of incision in the stock, and a long heel with two or three 
buds projecting below. The lower end of the scion is eut off just 
below the joint or node, while on the upper portion of the scion a 
piece of wood an inch or,so above the bud is left. 


The Summer Graft.—The method of grafting when the vine 1s 
active is what is known as whip and tongue. A downward incision 


*Autumn months, 


dA 3° 


is made in the current year’s wood of the stock, and an upward 
incision just below the bud is made in the scion. The tongue of the 
scion is carefully inserted in the cut of the stock so that the cam- 
binm layer of stock and scion meet exactly dn one side If the scion 
and the shoot on which it is grafted are of the same thickness, the 
cambium layer will meet on both sides, which of course resulis in 
a double bond of new growth. But one cannot always choose his 
scions to match in this way, and perfect results ean be obtained if 
there is perfect union on the one side. 


Fig. t. 


Summer Bottle Graft (Grasby). 


114: 


Tying.—As soon as the scion is inserted it should be carefully 
and tightly tied in either with raffia, wick cotton or narrow strips 
of calico strong enough to allow of tight binding. The method is 
shown in Fig. 3. : 


ine 
TH aN 


£ 
Ae = a 
— 
= [Begs S\ ww 
=H] / ET) 
Oy —— 
Z 
Fig. 4. 
Tying the Graft. When to remove Bandage (Grasby). 


Waxing—After the graft has been well bound, the top end of 
the scion and the whole of the binding should be covered with a 
coat of grafting wax. By careful and effective binding I have had 
erafts take without the wax. The use of waxed ealico for binding 
renders after-waxing unnecessary. Everyone knows that the great 
point in getting a graft to take is to prevent the rapid drying of 
the sap at the wound. J believe an effective result can be obtained 
by thoroughly enclosing the graft with grafting clay, but it has to 
be remembered that in March the air is very dry, and for that reason 
the grafting wax, besides being less troublesome, is more effective. 


115 


Providing the Graft with Moisture-—It is well known that it is 
exceedingly difficult to get any graft to take in hot, dry weather on 
account of the fact that the scion dries up before the union takes 
place with the stock. . By inserting the heel of the graft in a bottle 
filled with water and hanging the bottle as closely as possible up to 
the graft, the water in the bottle provides a moisture supply for the 
scion while the union is taking place. I find that in a very short 
time roots put out from the base of the heel of the graft, and before 
the end of the season the bottle may become quite filled with roots. 
From time to time the bottle must be refilled with water, so as to 
keep up the supply. In refilling, I run the water to the bottom of 
the bottle through a funnel and so prevent it from becoming 
stagnant. I also sometimes use charcoal for this purpose. 


Cutting off the Heel—tIn the case of the spring graft, as soon 
as it is known that. the graft has taken and growth is taking place 
from the bud, the heel of the graft may be cut off at the line A 
shown in Fig. 2. But it is not necessary to cut it off at this time, 
provided the bottle be kept filled with water, and in no ease should 
there be hurry in cutting it off, because the supply of water in the 
bottle taken up by the roots helps to nourish the shoot on the graft 
and results in a better growth during the season.” 


When the dormant graft is made in March or April, as shown 
in Fig. 1, and it takes properly, the whole of the shoot of the stock 
above the graft should be cut off at A (Fig. 1), at the ordinary 
pruning season; but it is a matter of choice with the grower 
whether he cuts the portion below at B, or allows it to remain in 
the bottle for a year. If he allows the bottle to remain he must take , 
care to keep it full of water. If the bottle be kept filled with water 
it will help the growth of the graft during the growing season, but 
if he allows the bottle to dry out, that dry heel below the graft is 
a source of danger and weakness. Therefore as a rule it is wise to 
make both cuts at A and B in the August of the same year as the 


graft was put in. 


GRAFTING UNDER THE BARK. 


This is a very simple operation, and is performed just as the 
sap begins to rise in the stocks. Young peach, plum, and pear 
seedlings put forth quite early, and are grafted at any time after 
the leaves begin to grow by the following method :— 


The stocks are sawn off, and with a knife a vertical incision is 
made on one side of the stock, the same as for a bud. The.graft is 
then prepared by simply facing on one side, as shown in Fig 1 
at c. It is then inserted in the slit, in the manner that buds are 
inserted, and is then tied and waxed over. For tying, waxed cloth 


116 


is greatly preferred, as it serves for both purposes—that of tying 
and waxing—in one operation. 


CROWN GRAFTING. 


Trees, and especially citrus trees, are at times killed to the 
ground by the disease of gumming or are cut back by severe frost, 
and whenever the roots are healthy and well established there will 
be a great saving of time, instead of rooting up and replacing the 
tree, to cut it down below the surface of the ground to where the 
wood is sound and cleft grafting it, or perhaps better still, crown 
grafting it. Large useless trees can also be renewed with compara- 
tive ease by means of the crown graft. It is particularly suitable 
for trees like the fig and the walnut which, on account of the large 
amount of pith, were considered hard to graft on account of the 
difficulty of preventing the air getting into the pith and the scion 
drying. 


\ 


\ 


Crown Grafting old orange stock (H. J. Webber). 

Leereney 

For this purpose scions are procured of mature wood from a 
thriving tree of the kind wanted, cut five to six inches long and 
sharpened into a long slanting cut, as shown on the figure. These 
two or three on one crown, to make sure that at least one will grow, 
are pushed between the bark and the wood, preferably in the creases 
and concave portions of the trunk, when the bark ean with less 
danger of splitting be pressed out. A sharp prod made of the 
handle of a tooth-brush filed and sharpened at one end like an awl, 


117 


and fitted with a handle, is pressed between the cambium or growing 
wood and the bark. Bone will not turn the sap like steel or iron. 
In this way the scion will be held 
firmly against the trunk without the 
assistance of any ties. When made 
under the ground, the moist clay and 
cow dung moulded round the graft 
will exclude the air which would 
otherwise interfere with the success 
of the operation. When done above 
ground, small strips of waxed cloth 
over the eavity formed between the 
bark and the wood are necessary. 


Some gardeners use no grafting 
wax, but lay a few of the leaves of 
the plants on the grafts, the whole 
being tied up hermetically with a 
cap «+f strong paper. The paper 
being a non-conductor, the moisture 
of the leaves being brought out by 
the heat of the sun keeps the grafts damp and prevents them dry- 
ing. This cap, however, is liable to harbour insects that eat the 
buds as soon as they open. 


GRAFTING THE OLIVE. 
The olive is most successfully grafted, says Lelong, during the 
months of March and April,* but preference is given to those 
grafted in March, by the following deft method:— 


In this method the stocks are not split down the centre as in the 
old way, but instead, the cut is made obliquely, so that the barks of 
the stock and scion may come obliquely together, and in which way 
the grafts make a surer and better union. The graft is faced on 
both sides, to be large at the surface side and thin at the inner side, 
exactly in the shape of a wedge. The graft is driven down as far 
as it will go, and made to fit exactly, the barks of the scion and 
stoek to be even on the surface side, the other side does not matter, 
as the scion unites with the stock of the first only on the surface 
side, and in time both sides heal over. The graft having been 
inserted, it must be tied and waxed. 

{ 


POINTS TO OBSERVE. 

For tying, cloth or twine may be used, and the wax applied 
over it. In grafting nursery trees in the field it is best to graft 
them low, the grafts to be covered with earth within an inch or so 
from the top, leaving as litle of the graft exposed as possible. 


* August and September in Australia. 


Ws 

This is a protection to both scion and stock, especially from scoreh- 
ing heat, which causes grafts and stocks to die back when left ex- 
posed. The leaves of the grafts should never be broken, but cut, 
nor must they be eut off entirely; at least one-third of the leaf 
should be left (as shown in the figure) to prevent the graft from 
dying before it has had time to unite with the stock. Neither must 
the entire leaf be allowed to remain on the graft. The trimming 
of the leaf prevents it from carrying off too rapidly the fluids by 
evaporation. 


Scion. Stock. 


AFTER-CARE OF GRAFTING. 

After vines are grafted flush with the ground, they should be 
protected by a small stake, driven on the side of the prevailing 
winds in summer, to which the young, tender shoots of the graft 
can be tied as they appear. The stock will also often push forth 
tender suckers from underneath, these should be pulled off as they 
appear above ground or removed by cutting with a knife; the flow 
of sap will thus run without interruption from the stock to the 
scion. 

As regards trees, ligatures are cut off directly it is seen that 
the graft is growing; and if the shoots from the graft are pushing 
forth too luxuriantly, they are pinched back to save them being 
carried away during windy weather. At the time of grafting old 
trees it is advisable to whitewash the stems to guard against sun- 
burn; some people wrap them up in sacking. 

Suckers will soon put in an appearance. These it is not 
advisable to rub off entirely, but a few should be left growing the 
first year so as to take up the surplus sap and maintain a healthy 
root growth. 


119 


BUDDING 

is the short name for bud-grafting, and is performed during the 
growing months, when the sap is moving, thus providing material 
for healing the wounds the operation entails. It is performed by 
removing from a shoot of the current season’s growth a suitable 
bud and inserting it in the proper manner under the bark of an- 
other tree, sulticiently closely related to insure the absorption by 
the hud of the nourishing fluid of the host plant. When a tree is 
lop-sided, a symmetrical head may at times be provided by inserting 
under the bark of the tree a bud removed from one of its own 
branches in such a position that the resulting growth will fill the 
unsightly gap. 

Buds inserted early in the season are called “spring buds,” 
and become active at once, showing towards the end of summer 


A. The point which should not be used, as the buds are 
generally blind. 3B. Point from where the buds are de- 
veloped. CC. Beyond this point the buds are too tender, and 
should not be used. D. Indicates the scion, or budding 
stick, to be used, being between points B and C. E. The 
scion, or budding stick, trimmed ready for budding. 


120 


marked growth; whereas buds put in late in the summer or in the 
autumn are called “dormant buds,” and remain inactive all through 
the winter and until next spring. 

Such questions as: “Influence of stock and scion” and “choice 
of stock” are discussed in the chapter on grafting. 

Several conditions are necessary in order to favour the union 
of the bud and the stock. The seeds must be well developed and 
matured. The figure illustrating the kind of buds to select is taken 
from Mr. B. M. Lelong’s paper on budding, published by the State 
Board of Horticulture of California. 

The bark must raise freely from the stock; the more luxuriant 
the growth the more active the flow of sap. 

The time for budding varies greatly according to trees; thus 
peaches, almonds, and cherries ripen their buds early, and may be 
budded in the early summer; if budded later, in the autumn, they 
remain dormant through the winter. Apples and pears, which are 
slower of growth, are generally budded later in the summer and lie 
dormant until next spring. Citrus trees are budded all througti 
the summer, and whenever the sap is running more actively and 
young shoots sprouting readily. Plump buds from healthy young 
round wood are preferable to those taken from angular wood. 

Immature buds remain dormant in the stock until they have 
developed, sometimes until late in summer, or even until next 
spring. 

In order to hasten the development of young buds, the tips of 
the branches it is intended to use are sometimes nipped off; the 
shoots are thus made to harden, and the buds are taken when they 
just begin to start growing again. 


Buppinc MATERIAL 
consists of a pruning knife to cut the scion bevel shape (such a 
knife is illustrated in the chapters on grafting and on pruning) 


or) 


Budding Knife. 


and a budding knife, which has a sharp round blade and a flat 
handle to raise the back of the stock. In budding, sharp tools are 
to a great extent the secret of success. 

Wrapping material is also required and consists of rafia fibre, 
cotton cord, yarn, or strips of waved cloth. These are made of 
cheese cloth or coarse calico folded into convenient sizes and dipped 
into molten beeswax and resin, two parts of the former to one of 
resin. The surplus wax is then scraped off by pulling the calico 
between a stick and the edge of the melting pot. The waxed ealico 


121 


is then spread to cool and then torn into strips of the desired size, 


generally a jin. to jin. wide, and about 12 inches long when re- 
quired for use. 


These waxed strips hold the buds firm, prevent them from 
drying, and keep out moisture. One disadvantage they have, is to 
make the fingers more or less sticky, which is a decided objection 
when a great number of buds have to be inserted. 


How zo Bup. 


The operation, to be successful, must be so performed that the 
freshly-cut inner bark of the bud is firmly \placed in close contact 
with the growing wood or cambium of the host. 


Several methods are used for that purpose, but there is one 
which is more particularly practised amongst nurserymen and 
amateur orchardists as well, and which is known as shield or “eye” 
budding. It is the one I propose to describe, as it is suited to most 
deciduous trees as well as to citrus trees. 


If the tree to be budded is too old, it is necessary to prepare 
it for the operation by cutting off the’ top the previous autumn and 


. The stock after 
he stock, The A. The stock. B. The A. T t 
ie cut. The pud inserted. era 5, The ine 
vertical incision. arene one Spe 
tie at the beginning. 


122 


rubbing off all the shoots crowding around the stumps, except those 
required for budding. The figure illustrates an old, coarse citron 
tree thus rejuvenated and ready to receive buds from some choicer 
varieties of citrus fruit. 


With the blade of the budding knife a longitudinal cut is made 
through the bark where the bud is to be slipped, and either at the 
top or at the base of that cut, a horizontal cut as well is made, so 
that the two cuts present the appearance of a letter T, standing 
either straight up or inverted. : 


This eut should be made a few inches from the ground if 
nursery stock is budded, or at any convenient height if other trees 
are operated upon. In all cases, the stick operated upon should 
have a smooth, young bark, easily lifted. When the vertical cut 
and the crosscut are made the corner lips are slightly raised with 
the blade or with the flattened ivory handle. This done, pick up 
the stick of bud wood and cut out a plump young bud, making the 
section about lin. to 14in. long, and a little longer below the bud 
than above. Some advocate picking out the portion of wood eut 
out with the bud, but good result ig obtained without doing this. 
Then, with the point of the knife, slightly raise the bark, slip the 
bud in, and gradually push it in under the bark. If in the proper 
condition for budding, the bark lifts readily. The bud is now ready 
for tying or for wrapping with the waxed cloth. When doing this 
commence slightly below the crosscut if it is at the bottom of the 
vertical cut, or slightly above if it is at the top; wrap pretty 
tightly around the stock over the bud in a‘spiral manner, each turn 
slightly overlapping the previous one until the whole cut is covered, 
then twist the waxed strip back and press the end against the folds 
already made, when it will adhere. In changeable weather it is 
well that the strips should overlap from above downwards, so as to 
prevent water running down the stem penetrating the eut. In 
Western Australia, where fair weather occurs pretty well all 
through the budding season, darning wool or rafia fibre are often 
used for tying the bud. 


Forctnc tHe Buns. 


After 10 to 12 days the buds are examined, and if plump, 
green, and alive, they are allowed to remain covered for another 
week or two, when the ties can be removed entirely. If the bud is 
dead, a fresh one can be inserted in a fresh cut. Left too long, the 
tie may cut into the growing tissues of the stock and smother the 
bud. If it is desired to force the buds, the tops of the branch on 
which the bud has been inserted is partly cut off 10 to 12 inches 


above the bud, once it has been ascertained that the bud has taken. 
A brush of foliage is left on the resulting stump to draw the sap 
beyond the bud, which at the same time will assimilate some of it 
and will soon start to grow; unless this is done, the stump may die 
back and endanger the bud. The illustrations taken from Mr. 
Lelong’s paper will explain how this is done. When the shoot 
from the bud has reached a sufficient length it is often loosely tied 
io the old stump until quite strong and tough, when the old stump 


A. The brush left on the stock to induce the bud to start, by 
acting as suctions—drawing up the sap. _ B. The  stoek. 
C. Foint where the bud may be tied to protect it from breaking. 
D. Point where the old stock is to be cut away, the dotted line 
pelow it indicating how much the bud is endangered by cutting 
lower than this line. 


is removed altogether and cut smooth a little above the bud, so that 
it will soon heal over without forming an ugly scar. It is not 


124 


necessary to protect the wound with gum, shellac, or any kind of 
covering. “Dormant buds” are often left on the stock, and are 
only forced in the spring, so as to insure a stronger growth. In 
that case the top of the stock is left untouched until the time comes 
to force the bud. 


BuppING THE VINE. 


Budding is not generally resorted to for propagating the vine, 
grafting having hitherto been almost exclusively used for bringing 
together stock and scion. The budding of the vine can, however, 
be performed just as easily as the budding of the apple or the pear, 
and is a most rapid and valuable means of propagation. 


Of the several methods in vogue for this purpose, the one 
known as Salgue’s Green Budding, after the name of its first 
sponsor, is one of the easiest. In order that it should prove success- 
ful, the stock as well as the scion should be carefully chosen. 


The operation is performed in a slightly different way to the 
one already described above. The bud, which is also an eye or 
shield bud, is carefully chosen from the buds at the tender end of 
the shoot of the vine it is intended to propagate. Few desirable 
scion buds are available for the purpose on the young shoot; a little 


experience soon teaches which are those suitable for the purpose. 
They are recognised by the following characteristies.—When a 
green shoot is cut lengthwise the tissues, which are lignified and 


Nn 


vo 


12 


provide with pith towards the base, become more tender as the 
terminal buds are reached, until towards the end they are quite 
tender and almost transparent. Those buds, at the third io fifth 
node from the top, show a diaphragm or partition through the 
tissues, but are yet unprovided with pith; they are desirable eyes for 
budding. To effect this a longitudinal section of 14% inch is made 
with the grafting-knife on any internode of the shoot to be grafted; 
the shoot is bent inwards, bow fashion, when, after slightly raising 
the bark on each side of the incision with the blade of the knife, 
when the lips of the incised bark will open slightly and a bud 
such as has been described is eut and slipped in. The shoot is then 
left to spring back as it was before bending, and the scion-bud is 
compressed between the bark and the growing wood of the stock. 
A ligature of wool or ratia is then tied round, or a strip of waxed 
ealico wrapped round the wound. In a couple of weeks’ time the 
ligature is removed, and if the bud has taken, it is either forced to 
grow, if early in the season, by pinching the shoots of the stock 
directly after budding, and reducing them further a fortnight later, 
and finally cutting them above the bud, or it may, on the other 
hand, be allowed to remain dormant until next spring. 


The main objection to this method of budding is the difficulty 
of selecting the right sort of scion-bud, and for this reason the next 
method is preferred. 


Vouzou Bup 


is in many respects similar to the one described as suitable for fruit- 
trees and presents a striking analogy with the Yema or Summer 
Bud already described. It can be performed all through the growing 
season, and preferably in January and February. One point worth 
noting is that when detaching the bud, and previously to inserting 
it in the T-shaped incision, the veneer of wood which is eut off with 
the bud is not picked out and it is even desirable to cut deep enough 
to just reach the pith. A section of one-third to one-fourth of the 
node bearing a solitary bud gives good results. A fortnight after 
the bud has taken the canes of the stock are shortened to insure 
knitting and shooting of the bud. The ties, however, are not re- 
moved until a month after budding. This method is simple, gives 
a high percentage of strikes; good knitting can be performed on 
a stump of any age and on more canes than one, and if it can be re- 
newed during the same season on some other joint, in case of non- 
success. 


For early spring budding, cuttings from the previous season’s 
growth are buried in the cool moist sand to retard their growth, 


126 


and they are inserted directly the sap is in full flow and the bark 
easily lifted from the wood. 


Whichever method of budding the vine is used, it is desirable 
to fasten the tender young shoots to a stake as they grow in length, 
as they are very easily disjointed when young. 

See New Methods of Grafting and Budding.—Dubois and Wilkinson, p. 12. 


PRUNING. 


Several objects are aimed at when pruning. It helps to control 
the growth of the plant and train it in such a way that the opera~ 
tions of cultivation, of treating and dressing the trees and vines 
whenever required, and of gathering the fruit, are made easier and 
less costly. It equalises the wood and fruit production of the tree, 
checking the one to favour the other if need be, suppressing rank 
growth of the boughs, or limiting the productiveness of the plant in 
such a way that the quality is not affected by the excessive quantity 
of the fruit crop. Pruning aims at producing on the smallest area 
of a growing plant the largest amount of marketable fruit. 


It checks the growth of suckers, water sprouts, and unsightly 
knobs and enlargements along the stem and branches; it tends to 
keep the plant in a thriving’ and healthy condition, promoting the 
growth of luxuriant foliage which tend to shelter the fruit and 
limbs from sunburn. 


PRUNING OUTFIT. 


The tools required for pruning are few, but it is essential that 
they should be of the best quality and of a type suitable for the 
work to be done. It is also essential that they should be kept in 
good order, sharp and smooth, as a jagged or blunt blade will inflict 
upon the wood bruises and injuries which will either cause the sap 
to sour and the limb to die back or will delay the healing of the 
wound, and thus leave a door open to the entrance of the fungi of 
eanker and other moulds productive of rot and decay. 

Secateurs, or pruning shears, are easier to handle than the 
priming knife. They do the work quickly, neatly, and without 
giving a jerk to the branches of trees and vines as does the pruning 
knife. 


The plate illustration represents Rieser’s Secateur, which ean 
be procured in Perth. It is sold with a duplicate blade, made of 


12a 


well tempered steel; the prong is made of chilled steel: the tool is 
nine inches long, strongly made and well finished. 


The second illustration shows two types of secateurs and a 
handy pruning saw. The longer pruning shears, 15 to 17 inches 
long, is a two-handled one, and a very powerful tool, suitable for 
pruning strong vines and hard and knotty wood. One of its handles 
is chisel-shaped, and is found very convenient for suckering vines or 
trees, an operation which, when made with the blade, jags its edge 
and makes it blunt. 


The edge of the blade of the secateur should be kept sharp by 
the use, whenever required, of a small hone or an oil stone, while 
the file will keep the teeth of the pruning saw set and sharp. * 


Pruning Tools. 


When using the seeateurs a clean and neat cut is given by 
seeing that the blade, and not the prong, faces the part of the wood 
which is left on the plant. As strong branches as can well be in- 
serted between the blade and the prong can with little effort be 
snipped by gently pushing the top part of the branch or rod it is 


128 


intended to cut away from the operator and against the prong side 
of the secateur. 


The pruning knife previously illustrated in the chapter on 
grafting, if kept sharp, will, in the hands of an experienced pruner, 
do very good work, and makes a very clean cut which soon heals 
over. The blade should be strongly made, of the best steel, and 
with a beak curved at a sharp angle. A rough buckhorn handle 
will ensure a good grasp in the hand while in use; the blade, well 
ground, will be found useful for trimming and paring the wound, 
and giving it a smooth face after sawing. 


A pruning saw is also required, of which one type particularly 
suitable for sawing off arms of old vines is shown in the figure 
attached. Other suitable models are the bow saws illustrated in 
the chapter on grafting, page 92. 


An orchard ladder, properly constructed, is a very handy ap- 
pliance when puning trees and gathering fruit. 


Orchard ladders of several designs are made. Some consist of 
a pole of a fibrous kind of timber, such as stringy-bark, bound with 
a strong band of hoop-iron a foot or so from the top end; this will 
prevent the pole, which is sawn to that point, splitting when the 
two lower ends are stretched and the rungs fastened. 


“4 4 
i, EM, re 
a 


Fin 
ee 
Midi Yih o/h ls 


Gh pol, 
Uisr 
"a Pew 
- ise 
{ ferBe, cus, 
LE, ose POR EE oy, 


4 = aE 4 


ee : 
VAS Aa SS 74. 
eee i bs ms aan 

gee Praga nim. 


Fruit Ladder, 


129 


Hinged, four-footed step-ladders, like the one here illustrated, 

are, as a rule, clumsy appliances, which are inconvenient on hill- 

side or uneven ground, beside 

being heavy and easily dislocated. 

. Those found ready-made for sale 

in shops are often so lightly made 

as te be of little use in the 
orchard. 


Healing cover—Varnish or wax 
paper is found useful for pre 
venting wounds, caused by the re- 
moval of a large limb, cracking 
and decaying owing to exposure; 
it also promotes a more speedy 
healing. For that purpose gum 
shellac is often used. It is made 
by dissolving in a little strong aleo- 
hol as much gum shellac as will 

An Undesirable Fruit Ladder. make the varnish of the consist- 

ency of paint. This varnish is 
kept in a well-corked flask, with a mouth wide enough to admit a 
brush, and is thus always ready for use. It is applied over the 
eut surface, well pared with the knife. Other good coverings for 
wounds made in pruning are also common white lead paint, grafting 
wax, coal tar, in the order named. The last named is often a hin- 
drance, while pine tar is even somewhat detrimental to healing. 


Nan 
aa 


CuTTING To A Bup. 


It is important before cutting off a branch of a tree or a rod 
of a vine to make sure that the last bud left on the plant, and which 
is intended to prolong the growth of the plant, is a sound, plump 
one, likely to grow, or whether it has accidentally been rubbed oft 
or otherwise destroyed. Such a terminal bud should be a leaf bud, 
and not a fruit bud. 

Leaf buds differ from fruit buds in being more elongated, 
flattened, and more pointed in the same species of plants; they 
are either single, or give growth to single shoots, or ‘double and 
even triple, when grouped in small clusters, two or three together, 
as in the case of stone fruits, they produce either leaves or 
branches. 

Fruit buds are distinguished from leaf buds by their rounder 
and fuller form, the scales that cover them are broader, and they 
begin to swell and burst open earlier in the Spring. 

Fruit buds are also single, as in the case of apples, pears, 
quinces, or single, double and triple, as in stone fruits and berries. 
They are, besides, simple or compound; that is to say they produce 


130 


but one flower, as in the peach, nectarine, almond, and apricot, or 
two or more flowers, in clusters, as in apples, pears, plums, and 
cherries. 

All buds are leaf buds when first formed; 
some at a later stage develop, either by being 
allowed to mature naturally or by artificial 
means, into fruit buds. Many trees develop 
their fruit buds towards their terminal shoots, 
unless these are eut off, when those left at 
the base of the branch, or along it, being thus 
excited into growth, are transformed into 
lateral fruit buds. 

When cutting to a bud a slight slant is 
generally given to the cut, at a place close to 
the bud, although in so doing it is advisable 
not to approach the bud too closely, nor on 
the other hand leave above it a useless stump, 
which might eagender decay; a piece of wood 
akout an eighth of an inch above the bud is 
sufficient to leave. In the case of the grape 
vine the practice is often to eut through the 
joint, above the last bud it is intended to 
leave on the spur, as shown at C* A longi- 
tudinal section of the young wood of a vine 
shows in each joint a tubular cavity filled 
with pith; at each joint or node that tube is 
closed, as in the case of the bamboo, and if 
Section of Vine Cutting the section is made at C* that pith dries up 

showing Diaphragm and the bud below is at times endangered. 

and Si: The section should be made either at C or at 
.C? as shown on the figure, and never at C*. The buds B are those 
left on the spur. D is‘an axillary bud which often fails to shoot. 
E is a piece of the previous season’s wood. 


} i 3 


Cutting to a bud: (1) too long; 
(2) too close; (3) right way. 


131 


WHEN BEST TO PRUNE. 


For the winter pruning of- deciduous trees June, July, and 
August, and in late sorts as late as the middle of September, are 
the best months. Pruning may be started directly the wood is ripe, 
when the leaves fade and begin to drop off. It is recommended to 
give to apricots and cherries a preliminary pruning in the late 
summer, after the crop has been gathered. Trees thus pruned are 
less subject to gumming and dying back, and the leaf buds have thus 
more time to transform into fruit buds, and to perfect themselves. 
Varieties which shed their fruit often become more fruitful by 
being thus treated. 


As a rule older trees are ready for pruning before younger 
ones. 


In frosty localities, where stagnant, cold air hangs about 
hollows and gullies, it is advisable to delay the pruning of vines, 
peaches, and plants whose sap moves early, until later in the season. 
This delays the period of active growth, and may save the crop, 
ensuring a better setting, and also in some seasons warding off the 
early attack of the Black Spot or Anthracnose. As regards the 
grape vine, later pruning is, if anything, also preferable to early 
pruning, in respect to yicld of the crop and earliness of the period 
of maturity; but, of course, where wide areas have to be gone 
through it is not possible to delay until the right moment, this opera- 
tion. 


Summer pruning, on the other hand, is done when the tree is 
in active growth, as will be explained in a further chapter. 


VINE PRUNING. 


Pruning at Time ‘or TRANSPLANTING. 


In Western Australia, where the summer season is dry and 
protracted, rooted vines are more in favour than cuttings when 
planting a vineyard. The figure below shows how a typical rooted 
vine from the nursery bed is cut back prior to planting. The 
bruised roots are trimmed off, as shown at C, as well also as those 
fibrous roots along the stems: these, were they allowed to grow, 
would be too close to the surface, and would in the long, dry 
summer fail to maintain through the plant the requisite flow of the 
nourishing sap. If the rootlings are planted with a dibble in 
deeply prepared ground that has previously been manured, the 
roots may be cut back to stubs half an inch long. They will de- 
velop a deeper and stronger root system than vines with long roots 
set in holes dug in more shallow ploughed soil. Two good buds 


132 


only are left on the rooted plant to supply the wood and the foliage 
which the vine will carry the first season of its growth. 


Trimming rooted vine before planting. 


PRUNING FOR Woop AND FoR FRUIT. 


Excessive wood crowth is detrimental to heavy bearing, but, on 
the other hand, excessive bearing checks the grewth of the plant. 
The art of pruning consists, in a great measure, in so balancing 
the bearing and the growing vigour of the plant that regular average 
crops are borne annually of good-sized, well-nourished and healthy 
fruit. ; 

The shoot from a bud is generally considered good for two 
bunches of grapes, and a good-sized vine growing under favourable 
conditions out in the field may be allowed from one to three dozen 
buds. These should be uniformly distributed, according to the 
system of training adopted, as symmetrically as possible over the 
vine, the stronger arms being allowed, according to their vigour, 


133 


more buds than the weaker ones. Sturdy vines trained on overhead 
trellis may be allowed as many as eighty buds, and even more in 
particular circumstances. 

In connection with the pruning of the grape vine there are 
several facts which should he borne in mind. 

The vine bears on wood of the present season’s growth, issuing 
from a bud on wood produced the »receding year. 

The activity of the sap is much greater in those shoots which 
grow more erect than on those which are bent down or are trained 
horizontally; it is also greater towards the extremity of a cane 
than towards its base. 

A bend or a twist to a cane which has a tendeney to shoot 
upwards will, while checking that tendency to excessive wood growth, 
favour its productiveness. 

Only leave matured wood, of medium size, and short jointed, 
in preference to either luxuriant “bull canes” or spindley stunted 
growths with a weak constitution. 

A vine with a tendeney to “go to wood” should be pruned for 
fruit, by resorting to either long or to mixed pruning. If, on the 
other hand, a vine shows signs of exhaustion and does not make a 
fair amount of wood, it should be severely pruned so as to reduce 
the number of the fruit-bearing buds. 

“Suckers” and “water shoots” should be eut clean out, unless 
required for renewing the top of the vine, or part of it; these shoots 
are, as a rule, sterile the first season after they come out. When 
eut back the growth issuing from them carries fruit sparingly the 
first year. 


Pruning Young VINES. 

The aim of the pruner is to form a stem on which to build the 
framework which will carry the future crop of grapes. The year 
of planting the growth of the young vine is not 
interfered with. The subsequent season all the 
canes but one are cut off, and this cut back either 
to a height of six to nine inches if .t is intended to 
train the vine gooseberry-bush fashion, or to a 
height of 14 to 15 inches if it is meant to train it on 
a trellis. If a suitable cane is not procurable, cut 
the young vine hard back to two buds and train the 
strongest shoot which will spring from one of these -sqsReRyr~ 
buds erect to a stick or a piece of bamboo set into Moridavnte 


the ground. vine, 
STAKING. 


After the first winter pruning the vines should be staked, 
whether they be intended to be trained bush-fashion or on trellis. 
For the former use stakes about 30 inches long, driven about 
15 inches into the ground; if the vines are to be trellised the stakes 
are a few inches longer. They should be made of 114in. to 114in. 


134 


wood, and are driven one or two inches from the vine on the side 
below the prevailing wind. This offers a support to the vine and 
reduces the strain on the tying string. 


STRUCTURE OF THE Buns. 

Some knowledge of the nature of the buds of the grape vine 
will help in understanding the reason for long or for short pruning. 

Two kinds of buds are found on a vine cane. At the base, 
axillary buds, or in some sorts, half-developed buds occur, which, if 
cut in two with a sharp knife and examined under a microscope, 
would show a core surrounded with scale. These buds are unfertile, 
and, if they grow at all in the spring, they form wood shoots. 

Higher up the cane, and the farther away from the base, the 
buds become more fertile; a section vf such buds show, around the 
core, microscopic grape bunches and tendrils. They represent, in 
embryo, the coming season’s crop. If, by some ageney or other, 
either wind, frost, or accident, the shoots issuing from them are 
destroyed, fresh shoots ate often produced, which are produced by 
less developed secondary buds, and the crop will, in consequence, 
be reduced. It is thus seen why some vines fail to bear fruit if 
they are pruned too short, and others overbear if too much wood is 
left on them. 

When it is admitted that the coming crop is present in embryo 
on the vine at the fime of pruning, it is easy to understand how a 
droughty season, or blights of some sort or other, by weakening the 
vine and stunting its growth, is not only detrimental to the visible 
crop, but also affect the next season’s crop as well. 


SYSTEMS OF PRUNING. 

“Pruning” and “training” differ, insomuch as pruning affects 
the growth and productiveness of the vine, and the quality as well 
as the quantity of the grapes; whereas training is purely conven- 
tional, and does not affect growth and fruitfulness to the same ex- 
tent. Training varies according to locality and to circumstances, 
and it is simply adopted for the sake of uniformity, and to facili- 
tate cultivation, dressing the vines, and gathering the grapes. 

Pruning leaves on the vine: spurs or spurs and rods in combina- 
tion. 

A “spur” consists of the basal portion of a cane made up of 
two full internodes or joints. This leaves two buds besides the basal 
bud. The strength and thickness of the cane from which the spur 
is made govern the number of buds. A thin and weak bud should 
be cut back to one bud, or even the base bud. A strong cane, on the 
other hand, can be left with three buds besides the basal bud. 

The methods of training are numerous and varied; the several 
systems of pruning, on the other hand, may be eut down to three 
main types, according to the length of spurs or of fruiting canes 
left on the vines, viz,. short, long, and mixed pruning. 


135 


Short, or Spur Pruning, consists in leaving on the vines short 
spurs of one to three buds only—generally two buds. It is appli- 
cable to those vines of moderate growth, which fruit most readily 
from every joint of their fruiting wood. Although the erops are 
thereby reduced, and the bunches fewer in number, they are, in 
consequence, of larger size and more showy. 

Long Pruning consists in cutting long one or more of the pre- 
vious season’s fruiting canes. Six to ten buds are left on the canes 
or rods of these varietics, which only bear fruit on buds situated 
farther away from the crown or the arm, the lower buds being 
mostly sterile, or not regularly fertile. Should such varieties be 
pruned short, most of the fruitful buds would be removed, and the 
result would probably be a luxuriant wood and leaf growth, and a 
very small crop. 

Mixed, or Half-long Pruniny.—Between these two systems is 
an intermediate one found useful in the case of vines which have 
been pruned short, and are 
planted on rich ground, and 
run into rank growth at the 
expense of fruit production. It 
is also useful in the case of 
vines which, of the class that 
is pruned long, fail through 
exhaustion and lack of neces- 
sary vitality, to carry a full 
crop of well developed grapes. 

As the illustration shows, 
it is advisable to leave for each 
longer cane a short spur cut 
back to two buds, whose duty 
it is to provide wood for the 
following year. When that 
pruning comes the longer canes 
now illustrated are cut off, and 
a new fruiting cane, together 
with a shorter wood spur, are 
selected from the shoots issu- 
ing from the wood Spur shown Mixed or half-long pruned vine. 
in the figure. 


GRAPE VINES GROWN IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
How to prune them. 

The following list supplies the names of vines which in fairly 
moist and fertile localities are better pruned short or long, as the 
ease may be. In dry districts, however, it is preferable to be 
sparing of long pruning and high training, and to adhere more 
closely to short pruning and low bush training. This insures a 
more rapid and freer circulation of the sap, and consequently better 


136 


nourished bunches. In such localities it may be advisable to make 
up for the low fertility of the basal buds of the canes by multi- 
plying the number of spurs. 

Prune, short: Alicante, Aramon, Aspiran, Black Hamburgh, 
Belas Blanco, Black Malaga, Carignane, Chasselas, Cinsault 
(Oeillade, Blue Imperial, or Grand Turk), Clairette, Cornichon, 
Currants, Doleetto, Doradillo, Duke of Buccleugh, Early Green, 
Frontignan, Folle Blanche, Gamay, Gouais, Grenache, Lady’s 
Finger, Mataro, Morastel, the Muscats (one or two buds only), 
Pedro Ximenes, Palomino Blanco, Red Prince, Royal Ascot, 
Semillon, Santa Paula, Sweetwater, Trebbiano, Verdelho, Wortley 
Hall, Zante Currant (when cinctured), Zinfandel. 

Prune long: Cabernet, Centennial, Crystal, Cornelian 
(Quick’s Seedling), Early White Malvasia (Lignan), Gros Colman, 
Malbec, Merlot, Ohanez (Almeria), Pinot, Raisin des Dames, Ries- 
ling, Roussanne (White Hermitage), Sauvignon Blane, Shiraz, Sul- 
tana, Tokay (Green Hungarian), Verdot, Verdelho. 

Prune hulf-long: Any of the above sorts if not growing very 
strongly, and more particularly, Black Prince, Frontignan, Malaga 
(black and red), Currants, Chasselas, Red Muscatel, Waltham Cross. 


Metuyops or TRAINING. 

As I have already pointed out, training is merely a matter of 
convenience. The numerous methods followed may be reduced and 
grouped under two types: 

1. Vines growing upright, with or without stalks 
2. Vines trained on horizont:l wires or trellises. 

First Group: Vines trained upright—To this group belong 
the Gooseberry Bush, or “Goblet” shape vines, trained according to 
this method, and of the class that require short pruning. The 
single stem, sturdy and straight, having been formed, a fork of 


| 


Bush vine after pruning. (Foex.) 


: SS aR 


Bush vine after second 
pruning. (Ioex.) 


137 


two’ spurs, with two buds on each, is left when pruning the second 
year; these will constitute the first two arms of the vine; the subse- 
quent season one or two spurs are left on these arms, and so on 
until the number of spurs is increased to six or eight in the case of 
a strong vine. When well-shaped the vines need not stand in the 
way of the horse implements, and when the arms become too long 
advantage is taken of the presence of any water shoot conveniently 
situated closer to the stem. This shoot is at pruning time cut back 
to two buds, and turned into a spur to fill the gap of the longer and 
older arms, which can then without inconvenience be sawn off or 
cut hard back. 


SPUR PRUNING 
A.A. shows the points of section and spur left after pruning. Method of 
pruning wood growing on a short spur, set on a permanent arm. A. and B. 
show where to cut. (Foex.) 


To this group also belong vines pruned half-long and trained 
goblet shape. 

The heavy initial cost of staking or trellising a vineyard 
planted with sorts requiring long pruning at times makes it 
convenient io train vines without support. 

The wood-cut alongside illus- 
trates this method of training. One 
or more long rods, consisting of six 
to ten eves (C), with a short wood 
spur of two eves at the base of each 
(S), are for this purpose left on the 
vine, the end of the rods being either 
bent down and tied to the base of 
the opposite rod, or the rods are 
made to entwine together in the 
form of a bow. 

It is customary to leave the ionz 
rod above the short wood spur, 
which is closer to the stem, to kee» 
the arms of the vine from rising too 
rapidly. as the long rods teing eut 
off the subsequent pruning, the wood 
necessary to continue that method of yong rods and short spurs. 
pruning is found supplied by last 
season’s short spurs. 


138 


Second Group: Trellised Vines.—Vines trained on trellises are 
pruned either with short spurs along permanent arms, or with long 
fruiting rods. In France, vines trained on wires, with an arm on 
each side of the stem, are said to be trained espalier fashion, in 
contradistinction to those trained cordon fashion, with one main arin 
only bent on one side of the stem. 


The adjoining figure represents the Guyot cordon and the 
double Guyot, or Bordeaux Espalier, is represented below. They 
are limited to those vines which have their fertile buds away from 
the base of the canes, or those whose basal buds are not regularly 
fertile. 


Guyot Cordon before pruning. 


The Guyot cordon consists of a long fruiting cane (ce), about 
three or four feet long, and a short wood spur (s) cut back to two 
buds, which is intended to provide the wood necessary for the 
subseqtient season's pruning. 


When that time comes the eane (c) is cut clean off, one of the 
canes shooting from s is tied down in its stead, and another cane 
from s likewise is cut back to two good eyes—the axillary buds not 
being counted. 


Guyot Cordon after pruning—Rod and Spur. 


This method of pruning and training, which is suitable for 
weakly vines of the Pinot tribe, growing on the poor limestone of 


139 


a cool country, where it is much in favour, is not to be recommended 
for richer soil under a forcing climate like that of Western Aus- 
tralia. 


A modification of it, and one better suited to our local condi- 
tions, with vines like the Cabernet, Malbec and Riesling, is a modi- 


fieation of the Guyot system, known as the Bordelais espalier, which 


= i ie v ~— = 
Bordeaux Espalier. Combination of Rod and Spear. 


is correctly represented in the accompanying figure. It gives more 
scope to the vine, and should it be found necessary to give even 


Bordeaux Espalier.—Vigorous vine, with two long fruiting 
rods and short wood spurs on each side of the stem. 


more wood to particularly luxuriant vines growing on rich, deep 
soil, two new rods may be left. 


These vines are formed thus: The first pruning is in every way 
similar to the one already described. The trellis is made of two 
wires, the first 16 to 18 inches from the ground, and the second 20 
to 22 inches above it. It is advisable to train the stem along a 
short stake for a year or two, so as to better keep it straight. The 
second year the stem is pruned to a height of 12 to 14 inches, or it 
may be cut back ahout the height of the lower wire, the blade of 
the secateur being made to cut throigh the top node; this stem can 
then be tied firmly to the first wire and staking thus dispensed with. 
From -the jomts below, shoots will grow, two of which at the time 
of the third yerr’s pruning will be eut back to two buds only. The 
shoots from these short spurs will be trained as represented, one 
horizontally on each side of the stem and along the bottom wire, 


140 


-while the other shoots from these spurs will be eut back to two 
buds to provide wood and fruiting canes for future pruning. It is 
important that all shoots not required should be rubbed off as they 
appear on the stem. 


2. PERMANENT ARMS AND SHORT SPURS. 


This method of pruning and training is typically represented 
by the Zhomery espalier, named after the favourite method of 
pruning followed by the vinegrowers of the fertile village of 
Thomery, near Paris. It is one well adapted to our local require- 
ments. 


Tt consists of two main arms set horizontally on each side 
of the stem along the lower wire. Along those permanent arms 
spurs are left at intervals of nine to ten inches. The interval be- 
tween the first spur on each permanent arm is 12 inches or a little 
more. It is essential, more particularly in the case of trellised 
vines, that there should be one stem only to each vine; in the case 
of the Thomery espalier it is important that the right and the left 
arms should start as nearly as possible from the same level, so 
as to better equalise the flow of sap and avoid wide blanks 
being created and much of the space available over costly 
trellises remaining idle. To guard against this the arms should 
be encouraged to spring from the stem at about the same level and 
they should be trained sharply along the first wire, thus giving to 
the vine the form of the letter T. For this purpose, as soon as the 
stem has grown three or four joints above the lower wire it is 
pinched just above the bud which is level or is nearest to that wire; 
this is done sometimes in the summer. From the end of this still 
tender shoot another small shoot will grow, and this is also pinched 
back, generally when it is one or two inches long. The vine being 
still in full growth, another shoot will soon appear from that 
terminal bud which has been strengthened by this process of pinch- 
ing back. This shoot is allowed to grow; it carries at its base a 
cluster or two, or it may be more, buds. At pruning time, when 
mature, cut back to the point (a) indicated on the figure. From 
these shoots will grow, the stronger two of which are bent down, 
directly they cease to ke brittle, io the wires, where they are 
fastened. 


Before the end of the season, and when they are a foot or two 
long, these horizontal shoots are pinched back, with the result that 
they will throw up laterals which will form the bases of the spurs 
the following season. It is not advisable to give to the permanent 
arms their full length the first year, but it is preferable to add a 
few joints to the arms every year until the space from vine to vine 


141 


along the lines has been filled up. This is done by always pruning 
to a lower bud the last joint left on the vine, and from this lower 
bud will grow a shoot which will naturally take a horizontal direc- 
tion. An upper bud would probably throw up a shoot which would 
have to be bent down and would show by a kink the interruption 
in the growth of the arm. Once the spurs are established they are 
cut every year to two buds, as has already been explained. 


3, PrerRMANENT ARmMS—Mixep or Haur-Lone PRuNING. 


An example of this method of pruning is the Cazenave cordon. 
The only advantage it possesses over the Thomery espalier is that, 
being one-sided, there is no occasion to use when pruning the amount 
of discrimination necessary when training a vine espalier fashion, 
in which ease the proper equilibrium of the plant is maintained or 
re-established by keeping the two arms in the same state of vigorous 
growth, if they are of equal development, or by favouring the 
growth of the weaker arm by hard pruning if found necessary so 
to do. Although the figure does not show it, three wires are 
better than two in training vines according to this method. If the 
distance from vine to vine is too great, the cordon is not all laid 
down at once, but half of it may be trained first, the cane being 
cut to a lower bud, which will produce a straight horizontal shoot 
which will be utilised for lengthening the cordon. 


The permanent arm is made to grow spurs, which each produce 
a fruiting cane and a wood spur. It takes four seasons to properly 
form a Cazenave cordon. 


Training Vines—A convenient method of training on wire, 
which obviates the necessity of tying the rods in the early summer, 
consists in using three wires. The first strained one inch or two 
inches above the crown; above this 15 to 16 inches and on the same 
level two wires are placed, stapled to opposite sides of the post. 
The growing shoots are merely pressed between these wires with- 
out tying. 


Where tying is practised, New Zealand flax, bullrushes, or old 
twine is used. Rye straw is much used in France, and small plots 
are grown for that purpose. 


4. PRUNING THE SuLTANA (CAzzENAVE PRUNING MODIFIED). 


This is a very neat and very useful way of training vines re- 
quiring long pruning and growing vn rich ground. It is thus seen 


142 


that once the framework of the vine is well formed it may be pruned 
with all the modifications of short, half-long, or long pruning already 
described. 


This mixed system of pruning, which finds favour with some, 
is suitable for localities where both soil and climate are favourable 
to a luxuriant growth of the vine. 


It is particularly suited to the Sultana, and on rich soil to the 
Zante Currant. 


The Sultana bears well only on long canes, the short spurs pro- 
viding wood for the next pruning. In the Swan valley the Bor- 
deaux espalier with short arms, bearing two long rods and two spurs 


aan 


1D) 


| A 
aL — 


Cazenave Cordon modified. Permanent arms and long bent 
rods with short spurs. (Bioletti.) 


each, are satisfactory. Repeated suckering and removal of water 
sprouts are required to insure a strong growth of replacing canes 
on the wood spurs. The cracking of the joints with the fingers and 
the curving of the fruit canes or rods promotes the starting of more 
shoots or of the consequent production of more bunches of grapes. 
At the same time the buds on the wood spurs are forced to start; 
these, not being shaded, tend to grow vigerously. It is advisable to 
tie these in a vertical position to the top wire of the trellis; and they 
should not be topped. 


It is essential, to obtain good results with the sultana, to go over 
the vines at least twice during the spring and rub off suckers and 
water shoots not required to replace the fruiting wood at the next 
winter pruning; these are generally sterile, grow vigorously, and, 
unless removed, rob the fruit shoots. This disbudding should only 
be done a week or two before blossoming, and next after the flowers 
have set. 


Short-pruned Zante Currants. 


Pruning the Sultana. 


143 


GARDEN TRELLISES. 


Perhaps nowhere is the want of systematic training and prun- 
ing of the vine more glaringly exhibited than on the private garden 
trellises. The second of the two ac- 
companying illustrations forcibly ex- 
hibits such amateurish method of 
training and pruning vines. There 
the vines are allowed to grow without N 
restraint, and at pruning time canes 
are bent and directed in the most 
fanciful manner to fill a gap here and 
there. These vines, which are gen- 
erally grown in close proximity to the 
house, as a rule receive more atten- 
tion: they are manured, sulphured, 
the ground is dug round them, 
and as they bear well the owner 
takes little or no trouble in the 
first years of their growth to 
train them with some sort of method, 
until with years his mistakes are made 
apparent to him. The lower buds are 
robbed by the higher ones, they get NY 
feebler and feebler, and at last cease > 
to grow at all; the sides of the trellis NN =j 
become denuded, and all the energy NI is 4 
of the vines is spent on the top. The si Sie ae 
sketch printed in these pages illus- 
trates a method of training vines on 
the home trellis which, if copied, will 
result in the owner deriving from his 
vines both shelter and fruit. The 
sketch is drawn to scale, the vines 
planted six feet apart, and trained 
with one permanent arm only. On 
that arm, at intervals of 10 to 12 
inches, spurs are left and cut back to 
two eyes, unless the vine shows a 
tendeney of running riot, in which 
case one of the methods of pruning Sy = 
reviewed in a previous chapter on NG 
pruning, and preferably the modified 
Cazenave method, may be adopted. 
This method consists in leaving on 
the permanent arms one or several 
long rods supplied with five to ten 


VEN 


4 > 
Seale W Ane, \ Yook 


Training Vines on the Garden Trellis, 


6 < 


< ‘6. >hl<- 6—->h<— 


144 


eyes. These rods are bent down and tied; they carry much fruit 
and supply an outlet for any excessive flow of sap from the vine. 


T-HEAD TRELLISING FOR CURRANT VINES. 

Unless adequate development is given the currant vine, it often 
remains infertile. The following ‘nethod of training these vines, 
which has for a number of years been adopted with marked success 
by Mr. Thomas Hardy, of South Australia, is found to be suited 
to those vines :— , 


— ae 
‘ | re es el eee 
’ = 
! 
' 
2 
“s 
; ee ¥ 2s 
' ‘ 
\ 
a ; cl. ‘s 
ailgbesoe’ Pure 


The vines are planted 10 feet in the rows, which are 12 feet 
apart. Posts, 445 feet out of the zround, are set every 30 feet. 

Cross-heads 27 inches long, made of split wood 2 inches x 4 
inches, are bolted on at the top of the posts. Lower eross-heads 
a little shorter, about 24 inches long, may also be bolted at a lower 
level, say 18 inches from the ground. Three wires for each tier 
are used, the middle one slightly lower than the outer ones. The 
end posts are well strutted; No. 8 is used for the central wire and 
No. 10 for the outer wires. 

The currant vines are trained alternately on the top and 
bottom tier, and thus more room is afforded for their development. 
The vines may either be trained right and left, T fashion, or with 
one single bent arm like an inverted &. The main arm is trained up 
along the middle wire (3), the long rods (a) being tied alternately 
to the outer wires, any buds beyond the wire being cut off. The 
short spurs (b) usually bear as much fruit as the long rods. 

For this trellis, however, is generally substituted the two-wire 
trellis found in most vineyards, with the first wire 18 to 20 inches 
from the ground and the second wire 18 to 20 inches higher. 
Should the currants be particularly strong a third wire another 18 
inches higher may be added as shown in the figure below. Spur 
pruning gives more sugary and more fleshy currants. 

On average vine land the currant is spur-pruned along per- 
manent arms, while on richer land the spur and rod system answers 


145 


well, provided the currant vines are cinctured at blossoming time 
or just after, between the base of the arm and the first spurs. This 
is done by running a knife on the stem twice round and cutting the 
bark and the inner bark, thus checking the return flow of the sap 
and causing better setting of the currants. The two cuts are made 
at an interval of one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch, and no ill 
effect results from this yearly treatment, which was first introduced 
to the notice of Australian growers by Mr. W. C. Grasby, who had 
seen it practised in Greece. Young vines cinctured too early may 
suffer a setback, and the operation should therefore be postponed 
until the plant is strong and is growing vigorously. 


Cost or STAKING AND TRELLISING. 

The cost of ttellising currant vines according to the above 
method, recommended by Mr. Thomas Hardy, if done in a sub- 
stantial manner, is in any case a heavy one, and to do it in any 
other way is false economy. The figures given below would vary 
somewhat with the cost of posts and of wire. 

For one acre of vines it will take:— 


£ 8. d. 

118 posts at 6d. each 219 0 
11 straining posts at ls. 011 0 
11 struts at 6d. 0 5 6 
123 crossheads at 10s. ‘per 100 012 3 
5iewt. of wire at 10s. 212 6 
30lbs. bolts at 3d. 07 6 
Labour erecting 3 1 6 
If two tiers, extra 410 6 
£1419 3 


This price would now be much higher on account of the ad- 
vance in the cost of wire, labour, ete. A cheaper style of trellis is 
now used in currant vineyards and consists of two wires only, a 
third wire being added on rich land and where the vines grow 
more luxuriantly. 


STAKING AND TRELLISING VINES. 

A great many vine-growers are deterred from staking or 
trellising their vineyards on account of the somewhat heavy ex- 
penditure of money it entails. Instead, therefore, of pruning such 
vines long, as require long pruning, they spur prune them, with the 
result that the crop the vineyard is capable of producing is materi- 
ally lessened. 

If a given area of vineyard can, at a comparatively small addi- 
tional expense, be made to yield a heavier crop, the returns 
will be equivalent to those of a larger area. For instance, 
if by spending an additional £8 to £10 per acre the net profits are 
increased by 30 per cent., the result is equivalent to increasing the 


146 


area under cultivation by one-third, and that at a cost much below 
that which such addition would involve. An acre of vineyard, for 
instance, worth, say, £50, would be practically, by the extra ex- 
penditure of £10 for staking or trellising, be made to yield a return 
of one acre and one-third, and represent a capital value of £80. 

For stakes, the sizes generally used are 2 x 2 inches, 6ft. long. 

In different places the cost of material would vary; the cost 
of purchasing, hauling, sharpening, and setting good jarrah or rasp- 
berry jam stakes would he generally about £10 a thousand vines, 
or about £6 5s. an acre for vines planted 8ft. square. 

In trellising, 6ft. posts 3in. x 4in. are used 2ft. below and 4ft. 
above ground, and at the end of the rows straining posts 6in. x 3in. 
and 6ft. to 6ft. 6in. long. Two wires only are necessary, viz., near 
the coast No. 10 galvanised wire, and inland, where the corrosive 
action of the air is felt to a lesser degree, the cheaper No. 10 black 
steel wire will answer. 

The first wire is set at a height of 18 inches from the ground; 
the second wire 20 to 24 inches higher, or about 3ft. to 3ft. 6in. 
from the ground. 


The following is a pre-war estimate of what the cost of trellis- 
ing a 10-acre vineyard would probably be at per acre. Supposing 
the block of vineyard measures 10 chains x 10 chains and the dis- 
tance between the rows is 10ft., there would be per acre 614 rows, 
requiring :— 


£ 3s. d. 
13 straining posts per acre, at 9d. each .- 09 9 
165 ordinary posts, 28ft. apart, at 25s. per100 212 0 
165 holes for same, at 5s. per 100 0 9° 0 
4cwt. galvanised No. 10 wire, at 12s. 3d... 3.0 ~0 
Boring holes, putting up, and straining 10 0 

£710 9 


BURNING THE CUTTINGS. 

When the pruning of the vines or fruit-trees is done the cut 
canes or wood are picked and burned. The most expeditious way of 
effecting this, if the area is of any size, is to seeure a rejected 300 
or 400 gallon square iron tank, which may be bolted on iron brackets 
on two wooden beams Sin. x 3in., which act as a sledge. This is 
dragged by means of long chains. The side of the tank that is on 
top is cut off with a chisel and the man-hole and other apertures 
are made at the bottom between the wooden sledges, which act as 
a grating to provide a draught and facilitate the dropping of the 
burnt ashes. The front of the wooden beams are cut bevel to cause 
the sledge to slide over the surface of the ground. Into this tank 
a fire is lit, and as the horse drags the furnace along the rows a 
couple of men throw the wood into it. In this way a number of 
pests are destroyed, the ashes are spread evenly over the ground, 


147 


and the cost is greatly reduced for picking the cuttings, taking them 
out to the headland, and attending to the burning. 


FRUIT-TREE PRUNING. 


In this chapter the shaping and the pruning of the several 
Varities of those temperate clime fruit-trees grown in our orchards 
will be more particularly referred to. 


GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

There are a few rules which are applicable in every cireum- 
stance, and which should be borne in mind whatever the system of 
training, or the kind of tree to be pruned, may be. When pruning, 
cut off all dead wood; also one of any two branches which may 
happen to cross and rub against each other, thus chafing the bark 
and injuring the limb. Suppress water shoots and suckers. When 
cutting to a bud do not leave a stump above the bud; but on the 
other hand do not cut the wood off too close to that bud. When 
compelled to remove large limbs, pare off the wound with a sharp 
knife and cover the wound with some dressing, such as already 
recommended in the previous chapter on pruning, or even with clay, 
which, while preventing the air and the dampness from drying and 
rotting the wood, will not prevent the young bark overgrowing the 
wound and gradually healing it. Before eutting a limb off try to 
see what the result of your action is likely to be a few years hence, 
and thus save at an early stage the possible necessity of having to 
cut large limbs at some future period. 

Should it be found necessary to cut a large limb, saw it a short 
distance from the bottom first. Then saw down from above, and 
the limb can be removed without fear of splitting-off below. Never 
cut a branch without having a reason for doing so. Under the 
climatic conditions which prevail here, it is better to err on the side 
of cutting hard back to keep the tree low, than on the side of spar- 
ing the tree the first years of its growth and letting it run up a 
high stem topped with long, lanky branches. 


SYSTEMS OF TRAINING AND SHAPING FRUIT-TREES. 

Climatie conditions to a great extent influence the methods of 
training trees. Thus in colder climates they are often trained 
Cordon fashion, or in Espaliers. Then again the Pyramid shape 
was for a long time a favourite in warmer climates, until the Low 
Standard or Vase svstem supplanted it. 

1. Cordons, which are either vertical or horizontal or oblique. 
Trees trained as horizontal cordons have their stems bent at right 
angeles and fastened to a wire. These cordons are either single. as 
shown in the figure, or double, i.e., with a branch on each side. 
Although this method of training trees is sometimes employed for 


148 


apple and pear trees in cold countries, it is better adapted for vines, 
and as it is unsuited for this climate I shall dispense with describing 
the method of thus shaping trees. 


2. LEspaliers, a popular method of training apples, pears, 
apricots and peaches alongside walls in the Northern climate of 
Europe, where specimens of this system of shaping trees, illus- 
trating the skill and handiwork of the European gardener, can be 
seen in public and private gardens. In warmer. climates, this 
method of training has nothing to recommend itself, and needs no 
description. 

The pyramid shape of training was, until not very long ago, 
when the low standard or “vase” system supplmented it, much in 

favour for trees grown in the 
' open air in the cooler climates 
of England and Central Europe. 
It is more especially suitable 
for pears and cherries. This 
form of training takes at least 
five years to bring to perfection, 
and it often happens that, either 
before or after this work has 
been satisfactorily completed, a 
fieree gust of wind, a snow- 
storm, or some other unexpected 
aecident, will destroy in one act 
the work of years of patient 
training. Trees trained pyramid 
shape require besides a good 
deal of ground to fully develop, 
and for the easy working of 
teams and implements; for this 
purpose the interval from tree 
to tree should be at least 30 
feet. One advantage it presents 
over the “vase” system, which is 
Fyramidal training of a Pear Tree. next described, is that the limbs 
are well knit to the central 
stem, and not liable to split under the load of fruit. To sum up: 
Every variety of fruit-tree is not equally suited to this system of 
pruning; it takes too long to form, it occupies too much space, it 
is too high for pruning, spraying, and picking, and is too much 
exposed to winds. 

4. The low standard or “vase” system has been found by long 
experience to be the form best suited to the Australian climate; it 
is also the one best adapted to Californian conditions. Unlike the 
pyramid shape, which has the cone pointing upwards, the “vase,” 
“eoblet,” or “wine-glass” form, rests on its cone, and directs its 


149 


branches upwards and outwards Amongst the advantages it offers 
it is simple to understand and master; it is applicable to all kinds 
of fruit-trees; it is suitable to all localities where fruit-trees can be 
grown out in the open without artificial shelter; it forms a vigorous 
stocky tree, well balanced, easier to prune, spray, and pick; it effi- 
ciently shelters the stem against sun-seald; it resists the onslaught 
of heavy gusts of wind better than the other forms of training; it 
requires less space than the pyramid form; it offers greater facility 
of approach to the stems by the horses when cultivatiing. 

The above paragraph sets forth the advantages of this system 
in preference to others. The low standard system of training, how- 
ever, best suited for the climatic couditions which obtain in coun- 
tries like Australia and California, where hot summers prevail, has 
been materially modified from its prototype, the “vase” or “goblet” 
form, found in the gardens of Europe. 


EvuRoPEAN VASE OR GOBLET. 

There the tree is headed back to two or three feet; three or 
four branches disposed round the stem are drawn outwards by 
means of strings fastened to pegs, which will form the main limbs 
of the tree. On these limbs, which are cut back the next winter to 
a lower bud which will continue the main branch, and either to the 
left or the right of it, a side shoot is allowed to grow and all the 
other shoots are pinched back; these two shoots are bound to a 
light hoop to keep them in place, and constitute the main branches 
of the young tree. The next winter again this process is repeated, 
with this difference, that the side shoot is allowed to grown on the 
opposite side of the previous year’s side shoot. These form second- 
ary branches, and are fastened to larger hoops; all shoots which 
start to grow either inward towards the centre or outward are 
rubbed off, so that after a year or two the tree presents as nearly 
as possible the shape of a vase or goblet, with a hollow centre and 
an even exterior outline with a thin wall of foliage. In our cool 
climate of the Blackwood I have come across trees so trained bear- 
ing bunches of apples and pears all along the leaders forming the 
framework of the tree. 


Mopiriep VASE Form or Low StTanparp. 

It is apparent from the outset that such a symmetrical and 
open system of training, if adopted under a climate such as ours, 
would result in much damage being done by the sorehing sun to 
both the tree itself and to its crop of fruit. I have purposely re- 
ferred to it here so as to spare to the beginner in fruit growing the 
trouble as well as the disappointment of taking his pattern in 
training his young trees from the classic sources favoured in 
Europe. The Californian modified vase, with a low standard, has 
now proved itself to be the best suited to Australian conditions, 


150 
and it is this system of training which I shall have in my mind in 
the course of the following notes 


First PRUNING. 


Young budded trees in nursey rows present, the first season of 
their growth, the appearance of a straight switeh, with good buds 
all along the stem. Sometimes they grow so vigorously that they 
throw out laterals. Both such young trees are found in nurseries. 
As their customers like to see as much growth as possible, nursery- 
men generally send out their trees without cutting them back. 

Experienced orchardists generally prefer, 
when ordering from the nursery, one-year-old 
trees, which are merely straight switches with 
good buds all along the stem. ‘These they can 
cut baek, as shown by the dotted. line in the 
figure, to the height they prefer, with a length 
of stem pretty well uniformly the same all 
through the orchard. If they plant trees with 
a head ready formed in the nursery they cut it 
short back on the laterals. Those who, on the 
other hand, have little or no experience of 
fruit growing, would do wisely to select from 
the nursery trees with their heads ready 
formed. When cutting back, especially in the 
warmer and drier localities, a stem 15 to 18 
inches high will be found the best. In the 
cooler districts it can be given a height of 18 
to 24 inches. Cut back to a good bua, care 
having been taken that the tree has not been 
planted too deeply, but that its collar, or 
point of junction between the roots and the 
stem be as nearly as possible flush with the 
surface of the ground. If the tree has suffered 
much, and the buds are very small, the bark 
leathery and wrinkled, the stem somewhat 
dried, and the roots much injured, it is advis- 4 Yearling ‘Tree with- 

= : out Branches. 
able to cut the stem lower still, say at a height ye crogs line pers 
of about 9 inches from the ground, or even where to cut back when 
lower, but in every case above the graft. In Pantins—Barry. 
such cases, however, the proper height should 
be given to the stem, either by pinching the 
straight shoot which will grow from it as soon as it reaches that 
desired height, or by cutting it back later on at the time of winter 
pruning. From a stem topped to a height of 15 to 18 inches several 
short shoots will be sent up from the upper buds; of these, three 
or four of the best shoots, placed symmetrically round the stem, are 
allowed to grow, all superfluous vegetation being rubbed off. These 


151 


three or four shoots, which form the main limbs of the tree, should 
be placed in such a manner that they form a well-balanced head, 
and do not all come out in a bunch together, but spring out of the 
stem with an interval of an inch or two between them. This knits 
them better to the trunk, and they are less liable to split, as, 
they sometimes do in windy weather when grown in forks and laden 
with fruit. The apricot more especially, with buds very close to- 
gether, has a tendency to grow its limbs all in a bunch. 

Three limbs growing symmetrically round the stem are better 
than four. During the first season, these three or four shoots are 
left to grow without interference, so as to favour as good a root 
system as possible. Should one of the limbs grow with 
such exuberant vigour that it draws all the sap for its own use, to 
the detriment of the other two or three, it would be advisable to 
pinch off the tip and check it, so as to maintain a fairly equal 
growth of the head. A tree is very easily thrown off its balance at 
this stage of its growth, and unless properly trained and watched 
it might be difficult subsequently to re-establish the harmony of 
growth between the main branches that constitute the head. 


SEcoND PRUNING. 

During the summer following the first pruning, the young tree 
should be allowed to grow unchecked, so as to ensure a good root 
development. Some young trees, however, at 
times persist in sending up one solitary shoot. 
Should this be the case, the tender yrowth is 
pinched back when it has reached a length of 
five or six inches, and this will excite the bud 
immediately underneath into life, with the re- 
sult that the three or four limbs required to 
form a well-balanced head will be secured. 

The reverse at other times happens, the 
young trees sending up a buneh of shoots, or 
' such vigorous and luxuriant shoots that there 
is danger of the stems splitting. To guard 
against this it is in such case also. although 
for a different purpose, advisable to take in 
the sails, and relieve the plant of any excess of 
shoots, or of its threatening top weight. 

During the first winter following the plant- 
ing of a yearling tree, the three shoots, or may ——— : 
be the four which constitute its bead, are short- eee ae nee 
ened to four to ten inches, accoriing as to {the pud.—Barry. 
whether these shoots are feeble, or strong and 
vigorous. Fruitgrowers often get iheir trees from the nursery at 
this stage of their growth, and the accompanying figure illustrates 
their shape after pruning. This operation excites the somewhat 


152 


dormant buds at the base of the shoot into active life. As previously 
said, the terminal bud should be a plump and healthy one. It 
should be directed either upwards, downwards, or sideways, so as 
to prolong the growth of branch outwards or inwards, or towards 
a lateral blank space. 


The growth of the main shoots is regulated by pinching, and 
should a third or fourth twig grow amongst them between the forks 
they are rubbed off. When the tree is ready for pruning a third 
time it has then, if three main limbs only, six branches, which, at 
the time of the 


THIRD PRUNING, 


are cut back to 6 to 12 inches, according to their strength. Two 
of the top shoots on each of these branches with an upward 
direction are left, and the lateral shoots from 
the other buds on the limbs below are 
pinched back in the summer time, when they 
are a few inches long, to three or four leaves. 

These little tufts of leaves shelter the 
branches, strengthen them by converting sap 
into woody tissues, and ultimately develop 
fruit spurs. Branches which approach the 
vertical line most are cut shorter than those 
inclined to an angle to thus force the buds 
at the base to grow. 


FourtH PRUNING. 

The same treatment described in the 
ease of the first, second, and third pruning 
is applied in the ease of the fourth pruning 
and generally at this age the tree will begin ** 
to bear readily. At this period a stocky, low Winter pruning of a 
standard tree will have been formed, which ee Meena g nae 
will have a well-balanced head of branches : 
growing in an upward direction, and carrying fruit spurs 
all along their length. Such a tree will resist high winds 
well, can easily be approached by horse and implements, so that 
comparatively little hand labour will be required to keep the 
orchard in a high state of cultivation; the crop will be evenly 
carried along the main branches, which will not stand in need of 
artificial props, lest they should break down under the load of fruit 
which, at this early stage, they will begin to earry. The pinching 
of the superabundant laterals is best done in the early autumn, 
when buds, which would otherwise have remained sterile, are trans- 
formed into fruit buds. This operation, saves much butchering 
in the winter time, as by suppressing either entirely or 
partly an undesirable shoot at an early stage, much sap, which 


153 


would be turned into wood growth, destined to be cut off in the 
winter, is saved, and the enerey and the vitality of the plant thrown 
into more useful channels. This practice leads to the enunciation 
of the fact that severe winter pruning induces wood growth, while 
summer pruning tends to 
fruit production. Thus, 
if a tree is stunted, and 
for some obscure reason 
does not make much 
wood, but shows a tend- 
ency to produce more 
fruit buds than it ean 
safely carry. prune close 
in the winter; if, on the 
other hand, a tree grows 
so quickly that all its 
energy is wasted in wood 
and leaves, and does not 
pause to produce fruit, 
either summer pruning or 
root }runing will throw 
it into bearing. By such 
means the plant, realising, 
while in full flow of sap, 
that its constitution has 
been attacked and its life 
menaced, will make an 
effort to reproduce its 
kind forthwith, and th 
result’ will be the evolu 
tion of leaf buds int. 
Young standard tree, four years from fruit-bearing spurs. Sub- 
the bud, after pruning.—Barry. : . 
sequent prunings consist 
mostly in rubbing off water shoots, in suppressing branches that 
cross and rub against one another, and trimming the twigs and the 
fresh growth made during the season's growth. At this stage the 
tree will have ceased making much wood, and will begin the business 
of setting and carrying fruit crojs. F 


REDUCTION OF SWELLINGS AND HIpE-BOUND TREEs. 

At the time of pruning swellings are occasionally noticed on 
the stems or limbs of trees. These swellings are either due to the 
disproportionate growth of the scion or fruiting part, compared 
with the stock or root end of the tree. 

They may also Fe due to strings used in previous seasons as 
ties, which have cut through the bark. These swellings, which 
interfere with the free circulation of the sap, must be reduced. This 
is best done by running longitudinal incisions from C downwards to 


154 


the stock B. The bark will thus expand, and should the deformity 
continue the next season, these incisions should be renewed. 


Trees which have been neglected, or whose 
growth has been stunted by the presence of moss 
and lichen, scale insects or other pests, or by want 
of drainage of the soil, by the aridity and poverty 
of the ground, or are debilitated in consequence of 
having been allowed to bear too early, often show 
a miserable, sickly appearance. Their growth is 
stopped, the bark becomes tough and leathery; they 
are hide-bound. ‘The cause of the mischief may 
have already been rectified, and still they will make 
no growth. 

Such trees should be similarly treated at the 
time of pruning. They should be cut hard back 
and at pruning time the knife being run longttudin- 
ally through the bark, from the heel to the top of 
the stem, and even along the main limhs. It is also 
advisable to whitewash the stems of such trees. 
Lime, in the shape of whitewash, is well known to 


Incision to reduce 
the swelling of 
the graft or the 

stem. 


be beneficial in most bark diseases. 

Under this treatment the stunted trees of last season are seen 
to spring into fresh and healthier growth. The cambium or growing 
wood layers force the strip of leathery bark apart, the stems and 
limbs are soon seen to swell, the sap runs freely from the roots 
to the top branches of the plant, and the whole growth looks 


healthier. 


INCISION TO CONTROL THE GrowTH oF SHOOTS AND Bups. 


Incisions.—Du Breuil, 


Shonid, during the preceding grow- 
ing season, any one of the lateral 
branches have been imperfectly de- 
veloped, it should be eut back lightly 
when pruning, and if it is much too 
small compared with the others it is 
sometimes advisable to make, imme- 
diately above the point of attachment 
to the branch (B), a notch or small 
incision through the outside layers of 
growing wood, so as to force the,sap 
to run up the branch and develop it. 
The cut should be prevented from 
healing too rapidly. It is also some- 
times desirable for the symmetry of 
the tree to foree a dormant bud into 
erowth, and in that ease an incision as 
shown at A will be found useful. On 


155 


the other hand, should a strong branch become uncontrollable in 
spite of heading back, it may, in extreme cases, be advisable to 
check the flow of sap towards it by making an incision as shown 
at C, immediately below its-point of attachment to the stem. 

Thus we have a means of transforming a wood bud into a fruit 
bud and vice versa, by making a cut below the rudimentary bud if 
we want a fruit bud, or above it if we want a wood bud. These 
methods should, however, be only used with discrimination, else 
more harm than good would ensue. 


Revovatine OLp TREES, 


Fruit trees planted in good soil and possessed of a good stem 
are susceptible of living.to a great age. It, however, often happens 
that through years of neglect their branches have grown to excessive 
length and are, to a great extent, deprived of fruit shoots, or that 
the crop is carried up too high, hence adding considerably to the 
cost of gathering; or again the trees are diseased, and in order to 
suecessfully combat the pests which infest 
them they must be shortened in. Again, the 
variety of fruit the trees bear may be unsuit- 
able, and it may be expedient to change it 
by means of budding or of grafting. In all 
these eases it may be desirable, or even im- 
perative, to shorten the tree and head it 
back. For that purpose the saw is ealled into 
requisition, and the cuts are smoothy pared 
with a sharp knife, the wound being then 
smeared with clay, or with the shallac paint, 
or some of the other paint already referred to. 

The figure illustrates an old plum tree 
which has thus been renovated. The plum, Top of an old plum tree 
petter than most other fruit trees, stands "°Sdei"ek ie 
eutting back hard to old wood without show- 
ing symptoms of dying back, which, under similar conditions, are 
often shown by apples and more particularly by peaches and 
nectarines. 

Early in the spring the roots of the tree, which may be good 
for many years more, become active, the sap commences to move 
upwards, and a number of hidden and dormant buds are excited 
into life. Shoots burst out of the old stumps, and as they grow 
they should be thinned out to the number of three or four only, 
well placed and likely to form a symmetrical head. Should these 
few shoots, which are destined to serve as main limbs, grow too 
rankly, they may be pinched or eut back during the summer, and 
laterals will grow on the tree, which will be shortened at the time 
of winter pruning. If, however, these shoots show only a moderate 
growth, they are better left alone until the pruning season, when 


156 


they are cut back and treated as directed under the heading “First 
and second pruning.” 

Except in the case of plum trees referred to already, it is 
inadvisable to cut back trees in the process of renovation to blind 
stumps, but this is preferably done just above a young branch 
or a small shoot, so situated that it can be used for giving start to 
the fresh growth. Old apple trees, apricots, and especially peaches, 
are at times killed through overlooking this detail. The sap becomes 
stagnant, a dying back process sets in, which carries off the limb. 
Peach trees more particularly must be eut back with judiciousness 
when it is intended to renovate them, the reason being that fewer 
buds are found on the old bark of peaches and nectarines than on 
the old bark of pomes, and what few buds there may be left are 
less easily thrown into active life again than buds of apple and 
pear trees. 

When renovating trees of the citrus tribe it is also advisable 
to cut large limbs above on young, fresh growth, although in their 
ease this is not so essential as in the case of deciduous trees, and 
more especially the peach. These trees are fairly well stocked with 
miniature dormant buds, which are thrown into life whenever the 
emergency arises. 


Spit Liss. 
The method of training trees explained above presents one 
disadvantage. The suppression of the central stem and the starting 
of several main limbs from the same level on the stem often exposes 


7? a N ! 


il ih : 


Method of supporting split limbs. 


157 


those limbs loaded with a heavy crop of fruit, and swayed by high 
winds, to split from the trunk. It is, therefore, advisable at the 
time of shaping the young tree to see that the branches do not all 
spring from the same level, but that an interval of a couple of 
inches or even more be left between them to insure their better 
attachment to the trunk. Limbs which threaten to split can also 
be strengthened by using the pruning saw and the knife, and so 
distribute the weight over the branches that the weak ones are 
relieved of too heavy a strain. 


In particularly dangerous cases it becomes necessary to bind 
the bifurcated branches together so as to prevent them splitting. 
The accompanying illustrations show both the right and the wrong 
way of doing this. Ropes are temporary ties at the most; besides, 
they stretch easily, and finally rot and snap. A piece of fencing 
wire, doubled round the limbs and twisted until the requisite strain 
is obtained, is often used in orchards, but this method presents the 
serious inconvenience of cutting through the bark and interfering 
with the circulation, the growing wood overlapping from above and 
presenting an unsightly 
swelling. | Whenever a 
contrivance of this sort 
is used, pieces of lath or 
some bagging or leather 
pad should be placed be- 
tween the limb and the 
wire to shield the bark. 
When the forked limbs 
are actually split, the 
torn and jagged wound 
should be smoothly pared 
with the knife and the 
two pieces brought to- 
gether. : 

Above the iron band in 

the illustration a more 
suitable contrivance is 
shown for mending split 
limbs. It consists of a 
straight iron bolt, run 
through auger holes 
bored in the limbs; the 
: bolt is supplied with a 
The TEM be” “(Garden and Tiga) ©" * large head and a large 
nut with a washer, and 

is screwed up to the proper point. The hole should not be much 
larger than the bol{, so as to exclude the wet or the air; for that 
purpose it is advisable to apply a little tar or wax where it enters 


158 


and leaves the bark. Such a bolt will not damage the limb or 
interfere with its expansion. 


FRUITFULNESS OF SPURS AND Woop. 


Easy circulation of sap results in formation of new leaves and 
formation of woody tissue and fruit spurs. Pruning by cutting off 
hardened, gnarled, moss-infested twigs and branches forces the 
sap into fresh channels, and new fruiting wood is produced. The 
desiccation of fruiting wood and its barrenness varies with climate 
and soils. Where conditions are favourable, the climate mild ana 
moist, the soil fertile and congenial, spurs and wood will prove 
fruitful for twenty to thirty years, as is instanced by the pear. In 
a dry and parehed climate, on the other hand, or on unsuitable soil, 
the useful life of such wood might not exceed five or six years. 
Apples, plums and many other trees are subject to the same influ- 
ences. Peaches and nectarines require frequent renewing. 


Tue INTERMITTENT Bearing or Fruit TREES 

ean often be avoided by proper manuring. A heavy crop is often 
followed by a light one, the strain on the tree being so great that its 
reserves are more or less depleted and insufficient to feed a full crop 
for the coming season. That exhaustion of the tree, if not the result 
of some plainly explainable cause, can often be prevented by appro- 
priate manuring, when the tree generally bears much more regu- 
larly. As will be seen further on, the fruit buds are formed a 
season or two before they blossom and set, and if that period of 
formation coincides with the time that the streneth of the tree is 
overtaxed by heavy bearing, it follows that the blossoms will set 
badly and the cropping will suffer. This can be counteracted by 
providing an adequate quantity of readily assimilable fertilisers, 
bearing always in mind that an excess of nitrogenous manure 
favours wood growth instead of flower buds and that phosphates 
assist in developing the fruiting qualities. 

Well-grown fruit trees generally begin to bear in four years— 
stone fruit earlier—when they should not be allowed to overbear 
or else they become stunted and unproductive. 


Root PRUNING. 

Some trees, and more especially apricots, exhibit at times an 
exuberant wood growth, and fruit but sparingly, or not at all, all 
the energy of the plant being diverted towards the branches. Root 
pruning often induces those trees to bear. This is done in 
the autumn, when the tree has finished its active growth for the 
season and when the sap runs sluggishly, the shock being at that 
time less severe, while during the following few weeks the energy of 
the tree will be partly spent towards the transformation of fruit 
buds from the leaf buds, which, unless checked, would next spring 


159 


have continued to run riot. The method, sometimes recommended, 
of indiscriminately cutting with a spade all the roots of such a 
tree in a semi-circle one year and completing the circle next season, 
and two or three feet deep from the stem, is to be deprecated. The 
better way is to dig a trench a couple of feet wide and eighteen 
inches deep four or five feet from the stem, then with a small fork 
hoe work gradually towards the stem, laying some of the main roots 
bare. When about two feet from the stem the long straight roots 
only, and all roots pointing downwards, are cut off with a sharp 
knife or a saw, the cut being afterwards smoothly pared; the other 
main roots with some fibrous roots on them are cut three feet or so 
from the stem and then as many of the other small rootlets as can 
be spared are left untouched, covered evenly with soil sifted through 
the fingers, the holes being subsequently filled in with ordinary soil; 
the ground is then watered to settle the soil round the roots, and it 
is advisalle to mulch lightly. This operation is done on one side 
of the tree the first year, and is repeated on the opposite side the 
subsequent autumn. 

Now that information applicable to the pruning and training 
of all trees in general has been given, a few remarks respecting the 
individual peculiarities of the most important fruit trees and shrubs 
in cultivation will be found of use. 


PRUNING THE APPLE AND THE PEAR. 


The pruning of these two kinds of trees, which both belong to 
the genus pyrus, is very much alike, and will for that reason be 
considered under the same heading. 

In shaping and training the trees the first four or five years 
of their growth, the detailed information which has been given 
with regard to the management of low-standard trees should be 
generally followed. 

Like other deciduous trees, they can be pruned whenever the 
wood is mature enough, which is indicated by looking at the 
terminal buds and the yellow colour of the leaves. Pruning should 
then be pushed forward rapidly, and the prunings removed before 
the ground gets sodden with rain water. Deciduous trees, unlike 
citrus trees, should not be touched in the active growing season, 
except with the thumb nail, cherries and apricots, as seen below, 
forming the exception to this general rule. 

Some varieties of apple, such as the Irish peach, the Jonathan, 
and also some pears, bear the best fruit at the extremities of their 
long, slender, and decumbent shoots. For that reason their leaders 
which yearly extend the growth of the main branches must every 
year be shortened lest they should carry at their extremity bunches 
of fruit which would bend these branches and destroy the sym- 
metrical growth of the tree. In the case of these trees the small 
side shoots, which measure a few inches in length, are not pinched 


160 


back, as explained further on, but allowed to bear as they like 
best, z.e., at their extremity; the weight of the fruit bending them, 
cause some of the buds at the top of the bend to swell and mature, 
when the shoot may safely be cut back and shortened. 


The Bartlett pear has much the same habit of bearing. The 
Winter Nelis, on the other hand, typifies those kinds which only 
bear on the small wood spurs on the main branches, and the twigs 
or darts as a rule are not fruitful. 


The method described is pursued until the main growths of 
the tree become very short or almost cease to move at all, when a 
certain number of these fruit spurs are eut off, so as to induce 
new growth. The rapid formation of numerous fruit spurs will 
stunt a tree; when this is the case they should be eut out at 
pruning time, otherwise the trees will be short lived. On the other 
hand, with such varieties as Ben Davis and Baldwin apples, which 
have a more compact form and a better distribution of fruit, thin- 
ning the branches should be practised after the bearing stage is 
reached. A wise rule to follow consists in cutting out or back 
every year to get a healthy growth of wood. 

According to the habit of growth of the tree it is pruned to an 
inner bud, if it is intended to close it in, as in the case of the 
Yellow Bell Flower, which would otherwise soon reach the ground, 
like a weeping willow; to an outer one, if it grows too straight up 
after the manner of the Northern Spy or the Bartlett pear, which 
grow like pop!ars. If it is intended to train a branch in the 
straight line, it is pruned to an outer bud one year and to an inner 
bud the next year. 

The branches of irregular-growing sorts, or of those exposed 
to the influence of high winds, will require to be secured for some 
time by stakes and soft-tying matérial. 


If we examine a young shoot of an apple or a pear tree of 

the previous season's growth in the winter when the tree is in a 
dormant stage, we find leaf buds all 
along its length. When the sap begins 
running, in the spring, the terminal 
buds produce wood shoots, the others 
on the middle of the twig called 
‘darts’? are either transformed into 
fruit buds straight away, or produce 
short side shoots, which in subsequent 
years carry fruit buds. The buds at the 
base remain dormant unless excited into 
life by the suppression of these above 
them, so that by shortening a branch 
Small shoot in the middle of the sap, which naturally has a tendency 
beanel Calne “Aerts” to rush to the points, feeds these small 


161 


dormant buds at the base, starts them into 
growth, and forces them into, what will 
eventually become fruit spurs. By follow- 
ing the mode of training and eutting back 
described above, we have, therefore, 
around limbs and branches, well dis- 
tributed about the head, leaf buds which 
will continue the growth of the tree, and 
also fruit spurs and fruit buds evenly Young fruit spur near the 


. a lower end of branch or 
distributed all over the tree. basal bud. 


After the fifth year of training, and the sixth year in the case 
of some later varieties, and when the tree has settled down to the 
bearing stage, little hard pruning will be required. The new wood 
of the leaders is trimmed back every year, and all dead wood, 
branches that cross and rub against another, and water shoots, 
are cut out. 


The fruit spurs, however, require at that period some manage- 
ment, and will then continue bearing for many years more; unless 
these spurs are looked after we have trees over-bearing one season 
and taking a rest for one season or two after. This is accounted 
for by the fact that if in young trees the fruit buds are several 
years in process of formation, they take in bearing trees two or 
three years, according to circumstances, and it becomes necessary, 
in order to renew and maintain their vigour, to systematically cut 
off the old part periodically and thus favour the formation of new 
buds at their base. 


MANAGEMENT OF THE Fruit Bups anp BrancHEs. 


In pinching back side shoots intended to carry fruit buds, 
care must be taken not to shorten them too severely, but allow 
them about four inches. If pinched 
too short, the little butt or shoot 
either ceases to grow and dies, 
leaving a vacant space on the 
branch, or else a year or two after 
this excessive pinching, two small 
basal buds push forth on each side 
of the suppressed shoot; those will 
ultimately blossom, but at the loss 
of a season or two, or, again, 

= : premature shoots will grow, which 
Bist Tightly mashed. will likewise be a longer time 


162 


setting to fruit, and are not likely to be so fruitful as better 
constituted shoots properly pinched would be. 


Shoots pinched too far back, and the result in different stages of growth. 


We have seen already that 
the basal buds which grow 
slightly the second year of 


Terminal shoot cut back ¥ to 12 inches. 


pruning eventually form young 
fruit spurs. The shoots or darts 
showing in the middle of the 
Terminal shoot partially fractured. twig grow a little more; neither 
are interfered with. The shoots, 

on the other hand, towards the end of the branch grow more vigor- 
ously, and are cut back at the time of pruning, or are partially 


163 


fractured. They will, after a few years, also carry basal fruit buds 


and darts. 


The third year after pinching back the young terminal shoot, 
the basal buds (see page 147) have only developed a rosette of 
flowers, having a bud in the centre, and have increased a little in 
length. They now have the appearance shown in the figure 
illustrating a matured fruit spur, the bud being plumper. They 
blossom the following spring, and are now matured fruit spurs 


(as seen below) :— 


Matured fruit spur. 


Two-year-old darts. Fruit spur after first 
fructification 


At that period the darts have also developed several fruit 
buds, and probably also the shoots at the top end of the branch. 


At the fourth season of pruning, the fruit spur has fructified, 
and has formed at its termination a spongy swelling called a purse, 
while it carries at its base smaller buds, which become flower buds 
in the course of two years or so. 


Should one of these buds grow into a vigorous shoot A, it is 
pinched back at C; the swollen purse, being liable to decomposition, 


Fruit spur with small branch 
pinched. 


should be cut off at the top, as shown 
in the figure. The buds on the dart are 
now alittle more advanced,and will soon 
burst out into blossom, which at the 
subsequent winter pruning, after fruiting, 
is treated like the basal buds carrying 
the purse, as shown above, and so are 
the buds on the terminal shoots. 

As illustrated and mentioned above, 
the fruit spurs, after bearing, often 
after a year or two produce new flower 
buds at their base, these spurs having 
ramified as shown in the figure; so also 
the fruit spurs on the darts, which, 
after eight years or so, will be some- 


164 


what as represented in the accompanying figure, and after a few 
more years will represent the appearance shown in the woodeut. 


Six years’ ramified fruit spur. Eight years’ fruit spurs on a dart. 


It is now advisable, in order to have fine fruit, to eut some of 
these buds back, so as to insure to the fruit a sufficient supply of 
sap, and this is done as shown above. The sap then forces into 
erowth some fresh dormant buds at the base of the enlargement. If 
the fruit buds have already grown to large dimensions, they are 
gradually cut back, the first year to B, and the following at C, and 
the next at D. Should they be eut straight away at D, there will 
in all probability not be much fruit the next year, whilst the tree 
will be forced into fresh wood growth. i 


Method of pruning an old fruit spur.—Dvu Breuiu. 


NoTE.—Most of the illustrations given in the chapters on pruning the apples, 
pears, and apricots are from Du Breuil’s “Culture of Fruit Trees.’’—A.D. 


165 


PRUNING THE QUINCE. 

No fruit tree is more neglected than the quince, which is hardly 
ever pruned. Its natural habit of growth is that of a confused and 
scattered bush; by proper training, however, it can be made more 
shapely and more productive. A stout and straight trunk should 
be secured by cutting off all the other stems and keeping it tied up 
to a stake to prevent it from straggling. This is cut back the second 
year to a height of 12 inches from the ground, and treated in the 
manner described when dealing with the training and shaping of 
young trees. 

The bearing branches of the quince are small twigs produced 
on wood at least two years old; thése produce besides short shoots, 
on the point of which the fruit is borne singly. At pruning these 
bearing branches are shortened back and produce new fruit spurs. 


Pruning Stone FRvits. 

What has been said about the early training of deciduous trees 
as low standard, applies to stone as well as to pome fruit. The 
subsequent management of the fruit spurs of stone fruits differs, 
however, in several points from that of pome fruits. In the former, 
the fruit spurs require two to three years for their growth, but when 
formed they last, with proper attention, for a long period. In stone 
fruit the fruit spurs are of much quicker formation, and in the 
peach and necetarine, notably, they blossom the spring following 
their first appearance on the previous season’s growth. 


PRUNING THE PEACH AND THE NECTARINE. 


The peach and the nectarine, like the apricot and the plum, are 
profuse bearers, often inclined to over-bear, and are in consequence 
not very long-lived, especially the first two, whose period of useful 
existence extends to 12 to 15 years, unless their strength and ex- 
uberant vitality are checked and controlled by judicious pruning 
and thinning out of the superabundant fruit crop. 

Liberal manuring is essential to all heavy fruiting plants, and 
in this respect peaches and nectarines are exacting in order to keep 
up their productiveness. This matter is referred to further when 
dealing with the Intermittent Bearing of Fruit trees and wali the 
Dropping of Fruit. 

At the time of planting, if a yearling tree, cut them back to a 
straight stem about 18 inches high, and prune to side branches, on 
which are left one single bud at the base. 

From their habit of growth, the peach and nectarine require 
constant and yearly prunings, the method adopted in these instances 
being that of shortening in. 

A standard stone-fruit tree is trained in precisely the same 
manner as described above, with a low head, which affords shade 


166 


to the roots and the trunk and limbs and facilitates pruning, spray- 
ing, gathering, ete. 

A clear understanding of the constitution of the bearing shoots 

_ of these trees will throw light on the best method of pruning them. 

On account of the larger size of the circulating channels in 
these trees, the sap tends to rush towards the extremities of the 
shoots much quicker than in other trees, and the buds that do not 
push and form shoots the first season are—unless the branch which 
carries them is cut back—lost, as, unlike most other fruit trees, 
they are not excited into growth by eutting back in subsequent 
seasons. This explains how it is that trees that have been neglected 
or wrongly pruned in their youth present long limbs denuded of 
young wood and bark, and look like skeleton trees, which soon perish 
after over-bearing themselves. 

In the peach, nectarine, and apricot the fruit branches are 
productions of the season’s growth, the fruit buds forming one 
season and blossoming the next. In the first two, more especially, 
the fruit is borne on wood of the previous season’s growth, and any 
limb or part of a limb destitute of such wood is sterile, so that the 
great object of the grower is to so prune the tree by cutting hard 
back a proportion of the lateral twigs that it is always covered with 
a regular and constant succession of annual bearing shoots. 

In the case of the peach and the nectarine wood that has borne 
fruit will bear no more. It should be cut out. 

The young shoot (one or two feet long) of the peach and the 
nectarine is furnished with a certain amount of wood buds and of 
fruit buds. There are one or more wood buds at the terminal 
points, fruit buds in the middle, and two or three wood buds at the 
base. If the branches are left untouched the fruit buds blossom 
and produce fruit, and the terminal shoots, which should carry the 
next season’s crop, grow thin and weakly, as the fruit below have 
absorbed most of the sap and dried up the twig, while the wood 
buds at the base fail to grow, leaving a length of barren, useless 
stick. 

By proper pruning, however, or shortening in, one-half or so 
of last year’s growth, outside as well as in the centre, the lower 
parts of some twigs are cut back to one or two basal buds and the 
other twigs only slightly trimmed, the shorter ones being left un- 
touched; still there may be too much bearing wood for the tree to 
carry and bring to full size and perfection, unless thinned out; the 
flow of sap is fully utilised by what is left of the young wood; 
the leaf buds at the base produce vigorous young shoots, which will 
keep the tree well supplied with bearing wood for the next season; 
the foliage will be more luxuriant, the fruit larger and more luscious. 
At the same time that the shoots are shortened in, those that have 
already borne fruit are cut out. Whenever practicable, leave for 
fruit the twig from the top bud of a two-eye spur, and shorten in 
for wood to two eyes the twig from the lower eye of that spur. 


167 


This method of pruning being carried out year after year, the 
small wohnds heal readily. Large limbs have not to be eut back 
so often, thereby endangering the life of the plant, owing to the 
part drying up or decaying, and the sap poisoning the other parts 
of the tree and favouring the gumming, one of the worst diseases 
of stone-fruit trees. 

After seven or eight years the growth of the main branches 
will slacken, and the pruning will consist mainly of the cutting out 
the twigs that bore fruit the previous year; (2) thinning out the 
twigs that will bear the following year; (3) cutting back half to 
two eyes and trimming the longer twigs of the remainder. The 
latter will depend on the location of the fruit buds. In shy-bearing 
varieties, where the fruit buds are towards the extremity of the 
twigs, the eutting back is omitted. In the case of heavy bearers like 
Early Crawford, Foster, Elberta, that have plenty of fruit buds all 
along the twigs, there will still be plenty left after cutting back. Do 
likewise with the nectarine and the almond. 

Very vigorous trees are sometimes shy bearers, and can be in- 
duced to bear by continued summer pruning, and occasionally an 
autumn root pruning. In a good season, when fruit sets well, 
thinning out when about the size of a marble, and before the kernel 
has hardened, will prevent breakages owing to overloading, and also 
ease the tree and enable the remainder of the fruit to develop to 


larger size. 


PRUNING THE ALMOND. 

Almond trees require very little pruning after they are once 
shaped. The first few years the young tree is trained on the prin- 
ciples laid down when dealing with the formation of a low-standard 
or “vase”-shaped trees. Some varieties have a weeping-willow habit 
of growth, and all branches pointing downwards should be cut to 
insure the symmetry of the tree. After the third or fourth year the 
pruning will simply consist in cutting dead wood, cross and broken 
branches, and the shoots pointing downwards, which might inter- 
fere with horse cultivation. When three or more shoots grow from 
the fork of a limb, the number should, by pruning, be reduced to 
only two. 

The almond earries its fruit on laterals growing on new as well 
as on old branches, and, unlike those of the peach, the laterals of 
the almond do not die back annually, but remain productive for 
several seasons; they should not, therefore, be cut back as in the case 
of the twigs of the peach that have just borne fruit. 


PRUNING THE PLUMS AND PRUNES. 
Low training is to be recommended for the plums and prunes, 
and cutting back severely, during the first three years, the long 
shoots so as to shape the tree, form a stocky and erect growth, and 


168 


favour the formation of fruit spurs along the main branches, where 
the bulk of the crop should be carried, thus preventing the excessive 
bending down of the branches under the weight of the fruit. The 
centre branches are well thinned out, thus leaving the interior more 
open to the genial influence of the sun, light, and air, and stimu- 
lating a consequent development of fruit buds in the inside of the 
tree, instead of leaving exterior branches to bear all the burden. 
Should the tree show an inclination to run to wood and be 
tardy in putting forth fruit spurs, summer pinching, by checking its 
growth, will hasten the time of productiveness. When in full 


1 2 
1. First year’s pruning for forming fruit bud spurs. 2. Second year’s pruning 
of fruit spurs. 3. Third year’s pruning of fruit branches. 


bearing the trees require very little pruning, beyond the removal of 
rank shoots which are misplaced and by the excision of dead wood 
and others. 

The plums produce their fruit on small lateral spurs situated 
at the ends and along the sides of the bearing shoots, one year up 
to four or five years old, but mostly on two-year-old wood. These 
spurs will continue in bearing for several years. 

For the guidance of growers and pruners, it may be stated as a 
general rule that the longer the wood of any variety of fruit trees 
takes to come into bearing the longer these spurs will remain 
fruitful. 

A young plum shoot presents nothing but wood buds, That 
branch cut at A develops at the subsequent growth more or less 


169 


vigorous shoots, according as they are nearer to the extremity. 
Thus ‘the buds at B will develop but slightly, those at C, growing 
about the middle, will grow two or three inches in length, while 
those shoots at D will probably reach a couple of feet. These last, 
with the exception of the terminal shoot, are cut back at the time 
of pruning to a length of four to six inches. The terminal shoot 
will thus extend and fruit buds will develop over the shoots left. 

A year or so after, the short spurs at B give birth to a few 
flower buds, they have in the centre a wood bud whieh will slightly 
extend their length. These spurs must not be cut. The larger 
ones at C have flower buds in the middle and wood buds at the top 
and must be eut back slightly, while those at D, which are more 
vigorous, are shortened either by cutting or by partial fracture (see 
fig. ). 

After another year and in subsequent seasons, the lengthened 
spurs must be eut back a little, so as to diminish the number of the 
blossoms and prevent the too great lengthening of the shoots. The 
same is done year after year, and when the fruiting shoots cease to 
bear they are eut back slightly, in order to develop new replacing 
branches towards the base. 

Some growers only shorten plums and prunes once in every 
two or three years, after coming into bearing. This practice holds 
as well with pears, but will not do with peaches, apricots, and 
Japanese plums, which require similar pruning to peaches. 


PRUNING THE APRICOT. 
The fruiting habit of the apricot is much like that of the plum, 
and the same method of shortening-in is adopted in 
this instance. 

It moreover, like the plum, bears fruit spurs on 
older woods; these bear for several years, and being 
provided with leaf buds at the base, can be renewed 
by cutting back when they grow feeble. 

The apricot is a spreading and rank grower, 
which, unless kept well within bounds, runs long 
branches, which are liable to split asunder in windy 
weather, when laden with fruit. For that reason 
no two shoots should come from one bud, or be 
directly opposite. 

Pruning to inner buds is greatly to be recom- 
mended when shaping the tree, while summer prun- 
ing is frequently resorted to just after the crop has 
been gathered, so as to promote the formation of 
fruit buds at the base of the twigs, and minimise 
the risk of gumming, the wounds healing at that 
Apricot branch time rapidly. When large limbs have to be sup- 
before pruning. ressed, they should be well trimmed and coated 


170 


over with white lead, gum-shellac varnish, clay or other covering, 
otherwise there is danger of the branch dying back and killing or 
injuring the tree. 

Unruly branches are better tied up with short string till they 
naturally grow in the position they are meant to oceupy. During 
the first two or three years the trees need to be gone over two or 
three times during spring and early autumn to remove suckers 
the lateral growths that may start on the lower side of the limbs; 
these, if left, would check the growth of the permanent limbs above 
and the formation of fruit spurs. Many successful growers prune 
their full-grown apricot trees, if found to be shy bearers, soon 
after the fruit is picked, in the early autumn—preferably after a 
shower of rain (March in Western Australia)—though not too 


1; 2 3. 


1. Apricot fruit branch pruning neglected. 2. Fruit spur, year after first 
pruning. 3. Other fruit spur, year after first pruning.—Dv BREUIL, 


heavily, unless the tree is weakened by over-bearing. This develops 
the buds for the next year. This operation is only recommended 
after the trees have reached the bearing age. While the tree is 


171 


still young and being shaped, all the pruning should be done in the 
winter. If the season is dry a good watering should be given to 
the trees after the summer pruning. 


The management of the fruit branches is much the same as in 
the case of the cherry; unless the shoot is cut back, the basal bud 
will remain dormant, as shown in the following illustration of an 
unpruned branch, and the terminal shoot will grow, lengthening 
the branch which, long and lanky, will ultimately bend, and, unless 
propped up, break down under the load of fruit. It is, therefore, 
advisable to cut the young shoot at A (fig. 1). The sap will thus 
be foreed towards the base, and produce new fruit branches (A, 
fig. 2). The primitive branch B is cut at a, and the new fruit branch 
A at b, in order to obtain the same result. In the last figure the 
small branch is cut at A so as to force a new fruit branch from the 
base. 


PRUNING THE CHERRY. 


The instructions given about the shaping of young trees apply 
to the cherry. The stem should be low and headed back to 12 to 
15 inches when planting; tlie main limbs are also cut short, as the 
tree is very subject to sunburn. To guard against this it is a good 
practice to pinch all side shoots not necessary for the extension of 
the tree to a pair of leaves or two; fruit spurs will thus, in time, be 
formed all along the lower branches, while these tufts of leaves will 
afford to the branches protection against the sun. 

Cherry trees in general produce their fruit upon small spurs, 
or studs, from half-an-inch to two inches in length, which proceed 
from two, three, or four year old wood. New spurs will continue 
to shoot out right up to the extremities of the branches; in the cen- 
tre of every cluster of fruit spurs there is a wood spur, which, 
as it extends each season, bursts into blossom and carries the year’s 
crop; this should be remembered when pruning. These spurs will 
carry fruit for several years. 


Once the cherry tree has commenced to fruit it should, unlike 
the peach and the apricot, be very sparingly touched with the 
knife, as it is besides very subject to “gumming.” This peculiarity 
of the plant is aggravated in individuals presenting long stems 
exposed to the sun, on trees with many forked limbs, and on those 
which have had large limbs taken off. It is found that by domg 
all the necessary severe cutting during the summer, and after the 
crop has been gathered, the wounds heal more readily. Whenever 
a branch thicker than the size of the finger is cut off it is advisable 
to apply to the fresh eut a covering of white lead, gum shellac 
varnish, of hot wax or of clay. 

When big limbs have to be removed it is safer to do so in the 
summer, when it is less likely to gum. 


172 


The Heart and Bigarreaw sorts, which are sweet varieties, are 
luxuriant growers, attaining large size, and possess large drooping 
leaves. Mazzard stock are preferred for these, the trees being long- 
lived, larger, and healthy when planted on fairly good loam. 

The Duke and Morellos classes are slow growing sorts of the 
sour kind. The first have stiff and erect branches with smaller 
leaves, thicker and of a darker green colour than the preceding 
classes; the second or Kentish Cherries are of a bushy habit, with 
smaller leaves still and more drooping and more numerous twigs. 
The branches must be kept far enough apart to admit the sun and 
air freely amongst them, and the stem and main branches strength- 
ened by cutting hard for several seasons. If the tree grows too 
luxuriantly, an occasional root pruning will throw it into fruit. 
They do best on Mahaleb stock, which gives smaller trees, but is 
more accommodating as regards soil. This stock gums on wet, 
retentive soil. If it were not for the sprouting habit, sour varieties 
on their own roots do very well. Cherry trees when shaped for the 
first few years as a rule keep a good form, and bear well without 
pruning. 


PRUNING THE FILBERT. 

Suckers should be carefully eradicated every season, and the 
bushes pruned somewhat after the fashion of the quince, or else 
they will be a mass of branches, and remain almost barren. Yet 
the filbert, in the majority of cases, is completely left to itself, 
although to be fruitful it requires proper and regular pruning. The 
blossoms, like those of the walnut, are moneecious, z.¢., the male 
flower or catkins, and the female flower are born on the same tree, 
but from different buds. These fruit buds bear in a cluster at the 
extremity of small twigs, and are produced on shoots of one year’s 
growth, and bear the next. 

Unless the bushes are pruned, they bear very heavily one year, 
and remain barren several seasons to recuperate. The mode of 
pruning consists in cutting back severely the first few years, so as 
to favour the growth of side shoots, which are shortened to prevent 
the whole nourishment being carried to the top of the branch, the 
consequence being that small shoots grow from their base, which 
earry fruit. » By this method of spurring, bearing shoots are pro- 
duced, which would otherwise have remained dormant. 


PRUNING THE WALNUT AND THE CHESTNUT. 

Much of what is said about the pruning of the fig applies to 
these trees. Their habit of growth is shapely, and the growers 
will, by cutting off misplaced branches, broken or dead, and by 
shortening bending limbs, do much to keep them growing symmet- 
rically. As their feeding roots are close to the surface, light hoeing 


173 


only should be done in close proximity to the trees. They should 
be trained with a general upright tendency, so as to interfere as 
little as possible with cultivation. Limbs branching low down will 
protect the stem from sunburn. 


PRUNING THE Loquart. 

The loquat, or Japanese medlar, has hitherto been raised from 
the seed as a tree suitable for wind breaks. The choicer varieties 
are, however, now propagated by grafting or by budding, either on 
its own roots or on the quince, to which it is botanically somewhat 
related. In the first instance, it forms large trees, which take four 
or five years to start bearing. In the second instance it comes 
into bearing at an earlier age. When grown for shelter the higher 
trees worked on loquat seedlings should be selected and trained with 
a stem three or four feet high. In the second case, whether it is on 
its own or on quince roots, it should be headed lower down. As the 
tree carries permanent foliage, and later on heavy crops of fruit, 
the main limbs should be as strong and sturdy as possible, and 
trained with a generally upright direction. These in course of time, 
as the branches extend and carry more foliage and more fruit, will 
gradually be bent down, hence the importance of throwing strength 
and vigour into them at an early stage. This is done by encouraging 
the growth of three or four leaders, low down on the stem (if not 
grown as a wind break); all other shoots are either cut off or 
pinched back, and the young tree is subsequently shaped much in 
the same manner as has been explained in connection with the 
shaping and framing of young trees generally. The fruit bunches 
issue from the terminal point of young shoots. They bear at their 
base wood buds, which will in growing season push out young 
shoots. These, if too numerous, should be thinned out to two or 
three only, so as to insure for each its due share of light, air and 
sun. The decaying flower stalks are cut off, as well also as all dead 
branches. 


PRUNING THE Fic. 

Fig trees naturally form shapely heads. They are best shaped 
when young with the main arms arranged symmetrically round the 
stem. Figs for table purposes are headed low, so that the fruit 
can be picked without difficulty. Figs for drying are headed higher, 
so that the picking of the dead ripe and fallen fruit can be easily 
done over the smooth ground. The fig tree suckers pretty freely, 
and these should be removed in the winter time. Wherever the 
ground is rich the tree will often run excessively to wood, and 
in that ease root pruning will force it into bearing. Drooping 
branches are cut off, and those growing obliquely upright retained. 
Dead wood and branches that cross and interfere with one another 
are suppressed, but the end of the shoots should be sparingly 


174 


touched with the pruning knife on account of the mode of bearing 
of the tree. This is as follows:—The fruits are carried either 
singly or in pairs in the axils of the leaves, and they appear on 
the branch as growth proceeds. If a tree is examined after it has 
cast its leaves it is seen that all along the younger branches scars 
show where leaves grew the previous summer, At intervals, just 
over these scars, diminutive buds, which will in the spring constitute 
the first crop of figs, appear; while a pointed conical wood bud 
crowns the head of these branches. When spring comes the first 
crop of figs shows more plainly; the fruit hangs down from the 
branch without a leaf alongside of it. Further on the conical ter- 
minal shoot grows on and leaves come out around it; just in the 
axils of these leaves more diminutive buds also show, which, later 
in the summer, constitute the second crop of figs. In prolonged 
seasons the growth of terminal shoots, as well as of laterals, con- 
tinuing without interruption, may in this manner evolve even a 
third crop, but more generally the third crop remains dormant 
until the following early spring, and it is then a first crop again. 
It is thus seen that if laterals and terminals are cut back in the 
winter a proportion of the first crop is cut off, and this pruning 
leading to the growth of a greater number of laterals, these will 
produce a larger second crop proportionately with the number of 
young shoots which have burst into growth. No apparent flower 
is seen on the fig, those organs being hidden from view by the skin 
which covers them; as the fruit enlarges the blossoms expand, and 
when fertilised the seeds mature. 

Old fig trees which have grown in a distorted manner and re- 
quire rejuvenating are simply cut hard back to the height desired, 
and the numerous latent buds under the bark will, in the spring, 
start growing; these shoots should be thinned out to a few only. 
Large wounds should be dressed with some covering mixture. 


PRUNING THE OLIVE. 


The tree should be kept low by removing the centre leader, or 
else it will grow to a great height. Trained with a globular head, 
somewhat vase-shaped in the middle, permits of easier and more 
careful gathering of the fruit by hand, and a larger surface exposed 
to the sun and light. 

During the first year or two the main effort should consist in 
throwing all the vigour and energy of the young tree into one stem 
only. This is shortened to a height of three feet or so, and a head 
formed by allowing three to four branches to grow. Every shoot 
or branch not needed permanently is removed early to avoid in- 
flicting large wounds. Like all fruit trees, great expense is saved 
in gathering the crop by having the trees branched low; this also 
enables them to better resist high winds. 


Smyrna fig. 


Fig Branch showing First and Second Crops, 


eis 
ie” Co. 


Two years old Passion Vine ‘on trellis. 


Three years old Passion Vines trellised, 


(Errata, page 175—Siv feet instead of sir trehes, second Vine from luttom.) 


175 


The olive bears its crop on the growth of the previous year, 
and it is therefore essential to favour the multiplication of new 
shoots in order to increase annual production. This is done by 
shortening the terminal shoots when shaping the trees, suppressing 
the “gluttons,” or fruitless water shoots, removing all branches 
that are misplaced, crossed, or are in the way, and keeping down 
the suckers. A dense growth of foliage in the centre of the tree 
should be reduced by thinning out some of the branches. This also 
checks the black scale and the sooty mould. Whipping the branches 
in gathering the crop, or pruning off the young growth, will make 
the tree barren the following season. 

The best time for pruning is after the severe winter frosts are 
over, and just before the sap begins to rise in the spring. In this 
country, however, where ground frost only is experienced, pruning 
can be done at any time in the winter, provided care is taken to 
coat any fresh wound with the gum shellac varnish, or a thin paste 
made of cow dung and clay. 


PRUNING THE PERSIMMON. 

Persimmons bear on new wood off the previous season’s growth, 
hence the advisableness of pruning hard back to induce fresh 
growth. When cut the plant exudes through the wound a corrosive 
sap, which cakes on the blade of the knife or the secateur, and 
causes the cut branch to die back, unless the blade is, at frequent 
intervals, cleaned on a piece of leather. 


PRUNING THE PASSION VINE. 


The Passion Vine planted in the spring or the early autumn 
on a moist sandy loam, liberally manured, is an exceedingly profit- 
able crop to grow. By means of proper pruning a winter crop, 
the only profitable one, can be secured, instead of the summer crop 
which would ripen when the market is well supplied with fruit. 
As these vines are not long lived, beginning to bear the second year, 
and being spent when five or six years old, it is found convenient to 
plant them midway between rows of figs or citrus trees, which when 
the passion vines are grubbed out, remain in sole ocupation of the 
field. 

Seedlings are easily raised by sowing in pots, tins or boxes, or 
plants may be obtained by striking cuttings. If the weather 
be cold at the time a hot bed and a glass or calico frame 
are helpful, as the plants are tender and do not stand frost. 
They are set out when six to nine inches high, at distances 12 
to 15 feet apart, in rows of the same width. It is necessary 
to train them on a trellis with posts about nine inches 
wide, and six inches long, set 18 inches in the ground, with 
stronger strainers properly strutted at the end of the rows. 


176 


When the young vines grow the canes, a single one to each plant 
is trained up a light pole to the two wires which are stapled parallel 
and about six inches apart on top of the posts. The wire used 
is ordinary fencing wire. No laterals are allowed to grow along 
the stem, which is nipped when it reaches the wire when one leader 
is trained along the wire to which it is loosely tied. If two leaders 
are preferred they are trained T fashion. The shoots fasten them- 
selves to the wire by means of tendrils and are allowed full sway. 
By the second season the trellis presents the appearance of a cur- 
tain of leaves and shoots which carry the crop. To encourage the 
winter crop the pruning is done in October or early in November by 
cutting these fronds a foot or so under the wire and the vines are 
heavily manured to force strong growth which will carry a main 
winter crop which will be harvested between Easter and the spring 
time. 


PRUNING THE RASPBERRY AND BLACKBERRY. 


At the time of planting choose root canes or suckers with a 
good root system attached; cut the cane back about 12 inches above 
the ground. From the base, strong and sturdy fruit canes will 
spring up. During the summer keep weeds down by frequent 
shallow hoeing, and at the same time knock off the superabundant 
suckers that may appear, leaving only from four to six. Deep 
digging with the spade or hoe is injurious to the plant, cutting its 
tufts of fibrous roots, which are surface feeders and nourish the 
erops. The plant carries deep, strong, woody roots as well, which 
produce and support the canes. 

When the canes are several feet long they are topped off, and 
the subsequent laterals are pinched back about 12 inches from the 
stem. In the autumn, after the crop has been gathered, the old 
canes, which will not fruit any more, are cut off close to the ground 


< <== 


by means of a bent sharp hook fixed at the end of a long cane. 
This implement may be made of an old rasp; the eutting edges 
come together at a point hke the letter V, and will eut on both 
edges, while it will also catch and hold the cut wood, which has to be 
removed from amongst the canes left on the plant. Thus the 
newer canes have a better chance, under the additional amount 
of sun and air they get, to mature and become more fruitful. 
These should have 10 to 12 inches of their ends cut off, as this 
part has not summered properly and is of no value. By this 
means also noxious insects and fungoid diseases are also better 
destroyed, and the cutting of the spent canes is easier than if they 
were dead and dry. 


177 


Raspberries and blackberries are either trained upright or with- 
out supports, by cutting hard back, or, better still, by trellising 
over stakes. laths, or wires. On large plantations the pruning is 
done more economically—more especially in the ease of the black- 
berry—and consists, besides removing the worn-out canes in the 
autumn, in slashing the laterals on each side of the hedge in the 
summer, to allow cultivation, and tying the buuches together or to 
the trellis. 


PRUNING GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANTS. 

These deciduous shrubs do best in the cooler South-West corner 
of this State. They are struck from cuttings planted in rows 6ft. 
x 4ft. 

Both receive pretty well the same treatment. .\t plant- 
ing, short jointed young shoots are cut about 14 to 18 inches long. 
It is advisable to blind with the knife or the blade of the secateur 
all the buds which will be underground, or else the plants will be 
continually throwing up suckers. The accompanying illustration 
shows a bush with four branches, and a sucker springing from 
the base, which, unless carefully suppressed, will 
spoil its shape. The branches should be well raised 
above the ground, say, 12 inches. By this means 
the fruit is kept clean, and sun and air having 
full access to the branches, favour its fruitfulness. 
To ensure this, the branches are cut half back, 
with the result that there are at least double the 


Gooseberry bush a year from the cutting. 
(J. WRIGHT.) 


number the next season, as shown by the dotted 
lines. When the time for the second pruning comes 
these canes are cut back to about 16 to 10 inches in 
length to good buds pointing upwards or outwards, 
so as to keep the bush well above the ground. All 
Gooseberry young growths from the ane of the bush should 


cutting. 
(J. waieHt.) be taken out, 


178 


Unless gooseberries are pruned, the fruit never or seldom 
attains to any sie, and the bush is soon exhausted. The gooseberry, 
like the currant, bears well on spurs of two years or older wood; 
they also bear well on the young annual shoots, when these are left 
with a certain amount of discretion. 

The illustration, one and two-years old wood on a gooseberry 
branch, shows on the older wood natural spurs forming all along it, 
and also two lateral shoots eut back at (xx). Unless these had 
been cut back it would have been almost impossible to pass the 
hand down the head of the bush for gathering the crop. It is 
essential that all laterals should be shortened to at least allow the 
hand to reach to the centre of the bush. A young shoot as shown 

in the figure may be left at intervals, so 
as to enable the cutting back every few 
years of the worn-out older spur-earrying 
shoots in the centre, as the bushes have 
‘a tendency to soon cease bearing, except 
on the outside. 

The currant bushes are formed in the 
same way as the gooseberry, but when 
the plant has as many branches as 
it can carry, the additional growth of 


7 ¢ 


ss ¢ " is 
Wa Bob SBS < 


S 
” 


A red currant bush after pruning.—J. WRIGHT. 


fresh new wood should not be encouraged. 
The distance between the branches should 
be such that the hat can be put amongst 
them. The illustration shows mostly 
fruit buds, except at the extremity of 
the branehes, where the young wood has 
been eut back to about nine inches. In 

the summer both the gooseberry and the 
Sn a. a, WDE ‘Y° currant receive the following treatment :— 


179 


The young shoots which are seen pushing upwards are 


pinched back five or six inches in 


A fruiting branch of gooseberry.— 
J. WRIGHT. 


length, as shown at (x x) 
in the illustration ; this 
will allow sun and air to 
reach the crop of fruit. A 
young shoot may here and 
there be left if there is 
room for its growth. Should 
fresh shoots show on those 
which have been cut back, 
they should be pinched 
again, so as to favour the 
formation of fruiting spurs. 


PRUNING THE STRAW- 
BERRY 


consists in trimming the 
roots at planting time, so 
as to favour the growth of 
the fibrous roots which will 
feed the plant, and later on 
in cutting all runners be- 
fore the fruiting season, 
and as soon as they make 
their appearance, Unless 
this is done the fruiting of 
the plant will be seriously 
checked. Even after the 
fruiting, some growers still 


remove the runners, and 
only leave them on if young 
plants are required. In 
fact, treat 
all runners 
as weeds 


the first season. 


much trouble. 


The illustration shows the de- 
sign of a convenient runner-cutter, which saves 
The crescent blade is of such a 


diameter that it will encircle one side of a straw- 
berry plant, and may be made with an are of 


about nine inches. 


The appliance is pushed 


down on one side of the plant, and then on the 
other side, thus cutting all runners spreading 
around. Where the ground is moist the leaves 
of the strawberry plants are mowed clean off in 
the winter, then gathered up with a rake and 
burned. This checks the spread of the leaf spot 


Strawberry runner- 
cutter. 


180 


disease. The same purpose is at times attained by spraying the 
beds with a solution of sulphate of iron. 


Pruntna THE Tomato. 

If large-sized, early tomatoes are required, the plants should 
either be forced and planted out early, or sown towards the end of 
August, and protected from frost by means of a light mulching. 
Before planting out, clip all leaves off except the top bud ; 
this will save their energy and cause them to grow quicker. 
One stalk only is allowed to grow, and lateral leaf shoots pinched 
off, the terminal shoot alone being allowed to remain. The fruit- 
bearing laterals are left on the plant, and soon set to fruit. 
The plant is trained either along short stakes or along a trellis, 
made of wire stretched between two short posts stuck at each end 
of the rows. This will keep the plants off the ground, and make 
the operations of spraying and picking easier. The tomato rot 
is not so severe on staked vines as on plants crawling over the 
damp ground, whilst by training the plants it is easier to get at 
the eut worms and the green caterpillars with arsenical baits and 
sprays. After a while a few leaf laterals are allowed to grow, if 
it is feared that the crop might be injured by sun-burn. Large- 
sized and early tomatoes will thus be obtained. For home use the 
tomato plant is seldom pruned. It bears enormously, but the fruit 
is smaller and somewhat later in ripening. 

Successful tomato growers in the vicinity of Perth cannot com- 
pete in the early market with tomatoes grown around Northampton 
and farther north on the Gascoyne. In the cooler districts the 
expense of sheltering very early tomatoes against frost is so great 
that growers find the mid-season and late kinds more profitable, 
yielding as they do heavy crops and offering a large turnover. 

Dwarf Champion is a favourite kind. It is compact in habit, 
the plant growing stiff and upright with very thick and short-jointed 
stems, and can be planted as close as 3 x 3. It crops well and does, 
owing to the small amount of space required between the plants, 
vield more to the acre. It has a firm, sound skin, is fleshy and of 
good flavour. Uulike most other varieties, it has a minimum of 
vines. 

SUMMER PRUNING AND THINNING OF FRUIT. 

As generally understood, pruning is an operation performed in 
the winter time, the object of which is the shaping of the plant, the 
adjustment of its wood and of its fruit-bearing capacity, and the 
easier management of such operations as cultivation, spraying, and 
dressing of the trees and vines, and gathering the fruit. In the 
summer months, however, the attention given to the plants for the 
purposes already named are supplemented by operations which are 
spoken of as “summer pruning.” In its proper sense, summer 
pruning consists of pinching and disbudding. 


181 


PINCHING 
is the operation by which strong and vigorous shoots, which are out- 
running slower growing ones, are set back in order to give those 
other shoots a chance of catching up to the stronger ones, or of 
diverting the flow of sap into other channels where it is wanted. 

It consists in suppressing, by nipping between the finger and 
thumb, the tender growth of terminal soots, without, for that 
purpose, removing much or any of the foliage at all. It is by 
pinching that trees, when in their nursery beds, are given the shape 
which it is meant they should assume before they are sent out to 
customers to be planted. 

Pinching is often practised in the summer for promoting the 
formation of fruit buds. 

In pinching back side shoots, intended to carry fruit buds, care 
must be taken not to shorten them too severely; it is not too much 
to allow them three or four inches. If pinched too short, the little 
butt or shoot either ceases to grow and dies, leaving a vacant space 
on the branch, or else, a year or two after this excessive pinching, 
two small basal buds push forth on each side of the suppressed 
shoot; these will ultimately blossom, but this will involve the loss 
of another season or two, or, again, premature shoots will grow, 
which will likewise be a longer time setting to fruit, and are not 
likely to be so fruitful as better constituted shoots properly pinched 
would be, as already referred to and illustrated under Pruning. 

When pinching back, and especially where the tree is full of 
running sap and of vigour, the shoots, instead of being cut or 
nipped clean off, are half broken through, and the terminal end left 
hanging. In this way the tension of the sap is partly diverted to 
half nourish the broken part, and the pressure is not strong enough 
to stimulate the growth of side shoots on that half-broken spur. At 
winter pruning that spur will presént the appearance shown on the 
figure, the hanging piece will be excised, and the spur below will be 
stocked with fruit-bearing buds. These, after they have perfected 
their internal organs—a process which, according to sorts of fruit 
trees, takes from one to three years to accomplish—will, in due 
course, blossom and carry fruit. 


DISBUDDING 

consists in rubbing off with the thumb any misplaced buds or tender 
shoot. : 
Pinching and disbudding are the most rational methods of 
gradually directing the growth of trees and vines, thus avoiding, at 
the time of winter pruning, the severe cutting of much unnecessary 
wood, on which some of the plant’s best energy may have been 
spent during the growing months. 

Indeed, if literally carried out, there would be little winter 
pruning left to be done, except shortening the leading branches of 


182 


young trees. However, if pinching and disbudding can be made 
to answer a useful purpose, the beginner should guard against too 
rigidly carrying it out under every circumstance, as it often happens 
that a better root growth, and much useful shelter in the summer 
months against the ardent rays of the sun, are obtained by not too 
strictly following the rules of pinching and disbudding. 

To ulustrate the methods of nipping and of disbudding, no 
better example can be taken than that of the apricot. In the mam, 
it applies to most kinds of fruit trees. The apricot often throws 
out two or three shoots from the same knot. In shaping them a 
good deal of disbudding has to be done, as it is essential that they 
should not grow in a bunch out of the main stem. 

Supposing at planting time the young tree has been cut back 
to a stick 18 or 29 inches high, the first shoot should start 12 inches 
from the ground, and not more than three others at most should be 
left to divide the space between that height and the top of the stem. 
Around that stem these three or four branches should be so dis- 
posed as to evenly balance, all other intervening shoots being rubbed 
off as they appear. 

The first year it will be necessary to go over the trees at in- 
tervals and rub off all unnecessary shoots, thus to preserve the bal- 
ance of the tree. Only strong and vigorous shoots are pinched back, 
any general heading back tending to dwarf the trees. 

The method of cutting back the first winter has been explained 
in the course of a previous chapter. 

When the young tree starts its second year’s growth, all the 
shoots that come out on the underside of the main limbs—which 
have in the winter been cut back to 6 to 12 inches—are rubbed off, 
with the exception of two growing upward and outward on each 
limb, so as to continue the growth of the tree and maintain its 
proper balance and shape. These are the leaders and in summer 
pruning fruit trees should never be shortened, but are allowed to 
continue their straight growth. 

The following year again, when the new shoots are a few inches 
long, they are again thinned down to two leading ones on each 
branch, all lateral growths and water shoots which tend to throw 
the tree out of shape being rubbed off. In doing so care must be 
taken not to take off the fruit spurs. Thus a strong tree is built 
up, with sturdy limbs, directed in an upward and outward direction, 
and capable of carrying a heavy load of fruit, well distributed 
around those limbs. The third year a few apricots will ripen, and 
after they have been gathered the trees are gone over and topped. 

This operation favours the formation of fruit spurs, and, more- 
over, prevents the dying back of the branches, which, more especi- 
ally with stone fruit trees, is a common occurrence when pruned 
in the depth of a wet winter, at a time when the sap is dormant and 
its healing power is not so marked. This-done, it only remains 


‘Suytnid JouuMs J01ye pur oiojoq 901) atddy 


183 


to rectify early in the spring any errors of pruning which may have 
been done when the foliage did not permit of a correct view of the 
tree; at that time about one-half of the season’s growth is cut back, 
due regard being paid to shape and balance, and cross shoots; water 
sprouts and dead branches are also taken out. 


SumMEr Prunine VINES. 
Grape vines should not be topped too early, unless they happen 
to be in exposed situations where they are liable to be broken by 
strong winds. A great many growers I have met will, on the other 
hand, leave this topping until late in the season, so, as they fancy, 
to keep down labour, and at one stroke slash back both shoots and 
laterals. This practice has of late given rise to much adverse com- 
ment, and by degrees it is satisfactory to notice growers are moder- 
ating the intensity of this summer slashing, and the vines in conse- 
quence are much benefited both in growth and in production. 
Wherever the vines are trellised very little topping, if any at 
all, will be required, and the shoots, after being tied up to the top 
wire, should be allowed to droop down in 
festoons. When growing bush-fashion, just 
enough trimming should be done to enable the 
team and implements moving between the rows 
without knocking the shoots too much. This 
is generally done early in November. Suckers 
and shoots bearing no fruit and not needed for 
subsequent pruning should, however, be rubbed 
off while still tender. In any case, topping has a 
weakening effect, as it deprives the plant of its 
lungs, and it should be avoided as much as pos- 
sible. Topping while the shoots are young is 
not so severe. ‘“Defoliation,” which in cold and 
damp countries was practised for promoting the 
colouring and the ripening of the grapes, and 
thus saving them from bursting and rotting, 
is now seldom practised. In such a genial 
climate as the Australian it has nothing what- 
ever to recommend itself, and should be abso- 


lutely discarded; all the efforts of the grower, wee ci ald 


on the other hand, should tend to provide for 
the grapes as much shelter as possible against the direct and 
scorching rays of the sun in the height of summer. 


THINNING THE FRUIT 
is an operation which consists in rubbing off fruit which is mper- 
fect, insect-infested, diseased, overcrowded in clusters, and all sur- 
plus fruit which can well be dispensed with, thereby improving 


184 


that which remains, and sparing the energy of the tree. It is almost 
as important as pruning, and it is becoming to be regarded as 
essential to the profitable production of first-quality fruit as is 
pruning, cultivating, and manuring. Thus, in its proper season, it 
should receive as much attention on the part of the grower. ‘The 
best time for thinning fruit is after the late spring frosts and other 
early accidents are passed, but before they have become of sufficient 
size to be a tax upon the tree. 


In connection with thinning, the following points are worth 
bearing in mind:—-Fruit trees form their blossom buds a year or 
two before these buds actually bear fruit. It thus follows that if a 
tree is allowed to overbear, it is hardly expected that it will also 
nourish as it should do the ensuing season’s crop of blossom buds, 
and these being feeble and wanting in vigour and strength will, it is 
more than likely, in the proper time fail to set and perfect their 
fruit. Occasional heavy crops, therefore, more especially on trees 
growing in land of only moderate fertility, thus accounts for the 
fact that many trees which are allowed to grow and bear at their 
own sweet will are seen to carry prodigious crops one season and to 
be shy bearers the season after. 


Overbearing not only enfeebles the coming season’s buds, but it 
also severely disturbs the constitution of most trees. Miore energy 
is spent by them in perfecting the embryo, which is the essential 
part of the plant’s seed or kernel, than is required in elaborating 
the pulp, and as much, if not more, valuable mineral constituents 
are abstracted from the soil in order to produce the seed as it does 
to manufacture the flesh part of the crop. Thinninz, therefore, by 
reducing the number of matured seeds, considerably lessens the 
drain on the vitality of the plant and of the soil. Thinning, some 
argue, is a costly operation, and necessitates in some cases the ex- 
penditure of 6d. to 2s. a tree in labour spent on that operation 
alone, and in some eases, when old and vigorous trees have to be 
carefully gone over, it may cost as much as 2s. to 3s. for so doing. It 
should be considered, on the other hand, that the fruit must be 
picked sooner or later, and that as far as actual cost goes, it does 
not matter whether this amount is spent before the seeds form or 
when the fruit is ripe and ready for market. 

The extra cost of picking, therefore, need not be entertained, 
as. it is practically the same, whether part of the crop is picked 
when thinning and part at the time the fruit ripens, or whether 
the whole crop is picked at the one time. But, apart from the con- 
sideration of more even crops in a succession of seascns, thinning 
also influences to a marked degree the season’s crop. Although less 
in number, fruit from a thinned tree equals in weight, and certainly 
surpasses, as regards size and market value, fruit from a like tree 
left unthinned, 


185 


A few figures will demonstrate that the lesser number of fruit 
from a tree that has been thinned equals or even surpasses in 
volume the crops from an overloaded tree that has not been thinned. 


Two peaches measure respectively 144 inches and 3 inches in 
diameter; some might imagine that the second is twice the size of 
the first, in reality it is eight times as voluminous, or, in other 
words, it would take eight times the number of 11-inch fruit to fill 
a bushel case which would hold a given number of three-inch 
peaches, for the cube of 1.5 is 3.375, whereas the cube of 3 is 27, 
or eight times as much, In the same way, two apples measure 2 
inches and 4 inches in diameter, the larger fruit is not twice as big 
as the first, but eight times larger, for the cube of 2 is only 8, 
whereas the cube of 4 is 64, or eight times more. By a similar 
reasoning it is easy to demonstrate that fruit 3 inches in diameter 
is more than double the size of fruit 2 inches in diameter. For con- 
venience of calculation in multiplying and dividing let us reduce 
the inches to quarter inches, and it is thus found that the volume of 
a fruit 12 quarters in diameter is more than three times the size in 
cubic measurement of another fruit S quarters in diameter. 


Thinning not only increases size,but also improves appearance. 
It thus pleases the consumer, sells easier, and is more profitable to 
the grower. Poor fruit, on the other hand, eluts the market, brings 
down prices, and often does not pay for handling. 


The theory of thinning having now been minutely gone into, a 
few practical hints regarding the method, so far as the different 
varieties of fruit trees go, may be of value. 


Hand labour, as in many other operations which require skill 
as well as judgment, is the only practical method at present. Apri- 
cots are the first fruit which come ready for thinning, and this may 
be commenced when the fruit is about the size of marbles, and 
according to kinds in October or towards the beginning of Novem- 
ber; at that time the fruit has stopped dropping, and the seeds 
have not commenced to harden. If too many are still left remove 
more just when the stone is hardening; as some of the fruit often 
drop off at that time, as explained below, a second thinning may 
not be found necessary. 


Apricots intended for canning or drying should not go more 
than 10 to the lb., and to attain that weight they must measure 134 
inches in diameter, and should be thinned to about 21% inches apart 
on the branches where the trees are well loaded, and have not been 
thinned by frosts or by beetles. Should they have dropped a great 
many fruit, and left them in bunches, the smaller fruit only, which 
would not develop, are rubbed off. Californian apricot growers 
consider that a healthy tree, having a body three inches in diameter, 
or a little over, should carry fifty pounds of fruit, and at 10 to the 


186 


pound this would take 500 full size apricots to the tree. By count- 
ing the apricots on a few trees, the operator soon learns when suffi- 
cient thinning is done, though the tendency at first is to leave too 
much fruit. Other practical growers estimate that, on a limb four 
feet long, with three to five laterals, there are, under conditions of 
unrestricted growth, between 100 to 125 apricots. When properly ' 
thinned and cut back that limb should produce not more than one- 
fourth of that number, or 20 to 24 apricots, but they are perfect 
in quality, superior in size, and classed as “extras.” Apricots thus 
treated measure about 214 inches in diameter; the ordinary fruit of 
this class measures only 114 inches. In other words the larger fruit 
is over three and a half times the size of the smaller one, and the 
one-fourth thinned crop will occupy about three-fourths bulk space 
of the full unthinned crop. 

Peaches and nectarines, next to apricots, require thinning, and 
according to the earliness or lateness of the variety, and of the 
locality, this operation should be done from the middle of November 
to the middle of December. They are generally thinned when about 
the size of a hazel nut, or a little larger, and a space of 4 to 6 
inches should be left between each fruit. In Michigan and in 
Georgia, where peach growing ranks as one of the leading indus- 
tries, only two peaches are left on twigs 4g inch in diameter, after 
the trees have been well pruned; three or four on twigs °4 inch in 
diameter, and if the land is not irrigated and is not naturally moist, 
only half; thus the trees will bear a good crop every year, and will 
be long-lived. All thinning is carefully done by hand, and all double 
fruit is taken off. The fruit on the points of the branches should be 
much further apart than that along the limbs of the tree. Peaches 
(except the early flat China peach), when less than 134 inches in 
diameter, are not saleable, and by thinning their size are easily in- 
creased to 2 inches, or three times the size; they then bring much 
better prices. 

Apples are thinned from the time they are of the size of a hazel 
nut until they are thrice as large. The ordinary rule in thinning 
them is, after the tree is in good bearing, only leave one apple to 
the spur, or one, or at most two, where there were bunches of three 
to 10. 

Prunes, it is the Californian experience, need thinning to give 
good fleshy fruit, especially when they show a tendency to overbear, 
when they only produce fruit that, when dried, is nothing but skin 
and seed. 

Grapes in hothouses in the cooler climate of Europe are sys- 
tematically thinned, and the careful grower, armed with a sharp 
pair of pointed scissors, snips off the tail end of the bunches, as well 
as the hanging wings or shoulders, and also all small and half- 
developed berries. By this means the bunch assumes the shape of a 


187 


somewhat conical cylinder, and every berry grows to a larger and 
more uniform size. In this country, however, where labour is so 
dear and grapes so cheap, and where, above every other reason, the 
mass of the consumers will give little more for grapes of extra 
quality than they would for ordinary fruit, it is questionable whe- 
ther thinning grapes on a large scale and except for special pur- 
poses can be recommended as profitable. In my opinion, it would 
be better, under the conditions that obtain here, to regulate the crop 
by proper pruning in the winter time. 


To conclude these notes on thinning fruit, it may be said that 
the grower who allows his trees to overbear, and the stock-owner 
alike who overstocks his run, both show an error of judgment; 
neither will attain the full measure of success which both might well 
reach but for following wrong methods. 


THE DROPPING OF FRUIT. 


There may be an “early” drop or a “late” drop. “Harly” drop 
results generally from deficient fertilisation, as in the case of the 
Smyrna fig, where the male Capri fig and the fertilising wasp are 
absent. In other cases a flower may be pollinated and yet fertilisa- 
tion not take place. Fertilisation causes fruit to set, but even slight, 
unfavourable influences may lead to the fruit losing its hold and so 
perish. 

“Mid-season” drop is independent of fertilisation. Weather 
conditions have much to do with it; a cold snap, a thunderstorm, a 
prolonged drizzle at a low temperature, deficient light inside trees 
with thick heads. 

The “early” drop, especially of the peach, is also often caused 
by the exhaustion of the food stored in the tree the previous year, 
especially before the leaves have had time to fully expand. Liberal 
manuring remedies this defect. 

‘“Mid-season” drop in late summer is also often due to the extra 
demand for food the fruits make when the seeds are forming. A 
drought, a hot wind, will accentuate this. Lack of fertilisers and 
deficient nutrition, as want of phosphates, potash, lime, brings this 
about. 


“Late” drop is often caused by fruits with short fruit stalks 
pressing one another out, especially when they grow in clusters. 


MANURES AND MANURING. 


The fruit-grower, having secured fruit trees and vines suitable 
for the purpose he has in view, will find few more profitable invest- 
ments than the expenditure of a few shillings per acre in suitable 


188 


manures for the purpose of adding to the fertility of the soil or 
restoring the elements of plant food extracted from it by the crop. 

The science of agricultural chemistry has thrown such light on 
the question of fertilisers and in the study of the requirements of 
cultivated plants that we are now able, with a certain amount of 
certainty, for every pound spent in suitable manures to expect a 
good return. 

Few soils can do without manure of some sort in order to yield 
a maximum crop. Occasionally some are, if anything, too 
rich and too forcing for the purpose of fruit-growing; they induce 
an extravagant growth of leaves and wood to the detriment of the 
fruit. Wine grapes on such soils produce a thin must of little value 
for the purpose of wine-making as compared with must from similar 
grapes grown on poorer ground. 

Most soils respond liberally to the application of suitable 
manures, and in order to satisfy the requirements of the crops en- 
trusted to them, some knowledge of what is plant food and how 
plants feed must necessarily prove helpful. 


WHat is Puant Foon. 


Plants, in order to live and fructify, require certain elements 
of food, fourteen in number, some of which are supplied by the aur, 
and some are found in the soil. Those supplied from the air are 
combinations and compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; 
they constitute, with the compounds of nitrogen and sulphur, which 
are drawn from the soil, the organic part of the plant, which on 
combustion, either by fire, fermentation or putrefaction, return 
entirely or partly to the air. The mineral part of the plant which 
is represented by the ashes left behind after complete combustion 
constitute the inorganic constituents; they consist of potassium, 
phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, silicon, sulphur, sodium, 
chlorine, and manganese. 

Some knowledge of the composition of the tissues of plants and 
fruits will be useful for understanding in what proportion the 
different elements indispensable for plant growth occur in most 
crops. 

Nearly two-thirds consist of water which disappears on desic- 
cation, and the balance is made up mostly of combustible organic 
matter (carbo-hydrates), such as fibre, starch, sugar, gum, oils, 
alkaloids, and albuminoids, gluten, albumen, ete.; and also one to 
three per cent. of mineral or inorganic matters represented hv the 
ashes. 


To agricultural chemistry and such works as those of Wolff, in 
Europe, and Professor Hilgard, of the University of California, we 


189 


owe a great deal of the knowledge we at present possess, respecting 
the :— 


MineraL CONSTITUENTS OF THE ASHES OF VARIOUS PLANTS. 


. : Phosphoric 

—_— Potash. Lime. | Magnesia. Tron. ‘Acid. 
Apple ...  ... | 35-68 4:08 8-75 1-40 13-59 
Pear a ep 54-69 7:98 5-22 1:04 ' 15-20 
Plum iis re 59°21 10°04 5-46 3-30 15-10 
Prune... — 63-83 4-66 5:47 2-72 14-08 
Orangé ... sind 48-94 2091 5-34 0-97 12-37 
Lemon ... ee 48-26 29°87 4-40 0-43 11-09 
Grape... 25 63-14 9-05 3-97 0-06 10-42 
Peach... ct 74:46 2-64 6-29 0-58 16-02 
Apricot ... te 59-36 3-17 3-68 1-68 13-09 
Fig a ss 48-60 9-12 5-32 0-84 11-20 
Strawberry Bis 49-24 13-47 8-12 1-74 18-50 
Almond (shelled) 27-95 8-81 17:66 0-55 43-63 
Cherry ... we 51-85 7:47 5:46 1-98 15-97 
Damson ... ie 45-98 12-65 8-17 1-19 13-83 
Olive aise anes 60-07 15-72 4-38 Paro 8°35 
Gooseberry oa 38-65 12-20 5-85 4:56 19-68 
Quince ... vee 27-39 7:79 13-11 1-19 43-32 
Chestnut ae 39-36 7-84 7:84 1-03 8-25 


The above table taken from a paper on orchard manures by 
Mr. H. C. L. Anderson, M.A., formerly Director of Agriculture, 
N.S.W., gives an insight into the composition of the ashes of 18 of 
the most extensively cultivated fruits. Thus says Mr. Anderson :— 
Run down the column of figures under potash and see how widely 
the percentages differ—the ashes of peaches containing nearly 75 
per cent. of that mineral (potash), and the ashes of apples not half 
as much. Then look at the figures under phosphoric acid, and see 
how they vary, from nearly 44 per cent. in the ashes of almonds and 
quinces down to less than one-fourth of that amount in grapes, and 
less than one-fifth in olives. 

The other columns are not deserving of special attention, and 
are given merely to convince the student that the substances lime, 
magnesia, and iron are of lesser importance when compared with 
potash and phosphoric acid. 

In practice four only of the fourteen mineral constituents of 
plants are, in the majority of cases, supplied to the crop under the 
form of fertilisers, and these are nitrogen, potash, phosphorie acid, 
and lime; the first three especially are the most sparsely distributed 
in soils and are also the most costly to replace. 

With every crop of fruit removed from the orchard the avail- 
able stores of potash, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen in the soil are 
correspondingly diminished. 


190 


Fertitisinc Marrer REMOVED BY VARIOUS FRUITS. 
(From analyses by Mr. G. E. Colby, University of California.) 


ips Total Ash.| Potash. Lime. i Nitrogen. 
lbs. Ibs. Ibs. lbs. lbs. 
Almonds* st 17:29 9-95 1:04 2-04 7-01 
Apricots ... 5-08 3-01 -16 66 1-94 
Apples 2-64 1-40 ‘11 +33 1-05 
Bananas ... 10-78 6-80 “10 ‘17 207 
Cherries ... 4-82 2677 -20 72 2-29 
Chestnuts 9-52 3°07 1-20 1:58 6-40 
Figs 731 4-69 *85 -86 2-38 
Grapes... 5-00 2°55 +25 mi 1-26 
Lemons ... 5-26 2-54 1+55 +58 1-5] 
Olives we 13-50 9-11 2-43 1:25 5-60 
Oranges ... 4-32 2-11 “97 +53 1-83 
Peaches ... 5:30 3-947 *14t “85, 1-20+ 
Pears a 2-50 1:34 “19 +34 “90 
Prunes, French ... 4°86 B10 “22 68 1-82 
Plums... ... 5-35 3-41f -25F 15+ 1-81 
Walnuts* Gs 12-98 | 8-18 1-55 1-47 5-41 
* Including Shells. { Estimated. 


The above table shows that the drain of Potash on the soil from 
the removal of fruit crops is most marked in the case of olives, 
grapes, figs, peaches, prunes, apricots, lemons, and oranges, in suc- 
cession, and least in almonds, apples, pears, plums, and cherries. 


Phosphoric Acid is higher in the ashes of quinces, almonds, 
olives, figs, strawberries, grapes (seedless varieties have less), 
peaches, lemons, oranges (except seedless varieties), and less in 
apples, pears, and cherries. 

Of Nitrogen olives require most, and are followed by peaches, 
figs, apricots, oranges, grapes, plums, lemons, while the fruits poorer 
in nitrogen are apples and pears. 

Lime is extracted from the soil by lemons, oranges, olives, and 
figs to a greater extent than by other fruits. 


These analyses throw some light on the great sustaining power 
of the olives and figs and nuts, which form an important part of 
the diet of the inhabitants of those southern parts of Europe and 
northern parts of Afvica which encircle the Mediterranean. 


They also show that the drain on the soil is greater in the case 
of the orange than in that of the apple, while the former is also 
more nourishing. It is seen that 100 Ibs. of lemon or oranges con- 
tain over lb. potash, .18 to .12Ib. of nitrogen (234 to 20z.), and 
.0581b. of phosphoric acid. 


191 


Puant Foop Remove sy A Grape Crop. 

Manuring must restore to the soil the annual renoval of plant 
food. 

In the case of the grape vine Miintz’s investigations has brought 
out the fact that the warmer the climate the more complete the 
utilisation of plant food, so that for an even yield the vineyards of 
cold, northern climate (Champagne) require heavier applications 
of fertilisers than those of the warmer South (Midi). 

The following table shows the removals of each plant food 
element by 100 gallons of wine in each of the districts below :— 


Prant Foop IN LB. REMOVED By 100 GALLONS oF WINE. 


—— Nitrogen. cea Potash. 
South of France 5-5 1:3 5-0 
Claret (Bordeaux) 9-0 2:5 10:5 
Burgundy ... 10-2 2-9 10-2 
Champagnes... 10-9 4-1 18-1 


In estimating the removal of plant food, the leaves and canes 
must also be taken into consideration, and an amount of fertilisers 
in excess of that indicated above allowed, especially of phosphoric 
acid, which is more difficult to absorb. 

The Connecticut Agricultural Station showed in the same 
analytical manner that the fruit of a crop of stone fruit planted 
18ft. x 18ft., or 130 per acre, on an average removes— 


Nitrogen oe ad ae «»  201bs. 
Potash ... any sis aes «.  22bs. 
Phosphoric Acid as ves ann 5lbs. 


The restoration of this will, strictly speaking, restore the 
ground to its fertility, but an excess must be provided as the root- 
lets do not travel far and food must be placed within easy reach. 


WEIGHT OF ONE ACRE OF SOIL AND OF ITS CONSTITUENTS. 


To ‘the untrained mind the perusal of a statement of a soil 
analysis conveys no tangible idea of the amount of the constituents 
declared therein and contained in any definite depth of soil, on, for 
instance, one acre of land. An approximate idea of the weight 
of average agricultural land gives a relative idea as to its richness 
or deficiency in any of the manurial constituents. One acre con- 
tains 43,560 square feet of surface, and a depth of one foot of 
that area therefore contains 43,560 cubic feet of soil. The weight 
of one cubic foot of soil varies greatly from the heaviest—rocky and 
sandy soils—to the lightest—peaty and clayey soils. The average 


192 


ordinary agricultural soil weighs about 80lbs. per cubic foot, so that 
the total weight of one acre of dry soil, one foot deep, would be 
3,484,800lbs., or, say, 3,500,0001bs. This being so, a rich soil con- 
taining one per cent. of potash or phosphoric acid would contain 
35,000lbs. of such plant food on an acre one foot deep. Similarly 
should the analysis disclose .1 per cent. the amount on that area 
would be 3,500lbs. and a crop removing, say, 5lbs. or 50lbs. of 
potash or of phosphoric acid a year would thus take 700 or 70 
years, as the case may be, to exhaust such a soil absolutely of 
either of the substances referred to. 

Although theoretically that lapse of time would be necessary 
for the crops to entirely drain that soil of its potash or some of 
the phosphates, it is nevertheless found that beyond a limit the svil 
tenaciously holds up and refuses to part in favour of the crop with 
the whole of its elements. It then becomes imperative to either 
restore to the ground those elements of plant food which have been 
removed, or by fallowing and spelling provide fresh supplies from 
the deeper strata and from the upper layer itself by the process of 
weathering. It is fortunate that the future is thus protected against 
the rapacity of the present. An examination of one of our own 
soils, a free dark chocolate loam, on the bank of a brook, will serve 
as an example of the teachings which soil analysis conveys to the 
mind. The land in question is under black wattle, flooded gum, and 
blackboys, and looks very fertile. Its analysis is as follows:— 


Moisture . ele wit anh aes 8-0200 
Organic Matter a as ae .» 13-9900 
*Phosphoric Acid a i es ss 0-0255 
*Potash . . ass eee 0:0848 
Oxide of Tron ‘and Alumina se oy 1-7165 
Carbonate of Calcium Be sine on 0- 6400 
Soluble Silica oe en an siece 0- 3660 
Insoluble Silica ane ons Mi w.  73+9260 
*Nitrogen sa ang 2a wed sibs 0-420 

Equal to Ammonia eas ee obs ane 0-510 

sedi Chloride ies Se 2a Sea 0-3714 
Magnesia Chloride... ee Sie sits 0-1504 


This analysis shows that the land in question is a free dark 
loam. It contains 74 per cent. of sand and is also rich in humus. 


Approximately, one acre of that soil, one foot deep, contains :-— 


Of Potash ... 3 .. 350 x 85 = 2,975lbs. 
Of Phosphoric ‘Acid .. 850 x 25 = 812lbs. 
Of Nitrogen ... .. 850 x 42 = 14,700lbs. 
Of Salt (Sodium Chloride) .. 850 x 37 = 12,9501bs. 
Of Magnesium Chloride ... 350 x 15 = 5,250lbs. 


Supposing this land was cropped annually, and the erop re- 
moved from the ground 50lbs. each of potash, phosphoric acid, 


193 


and nitrogen, the ground would be completely exhausted of the 
first in 6U0 years, of the second in 16 years, and of the third in 
3,000 years. 

This assumption, however, would be entirely unsupported in 
practice. The high percentage of salt is an indication that the 
land in question is badly drained; in fact, it is often waterlogged, 
and the soluble salts, instead of being washed out uf the ground, 
accumulate to an alarming extent. The roots, then, of the more 
tender crop plants instead of feeding on a layer of soil one foot 
deep, would rot and corrode and only penetrate to a few inches. 
The mass of plant food revealed by chemical analysis is in practice 
found to be beyond the reach of the crops, and, besides, whatever 
amount of that plant food lies within reach of the shallow roots of 
the crop is of such a crude and raw quality that it is not in a fit 
state to act as plant food. 


“AVAILABLE” and “ToTaL” PLANT Foon. 


Bernard Dyer stated as a result of the Rothamstead experi- 
ments conducted over a period of 50 vears the following definite 
conclusions could be drawn :— 

That soil containing as low as .01 per cent. of phosphorie acid 
“available” required phosphorie manuring, but when the proportion 
reached .03 per cent. the necessity no longer existed. 

The corresponding limits for potash he placed at about .0057 
per cent. and .01 per cent. respectively. Judged by this standard 
many of our Western .Australian soils would seem to contain suffie- 
jent potash, but as the bulk of it is locked up and insoluble, and not 
“available” to the roots of plants, an additional dressing generally 
shows notable results. 

A soil may, on analysis, be shown to contain a high “total” 
percentage of nitrogen, phosphates or potash, and vet even under 
favourable climatic conditions yield poor crops. It is important 
that it should contain an adequate amount of “available” fertiliser 
or mineral to be utilised by plants, as food, immediately or within 
a few years. 


DIFFERENT SOURCES OF FERTILISERS. 


According to their origin or the sort of food stuff thev supply 
to plants, manures are spoken of as: 

“Animal Manures.’—These are characterised by the large 
quantity of nitrogen they contain, and the ease with which thev 
decompose and vield their fertilising matter in available form—e.g. 
guanos. desiccated blood. bones, and superphosphate. 

“Vegetable Manures,” which undergo decomposition more 
slowly; some, as the leguminous plants, having a large percentage 
of nitrogen—e.g., green manuring, farmyard manure, sea-weeds, 
and oil-cakes. 


194 


“Mineral Manures,’”’ which are extracted from minerals, and 
yield ash constituents to plants—e.g., sulphate of ammonia, of lime, 
of potash, nitrate of soda, of potash, lime, ete. 


Then again, manures are spoken of as “general” manures when 
they contain all the necessary elements for plant growth, or “special 
manures” when they only supply one or several of these elements. 


These elements, again, are said to be “dormant,” “latent,” or 
“active,” according as they are insoluble or soluble in the corroding 
liquid which exudes from the rootlets and are thus made “available” 
for plant food or are locked up in an inert form in the soils. 


Fertilisers, however, for the practical purpose of the fruit- 
grower and farmer, should be better considered as nitrogenous, 
phosphatic, potassic, calcareous fertilisers, according as nitrogen. 
phosphoric acid, or potash, or lime is the predominating valuable 
constituent. 


NITROGEN is the rarest and most costly element of plant 
food; it occurs in abundance in the air as free nitrogen, but is 
not available in that form to most crops, except those of the 
leguminous class, on whose roots are gall-like swellings known as 
root tubercles, which are formed under the influence of micro- 
organisms living in the soil. It has been found that the presence of 
these bacteria and root tubercles enables some plants to draw from 
the vast stores of nitrogen in the air a supply which will enrich the 
ground in that valuable element and enable it to grow more abun- 
dant crops. 


The more common source of nitrogen on the farm or at the 
orchard is found in farmyard manure, which consists of— 


‘Water xe 10 
Farm Yarp J Organic Matter 27—Nitrogen, -4 to -65 per cent. = 9 
Manvre. to 15lbs. per ton. 

Ash... .. 3 (Phosphoric Acid, -2 to -5 per 


se cent. = 4 to 10lbs. per ton. 
100°) Potash, -3 to -6 per cent. = 5 to 
13lbs. per ton. 
A good dressing per acre, 8 to 10 tons. 


If used by itself, it is a very expensive method of manuring, 
although cost varies according to localities and distance and facili- 
ties for haulage. It generally comes, when all charges are paid, to 
12s. per ton weight and sometimes more. Its value depends on its 
organic matter. On light sandy soils it helps to retain moisture; 
on stiff clay it prevents baking and keeps the soil open and spongy. 
In the case of fruit or vegetables, stable manure alone will not 
give maximum crops unless large quantities are used, and the cost 
of such manuring is greater than would suffice to produce the same 
result, if less stable manure were used, supplemented by concen- 
trated fertilisers. 


195 


The other forms of organic nitrogen, i.e., the nitrogen of ani- 
mal and vegetable matters which is chemically united to carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen, are— 


Ammoniacal Guanos.—Are the best of the concentrated com- 
plete manures, as they have nitrogen 8 to 12 per cent., phosphates 
15 to 25 per cent., and a little potash. It is a very valuable manure 
for most crops, but is rather expensive. It more nearly resembles 
farmyard manure in its composition than other artificial manures, 
and its great use is to replace this manure when the latter is 
searce. A good dressing, 2 to 3 ewts. to the acre. 


Dried Blood—tThe refuse of slaughter houses, being a very 
complex substance, is also a very valuable manure, and contains 
nearly as much dry matter as flesh—e.g., about 23 per cent. When 
dried without other substances, it contains about 10 per cent. water 
and 8 to 10 per cent. ammonia, with a little phosphate and traces 
of potash. It is one of the best forms of manures in light lands, 
and is not readily washed away. Often mixed with gypsum, which 
decreases its value; useful for making composts. Fair dressing 
per acre, 3 ewt. 


Dried Nightsoil or Poudrette—Contains 2 to 4 per cent. nitro- 
gen, 3 per cent. phosphate, and 1.5 per cent. potash; often mixed 
with gypsum and earth, which reduces its value. A bulky manure 
which would hardly pay to carry a long distance, when freight and 
carriage is a consideration. 

Other forms of organic nitrogen are those of seeds, such as 
cotton seed cake and other oleaginous seeds after the extraction of 
the oil. 

Leather and peat are also classed as nitrogenous manures, but 
they are comparatively slow in their effect on vegetation, and for 
that reason are less valuable. 

Nitrogen occurs as minerals and notably ammonium salts and 
“nitrates” and “nitrites.” 


Sulphate of Ammonia.—Supplies one of the cheapest forms of 
nitrogen in the market. When pure, contains 24 to 25 per cent. of 
ammonia, equivalent to 20 of nitrogen, and is one of the most 
concentrated forms of nitrogen available. It is obtained from coal 
gasworks and extracted from the gas liquor, and is purified of the 
ammonia thiocyanate (a plant poison) it contains before being put 
on the market. As it is not quite so soluble as nitrate of soda, 
it is not so liable to be washed out of the soil as are nitrates. A 
simple test for showing the absence of most, at any rate, of the 
impurities with which sulphate of ammonia is likely to be adulter- 
ated is to throw a pinch of the sulphate on a red hot iron plate; 
the sulphate of ammonia, if pure, will be quickly volatilised and 
dissipate entirely. Applied at the rate of % to 114 ewt. per acre 


196 


in the spring, mixed with some dry, well-ground material such as 
sand, earth, or other fertilisers, so as to ensure its even distribu- 
tion. It is suitable for using in mixtures with superphosphate. 

Nitrate of Soda—As imported from Chili, contains rather 
more than 15 per cent. of N. or 18 to 19 per cent. ammonia. Its 
price is high in Australia. More soluble than sulphate of am- 
monia, and for this reason especially useful in a dry season, ow- 
ing to its being deliquescent. Applied at the rate of 1% to 1% ewt. 
per acre in the spring, mixed with some dry, well-ground material, 
so as to ensure its even distribution. Experiments I have conducted 
in manuring vines with this fertiliser have given very good results. 

The Combined Use of Sulphate of Ammonia and Nitrate of 
Soda.—It is well known that the continued use of sulphate of am- 
monia on soils deficient in carbonate of lime is calculated to give 
rise to acidity of the soil; at the same time it is also known that the 
continued use of nitrate of soda gives rise to an alkaline condition 
in the soil. The suggestion has therefore been made, that by using 
a mixture of sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda in proper 
proportions, a neutral condition of the soil may be maintained, 
so far as the use of these fertilisers is concerned. 

The correct proportions to secure this result are, in round 
numbers, 100lbs. nitrate of soda to 78lbs. sulphate of ammonia; or 
100lbs. sulphate of ammonia to 129Ibs. nitrate of soda; or, approxi- 
mately, 4 parts of nitrate of soda to 3 parts of sulphate of am- 
monia. 

Relation between Nitrogen and Ammonia.—Soil or manure 
analysis often express the nitrogenous contents as nitrogen or as 
ammonia. And in order to better understand the difference between 
the amount of each, it is useful to remember that 17 parts of 
ammonia (NH,) contain 14 of nitrogen (N) and that 66 parts of 
pure sulphate of ammonia, or 85 parts of nitrate of soda, also con- 
tain 14 parts of nitrogen. Most nitrogenous manures, however, are 
very expensive, and whenever it can be arranged green manuring 
which will be referred to below, offer the cheapest way of adding to 
the store of humus and of nitrogen in the ground. Exeess of 
organic nitrogenous manures, it should be borne in mind, are often 
productive of harm, and eause such diseases as “die back” of the 
trees. In white ant infected districts it must also be used with 
caution. “I have used sheep manure for orange trees,’ writes a 
Narra Tarra fruit grower; “it acts very well, but proves a hotbed 
for white ants.” 

PuospHorvs is, next to nitrogen, the most costly ingredient of 
fertilisers, in which it oceurs in the form of phosphates of lime, 
iron, and aluminium, or, in case of superphosphates, partly as free 
phosphoric acid. In good soils it rarely exceeds -2 per cent. 

The trade uses with regard to phosphoric acid several terms 
which to the layman are not very familiar, thus:— 


197 


“Soluble” phosphoric acid ‘mplies phosphoric acid or phos- 
phates that are soluble in water or in a solution of ammonium 
citrate or in a 2 per cent. solution of citric acid which approximates 
the acidity of the sap of foraging rootlets. It diffuses into the 
ground and thus reaches the feeding rootlets of the crop instead of 
lying inert in the soil, as do the mechanically mixed insoluble phos- 
phates, until the rootlets find them out and attack them. 

“Insoluble” phosphoric acid requires a stronger solvent than 
ammonium citrate to make it available as plant food. 

“Reverted, reduced, or precivitated” phosphoric acid is phos- 
phorie acid which was once soluble in water but which, by combina- 
tion with lime, iron, or aluminium in the soil, has become insoluble 
again. In that form it is, however, readily assimilated by crops. 

The chief sourcés of phosphatic manures are: 

Bones found in commerce broken up as “half-inch,” “quarter- 
inch,” and as “bonedust’”’; the finer the better, as they act more 
quickly. Commercial bones are either “raw” or “steamed” and 
degelatinised. Their respective composition is— 


Raw Bones. Steamed Bones. 
Water sis .. 10 per cent. .. 10 per cent. 
*Organic matter ... 33 ,, see AB ay 
Phosphates oe BOs we = (DS gs 
Carbonate of lime... 4 4s Sg 8-5 ,, 
Sand ses ats <2 35 a Ae ig, 
Alkaline salts es Deh s “a 4-5 ,, 
100-0 100-0 


* Equal 3-5 to 4-5 ammonia, + Equal 1-4 ammonia. 


Bone dust and half and quarter-inch have a similar composition 
to the raw product they are made from. The coarser the bones the 
heavier should the dressing be. Bonedust is applied at the rate of 
3 to 5 ewt. to the acre. 

It is often used mixed with superphosphate in equal propor- 
tions, and in the case of orchards or vineyards in full bearing ap- 
plied in quantities of 5 to 10 Ibs. per tree or 3 to 5 ewts. respec- 
tively. Where the soil is of a stiff nature and dries hard the pro- 
portion of 2 of honedust to 1 of super is preferable; whereas on 
friable loam rich in humus and fairly moist the super may pre- 
ponderate. 

Bone fertilisers are offered by the trade but are not as effective 
as bonedust, being largely a mixture of bones with other materials 
such as gypsum, marl, or superphosphate with ground rock phos- 
phate, and show a larger percentage of “insoluble” or acid soluble 
phosphoric acid. 

Ground Rock Phosphate, the raw material from which super- 
phosphate is made, contains a large quantity of phosphoric acid in 
combination with lime in the least readily available form. It is only 
useful in sour peaty soil, and being slow of action a much larger 


198 


dressing is required to yield the same result as a smaller quantity 
of the more soluble superphosphate or bonedust. 

Phosphatic Guanos, such as Abrolhos and Sharks Bay guanos, 
contain 44 to 50 per cent. of phosphate and only one half per cent. 
of ammonia, the balance being mostly sand and moisture. They can 
be got in several ton lots at a very reasonable price, and answer 
well when mixed with a small proportion of a more soluble phos- 
phate, such as concentrated superphosphate and sulphate of am. 
monia. A fair dressing would be 3 to 4 ewt. to the acre. 

The Cave Bat Guano found on our coastal limestone hills is 
also a phosphatic manure, and contains 1 to 3-5 per cent. of 
ammonia and 12 to 15 per cent. phosphate of lime readily available. 

Thomas’ Phosphate Powder, or Basic Slag, is another source of 
phosphates. It is derived by means of the Thomas Gilchrist process 
in making steel from pig iron by smelting it in converters lined with 
lime; when the iron is melted the air is blown through, part of the 
iron and impurities are oxidised, and the phosphoric acid combines 
with the lime, forming phosphate of lime. This contains 14 to 17 
per cent. of phosphoric acid, equal to 30 to 36 per cent. of phos- 
phate of lime, and also 40 per cent. lime, and 18 per cent. iron 
oxides, and 6 per cent. sand. It is very cheap in England, where it 
used to sell at the factories for £1 a ton, and was retailed at 30s., 
but is now much dearer. It is so finely divided that it acts very 
readily. 

The soils most suitable for Basic Slag are: lands of a peaty 
character, rich in organic matter. Its action on heavy stiff clay is 
very beneficial, as it helps to disintegrate the soil and make it more 
friable, at the same time liberating a proportion of the natural 
potash in which most clay soils abound. Also on all kinds of pas- 
ture land, and on. poor hill pastures. On light soils the addition of 
potash is usually necessary. On soils subject to “finger and toe” and 
“ouff-ball” it should be given the preference for roots. It must not 
be mixed with sulphate of ammonia, guano, or dried blood. 

Coprolites and Apatites constitute mineral phosphates of great 
value, either ground into a fine powder or for making superphos- 
phates; they occur in some geological formations under the form 
of concretions, and consist of the fossil exerements and remains of 
extinct animals. They vary in richness from 10 to 75 per cent. of 
phosphates. 

Superphosphate of Lime.—Hither of the raw materials referred 
to already are ground and treated with sulphuric acid, thereby made 
more soluble, and hence quicker, in its action. The actual composi- 
tion of superphosphate varies with the material of which it is made, 
and ranges from 35 to 40 per cent. down to 20 per cent. phosphates 
rendered soluble. In this state, owing to its diffusibility, superphos- 
phate is able to permeate through a greater quantity of soil, and 
penetrates further than other merely mechanically-divided phos- 


199 


phates, and thus more readily taken up and assimilated by crops. 
A good dressing consists of 2 to 4 cwt. per acre; or, in conjunction 
with faxm-yard manure, 2 ewt. 

Whenever using superphosphate, better results are obtained 
when the soil contains a sufficiency of lime, i.e., enough carbonate 
of lime to cause effervescence when a mineral acid is poured on to 
it. On land poor in lime it is advisable to use a larger weight of 
“basic slag” if it can be procured at a reasonable price, or bone 
meal or a mixture of superphosphate and bone meal. Basic 
phosphate or superphosphate mixed with a small quantity of lime 
and thus “reverted” is also preferred on soil poor in lime. 

Fermented Bones can readily be prepared on the farm by mix- 
ing with bone one-third their weight of earth or burying them in the 
manure heap, moistened with water, urine, or liquid manure, 
and covering the whole heap with earth. After a time, depending 
on the temperature, the bones enter into fermentation, and crumble 
to powder, when they are dug out and used. Fermented bones act 
more rapidly than raw bones, and can be compared in their action 
to bone superphosphate. 

The relation of phosphoric acid (P,0,) to phosphate of lime 
(Ca,P,0,), such as is expressed in soil or manure analysis, is as 
142 is to 310, or a fraction less than half. Thus bonedust containing 
50 per cent. of phosphate of lime contains somewhat less than half 
this amount of phosphoric acid, or, in exact figures, 22.58 per cent. 
To convert the one into the other multiply the phosphoric acid by 
2.18 (in practice 2.2) and the percentage of phosphate of lime is 
obtained. Conversely, divide phosphate of lime by 2.2 and the 
equivalent percentage of phosphoric acid is shown. 


PorassIuM 
is the constituent of a fertile soil or of fertilisers which ranks third 
in costliness. It does not occur as such, but as combinations, such 
as chloride (muriate), sulphate, carbonate, nitrate, silicate, ete. 

Potash is also known as potassium oxide (K,O), and as such is 
reckoned when valuing fertilisers. 

In manures it occurs as sulphate and as muriate (chloride of 
potassium), the sulphate form being a little more costly than the 
muriate. 

’ The chief sources of potash are— 

Wood Ashes, which constituted for a long time the chief source 
of supply of potash used for agricultural purposes. The incom- 
bustible part of “ash” of farm crops and timber contains from one- 
fourth to one-third its weight of potash. For this reason newly 
cleaned land, well timbered, on which the wood has been burnt oft 
the ground, will have a supply of potash proportionate to that con- 
tained in the ashes. Western Australian firewood usually leaves 
ashes low in potash, except the Peppermint (Agomis fleruosa), 
which, says E. S. Simpson, contains nearly 6 per cent. of potash. 


200 


Kainit is, on aecount of its low price in Europe, in great favour 
as a cheap form of potassie fertiliser. Owing to its great bulk, 
however, the price in Australia is about double what it is in 
England. It is chiefly extracted from salt mines at Stassfurt, in 
Germany, and was originally deposited from sea water, and is 
associated with salt, gypsum, and other saline substances. The crude 
kainit found in commerce contains 12 to 13 per cent. of potash 
(eqivalent tu about 22 to 24 per cent. sulphate of potash), 27 to 
30 per cent. of magnesia salts of little or no use as a manure, and 
30 per cent. of common salt, which in the Eastern districts of this 
State, particularly where the land is in places more or less permeated 
with saline matters, could certainly be dispensed with. It is more 
valuable in light loam than in heavier soils, which it makes more 
sticky. A fair dressing per acre would be from 3 to 6 ewt., mixed 
with other fertilisers, and worked into the soil by means of the 
plough or the digging harrows. 

Sulphate of Potash, which is the chief potash salt in kainit, is 
also sold in a more concentrated form than in that erude salt, and 
is found in commerce with a percentage of 52 per cent. of potash 
(which is equivalent to 97 per cent. pure sulphate of potash), or 
more than four times the amount per cent. found in kainit. One 
ewt. per acre forms a good dressing, in conjunction with other 
manures. 

Its pre-war price in Western Australia was £15 per ton, or 6s. 
per unit. 

Fruit and vine growers prefer this form of potash which ap- 
pears to improve the size, quality, colour, and sugar contents. 

Chloride, or Muriate of Potash, is the most soluble of the various 
salts of potash, and when purified contains as much as 60 per cent. 
of potash or 95 per cent. of muriate of potash. It is obtained as a 
by-product in the manufacture of chlorate of potash, in the purifica- 
tion of nitre, and other manufactures. It occurs also in the 
Alsatian mines of the basin of Mulhouse as “sylvanite” (mixture of 
chloride of potassium and sodium) at 14 to 20 per cent. of pure 
potash (Ix,0), and in a purer form up to 50 per cent. Its use, 
however, is harmful on certain crops, as in the case of sugar bects, 
in which it lessens the percentage of erystallisable sugar, while 
potatoes are rendered waxy, and the tobacco leaves are deteriorated 
in value; in the soil it is, besides, apt to give rise to the formation 
of common salt, while the sulphate gives rise to the formation of 
eypsum, which, in saline soils, is especially of value. 

Being as a rule cheaper per unit than the sulphate, it should be 
used in preferenee in soils containing sufficient lime, for most farm 
crops. 

In soils potash occurs in quantities ranging from .01 to 2 per 
vent., equivalent to 350 Ibs. to 70,000 lbs. per acre taken to a depth 
of 1ft.; it is derived from the weathering of minerals containing 


201 


it as an ingredient, and chiefly from felypars, one of the constituents 
of granite. Of these, the richest, Mr. E. 8. Simpson, of the Mines 
Department, reports having analysed were from a pegmatite cut- 
crop at Ferndale, Balingup, which yielded 12.56 per cent. of potash. 
and another at Mahogany Creek going 12.2. It may be said 
that a soil showing .03 per cent. of potash on analysis does not 
usually need a potash fertiliser. Crops not fed off on the ground 
remove amounts of potash which vary greatly. Beets may remove 
as much as 100 lbs. per acre, and cereals about 30 lbs. A table given 
above (page ) gives the relative likings of various fruit crops for 
potash. The percentage of that element of plant food in soils 
usually rises with their contents of clay, but eases occur in which 
even heavy land is deficient in availolle potash. Reclaimed swamps 
and sandy soils are almost invariably benefited by the application 
of potash fertilisers. 


Potash in Western Australia, 

Besides the two cases of potash felspar mentioned above, Mr. 
E. 5. Simpson draws attention to investigations made while potash 
was unprocurable during the war as to likely sources of supply 
within the State. 

Amongst others he mentions the “Glauconite” sand from Mole 
Cap Hill, Gingin. He gives four analyses which show that the 
chalky outcrop which supplies the phosphated lime sold by Mr. 
V. B. Gordon contains a fraction under 2 per cent. of potash, while 
the glauconite sand under the chalk contains nearly 3 per cent. 

Another mineral called “Jarosite,’” found near Northampton, is 
reported to contain up to 5% per cent. of potash. 

The most promising form from which a low-grade potash is 
likely to be procured is in the “Alunite” deposits of Kanowna, which, 
after roasting and treatment, savs Mr. T. Blatchford, of the Geo- 
logical Department, yield a material which contains up to 7 per cent. 
of potash, and can also be utilised as a source of aluminium. 


Som, AMENDMENTS OR IJMPROVERS, 

Besides the fertilisers reviewed in the previous pages, soils 
often need the application of methods of fertilising which exercise 
on them both a mechanical and a chemical effect. 

Amongst the most commonly used amendments are: 

Lrur, which is especially valuable for the renovation of worn- 
out soils and for breaking down stiff clay and making it more friable 
and pervious to water; it supplies plant foud; it assists in the de- 
composition of organic matter, and for this reason a soil poor in 
humus should receive more sparing applications of lime than soils of 
a peaty nature, or rich in organic matter; it sweetens sour soils in 
neutralising the acids; it decomposes injurious substances in the soil 


202 


(ferrous oxide, a plant poison, into ferric oxide, a plant food); it 
promotes the process of nitrification by encouraging the presence 
of special micro-organisms; it increases the fertility of the soil 
by helping some of the chemical processes which result in the more 
ready absorption by the soil of phosphoric acid, potash, and am- 
monia. Clay soils which show a tendency to “puddle” and form 
clods when improperly tilled, are greatly improved by a dressing 
of lime. This substance possesses the property of flocculating or 
coagulating the clay particles, thus opening the pores of such soils 
and making them less retentive of water and more permeable to air. 

Quick or caustic lime, which results from the burning of lime- 
stone or carbonate of lime, is, chemically speaking, carbon oxide 
(CaO), of which it loses 44 per cent. when roasted. It acts more 
energetically than carbonate of lime, or mild lime, and should be 
preferred for peaty and sour soils. Oyster shells and marble 
give the purest lime; our coastal limestone is not so pure and con- 
tains 6 to 20 per cent. of sand. 

This quick lime when moistened takes up 24 per cent. of water 
and oxygen and becomes “slaked lime” or “hydrated oxide of lime,” 
which, when exposed to the air, absorbs carbonic acid and reverts to 
carbonate of lime (CaCo,). 

Thus— 

20ewt. pure limestone yields. 
1144ewt. quick lime, or 
1484ewt. slaked lime; 
or putting it another way: 
20ewt. quick lime when slaked produces 
26ewt. slaked lime. 

During this process it increases considerably in volume, and 
falls to powder. A bushel of good stone lime weighs, when quick, 
90lbs.: when slaked, it will measure nearly three bushels; each of 
which will weigh about 45lbs. A busliel of unslaked oyster shell 
lime weighs 60lbs. When slaked it will measure something over two 
bushels, each of which will weigh 40lbs. 

The quantity of lime to use at one application depends on the 
amount of vegetable matter the soil contains. Thirty bushels of 
lime (12ewt.) is a safe application if the soil is quite thin and econ- 
tains but little vegetable mould. Several small applications of lime 
are safer than one heavy one. The chief objection of using lime in 
the quick or the slacked form is that it floats in the air as a eaustie, 
impalpable powder, which is trying to the eyes and nose and also 
to horse and harness. Gas lime is another fairly cheap source of 
agricultural lime. It rarely, however, contains more than 40 per 
cent. of lime, the rest being made up of moisture and compounds 
of sulphur or sulphites and sulphoeyanates, which are injurious to 
vegetation, and should be allowed to be corrected by the action of 
the air before being ploughed in. During this operation the noxious 


203 


sulphites are converted into gypsum (sulphate of lime). Limekiln 
ashes are also desirable land amendments; they contain about one 
per cent. each potash and phosphoric acid, besides some lime. 

For the destruction of sorrel, heavy liming is recommended, 
and applications amounting up to two tons to the acre may be used 
for that purpose. 

CHALK is dug out and exposed to frost, and then spread, as 
it is constituted of minute microscopic shells, as well as fragments 
of shells of larger size; it contains a little phosphoric acid generally 
in combination with lime as phospate of lime. to the extent of 0.10 
to 1.25 per cent. (or 100lbs. of this burned lime contains 2¥4lbs. of 
phosphate of lime). 

Marts consist of carbonate of lime, generally resulting from 
the fragments of shells which have accumulated at the bottom of 
fresh water lakes, which have generally been filled up by clay or 
sand, or by the growth of peat. They contain from 1 to 2 per cent. 
of phosphate of lime, and at times small amounts of potash. 

Marling only pays where the material is close at hand and can 
be put on the land at a cost of a few shillings a ton. An applica- 
tion of two to three tons to the acre is by no means excessive. 

Gypsum, or hydrated calcium sulphate, has been much used as 
a manure, but as it occurs in superphosphate and is not charged 
for, is rarely applied to crops nowadays. It occurs in places 
erystallised, and is found very useful for leguminous plants, especi- 
ally for red clover, lucerne, ete. Applied from three to six ewts. 
per acre. Supplies lime and sulphate to the crops and acts as a 
solvent, which sets potash free from its state of dormant combina- 
tion in the soil. Appears to promote the process of nitrification. 
Is a valuable absorbent on the manure heap and in stables, cow 
sheds, and poultry yards, where it fixes the volatile ammonia into 
non-volatile sulphate of ammounia. Very useful in reclaiming alka- 
line salt patches containing carbonate of soda. 

The relative value of burnt sulphate of lime or plaster of Paris 
and of unburnt sulphate of lime or gypsum lies in the fact that 
roasting drives out the proportion of water of crystallisation; thus 
making a given weight of plaster of Paris richer in sulphate of lime 
than an equivalent weight of gypsum. 

Asues.—Supply in small quantities magnesium, potassium, 
calcium, iron, phosphorus and sulphur—all mineral matters neces- 
sary to the growth of plants, and for that reason they constitute 
a very good fertiliser. Besides their value as plant food, they also 
have on it a mechanical effect similar to that of lime. They are 
especially useful on light and sandy lands, rendering them 
moister. The value of ashes vary with the kind of wood burned, 
and with the care that has been taken of them. Limekiln ashes 
can at times be obtained at a reasonable price. They contain 


204 


about 1 per cent. of potash and phosphoric acid and about 40 per 
cent. lime. Ashes from burnt vine euttings are rich in potash, 
and on that account they should be spread back on the land. It 
is the practice now to burn them in an iron furnace set on a 
sledge or mounted on iron wheels and drawn by a horse along the 
rows of vines after pruning in the winter. In this way the ashes 
resulting from the burning are evenly spread amongst the vines. 

Green Manurrne affords one of the best and cheapest methods 
of adding humus or organic mould to poor sandy soils more 
especially. The term is applied to some quick-growing crop which 
is ploughed in green. Two classes of plants are used: those which 
ave not exacting in their demand for plant food and constitute a 
cover in the winter which checks loss by washing or drainage, and 
those which gather plant food from the air as well as from the 
subsoil and leave it on the surface for the use of succeeding crops. 
To the first class belong rye, buekwheat, rape, Cape weed, Cape 
and beardless barley; to the second, the legumes—clovers, peas, 
vetches, lupins—a class of plants capable, by means of the bacteria 
living in their root nodules, to absorb and fix the free nitrogen of 
the soil atmosphere. By the process of green manuring, loose 
soils are made more retentive, and clay soils lighter. Cow peas, 
although very desirable as green manure, are not used in orchards 
where winter-growing plants are exclusively grown. They are 
better suited for tropical countries where summer rains occur. 
For winter sowing the most desirable plants are crimson clover 
(Trifolium incarnatum), an annual which germinates and develops 
quickly. Eight to ten pounds of seeds will sow an acre. The 
erowth of the erop will be greatly stimulated by the application 
of some phosphate and potash fertilisers. When grown, it will 
act in three distinct ways: as a winter covering to the soil, as a 
summer mulch, as a plant food gatherer. Experiments at the 
Jersey Experiment Station, U.S., found that a growth of 13 inches 
produced 168lbs. of nitrogen, worth £5. 

The Canadian field pea has also given very satisfactory re- 
sults. Sow about 85 to 100lbs. per acre, or plough the crop in the 
early spring, using a chain on the plough and a dise coulter to 
cover and drag in all vines under the earth. 

Several kinds of trefoil invade our vinevards and orchards 
after a few years of cultivation and do much good as nitrogen 
vatherers: they are natives of Southern Europe and are annuals, 
viz, Hop clover (Trifolium procumbens), distinguished by its 
large yellow hop-like flower; Woolly clover (T. tomentosum), 
Clustered clover (T. glomeratum), Slender or Minus clover CD. 
minus), Burr trefoil (medicigo denticulata), Subterranean clover 
(T. subterrancum). 

The best method of growing a winter cover crop is to sow the 
eveon manure in the autumn (April) ploughing in the mass of the 


205 


green crop while it is still succulent (September and early Octo- 
ber). When searifying the planted land in the spring a dise 
cultivator gives very good results for the reason that it chops up 
the crop without getting tangled up in the vines. 


Green manuring may, under particular circumstances, be 
detrimental. In localities of short rainfall it may !ead co the 
desiccation of the soil. It is calculated that one part of dry 
vegetable matter requires 300 to 500 times its own weight of 
moisture, so that every ton of green manuring erop in a dry 
locality would absorb 300 to 500 tons of water; and unless plenti- 
ful rain or abundance of artificial water can be relied upon, the 
process may in some cases be detrimental. 

The results of commercial fertilisers are much more marked 
when applied on land well stocked with humus than when used on 
land depleted of vegetable mould. 


VALUE OF FERTILISERS. 

Under the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act it is imperative 
on the manure vendors to furnish with the invoice for any fertil- 
iser sold a certificate showing the per cent. of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid (soluble and insoluble), and potash contained in the manure. 
Mention of any other ingredient is of little or no value, and may 
be considered as so much padding, which is liable to confuse the 
purchaser. Failure to comply with this enactment may be meted 
out by a £20 fine. The more concentrated the fertiliser is, as re- 
gards any one or more of the three elements mentioned, the more 
valuable it is, so much less dead weight having to he handled and 
carried to the field. 

The value of the three chief elements of a fertiliser—viz., 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash—is not uniformly the same, 
and is mostly influenced by sea and railway freight, and by its 
degree of solubility. The market quotation is expressed at so 
much a “unit.” The unit value being the value of one per cent. of 
the particular ingredient in a ton of manure. 

Nitrogen in sulphate of ammonia or in nitrate of soda or of 
potash is worth in Western Australia 16s. to 18s. per unit. In 
blood, bones, or offal (ground fine) it is worth 14s. in this State.* 

If we express by 10 the worth of nitrogen in nitrate of soda, 
of potash, or of sulphate of ammonia and of ammonia in live 
guano, the nitrogen in blood and bones or meat is only worth 7, 
while in wool waste, hair, horn, and leather it comes down to only 
2 or 3, that is to say:—If an application of nitrogen under the 
form of nitrate of soda, or the substances grouped with it, would 
produce a surplus crop of 1,000]bs. of fruit, an equivalent amount 


*Note.—These are pre-war prices and fluctuate from time to time. 


206 


of nitrogen derived from blood, bones, or meat would produce an 
increase of 700lbs., and a similar dressing of nitrogen from wool 
waste, hair, ground horn, or leather would only produce an increase 
of 200 to 300lbs. of fruit. It is thus seen how important in select- 
ing the materials from which nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
are to be derived to see that the material is readily available. 

Phosphorie acid varies greatly’ in value, whether it is soluble 
or insoluble in water. As regards “Citrate soluble’? phosphoric 
acid—i.e., from a phosphate soluble in a weak acid solution, such 
as one of ammonium citrate—the value is intermediate between 
the above two, thus: Water soluble phosphorie acid is worth in 
Western Australia 7s. Phosphoric acid insoluble in water is worth 
with us 3s. a unit, whilst citrate soluble phosphorie acid is worth 
here 5s. 

Potash in soluble salts is worth in Western Australia 6s. to 
7s.; while potash in natural manures, such as dried nightsoil, is 
worth 5s. and 4s. respectively. These prices, of course, fluctuate 
a little according to the state of the market, the quantity of 
fertilisers bought, and as to whether the transaction is a cash one 
or one involving terms. 

The state of subdivision in which some fertilisers occur is 
hardly ever given in the analysis, yet this is a most important 
factor of the manure’s worth. 

‘To arrive at the value of a fertiliser, and unless it is specified 
whether the nitrogen, the phosphorie acid, and the potash are 
derived from the better prized material, these ingredients are 
considered as being derived from the baser ones when calewlating 
values. 

Knowing these values, it is easy, when furnished with an 
invoice certificate, to determine the real value of the manure 
offered. Thus a mixed fertiliser contains— 


Nitrogen (as Sulphate of Ammonia) .. 4 per cent. 
Phosphoric Acid—Water Sol. a wage OD re 
6 » Citrate Sol. ne ine OD ss 
a »  Losoluble ... re 3 a 
Total Phosphoric Acid ... ey 10 - 
Potash, Muriate irs ss és ae 4 4 
This statement is treated as follows :— 
4 per cent. Nitrogen and Sulphate of Ammonia, sd. 
at 16s. Hi tas ae aus ate 3 04 ~=«0 
5 per cent. Phosphoric Acid, soluble, at 7s. 115 0 
2 es 5 Citrate, sol., at 5s. ... 010 0 
3 a me Insol., at 3s. 0 9 O 
4 35 Potash, at 7s. wee 1 8 0 
47 6 «(0 


207 


Or again, bonedust contains :— 


Nitrogen 4 ae sibs aie 3°16 per cent. 
Phosphoric Acid iy nd igs 20-20 


” 


Mechanical Condition— 


Fine bone 28 i one os 42 per cent. 
Coarse bone 8 


” 


After working out the relative percentages of nitrogen and 
of phosphorie acid, as fine and coarse bone, multiply these per- 
centages by their unit value and add together the products :— 


eae ee aaa .. 3°16 per cent. x 74%, = 1-32 as fine bone. 
-. 3°16 3 xX 25 = 1-833 as coarse bone. 
Bieaphewe Acid . . 20:20 * x 4% = 8-48 in fine bone. 
Do. s+ 20°20 3 x $8 = 11-71 in coarse bone. 
Percent. Unit Value. Value per ton. 
£ os. d. 
1:32 «x 16/- = 1410 0 
1:83 x l4/- = 1 5 9 
848 x 5/- = 2 2 5 
7] x 4/4 = 299 
Unit Value » £619 2 


It is thus seen that the price per unit is obtained by multiply- 
ing the percentage of each ingredient by the price of a unit, or 
conversely by dividing the price per ton by the percentage of the 
fertilisers and adding together the products. 

In this manure the purchaser can arrive at a fair value of the 
manure offered to him, to which, of course, must be added the cost 
of carriage from the manure works. 


EFrrect OF FERTILISERS ON FRUIT CROPS. 


Experiments made a few years ago in the State of Missouri 
brought to light the fact that twigs, fruit spurs, spurs with fruit 
set, of apples, analysed, showed that the much larger amount of 
lime, phosphoric acid, and potash in the bearing twigs is very 
marked as compared with non-bearing twigs. It would thus seem 
that the effect of fertilising fruit trees cannot possibly manifest 
itself in the same year in an increased fruit crop, but appears to a 
certainty the year after, and that fruit growers, in valuing fertil- 
isers, must bear this in mind to arrive at a correct conclusion of 
the action of manures on their fruit crop. 

Speaking in a broad sense, nitrogen, applied as a fertiliser, 
produces wood and leaves; phosphates produce fecundity and a 
brightness of colouring ; and potash produces sweetness and 
flavour; gypsum and sulphate of iron help to fix the fruit on the 
tree. 


208 

An abundance of nitrogen is indicated by rank growth and 
dark green foliage, and by size and coarseness of fruit. Con- 
versely, stunted growth and pale leaves often show lack of nitro- 
gen; fewer fruits are formed; these are of smaller size and colour 
early, On oranges, excessive organic nitrogen results in thick 
rind, abundant rag, and sometimes in causing defoliation, die-back, 
and gumming diseases. 

Lime and potash correct the effect of heavy doses of organic 


nitrogen. 
Mineral nitrogen stimulates the production of fruit more than 
excessive applications of organie nitrogen. In oranges, thinner 


skin and little rag or fruit pith is produced; sulphate of ammonia, 
when there is a slight deficiency of potash, tends to sweeten the 
fruit. 

Phosphoric acid starvation is at times manifested by the 
appearance of the voung and tender leaves, known as ‘‘frenching’’ 
or variegations of the foliage. Phosphorus throws the tree into 
fruit quicker and has a most beneficial influence on the growth 
of the plant. 

Potash fertilisers are not sufficiently used by fruit-growers, 
considering what an amount of this element is found in the ashes 
of fruit. 

Heavy doses of potash, unless correspondingly accompanied 
by other fertilisers, produce sour fruit. Lack of potash is shown 
by spindly growth of wood, which summers badly and is easily 
injured by frost. On account of its hygroscopic property, good 
results have been obtained in applying it in early spring to aid 
the plant in withstanding the spring drought, which often eauses 
a great quantity of fruit to drop off. A yellowish, unhealthy eon- 
dition of a tree is often caused by the application of a potash 
fertiliser. 

Lime is notable in its effect on table grapes. It also tends 
to hasten the ripening and perfect the colouring of ovanges. 
Deficiency of lme is often accompanied by thick skin and poor 
aroma. 


Wien ann How ro Manxurs. 

The question is often asked: When is it best to apply 
fertilisers 7 Phosphates may be applied at any time from the 
beginning of the autumn up till the end of the winter. Potash is 
better applied early in heavy soils, which it has a tendeney to 
clog, so as to give the winter rains and the frost time to counter- 
act. that particularity. The application of lime with it will also 
correct this tendency. On light dry sandy loam it is advisable to 
apply potash fairly late, so as to utilise this hygroscopic feature 
towards storing up moisture in the vicinity of the roots of the 
plant. Nitrogenous chemical fertilisers it is better to apply in the 


209 


early spring amongst deciduous trees, and before the trees bloom. 
In regard to evergreen trees, such as those of the citrus tribe, it 
is immaterial at what time, so long as the trees are systematically 
and regularly fed. It is recommended for citrus trees to divide the 
amount of chemical nitrogenous manure to be applied during the 
year into two applications. 

Experience will teach the orchardist how to regulate the 
spread of any quantity of the manure whilst covering an acre 
of land. 

The following rule-of-thumb practice is found to be fairly 
correct for such fertilisers as potash salts, and nitrate of soda, 
sulphate of ammonia, or any fertiliser of approximately the same 
weight. 

In broadcasting, sowing a handful at each step, the right foot 
steps forward, and scattering it 12 to 15 feet in breadth, there 
will be applied 150 to 200 pounds per acre. 

Non-soluble fertilisers, such as bonedust, if sown by them- 
selves, it is preferable not to sow broadcast for the manuring of 
orchard or vineyards, as this practice draws the roots from under- 
neath to the surface, where they are periodically hacked about 
by the tines of the searifier. A better plan is to set the plough to 
its full depth of 8 to 9 inches and open a furrow up and down the 
centre of the land between the two rows of trees or vines and 
sowing in these deep gutters the amount of insoluble fertiliser it is 
meant to give to each acre of land. When this is done, the plough 
is again set to its proper depth and the earth is thrown back on 
to’ the manure, which is thus buried under. Should the land be 
too stiff, or the team too light for opening such deep furrows, the 
plough can be run once again in the bottom of a first top furrow, 
and the requisite depth is thus attained. In this manner numerous 
small rootlets issue from the severed roots of the plants and go 
and feed on the manure in the deep trough, twisting and coiling 
around each particle. When trees are manured by means of in- 
soluble fertilisers, dig with the spade, some three to four feet from 
the stem, three trenches a foot deep and several feet long, in the 
form of a triangle; place the manure at the bottom of these 
trenches and cover up with soil. When manure is forked into the 
eround, it should not be applied right against the bole of the tree, 
but a small distance away. The plate in the article on mulching 
illustrates the distribution of the main roots and of the rootlets in 
the ground. The first, whose main functions are to brace up and 
support the structure, is fairly barren of rootlets; they give rise 
to branch roots which, in their turn, carry towards their periphery 
the fibrous rootlets, which are in a true sense the feeding mouths 
of the plant, and absorb the moisture and food required by the 
growing tissues. The diagram shows where water and manure 
should be applied and where mulching does most good. 


210 


EXPERIMENT FOR YOURSELVES. 

Chemical analysis of a soil will indicate on broad lings the 
wealth or the poorness of a given soil, but its teachings ar¢ in no 
wise as accurate as those derived from personal observation drawn 
from the result of local experiments. Gvowers can, with Jittle or 
no trouble, find out for themselves the elements that are more 
urgently required by their trees. For this purpose, a row or two 
are set apart, every third tree is manured in some manner or 
other; the trees on each side of it are left unmanured, as jvitnesses 
to show by comparison whether a manured tree cele differs 
from them or not. Some form of nitrogenous manure’ may be 
applied to one or more of the trees in the experimental line; then 
some form of phosphatic manure to one or more others ; then 
again, some form of potassic manure to one or more trees. The 
experiment can further be widened by combining together for 
testing on some fresh trees any two of the manures used singly 
on the first lot of trees, and finally more trees are tested with a 
complete fertiliser, resulting from the combination of the three 
fertilisers used singly, or of any fertilisers containing in’ some 
available form the three elements—nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
potash. 

One thing the grower must well penetrate his mind with, that 
crops, like animals, must be generously fed to keep healthy and 
bear abundant crops. Just as the digestive organs of the animal 
assimilate the nourishment of its body, so the assimilating organs 
of plants utilise the food placed within their reach. Like the 
animal also, they require a ‘‘complete ration;’’ that is to say. 
one with no needful element of plant food lacking, and when well 
fed the plant will thrive, produce without effort, and withstand 
and offer no encouragement to the numerous parasitic pests that 
assail our cultivated crops. Spraying and manuring operate con- 
jointly, and well-fed trees, once freed from parasites, remain clean 
without further dressing for a very long time. The varying state 
of health and vigour in even a small 10-acre orchard, when the 
climatic conditions are otherwise alike, point out to variations in 
the constituents of the soil. 


IRRIGATION AND ROOT MANAGEMENT. 
How Puanrs Apsorn WATER. 

Plants, flowers, and fruits are made up mostly of water. 
Analysis shows that there is as much as 90lbs. to 94lbs. of water in 
every 100lbs. of some of the more succulent fruits and vegetables, 
such as asparagus, cabbages, cucumbers, lettuce, melons, rhubarb, 
tomatoes, and strawherries; as much as 8Mlbs. to 85lbs. of water in 
every 100lbs. of such fruit as apples, apricots, grapes, lemons, and 
pears; green fodders contain 60 to 85 per cent. of water according 


211 


to their state of maturity. According to Professor King, of Wis- 
consin, it requires 300 to 500 lbs. of water to produce lb. of dry 
vegetable material, or in other words, to produce 1 ton of hay, it 
is necessary to have 300 to 500 tons of water, which must be sup- 
plied by rain or by irrigation during the growing period; so it 
1 ton is to be grown on an acre there must be from 3 to 5 inches 
of water supplied at the proper time. (The weight of 1 inch of 
water over 1 acre of land approximates 100 tons.) It is essential that 
the contents of the cells which enter into the structure of the grow- 
ing plant should be in a half-liquid condition in order that nourish- 
ment and construction material should be carried and distributed 
wherever required, be it in the stem, the tender buds, or the ripening 
fruit. When the cells cease to be distended with fluid sap they zet 
flaceid and the plant wilts. Unless this state is promptly remedied 
by an influx of sap these cells thicken, they lose their elasticity, 
the lant first gets stunted and finally dries up and dies. The water 
necessary for plant growth is absorbed by the hair-like rootlets 
issuing from the stronger roots which penetrate the ground in search 
of food and moisture; it does not, however, enter into the cireula- 
tion of plants quite pure, but contains in solution variable quanti- 
ties of substances which plants feed upon. From these rootlets it 
is passed on from cell to cell, by a process of diffusion, first along 
the larger roots which anchor the plant to the ground, thence to the 
stem, on to the branches, the buds, leaves, and fruit. 

That cell to cell motion, or that diffusion of the nourishing 
sap, from the capillary rootlets to the tip of the branches, is quick- 
ened by evaporation. 

The evaporating organs of the plants are the leaves. These, 
when fanned by the breeze, allow a considerable amount of mois- 
ture to escape through the stomata or breathing pores. In bright 
daylight these pores open to allow the admission of carbon and of 
oxygen to the working cells of the leaves. As this takes place a 
good deal of the moisture which saturates the air in the intercellular 
spaces of the leaves escapes to the drier outside air. A vacuum is 
thus created, and more moisture exudes from the gorged cells to 
replace the amount lost through evaporation. In this manner a 
current of sap is created from the rootlets upwards towards the 
branches. 

Under certain circumstances this current may run quicker than 
the plant is able to absorb moisture from the ground. This is 
noticeable on a dry, hot day, when the plant flags. 

This being so, it is easy to understand that other conditions 
of soil texture and of particular plant requirements being alike, a 
given field crop, or trees of the same sort and age, wiil show signs 
ot wilting and need for water much sooner in the drier air of the 
inland districts than in the moister air of the coastal zone. In both 
instances the soil may have been wetted to saturation, point by the 


212 


t 
winter rains; but, evaporation being more active inland than op the 
coast, that store of moisture is more rapidly exhausted in the first 
instance as compared with the second. 

This perspiration of the leaves keeps the plant cool when 
everything else around is scorched, but as soon as that perspiration 
ceases leaves and fruit get burned. Whenever, therefore, perspira- 
tion threatens to stop for want of moisture rising from the roots 
we find in watering and in irrigation a ready means of. stimulat- 
ing it. ‘ 

ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION, 

In the coastal districts of Western Australia, where fruit- 
vrowing is more generally earried on, little or no heed has, until 
some nine or ten years ago, been paid to the advantages of irriga- 
tion. The reason is that within that zone which is more directly 
under the beneficial influence of monsoonal and maritime climate, 
that climate is consistent and not capricious. The ground receives 
a deep and a thorough soaking every winter, and the air is, except 
in the latter part of summer, charged with a sufficiency of mois- 
ture which checks a too rapid or too prolonged evaporation or pers- 
piration through the leaves. Further inland, however, these con- 
ditions are not noticeable to the same extent. The rainfall is not 
so abundant and the evaporation is greater; furthermore, adequate 
and suitable water for irrigation is often deficient. 

Numerous spots, however, are found dotted over the country 
where irrigation can be applied with profit. In such places, and 
wherever deep and thorough drainage is associated with it, irrigation 
eliminates any risks arising from any freaks and anomalies of the 
season. Such privileged spots are always, for that reason, much 
sought after. Although alive to the value and potentialities of 
these spots, few owners have hitherto taken advantage of their 
sources of water supply and led them along suitable channels to 
where they can double or treble the production of the ground. 

Tt is greatly due to the exertions of Mr. H. Scott, who some 
ten years ago was appointed to organise and take charge of the 
Irrigation Branch of the Department of Agriculture, that the benefit 
of applying water to growing crops of fodder and _ fruit trees 
has been brought under the notice of settlers in this State. A 
special Bulletin, prepared by Mr. Scott, can be obtained on appli- 
cation to the Department of Agriculture; the questions involved 
are more fully treated in that publication than it ean be in this 
chapter, and those desirous of gaining further information must 
be referred to it. 


Water channels on graded land, 


213 


EvILts oF IRRIGATION. 


Although irrigation has been a source of large profits to some, 
it may be said tu have, on the other hand, led in as many eases 
to considerable losses. The practice should only be adopted with 
judgment and after consultation with the specialists in charge of 
that work at the Department of Agriculture. The initial cost of 
leading water on to the land may be so great that the expenditure 
may not be justifiable. Moreover irrigation without efficient and 
thorough drainage is always fatal, sooner or later. The ground 
thereby alternately gets chilled and baked; there is no get away 
for the water except by evaporation; this cools the ground to a 
point which is uncomfortable and detrimental to vegetation and 
leads to the rotting of the roots. In irrigating or watering an or- 
chard, the water should never be Jed or poured into a cup-shaped 
bowl, dug around the stem. This causes a gummy exudation to 
ooze out at the crown of the tree, and the plant dies of collar rot. 
The stem should always be protected from actual immersion in 
water by a small mound of earth which is banked up around it. 

Irrigation on ground which is not naturally well drained, or 
where no attempt has been made to deep drain the soil, is often the 
cause of the displacement of masses of injurious alkaline salts from 
deep down towards the surface, where they finally accumulate and 
corrode the roots and stem and kill the trees. Much valuable in- 
formation on this rising of the soluble alkalies in irrigated soils is 
due to Professor Hilgard’s researches in California. It has been 
shown that the presence of as much as a quarter of one per cent. 
(.25 == 8,750]bs. on one acre of soil 1ft. deep) of carbonate of soda, 
one of the most corrosive of soil alkalies, renders that soil sterile. 

Over-irrigation is one of the greatest causes of failure in the 
hands of the amateur irrigationist. In a climate like ours, where 
the ground is well soaked during the winter months, there is little 
need to water the trees until early in summer if on deep loamy 
ground. Two or three more thorough waterings at intervals of a 
month, followed up by thorough cultivation and pulverisation of 
the surface ground, would thence meet the requirements of most 
trees. 

A good soaking is better than two or three niggardly waterings, 
which, instead of encouraging root growth deeper down into the 
soil, attract the tender rootlets towards the moistened surface, where 
they lie exposed, to be hacked about by implements of cultivation, 
or to be dried up should a hot, dry spell of weather set in. 

Water cannot be forced into the ground. Sufficient time must 
be allowed for it to soak, generally 12 to 24 hours 

The benefit derived from irrigation is often annulled by neglect 
to suitably, manure the land. It stands to reason that, if a soil can 
supply the necessary plant-food for half-a-dozen successive crops 
of, say, two tons of fruit to the acre, without showing any need 


214 


for a supplement of that food in the shape of manure, it will, 
when producing, say, four tons of fruit, when put under intensive 
culture, with the aid of irrigation, show signs of falling off much 
quicker than it would otherwise have done. 

The belief that a crop is all right because it has been irri- 
gated, unfortunately proves only too often a delusion. Unless the 
operation can be carried out at a reasonable cost, with suitable 
water, on well-drained ground, properly manured, and provided the 
operation is not overdone, irrigation cannot be profitable. It is 
also essential, when orchards and vineyards are concerned, that 
the pruning and thinning operations should receive proper atten- 
tion, and that pests and blights should be vigorously suppressed 
and not allowed to share with the owner the surplus crop which 
irrigation carried out under favourable circumstances always en- 
sures. 


Water MEASUREMENT. 

The cultivator who handles water must be able to determine 
fairly accurately the amount of water needed for a crop on a given 
soil, and a few figures in relation to the measurement of water will 
be helpful in caleulation :-— 

1 gallon of water weighs 10lbs., and measures 277 cubic 
inches. , 

1 cubic foot of water weighs 624lbs., and contains 644 gal- 
lons. 

1 cubic yard contains 169 gallons of water. 

1 ton of water contains 224 gallons, and measures 36 cubic 
feet. 

1 inch of water over an acre of land weighs 101 tons, and 
therefore means 22,624 gallons, an amount which would 
be held in a tank with a 3,600 eubie foot capacity. A 
square tank 15ft. x 15ft. x 15ft. would about hold this 
quantity or, nearer still, a tank 18ft. x 20ft. x 10ft. = 
3,600 cubic feet. 

A miner’s inch is the amount of water running from a hole 
one inch square with a head pressure of 6 inches in one 
second or one minute. 


WATERS FIT FOR IRRIGATION. 

Water is the universal solvent, and no water except that trick- 
ling from the condenser of a distilling apparatus is absolutely pure 
in its natural condition. 

Thus rain water, which is considered the purest of all, washes 
down from the air impurities which to a great extent constitute 
valuable plant food. In close proximity of the sea coast, for in- 
stance, 30 to 40lbs. of common salt to the acre are brought down 


215 


annually by the rain. Of ammonia 2 to 10lbs., and of sulphuric 
acid 10 to 20lbs. are added from the same source to every acre of 
land in localities favoured with a fair amount of rain. 

Of stream water some prove better than others when used for 
irrigation, and they vary according to the amount of substances 
they carry either in solution or in suspension. 

Well water is, as a rule, even more highly mineralised than 
stream water, and is often injurious to vegetation, especially in the 
Eastern and inland districts, where it is not infrequently unfit for 
consumption. 

Taste is the readiest means of ascertaining whether water is 
fit for domestic or irrigation use. 

A erystal clear well water often proves worthless for irrigation 
purposes, whereas a spring or a well well-stocked with, acquatic 
plants and luxurious vegetation, and where stones at the bottom 
are covered with green slime, always holds water fit for irrigation. 

The best indicator of the fitness of water for irrigation is the 
palate, and when the taste is decidedly mawkish it is advisable to 
have a sample analysed before going through the trouble and the 
cost of providing for its lifting and cost of distributing it on the 
ground. An analytical statement is often perplexing until the array 
of figures is understood. 

In water analysis the residue or solid matter either held in 
suspension or in solution is expressed in so many grains per 
gallon, or so many parts in 10,000 parts. We have seen in a 
previous chapter when dealing with manures that the weight of 
one acre of agricultural soil one foot deep is approximately 
3,500,0001bs. It has, moreover, been determined by chemical 
investigation that a soil containing -1 per cent. of soluble salt is 
unsuitable for cropping, and is only fit for growing salt-loving 
plants. 

The question, therefore, which the irrigationist has to solve 
is: What amount of water containing a given quantity of salt will 
be necessary to cause the accumulation into the ground of approxi- 
mately .1 per cent. of salt (equivalent to 3,500lbs. to one acre one 
foot deep) ? 

That question, indeed, can only be approximate, as a certain 
proportion of that saline matter would be leached out of the 
ground during the rainy season; sandy soil could, besides stand 
more salt than the more retentive soils, such as loam or clay, 
and drainage would also delay to some extent the period when that 
dangerous point of -1 per cent. of salt would be reached. When 
calculating the amount of salt added to the soil by water contain- 
ing a known number of grains of that substance to the gallon, it 
must be borne in mind that one gallon contains 7,000 grains. As 
1 inch of water over 1 acre is equivalent to 22,630 gallons (101 


216 


tons) it follows that every grain of salt per gallon adds 22630 = 
314lbs. of salt to the ground whenever that amount of water is 
used in irrigation. 

It would be unsafe to use extensively and continuously for 
the purpose of irrigation a well or pond water containing more 
than 70 grains of salt to the gallon. Such an amount would mean 
an addition of about 2ewt. (22714lbs.) of salt to the aere, for each 
one-inch watering. Such a water used in the more arid regions, 
where rainfall is light, would soon accumulate in the surface of 
the ground an amount of salt which would prove injurious to 
vegetation, and 10 irrigations of one inch each would add to the 
soil over a ton of salt, which, added to the amount of that sub- 
stance already in the ground, would make it sterile unless the soil 
is light and the drainage efficient. 

In the coastal districts, where the rainfall is more abundant, 
a water containing 50 grains of salt to the gallon could be used 
pretty freely for irrigation, provided the soil is of a light and 
porous nature and is well drained. But if used on stiffer soil it 
would, in the course of a few years, bring the amount of salt up 
to danger point. 

A water containing 10 to 12 grains of common salt to the 
gallon is often used for all domestic purposes. 

In a previous chapter dealing with the limits of salt in water 
the maximum amount of chloride of sodium in potable and stock 
water and water for irrigation, as suggested by Mr. E. «A. Mann, 
the State Analyst, is given more fully. 


' 4 
Factors WHIcH INFLUENCE IRRIGATION, 

No cast-iron rule can be laid down regarding the amount of 
water necessary for obtaining the best results from a given crop. 

The rainfall, the depth and nature of the soil and of the sub- 
soil, the particular variety and age of the trees, the climate, the 
quantity as well as the quality of the water at command, and the 
means and facilities of bringing water on to the land all require 
consideration. 

Speaking generally, a rainfall of 20 inches on deep loam fairiy 
rich in vegetable matter, and possessing good absorbing and reten- 
tive power, may prove sufficient for an orchard planted with 
deciduous trees, provided that amount of moisture is well tended, 
and by good cultivation prevented from escaping by evaporation. 

Under similar circumstances, 25 inches may do for evergrecus, 
such as citrus trees, which require more water, 

On deep, dry, sandy, or limestone formation, however, or on 
thin soil overlying solid rock, the plants would very likely show 
signs of distress even with a greater amount of rainfall, 


217 


Crops possess different degrees of thirst, their exigencies in 

this respect running approximately in the following order:— 

1. Meadows and artificial pastures. 

2. Maize and sorghum, for green crop. 

3. Lucerne. 

4. Rape and root crops. 

5. Tares, oats, and peas. 

6. Fruit trees. 

7. Wheat and rye. 

8. Grape vines. 


In the course of an ordinary season, the climate and the soil 
of the bulk of the South-Western division of Western Australia 
has been proved to possess sufficient rainfall and sufficient absorb- 
ing and retentive power to supply all requirements of the last four 
of these groups of cultivated crops. After a dry season, however, 
even these more pronounced drought-resistant crops will suffer 
more or less, and fail to yield a full crop, except at especially 
favoured spots, or unless artificially watered in the proper season. 


Under the climatic conditions experienced in the moister parts 
of the South-West of this State different crops would require water- 
ing at different intervals. 

For summer crops, the seed bed must be moist, otherwise apply 
‘water before or after ploughing with a second watering a fortniglit 
after sprouting, and a third in another four weeks or so as the 
season requires. 

For fruit trees, two or three waterines for vines and three 
or four at most will do for fruit trees, 

For Lucerne a watering immediately after cach cutting and 
then harrow. This, with favourable conditious, may mean five 
waterings or more. 

For market garden cro}s, more frequent, but lighter water- 
ings. 

The volume of water varies with the kind of soil and with the 
rooting character of the crop. Tomatoes and Lucerne, for instance, 
require different volumes. The most usual depth is 7 inches, but 
it may vary from 3 to 20 inches. 


The age of trees, too, and the distance apart they are planted, 
influence to a very marked degree their ,moisture requirements. 
Evidence is not lacking of a number of orchards established in 
various parts of the country which, when young, produced crops of 
first-class fruit, and which as the trees became older and the space 
between the trees decreases with their growth, bear a class of fruit 
inferior in size, appearance, and flavour. In such instances watering 
often proves very profitable. It is simply reduced to a question 
of ways and means. 


218 


Irrigation water cannot bear a high rate. This amount is capa- 
ble of variations according to localities and the market value of 
the produce it is proposed to raise, rates ranging from Ils. to 4s. 
per 1,000 gallons. With shallow wells, and the larger size wind- 
mills, water can be elevated for 2d. per 1,000 gallons; the life of 
the windmill, cost of well, and overhead tanks being practically 
the only expenses. 

At Mildura the quantity of water taken varies somewhat with 
the class of soil, but, generally speaking. it may be assumed at six 
inches per watering. The dates of watering usually commence in 
August, October, and December, lasting five to seven weeks. A 
fourth watering for crops and citrus is given in March-April. For 
vine land and fruit trees the rate struck this year (19/20) ranges 
from 45s. to 60s. per acre per annum for three waterings; crop 
land being given two waterings at a reduction of 10s. per acre. 


Mertuops or Irrigation 

differ with the nature of the crops grown. As a rule, the method 
of flooding land is practised in the case of pastures, meadows, and 
cereal crops, whereas either permanent ditches or fresh furrows are 
resorted to in watering orchards, vineyards, or crops grown in lines. 

In this second case furrows are traced each side of rows run- 
ning from the distributing channels down the slopes. On steep and 
broken slopes difficult to plough and where the soil is apt to wash, 
permanent ditches are laid out on gentle grades for slow running 
of the water, which slowly perecolates from these ditches and sup- 
plies moisture to the trees or crops below them. The great draw- 
back of this system of watering land is that a eonsiderable amount 
of hand-hoeing has to be done on the banks of the furrows, whieh 
not being turned up by the plough, would soon be covered with a 
thick growth of couch grass and weeds. For this reason, and on 
level land, wherever the land has been well graded and levelled, as 
it is the practice on most irrigation colonies, the fruit trees are wat- 
ered by means of plough furrows, which are closed after each water- 
ing. Where the grade is steep, a shovelful or two of earth thrown 
at intervals in the channel will break the current of the water. As 
soon as the water has reached the lower end of the furrow, the 
watering may be stopped altogether and other furrows filled; or 
should a good soaking be required, one-half or two-thirds of the 
water should be cut off and smaller streams allowed to trickle a 
few hours longer, until the land has been sufficiently moistened. A 
rapid flow of water along the distributing furrows will glaze the 
surface and will prove an obstruction to the water soaking deeply 
down into the ground. 

The Supply Furrow, which is fed from the Main Channel, is 
made to run along the highest side of the ground and supplies the 
water to the Distributing Furrows, which are made to run perpen- 


219 


dicular to its direction. It is easily made by running first an or- 
dinary plough, which traces the furrow and is followed by a double 
mould-board or ridging-plough, which not only opens up the chan- 
nel, but throws the loose earth on both sides so as to form the bank. 
Should a deep channel be required, this operation is repeated over 
again. 

The Distributing Furrows are easily traced by running an 
ordinary single furrow plough up and down the same furrow. 


It is important that the water should not come into actual con- 
taet with the bark of the trunk, as trees which have thus been stand- 
ing in water for some time are apt to develop the “collar rot,” which 
is an exudation of sap at the root crown, and is very similar to the 
gum disease. Many a promising young tree has thus perished 
through being improperly watered. For this reason, water shouid 
not be applied to the trees in the bowl-shaped reservoirs which 
beginners often think is the best way of watering them; whenever 
water is thus applied a little mound of earth should be left as a 
protection round the trunk. Another reason why water should not 
be thus applied is that in order to be more beneficial, it should be 
placed within easy reach of the tender rootlets which radiate round 
the plant, and to which it is most beneficial. I have already called 
attention to the structure and disposition of the roots of the plant 
round the stem, so that the reason is plain why it is more beneficial 
to water the plant at some distance from the trunk, where all these 
tender rootlets radiate, rather than close up to the plant itself. 


Showing at ‘‘A’’ the proper place to mulch, manure, and water. 


The distance of the furrow on each side varies according to 
the size of the trees. 

For young vines a furrow on each side. 18 to 24 inches away 
from the lines might be drawn, whereas for older vines planted 


220 


S to 12 feet apart in a loamy soil one furrow midway between the 
rows is quite sufficient. 

For young trees the distance from the trunk would vary from 
two to three feet, and if the trees are large the furrows would be 
opened four to six feet away from the stem. 

Whether the soil is heavy or hght, the method of applying 
water is the same, and the next day or the day after, as soon as it 
is sufficiently drained, the whole surface is scarified with the eulti- 
vator; or if the surface is already clean and loose, the furrows 
alone are broken up by means of the cultivator or scarifier, which 
should not be less than three feet wide, so as to take in a good strip 
of land. 

At each subsequent irrigation the furrows are run in a different 
place, and thus is the land maintained into a uniform degree of 
moisture. 

SPREAD OF WATER FROM DEEP Furrows. 

In an ordinary soil 1 inch of water will saturate dry soil about 
3 inches deep, though moisture will in a few days reach several 
inches farther and give the ground the appearance of being wet 
when it is very much below the point of saturation and could 
retain considerable additional moisture. 

When the ground is first irrigated, large quantities of water 
are sometimes needed to saturate and settle the subsoil. This set- 
tling of the subsoil is sometimes so great that it is necessary to go 
over the tract and regrade it. 


Buck Scraper tilted up when unloaded 


221 


Clay and sand will absorb water at a different rate, and, baving 
absorbed it, hold and retain it more or less loosely. 

These properties have been measured at the sub-stations of the 
College of Agriculture of the University of California, and the 
following diagrams show the extent to which water from fairly 
deep furrows penetrates the sandy soil and the heavy loam at the 
sub-station. 


Bnck Scraper ready for work. 


The spread and the descent of water are carefully mapped out 
on these charts. 

The furrows are seven inches deep, aud the water was run two 
days of twelve hours each. Seventy-two hours after irrigation the 
extent of soil-saturation was measured, the sectional area showing 


222 


that in clay water had wetted somewhat under sixteen square feet as 
against about thirty square feet in the case of the lighter, more 
porous soil. It is contended that a still deeper and narrower water 
channel in the ease of the clay soil would have carried the water 
deeper, and would have resulted in economy in the use of water, a 
smaller flow producing as large an area of saturation with less sur- 
face. 


Clay Loars Sandy Sol 
2he We 0 We SS 256 Ah 0 Mie 2b 
i i Hepat tit tke 
i orig tenpae pees pec! 
Siesse ao at tht. 
133 0 Sbes Orans tbe 
‘a : 
: ce 2st 
ath 
=A 
FE] 3j¢ 
: aa 35 
: ' He 
stidd Sonat pire 
reeereer (224 7a SURFACE 
att ae ag 
* be 4 Jt 
2 eee 
are staeset ate eines HEY sp 
= I} pesadtes cee c aa gS na 
HEE | eraerpranatpabessis estat 
ebechstal pycasiss ! : : 
H ea lel HE # oe 
thy tt +] 
sailit ft i 
a = t:| 
i 
SURPAC! 
: 6 
= 3 
Bad 
f. 
+ 2th 
tea = 
Reps So Ame 
eFiseebes owes 
z Fase 
eresecaaes 
Bubsaas et tees 
zp Gr 
Hiern 


72 HOURS AFTER IRRIGATION 
Percolation expermments, showing spread of water from deep furrows 
in clay and suudy soils. 

Cost.-Tt is reckoned that with one horse and plough one man 
can prepare ten acres for irrigation in a day at a cost of 12s. 6d., 
or ls. 3d. per acre. With a scarifier six feet wide and a pair of 
horses, one’man can cultivate the same area of ground after each 
watering at a cost of 15s., or 1s. 6d. per acre. 


993 


Amount OF WatTER REQUIRED, 


No hard-and-fast rule can be laid down. Local experience, as 
well as the general appearance of the crop, are the best guide in 
this matter; for instance, the amount of rainfall varies sometimes 
considerably even in the same seasons in different years; again 
one soil may be more retentive than another; or, owing to its con- 
figuration and the more or less porous and gravelly nature of its 
sub-soil, may either be very quickly drained or else may receive 
abundant moisture frum the drainage of the slope above it; the 
varieties and age of the trees have alsu a direet bearmg in regu- 
lating the amount of water to be applied; thus certain soil will be 
quite moist enough for deciduous trees, such as plums, apples, 
pears, and would require irrigation for citrus trees, or mcist enough 
for young and not for bearing trees. In a very dry climate, for 
instance, the voung orange orchard should be irrigated every three 
weeks at first, and then once a month during the first season by 
simply running one furrow at a distance of two or three feet on 
each side of the trees. 

The second and third seasons, the trees having been well es- 
tablished, less irrigation will be required, and in our climate one 
watering every six to eight weeks will be sufficient. 

By the fourth vear, the trees having gradually increased in 
size and being in bearing, the number of furrows between each row 
will likewise be increased until, when the trees have grown to their 
full size and produce heavy crops. by the tenth year, the distance 
between the furrows is brought to five or six feet and the time given 
for each watering is gradually prolonged. As a rule, orange trees 
in full bearing will require as much as three times the quantity of 
water required by the same trees during their second and third year 
in the orchard. 

In the case of the vine, the water management also requires 
judgment. During the first season of planting, one or two good 
waterings are more than will be needed, the ground having received 
a good soaking previous to planting out the cuttings or the rooted 
plants. The second season, one early autumn and one summer 
watering will be found sufficient, and later on as the vines enter 
into bearing they should not be irrigated more than once every five 
or six weeks in the case of table or raisin grapes, and once every 
six or seven weeks in the case of wine grapes. In either case, the 
watering should cease when the berries have attained their full size 
and are ripening, or else they will burst, viz., according to localities 
and varieties, the beginning of December to the beginning of Feb- 
ruary. In the ease of wine grapes, the last irrigation should not 
be given later than the time the grapes are “turning,” or otherwisee 
the must will be watery and the wine will be thin, poor in colour, in 
flavour, and in keeping qualities. 


224 


Over the fruit-growing districts of this State, described in this 
handbook, grape vines do remarkably well without the assistance of 
any irrigation whatever, provided the soil is kept in a state of good 
cultivation. 


So far as I have been able to observe, the tendency generally 
with fruit growers who have water laid on in their orchards is to 
overdo irrigation. Fruit trees more especially need to be irrigated 
with discrimination, or else the fruit, instead of being firm, fleshy, 
of good flavour, and of good keeping quality, is, on the reverse, 
spongy, squashy, insipid in taste and flavour, easily bruised during 
the course of carrying to market, and of poor keeping quality. 


In planting an orchard where irrigation is contemplated, the 
grower should bear in mind that each variety of fruit requires 
watering at different times; for instance, watering with cold water 
when the tree is in full blossom might lead, through sudden shock, 
to considerable injury, and, as a consequence, reduced crop. With 
trees, therefore, blossoming at different times it is advisable to keep 
them separate; again each row should be planted with trees of the 
same age for reasons already discussed. Another reason is that 
by keeping the trees separate each sort may he treated differently, 
some kinds of fruit requiring more copious watering than others. 


Late in the season the irrigation of fruit trees might be more 
injurious than beneficial, for the reason that the soil and the water 
beginning to cool, the trees might receive a sudden shock, or they 
might start growing again, striking new shoots, instead of concen- 
trating all their energy towards ripening the fruits and building up 
fruit buds. 

One more important point, if neglected, would annul the bene-, 
fits derived from irrigation. : 


It refers to the necessity of combining Drainage with irriga- 
tion. Unless the soil is naturally well drained a copious supply of 
water will turn it into a quagmire, which will prevent proper culti- 
vation and at the same time injure the roots of the trees. 


It may be said that wherever land is so situated that natural 
drainage does not exist and the cost of sub-soil drainage would ex- 
ceed the value of the profits expected from the application of water 
on to the land, irrigation is unprofitable; otherwise, underground 
drainage may be said to remove the excess of moisture in winter, 
and to tend to retain it in the summer months, thus making 
the soil, and consequently the roots, warm when the weather is cold 
and cool in dry and hot weather. Complete drainage and moderate 
moisture are as necessary to the healthy growth of the root system 
of the plant as pruning and spraying with insecticides to the healthy 
growth of the branches and leaves, and the production of a crop of 
sound, showy, and well-matured fruit. 


225 


WHAT FRUIT TO GROW. 


The following chapter contains a carefully-selected list of 
fruits which have either been proved to be successfully grown in the 
S.W. division of Western Australia, or are known to thrive in other 
fruit-growing countries bearing, with ours, strong features of 
similarity as regards those natural conditions which are congenial 
to fruit trees. 


The letters E., M., and L. mean early, medium, or late respec- 
tively, and 5., A., and W. denote suminer, autumn, and winter; F. 
and C., freestone or clingstone. 


PLant BREEDING. 

Until a few years ago the art of man had seldom been directed 
towards improving our cultivated plants. Seeds were collected of 
varieties exhibiting special features deemed worthy of reproduction 
and improvement. These were planted under favourable conditions 
and received the benefit of careful cultivation; the rest was left to 
Providence. Under such circumstances, a great many of our 
choicest select seedlings, varieties of fruit trees, and plants have 
originated; a great many more are the result of chance seediings. 
This process, however, is, if at times efficacious, somewhat empirical, 
and some of our more modern fruit growers have of late brought 
their commercial genius to bear in selecting and in mating varieties 
embodying special features which, when blended together, would 
approach closer to the ideal they have set themselves to create. Time 
is thus saved, and if the result does not always come up to that 
ideal, it often constitutes a subject which is worth putting to the 
test, and which is finally adopted or rejected by either the breeder 
himself or by the cultivator. 

This is effected by the process of cross fertilisation or of 
pollination. For so doing something must be known of the struc- 
ture of the flower. Inside the corolla, which is formed of the 
variously-coloured petals, are the organs of fructification of the 
plant. These consist of a jistil, so called because it somewhat re- 
sembles a pestle, and which includes an inflated tip or stigma which 
receives the pollen, a style or miniature tube which conveys the 
pollen to the ovary, which in the course of development becomes 
the fruit. They also consist of thread-like bodies called stamens, 
which are the male organ of flowers and surround the jpistil. These 
organs secrete the pollen or fecundating dust which is contained in 
little capsules called anthers. 

The appliances necessary for cross-fertilising plants are a pair 
of long-pointed scissors, a pair of tweezers, a magnifying glass, and 
paper or gauze bags. 


226 


Soon after the blossom opens, the petals of the corolla may be 
“removed; the stamens which surround the pistil are excised on those 
flowers of the plant it is intended to use as the foster-mother of the 


POLLINATION. 


Fic. 1.—A grape vine floral bud. 

Fic, 2.—Same showing the petals of the corolla detached from the 
base and united above, pressing the anthers against the 
pistil. 

Fic. 3.—Same with the corolla removed, and showing the anthers 
ready for excision. (ForEx ) 


Fie. 4.—Tweezers and scissors. Gauze bag. Same expanded by 
wire frame.—(FOEX.) 


new variety, and the paper bags, whose edges are damped slightly 
and tied on the twig supporting these organs. This done, the blos- 
som on the parent tree which is to supply the pollen is watched with: 
the aid of the magnifying lens, and so soon as ever the pollen sacs 
are seen to begin bursting, these flowers may be eut, seized with the 
tweezers, and after carefully lifting the paper bag from the blos- 
soms with the male organs excised, they are gently rubbed on the 
exposed pistils; the covering bags are then fastened on again and 
left to remain for a few days until the setting takes place. 


PEDIGREED Fruit TREES. 


The individuality of the tree having been secured, either aeci- 
dentally or owing to the foresight and the experience of the breeder, 


227 


it can be transmitted and preserved with a fair amount of perman- 
ency. Some strains of cattle and live stock are well known which 
embody to a high degree of perfection all the good points of the 
breed, whilst other strains are also known to have thrown back and 
degenerated and to only beget mongrels; so in our o1chards there 
are strains of vigorous and of feeble trees bearing, some heavily, 
others lightly. This being admitted, the importance is plain to only 
propagate from the most productive and the best. After individual 
trees seemingly inferior to the accepted standard have failed to 
improve under the stimulus of cultivation, manuring, suitable prun- 
ing, and treatment, there is but one thing left to do, and that is 
to cull it out and work on it a scion from some selected strain. 


Cross POLLINATION OR FERTILISATION. 

Experience has shown that fruit trees, other things being equal, 
bear better when varieties are mixed in the orchard. This is strik- 
ingly true in the case of the almond, stone fruit, apples and pears. 

Mr. J. Hawter, of the Blackwood Nursery, who noticed the 
benefit in bearing to the other trees, recommends planting varieties 
blossoming about the same period in alternate rows ef 2 to 6 right 
through the orchard, thus :— 

“Start with 3 rows Jonathan, 2 rows Dunn’s, thea 6 rows Jona- 
thans, 2 rows Dunn’s, and repeat the 6 and 2 to end of block. One 
row would do every 6th row, but it means a waste of time at pick- 


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 18 #14 


2 Rows for Cross Pollination 
2 Rows for Cross Pollination 


i 


ing, as varieties do not ripen together and cart has to go round to 
pick up, and I recommend the double row as the more economical 
system, although mine are planted in alternate rows, and hence 
speak from experience. 


228 


“The importance of cross-pollination induces me to give in my 
Catalogue, the approximate dates of principal varieties of apples 
and pears being in full bloom, compiled from my observations the 
last three or four years. I am also indebted to the Department of 
Agriculture for kindly placing their data collected at Bridgetown at 
my disposal, and I trust these approximate dates may be of assist- 
ance to intending planters in making their selections with a view to 
interpollination. 

“The above sketch explains my recommendations where pre- 
ference is given to one variety. I shall be pleased to recommend 
suitable varieties for pollination on application.” 


POME TREES. 

These are commonly meant to comprise fruit grown from pips, 
such as apples, pears, and quinces. 

They were some generations past known by country folk as 
pippins, pearmains, russets, costards, codlins, and so on. 

“Pippins” were chance seedlings which were in themselves so 
perfect that they did not require grafting or budding. “Pear- 
mains” were somewhat elongated or pear-shaped. “Russets” were 
covered with a rough skin, and were generally sorts which hang well 
to the trees. “Costards” were large and bulky apples, whereas 
“codlins” were apples which fell to the ground when green, and 
were chiefly used for cooking, sauces, ete.” “Cider” apples exempli- 
fied those apples—some astringent and some  bitter—which were 
best adapted for the manufacture of cider. 

So with pears. We have Beurrés, Bergamottes, cooking, and 
perry pears. 

“Beurrés” are melting, juicy pears, which at one time were thus 
distinguished from hard cooking sorts. They vary widely as re- 
gards shape, period of ripening, markings, and for that reason the 
old classification has not been maintained, each of the Beurrés being 
qualified by its patronvmie name. “Bergamottes” once ineluded a 
fair number of pears, each being differentiated by a specific name, 
while “Perry” pears included those most suitable for fermenting 
into perry. 


Server APPLES (Pyrus Malus). 

There are over 1,500 varieties of apples catalogued by nursery- 
men. Of these, the following, several of Australian origin, suit our 
requirements and climatie conditions best. Of summer apples, plant 
onlv a few. They should be worked on Northern Spy stock, pre- 
ferably to any other. 

On light, rich, free sou, Winter Majetin stock will do well, 
and on sandy soil Duchess of Oldenburg stock is recom- 
mended. All three are proof against the Woolly Aphis pest, hence 


229 


their use as stock plants. Do not plant deeply, lest the variety 
worked upon the Spy should throw its own roots, and become 
blighty and ultimately useless. The kinds recommended are named 
as much as possible in the order they ripen. 


IrisH Pzacu, S—Ripens in January, good bearer, but not a 
keeper; does not blight. Fruit medium size, somewhat flattened 
and slightly angular. Pale yellowish-green, tinged with dull reddish- 
brown, and lively red thickly dotted with green dots on shaded side 
and yellow spots on sun side. Flesh greenish white, tender, crisp. 


Margorige Hay, E—A New Zealand seedling from “Irish 
Peach.’’ Very early dessert apple of fine quality, blight proof. 
Fruit large size, conical; skin clear yellow, striped and mottled 
with lively red, brighter on the sunny aides flesh white, tender and 
crisp, juicy, aromatic flavour. 


Evuison’s Orange.—A new West Australian variety of great 
promise but still on trial. Introduced by Mr. A. T. Booth, Mt. 
Barker, and reported by our Agricultural Department as being an 
improvement on Cox’s Orange Pippin which is much prized as a 
dessert apple and on the London market. It ripens earlier, a free 
bearer and a stronger tree. 


JonaTHan (New York), A.—4Ripens in the autumn, from first 
week in March, and keeps well. Tree hardy, moderately vigorous, 
forming an upright, spreading, round head; early and abindant 
bearer, young shoots rather slender, slightly pendulous, greyish 
brown. Fruit medium to large, roundish, conical or tapering to the 
eye, even and regular in its outline, eye closed, skin thin and smooth, 
clear light yellow ground, mostly covered with red, deepening in 
the sun; flesh white, very tender and juicy, rich, vinous. Succeeds 
wherever grown, and proves one of the best in quality and most 
profitable, either for table or market. Dries well. Method of prun- 
ing has already been referred to. 


Ben Davis (a variety called “King David”: is full of promise 
and is said to be earlier fit for shipment to Europe), A.—Tree verv 
hardy and free grower, bearing early and abundantly, and blooming 
late in spring. The apples grow close to the limbs, which are on 
that account not likely to break down. 


Brack Ben Davis.—A great improvement on the Red Ben 
Davis, of which it is a seedling introduced from the U.S.A. 


CueopaTRA, W. (syn. Pomeroy, New York Pippim).—One of 
the best for dry districts. Keeps and carries well. Dessert or cook- 
ing. Tree grows large, upright, and bears well. Fruit ripening in 
April, rather large, of an oblong figure, rather irregular in its out- 
line, and with five angles on its side, forming a kind of lip at the 
crown; eye closed. Skin greenish yellow, few green specks inter- 


230 


mixed with a thin grey russet, and tinged with brown on sunny side. 
Flesh firm, crisp, tender, juice plentiful, sweet, with a slight aro- 
matic flavour. Does well on ironstone gravel slopes. Overbears 
when young, unless checked. Affected by “bitter pit” when grown 
on moist, badly-drained soil. Keeping the centre open and spraying 
with Bordeaux mixture reduces this disease. 


Granny SuirH.—A New South ‘Wales seedling and one of the 
apples which does well in almost any district. Subject to black 
spot in wet seasons when it should be thoroughly sprayed; also 
attacked by woolly aphis. One of the best keeping varieties, good 
for dessert, shipping or cooking. Tree: upright, vigorous. Fruit: 
large, roundish, conical, yellowish green, not unlike Cleopatra; few 
markings of russet; flesh white, firm, sub-acid, dries well. Stalk 
long, slender, inserted in a deep abrupt cavity; calyx closed, small, 
pointed, set in a shallow-furrowed basin. Hangs well. Ripens late 
autumn. 


Rome Brauty, W.—Originated in Ohio. Ripens late autumn, 
April or May. Tree a good grower, late bloomer, productive, 
begins setting fruit early. It occasionally needs severe spur thin- 
ning, otherwise the fruit becomes very small. Young wood clear 
reddish brown, slightly downy or grey. Fruit large to very large, 
roundish conical, yellow, shaded and striped with red, sprinkled 
with light dots. Flesh yellowish, juicy, sprightly; core rather 
large. Fruit keeps late; gathered too soon it shrivels, is tasteless 
and lacks the fine colour it attains when allowed to hang on the 
tree and mature; windfalls may be used at once for cooking; can 
be landed in London in May. Subject to woolly aphis while young, 
the pest becoming less troublesome as the tree attains age. Fruit 
does not drop off readily. After bearing heavily a few years it 
sometimes sets and vegetates unless manured liberally. Does 
well on deep, heavy loam. On heavy soil it is well to keep the 
tree, which naturally grows upright, fairly open to permit the fruit 
colouring. Does well almost everywhere, especially on elevated 
ground. 


Dunn’s Sseprrinc, W. (syn. Munroe’s Favourite) —First 
raised by Mr. Conder, of Kew, near Melbourne, who distributed 
scions throughout Australia. Mr. Munroe was the first to propa- 
gate it for sale. Tree upright, spreading naturally, forming a 
compact head. Blooms well, but sometimes fails to set, also drops 
after setting; thus, although an excellent bearer only carries a crop 
every second year. Growing vigorously, it is slow coming into 
bearing. This can be hastened by summer pruning and after four 
or five years leaving the leaders unpruned for a season and then 
cutting it back again the following season as the bunches of fruit 
borne on the tips would bend the limbs over and spoil the shape 


231 


of the tree. Dunn’s Seedling is one of the best apples for export, 
for cooking, or for drying. Somewhat like the Stone Pippin when 
on the tree but of better quality when kept. Waxy yellow like the 
Cleopatra but firmer and crisper. Subject to cracking at the base 
in wet seasons and attacked by Fusicladium. Ripens middle of 
March but keeps well in store till September. In Tasmania it is 
two to three weeks later. Fruit roundish, conical, even surface, 
large, stalk medium, slender, inserted in deep cavity often 
russetted; calyx medium, closed set in a rather wide, slightly 
furrowed basin, core small, closed; flesh white, coarse, sub-acid, 
aromatic. 


Tree not very subject to woolly aphis except when making 
strong and sappy growth. 


CHANnpLER’s StatesMAn.—A Victorian apple which does very 
well and bears regularly in Western Australia. So prolifie should 
be planted on rich soil. The tree is a vigorous and straight 
grower; fruit buds well distributed along main branches or 
leaders; ripens late and keeps till end of the year. Fruit even 
size, smooth, slightly conical, yellow with red streaks on sunny 
side, hangs well, standing high wind without dropping. An ex- 
cellent export. variety. 


Deuicious, L.—From Towa. Tree a strong grower, hardy and 
good bearer after the spurs are formed, which is encouraged by 
letting the leaders go unpruned for a season and shortened back 
again the following winter. Fruit inclined to be large, fine colour, 
like “Jonathan.” A very fine late keeping apple. Unless picked 
when ripe the flavour is poor, and the texture remains woody. The 
fruit hangs well. 


Roxrwoop Pippix, W. (syn. Bullock’s Seedling).—A hardy 
and fine keeping Victorian variety which does very well in Western 
Australia, of good keeping and carrying quality, and an abundant 
bearer. Sizes uneven when the tree gets old, requiring sorting. 
Fruit roundish, oblate, skin deep orange, heavily shaded with 
crimson, and dotted with brown russet. Eye somewhat open, tube 
conical and short, stamens medium,. core ovate, axile, and solid. 
Flesh yellowish, firm, sugary, and juicy. Stalk short, set in a 
conical basin lined with russet. Inclined to overbear and stunts 
unless liberally fed. Spurs readily. A good carrier. Flavour im- 
proves on keeping. 


Sturmer Prepix, W.—An English dessert apple, ripens in 
winter. Tree hardy and an excellent bearer, and attains about the 
middle size. Fruit medium size, roundish, somewhat flattened. 
Skin yellowish-green, with tinge of dull red on side next the sun, 
and almost entirely covered with brown russet. Flesh yellow, 


232 


firm, crisp, very juicy, with a brisk and rich sugary flavour. A 
cool climate apple widely grown in Tasmania. 


Yates, W.—Largely grown for late shipping. The tree bears 
its fruit in elusters, and unless thinned out these are on the small 
size. The thinning out is done when the apples are of the size of 
marbles, the centre fruit of the cluster being rolled between the 
thumb and forefinger when the fruit comes away leaving the stalk 
behind. When the stalk is torn away fruit from the cluster will 
probably drop. The Yate does well on rich red clay with a moist 
subsoil, and being a heavy bearer should be liberally fed and 
watered if necessary. The fruit will hang late and is picked when 
well coloured and when it develops a waxy feeling when handled. 
It is a remarkably good keeper in cool storage. 


Yares Importep, better known as Dougherty, is also a fav- 
ourite late shipping kind. It does not require the same amount 
of thinning as Yate’s, and is larger in size, otherwise it behaves 
much the same. 


Sevect Prars (Pyrus communis). 


In giving a description of the choicest pears to grow, either 
for home use or for market, the well-known Bartlett (Williams’ 
Bon Chretien) will be considered as the typical summer pear, and 
the early varieties will be those which ripen before that fruit, whilst 
the late ones will comprise those ripening some time after. The 
indifferent bearing of a great many pear trees may be attributed 
to blights and to defective pollination of the flowers. Recent ex- 
periments are throwing a good deal of light upon this question, 
and by mixing varieties and planting in adjacent rows sorts which 
bloom approximately at the same time, a considerable improve- 
ment has been noticed in the bearing of some pears. Pear trees 
should be worked on seedling pears, as suckers are troublesome. 
Quince stock is not always suitable. Early pears are best when 
gathered before they part readily from the trees and laid up for 
a few days. For the later kinds the season may be prolonzed. 
Every care should be taken not to store any bird-pecked or bruised 
fruit; and at all times they should be delicately handled and kept 
in a cool, dark place. 


The pear is more accommodating than the apple to soils and 
climate, and stands, even in the ground, an amount of salt which 
proves injurious to other fruit trees. The varieties are large, but 
mention is only made in these pages of one or two early kinds and 
of some which have proved to be good bearers and good earvriers. 


Cuapp’s Favouritr, §.—Tree upright, spreading, vigorous 
grower and heavy bearer. Fruit evenly distributed, and almost 


233 


uniform in size; ripens just before the Bartlett. Fruit medium 
size, obovate, slightly obtuse pyriform, surface uneven; skin thin, 
pale lemon yellow, faintly splashed with crimson and fawn when 
exposed to the sun, sprinkled with dots and russet patches. Flesh 
white, melting, sweet, a little perfumed. This variety blooms 
with Bartlett which does better when growing close to other free- 
blooming sorts. 


Bartiett, §. (syn. Williams’ Bon Chretien).—An English pear 
and the most popular of all the summer varieties. Tree grows 
upright, with thrifty, yellowish-brown shoots, and narrow, folded 
leaves; early bearer and healthy, not much affected by the 
fusicladium; bears freely on the quince stock. Fruit large, obtuse 
pyriform, irregular and bossed in its outline, smooth, clear yellow, 
sometimes with delicate blush; stalk an inch long, stout, and in- 
serted in shallow cavity, calyx open; flesh white, fine grained, juicy, 
melting, highly perfumed (musky), vinous flavour. It should be 
picked for export when full grown but hard, and when the pips 
begin to colour and the fruit stalk comes off the tree on 
lifting; the pear ripens on keeping; gathered before 
it becomes yellow, otherwise it speedily decays. Some 
pears blossoming approximately with the Bartlett should be 
planted with these trees to supply pollen to set the Bartlett crop. 
Amongst those are Clapp’s Favourite, Howell, Duchesse 
d’Angouléme. 


Howe, 8.—Follows Bartlett. Tree upright and a free 
grower; an early and profuse bearer; fruit large, waxen yellow, 
sprinkled with russet dots and patches; flesh whitish, juicy, melt- 
ing; a very good market pear. 


GanseL’s Brrcamorrs, A.—A dessert pear of the highest 
quality. Tree rather shy bearer for the first few years, then 
productive, moderately vigorous, and spreading in habit. Young 
wood dull greyish-brown. Fruit medium to large, roundish 
obovate, but much flattened. Skin roughish brown, becoming 
yellowish-brown at maturity, tinged sometimes with a russet red 
cheek and sprinkled with spots of russet. Stalk short, fleshy at 
both ends. Cavity moderate. Calyx short and small, placed in a 
smooth moderate hollow. Flesh white, melting, very juicy, rich, 
sweet, and aromatic. When planting, intermix with others bloom- 
ing concurrently. 


Kierrer’s Hyprip (American), A.—Raised from seed of the 
Chinese Sand Pear, accidentally crossed with Bartlett or some 
other kind. Fruit medium to large; oval pyriform; rich golden 
yellow, sprinkled thickly with small dots, often tinged with red on 
the sunny side. Flesh slightly coarse, Juicy, melting, with a pro- 


234 


nounced quince flavour. Good for canning only. If intended for 
eating, let hang on the tree until almost ripe, and keep a few days 
in a cool dark room and its quality will be fully developed. How- 
ever mature a Kieffer pear may be, it is never good when first 
picked from the tree. Keeps and packs well, and for that reason 
suitable for export. A vigorous as well as an early bearer. If 
allowed to become overloaded or starved, the tree produces small, 
hard fruit of poor flavour. Where planted on rich soil, Kieffer’s 
Hybrid is often a bad cropper, whereas on poorer land where the 
vigour of the tree is checked the bearing improves. Cross fertilisa- 
tion with other varieties blooming concurrently—Howell, Le 
Comte—is beneficial. 


P. Barry.—An American pear of the Winter Nelis class but 
more prolific and better in every way, and a good keeper. Gold 
and russet skin, large, pyriform; very juicy, buttery, excellent 
flavour. 


PackHam’s TriumpH—A New South Wales variety, being 
an improved Bartlett, coming in after that variety is over, a better 
keeper and good earrier; early and prolific bearer. 


Vicar OF WINKFIELD, W. (syn. Napoleon)—A large, fair, and 
handsome French variety, also a first-rate baking pear, but some- 
times too astringent; second-rate for a table pear. Tree grows 
thriftily, with drooping fruit branches, shoots diverging, dark 
olive brown, very productive, hardy; fine size fruit and a profit- 
able market cooking pear. Fruit large and long pyriform; often 
one-sided, pale yellow, fair and smooth, sometimes with brownish 
cheek, and marked with small brown dots; stalk slender, obliquely 
inserted without depression; calyx large, open, set in a basin very 
slightly sunk; flesh greenish-yellow, juicy, with good sprightly 
flavour. Not much touched by fusicladiwm nor by the pear mite. 
Suitable for export and stewing. 


LiInconnus (Belgium), W.—A very excellent winter pear. 
Tree hardy, vigorous, upright, very productive. Fruit medium or 
below, broad oval pyriform, light yellow, nettled and patched with 
russet and many russet dots; stalk long, curved, inclined and set 
in a slight depression, sometimes by a lip. Calyx open. Segments 
long and curved. Basin shallow, uneven. Flesh yellowish-white, 
juicy, erisp, very sweet, rich and pleasant. Packs and carries well. 


Winter Neis (syn. Bonne de Malines), W.—Reported liable 
to fusicladium, and an irregular bearer in the coast region of 
California; in other localities a hardy and thrifty tree, rather 
slender and a poor, crooked grower, better grafted on a strong 
growing variety. Difficult to train by pruning alone, but by rub- 
bing off misplaced shoots in the summer and using soft ties and 


235 


spreaders, a more shapely tree.can be grown. An early and regular 
abundant bearer; the crop usually needs thinning, especially on 
trees of considerable age; fruit is always inferior when the tree 
*s overloaded, but this applies to nearly all varieties, though not 
in the same degree. Fruit medium, roundish, obovate, narrowed 
near the stalk; yellowish-green, dotted with gray russet and a 
good deal covered with russet; stalk rather long, twisted, and set 
in a narrow cavity; calyx open in shallow basin. Flesh yellowish 
white, fine-grained, buttery, very melting, and full of rich, sweet, 
aromatic juice. Suitable for export. When planting, intermix 
with kinds blooming concurrently. : 


SELECT QUINCES (Pyrus cydonia). 


Not much grown except for preserves and jellies and for 
giving additional flavour to cooked apples. An irregular growing 
tree, propagated by euttings or by layering. The pruning consists 
in removing the suckers, leaving only one stem, and by eutting off 
irregularly placed branches. The shaping is also helped by rub- 
bing off misplaced shoots. The tree does best on rich soil. Grows 
well even on salt patches moderately saline. Under favourable 
conditions bears profusely for a great number of years. 


AncErS, A.—This is the variety most generally used for stocks 
on which to bud the pear. Fruit large, yellow, keeps well. A strong 
growing sort, and abundant bearer. 


CuH4mPion, A.—Fruit very large, smooth, bright yellow; tree 
very productive, bearing abundantly when young; flesh cooks tender 
and without hard spots or cores; keeps well. 


Bourceaut, W.—A vigorous French variety of good quality, 
keeps well, cooks tender. Fruit very large, golden colour, smooth 
velvety skin and resistant to the leaf blight. 


Van Dieman, W.—Seedling of “Portugal,” but much more 
prolific and an early bearer. Fruit large and of excellent quality. 
One of the best. 


Serecr Loquats (Eriobotrya or Photinia Japonica). 


Some amount of attention has of late been given to this fruit 
which, coming in at a time when the market is practically bare, 
constitutes a kind of hyphen between the winter and the summer 
fruits. When the cherry does not bear it forms a substitute for 
that fruit. The majority of seedlings more generally grown are 
ornamental trees of striking beauty, the blossoms freely produced 
in the autumn in terminal panicles, white and fragant, which set 
in compact bunches like grapes, from an inch to two inches in 


236 


diameter. The fruit ripens in the spring, contains several large 
seeds surrounded by juicy and refreshing sub-acid flesh ranging 
in colour from white to yellow. From the base of the branching 
spurs which carry the fruit bunches spring fresh growths which in 
turn will blossom and earry fruit. When these become too 
crowded they should be thinned out. Art and selection have of 
late brought forward some choicer varieties, which are rapidly 
becoming popular. The range of the Loquat is pretty well that 
of the orange. Propagated from seed, cuttings root easily. The 
seedlings must be grafted or budded. Does best on a moist sandy 
loam with clay subsoil, where they bear heavily. Deciduous; forms 
a dense and compact head of a rounded and symmetrical shape; 
requires trimming to remove crowded branches. The Loquat 
makes excellent jelly and for that purpose inferior fruit, even if 
not fully ripe, could not be better used. It takes about five years 
to mature a tree from seed; budded trees bear in two years. 


Herv’s Mamoru, E.—Matures in October. Fruit large; few 
seeds. Dark leaves. 


Victory, M.—Ripens beginning of October and beginning of 
November. Fruit large, egg-shaped; yellow-tinted amber on side 
exposed to the sun; flesh juicy, sugary, and pleasant in flavour. 
Leaves light green. Smaller than Herd’s Mammoth. 


GLENoRIE SuPERB, a New South Wales seedling now propagated 
by Mr. J. Hawter, of tlie Blackwood Nurseries. Fruit large, round, 
of a deep apricot colour, mostly single stone, flesh excellent, juicy 
and firm. 


STONE FRUITS. 


These comprise such fruit as apricots, cherries, peaches, nec- 
tarines, plums. 


SeLecr ApRicors (Prunus Armeniaca). 


' These trees are best worked on apricot root in the warmer and 
drier districts, as it stands drought fairly well, and is, in moister 
Jocalities, apt to grow too vigorously. Plum stock stands wet 
better than the apricot root, has a more dwarfing tendency, and 
grows fine fruit, but suckers when cultivated too deeply; the union 
is sometimes imperfect, and it often produces gumming and the 
die-back diseases. Peach roots do better on lighter soil, and is 
generally a good stock to work apricots upon. An ideal apricot 
district 1s one which is neither too hot nor too cold, neither too dry 
nor too wet, but one enjeving just a happy mean. Air drainage 


237 


on sloping sheltered slopes favour the setting of the blossoms, which 
often drop off on trees planted in cold hollows where the air is 
stagnant and chilly at blossoming time. The soil should be deep 
and well drained: a wet subsoil is quite unsuitable. Lime is 
beneficial. Pruning in March, after the crop is picked, helps to 
strengthen the buds: the leaders, however, must not be cut back till 
winter pruning. Water, if possible, about that time for the same 
reason. 


NeEwcasrLe Earty, E.—The earliest fair-size apricot. Ripens 
a week after Red Masculine, and a fortnight before Oullin’s Early 
Peach, at the end of November on the Swan and early in December 
farther south. Suitable for early districts. The tree, according to 
Wickson, is an early, regular, and good bearer; a medium grower, 
being rather more upright in its habit than the Royal. Fruit full, 
medium size, round; rich golden yeilow, with brilliant red cheek in 
the sun; freestone; flavour, sweet and rich; three times as large 
as Red Masculine, not quite as large as the Roval, nor quite as rich 
in flavour. 


CAMBDEN PALE SuperB comes between Neweastle Early and 
Oullin’s, and when Early Neweastle, now largely grown, declines in 
price on the local market. Ripens early in December on the Swan. 


OULLIN’s Earty Peacu, E., of which there is an improved 
strain. This is an early form of the Peach Apricot; of large size, 
most delicious flavour, and ripens three weeks earlier. Like the 
Peach, a variety from Piedmont; about 2 inches in diameter; 
roundish, rather flattened, and somewhat compressed on its sides, 
with a well-marked suture. Skin yellow in the shade, but deep 
orange mottled with dark brown on sunny side. Flesh of a fine 
yellow saffron in colour, juicy, rich, and high flavoured. Stone can 
be penetrated, like Moorpark, and with a bitter kernel. Strongly 
resembles the Moorpark; fruit rather larger, finer, and earlier. 
Successful in the warmer districts. Ripens about the middle of 
December on the Swan, and about Christmas farther south. 


Royat, E.—A fine large French variety, nearly as large as the 
Moorpark (when well thinned out), but with larger leaves forming 
on long footstalks, and without the pervious stone of that sort; quite 
as high flavoured, and ripens a week or ten days earlier. A 
favourite with the canners, and au excellent variety for drying. 
One of the leading Californian apricots, being a freestone, of good 
pale orange colour and flavour, ripening evenly. Fruit large, 
roundish oval, and slightly compressed; skin dull yellow, with 
orange cheek and a shallow suture. 


A variety known as “American Royal,” introduced from Cali- 
fornia, is said to excel that variety. A favourite for drying and 
canning. Ripens end of December. 


238 

| 

BLENHEIM, KE. (syn. Shipley)—-A very good early variety, 
above medium, oval, orange with a deep yellow, juicy, and tolerably 
rich flesh; good grower, and regular prolific bearer. Fruit runs a 
little larger than the Royal, and is usually better distributed on the 
tree, but it must be well thinned. This variety is approved by 
canners. Ripens a little later than the Royal. Tree shy when young, 

but becomes productive after a few years. 


MANSFIELD SEEDLING, L—TFruit very large, and one of the 
fincst grown. A good bearer and a late one. 


SELect PEacHEes (Prunus Persica). 


The Peach, when grown in perfection, is probably one of the best 
fruit cultivated. Its period of ripening ranges from early sum- 
mer to late autumn. The trees are not as a rule long-lived, bearing 
half-dozen good erops and then decline. Under favourable conditions, 
however, they bear for a score of years or so. The peach in its 
bearing or its quality is readily affected by climate and local con- 
ditions, and one kind which flourishes in one locality may do in- 
differently in another in close proximity where climatic or soil con- 
ditions differ. The soil most suitable is that which yields good farm 
crops. On a strong loam it lasts longer than on a thin or gravelly 
soil; potassie fertilisers greatly benefit it. 


The following are some of the favourite varieties, arranged ap- 
proximately in the order of ripening :— 


Fuat Curna, E., F., of which there is an improved variety, 
ripens earliest of all—beginning of November. Tree, a strong 
grower and an early and abundant bearer; for that reason not a 
long-lived variety. Suitable for the warmer districts of the State. 
Does well about Champion Bay. 


DuNHeLM (syn. Bell’s November), named by the importer, Mr. 
A. E. Sanderson, of Guildford, from stock introduced from South 
America. Ripens very early—beginning of December. Crimson 
cheek, medium size; fruits well; similar to but smaller than Brigg’s 
Red May. Suitable for coastal districts free from hard frost. 


Brica’s Earty Rep May (California), E., F.—The best of 
early peaches. Riyens middle of November. Fruit medium to 
large, round; white skin with rich, red cheek; flesh greenish-white, 
melting, juicy, 1ich; stone partially free; a standard early variety; 
subject to mildew. In the coastal districts, west of the Darling 
Ranges, this variety is a disappointing one, dropping its fruit buds 
very extensively in certain seasons. 

ALEXANDER (American), F., C.-—A very early and excellent 


peach. Fruit medium to large; greeuish-white, nearly covered with 
rich red. Flesh whitish, melting, juicy, sweet, the only fault being 


239 


its adhering slightly to the stone. Two weeks before Hale’s Early. 
Leaves with round glands; flowers large. Its flesh is so tender it 
quite melts before it can be separated from the stone. Somewhat 
liable to curl leaf, and drops its fruit buds badly in some seasons. 


Hien’s Earty Canapa, E., F.—Ripens with Alexander’s Early 
before Christmas; a better bearer than Brigg’s Red May. 


AmspEN, E., F.—Medium size, greenish-white, and bright red on 
the sunny side; stone separates freely. An American peach; re- 
markable for its earliness; ripening a fortnight before Hale’s Early. 
Does well on the red soil on the banks of the Swan. Good bearer. 


Eary Rivers, E., F.—Fruit large size; roundish; marked with 
a distinct suture; sometimes cracks at the stone. Skin pale lemon- 
yellow, with the slightest blush on one side. Flesh pale, gelatinous, 
translucent, with white veins through it; very tender and juicy, 
and with a fine brisk nectarine flavour. One of the finest early 
peaches. Raised from seed of Early Silver. Too luscious and tender 
for shipment, but invaluable for the home garden. 


Brice’s Rep May.—Sets well inland, but not on the coast. 
Early. Packs fairly well. 


Carman.—Ripens with Early Rivers, but larger; white fiesh; 
good heavy bearer. ‘ 


Hae’s Harty (American), E., F—Tree very hardy; a vigorous 
grower and abundant hearer, but is liable to rot in some localities. 
Leaves with round glands; flowers large. Fruit medium, nearly 
round, greenish, mostly covered with red. Flesh white, melting, 
juicy, rich, and sweet. Fair for local market and export. Follows 
Early Rivers—early in January. 


Exvserta M., F. (Georgia) —A cross of Chinese Cling and 
Crawford Early. Fruit very large; round oval, with deep suture; 
golden yellow, with enough blush to make it showy. Flesh pale 
yellow, red at the pit; excellent flavour. It bears well and ships 
well; large foliage, but subject to curl leaf. Ripens just ahead of 
Muir, towards the middle of February. 


Muir (California), M., F.—Fruit large to very large; perfect 
freestone; fiesh clear yellow, very dense, rich and sweet; pit small; 
tree a good bearer and strong grower if on rich soil, to which it is 
best adapted. Fruit a good shipper and canner, and peculiarly 
adapted to drying because of exceptional sweetness and density of 
flesh. Yield, 1lb. dry from less than 5lbs. fresh. Ripens end of 
February. Does well about Mt. Barker. 


Pubuar’s Curna.—A seedling from Ardmona, Victoria. The 
parent tree—now close on to thirty years old—still bears well. A 
prolific kearer of a large vellow cling-stone peach; ripens in March. 
A favourite with fruit canners; now extensively grown. 


240 | 


Sauway (English), L., F.—Fruit large, roundish, one side en- 
larged, suture distinct; creamy yellow, with a marbled, rich 

brownish-red check; flesh yellow, firm, red to pit (somewhat like 

an apricot), juicy, rich, sweet, vinous. Of great value as a showy 

late peach. 


Sevect Nectarines (Prunus Persica, var.). 

The peach and the nectarine are closely related, as shown in an 
illustration of a strange commixture or blending of the peach and 
of the nectarine on the same specimen. Although the peach is the 
mother of the nectarine, and this latter fruit is generally reproduced 
by budding, vet it has often been demonstrated that the nectarine 
ean be reproduced from the stone without grafting or budding. 


As a rule, the nectarine does not adapt itself so well as the 
peach to varied surrounding circumstances. 


Few uectarines are worth growing, but some are excellent, 
amongst these :— 


Dr. Cursuotm.—A New South Wales kind, and the best early 
nectarine, ripening just before Christmas, thus making it more 
valuable; good size, fine colour. 


GoupMiINE, M., I’.—-An excellent New Zealand seedling. Fruit 
roundish oval, large; freestone; the pit very small. Flesh cream 
colour, tender, juicy, melting, and delicious flavour. Colour bright 
bronzy red. Ripens end of January; carries well. Tree a free and 
regular bearer. 

Vierorta, L., F.—Fruit very large, pale green, of good quality, 
and a heavy bearer. Ripens middle of February. 


SeLecr CHERRIES (Prunus cerasus). 

Western Australia bas failed so far to establish for cherry 
culture the good fame she has earned in respect to most other fruits. 
Were it not for the high prices offered for fresh local cherries the 
trees would not have proved profitable; they grow luxuriantly and 
blossom properly, but fail to set a crop, and birds are great lovers 
of them. I would caution growers in the warmer districts against 
planting them at all, whilst those located in the cooler and higher 
districts from Katanning-Kojonup to Mt. Barker, the Lower Black- 
wood and the karri gum country generally, should endeavour to find 
ont which sorts suit the surrounding conditions best. A typical 
cherry country is a moist one possessed of well-drained slopes 
covered with deep soil, and one whieh is not exposed to very great 
diurnal and nocturnal changes of the temperature. In this latter 
respect the Western Australian climate may not prove uniform 
enough for cherry culture, the difference between day and night 
temperatures often showing variations of 30 to 40 degrees in the 


241 


early spring when the cherry blossoms are out. A climate rising 
at any time to 90 degrees F. whilst the cherry trees are carrying 
their fruit is unsuitable for cherry culture. Avoid low, black soil 
of valleys, and also the very dry gravelly hillsides. If there is no 
vainfall after the fruiting season the trees should be well watered 
to help maturing their buds and ensure a good setting, as the trouble 
in Western Australia with cherries is that although they bloom pro- 
fusely they set indifferently unless soil and locality suit. Cherries 
are the first fruit to ripen after loquats, the season beginning early 
in November in Western Australia. They are followed up by apri- 
cols a few weeks afterwards. 


The following are amongst the hest proved in this State, ac- 
cording to Mr. J. Hawter, of the Blackwood Nurseries :— 


Bicarreau Napouwon, M. (syn. Spotted Bivarreau).—A mag- 
nificent cherry of the largest size, beautiful appearance, and rich 
flavour. Tree a vigorous grower, very hardy, and not subject to 
eum; a free bearer. Fruit pale yellow, becoming amber in the 
shade, richly dotted, and spotted with deep red, and with a bright 
red cheek; flesh very firm, juicy, and sweet: a good carrier. 

Bina.—An American cherry much prized; fruit large, dark 
brown or black; late. 

Buack BowemraN or Tartartan.--Large, heart-shaped; skin 
elossy, purplish black; very good black cherry; medium. 

Buack Bacue, E.—Medium size; deep purple or nearly black; 
fiesh deep purple, tender, juicy; rijens middle of November. 

Burasvorr’s SEEDLING.—Raised at Harcourt, Victoria. <A first 
class large, early, dark cherry; good bearer. The best early cherry 
here. 

Sv, Marcarpt, L.—Very late. One of the best late marketing 
cherries grown; stands carrying well. Fruit very large, obtuse, 
heart-shaped, uneven on its suface, and considerably flattened next 
to the stalk on the side marked with the suture. Ripening with 
Florence; the best at Cherrydale, Donnybrook. Skin at first dark 
red, changing to dark blackish purple. Flesh dark purple, adhering 
firmly to the stone, firm, sweet, and briskly sub-acid. 

Supa —A wood Jate cherry; tree hardy, thrifty grower, and 
exceedingly yrrolific; of Morello “lass: bears freely everywhere, but 
small; good for culinary purposes. 

Werper’s Earty Buack.—A fine black cherry, of good flavour; 
great and early bearer. 


Sevect PLuMS axp Prunes (Prunus, sp.). 


E., M., L., denote early, medium, late respectively; K cooking; 
D. dessert fruit, 


242 


The distinction as plums and prunes of species of the same 
genus of plants is somewhat recent. They used to be called plums 
by English-speaking people, just as in France they are all known a 
prunes. In France, however, the fruit when dried and cured ar} 
known as pruneau, and it is thus that in America and other coun- 
tries the word prune is specifically given to those plums wheh - 


cure into a firm, meaty, dried fruit, from which the seed is not re- 
moved. 


In the descriptions of suitable varieties given below, prominence 
has been given to those which are dried into prunes, as they pe 
happen to constitute excellent dessert fruit, and being meaty, sweet, 
aud firm, they pack and carry well. 

Such varieties as the Robe de Sergent, Fellenberg, or Italian 
Prune, having been left out, as they are shy and disappointing 
bearers, although they are of excellent quality. In California they 
are now being as rapidly replaced by more profitable sorts as they 
were extensively planted a few years ago. , 


Plums have been classified into different families such as :— 
Ist. Prunus domestica, native of Asia, and the parent of 
European varieties such as damson, greengages, and 
varieties commercially known as prunes. 
2nd. Prunus cerasifera, of which the myrobolan or cherry 
plum is the type. These are natives of South-Hast- 
ern Europe and South-Western Asia, and are used 
mostly for stocks; they are the parents of Mariana 
and other varieties, which are either offshoots of this 
species or hybrids. Red and yellow fruit; also LP. 
pissardii, with claret-coloured leaves. 
3rd. Prunus triflora, or the Japanese type. 
4th. Prunus simoni, or the apricot plum, a native of China. 
Prunes have been disappointing in many parts of Western 
Australia, where, although they bloom well, fruit badly. They are 
better at home in the cooler and moister districts of the South- 
West, and even there they do better when irrigated in the summer 
months to strengthen their buds. Like shy-bearing apricots, they 
should be systematically summer pruned by cutting off portion of 
the laterals, and now and again leaving the leaders unpruned for 
one season, but eutting them back the following year. Pollination 
may also be defective, and planting different varieties in alternat- 
ing rows is recommended. Potash and bonedust by nourishing the 
buds, favour fruitfulness. 


Dauson, E.—Cultivated for cooking purposes. There are sev- 
eral varicties of this fruit all originating from the native English 
plum. Amongst the best is Crittenden’s Cluster, or Prolifie. Fruit 
larger than any of the others, roundish oval, skin black, and coy- 
ered with a thin bloom, Tree a heavy bearer. Young shoots downy. 


Prune vb’AGEN, Fig. 1 
(syn. French Prune, Prune 
d’Ente), L—Ripens late in 
the season, end of March. 
In dry places very liable to 
shed its leaves and drop its 
fruit. The most propagated 
in the Valley of the Lot in 
France and also in Cali- 
fornia. Tree of moderate 
growth. Young shoots dense, 
smooth. Very productive. 
Fruit medium size, oval, 
slightly necked, suture small. 
Skin violet purple, covered 
with a thick bloom and 
numerous small dots. Stalk 
nearly an inch long, a little 
curved, set in a small de- 
pression. Flesh  greenish- 
yellow, juicy, sugary, rich 
and delicious, slightly ad- 
herent to the stone. The 
best of all prunes. When 
cured contains 35 to 50 per 
cent. sugar. When fresh 15 
to 30 go to the pound, and 
45 to 75 to the pound cured, 
with a ratio between cured 
and fresh fruit of 1 to 2-55 
to 2-90. 

Sprenpor (Fig. 2).—A 
cross between the Prune 
d’Agen, fertilised by Pond, 
or Hungarian Plum. Tree 
vigorous, upright, and uni- 
form in growth; not so thick 
as the Prune d’Agen, which 
it resembles. Fruit free- 
stone, ripens two weeks ear- 
lier than its parent, and 
much larger. Flesh yellow, 
stone long and _ narrow, 
drying dark, does not shake 
from the tree. Earlier than 
French prune by two weeks. 
It is a clear, even red, and 


243 


244 


turns quite black in curing. Highly spoken of for drying, ship- 
ping, market, and as a dessert fruit. The following comparison 
between the Splendor and the Prune d’Agen is by Mr. G. Colley, 
of the Cal. Univ. Exp. Station:— 


Splendor. French. 


Number per Ib, 4... Gs sls 15:75 19-20 
Flesh, per cent. rape * ake aa 95-70 94-20 
Pits, per cent. 2 es 88 en 4°30 5°80 
Juice, per cent. f! ... se ais 88-0. 83-1 

Pulp, per cent. ——... ae sis 12-0 16:9 

Sugar, per cent. in juice, ... dst 22-87 23-69 
Sugar, per cent. in flesh... 13 20-13 19-70 
Sugar, per cent. whole fruit se 19°27 18-50 


This shows that the fruit is closely comparable with the French 
prune. The Splendor is greater in juice, and would probably lose 
more in drying. The exact drying value of the prune must be deter- 
mined in practice. The acid m both prunes is identical, and from 
this fact, and what is given above, the two fruits helong to the 
same class in richness and flavour. 


Sitver Prune.—Mr. J. Hawter, of the Blackwood Nurseries, 
says that he can endorse the American description that one tree of 
Silver Prune produces more fruit than five of Coe’s Golden Drop 
(its parent) which it most resembles, and dries with very little loss 


of weight, retaining its light yellow colour; clingstone; a fine mar- 
ket Plum. 


Diamonp.—A very large, fine dark Plum, good bearer, very 
good for preserving, best market. Ripens end of January. 


Macnum Boxunu, YELLow (syn. Ege Plum, English), L., K.— 
Popular on account of its large and splendid appearance, and a 
slight acidity, which renders it admirably fitted for making showy 
sweetmeats or preserves, good cooking, poor dessert. When raised 
in a fine warm situation, and is fully matured, it is pretty well 
flavoured, otherwise it is coarse; a spreading grower, branches 
smooth, long, a pretty good bearer, though apt, in light 
soils, to drop from the tree before becoming matured. Fruit 
very large, oval, narrow at ends, necked at base, suture distinct; 
stalk one inch, not sunk, surounded by fleshy ring at insertion; 
light yellow, bloom thin, white; flesh firm, rather acid until fully 
ripe, and then sweet, adheres to the pointed stone. Ripens in Feb- 
ruary. 

Ponv’s SEEDLING (syn. Hungarian Prune), Fig. 3, L., K.— 
Late English sort. Tree very vigorous and produetive; a beautiful 
ved, large, ovate fruit, slightly tapering to the stalk. Skin thick, 
reddish violet, with numerous brown dots, and covered with a thick 
bloom. Flesh coarse, adhering to the stone. Branches smooth, 
erayish. Sells well on appearance. Ripens with tis middle to end 
of February; is suitable for jam or canning. 


JAPANESE PLUMS. 
(Prunus triflora.\ 


The names so com- 
monly applied to Jap- 
anese plums as Botan, 
Satsuma, Hattankio, 
ete., really refer to 
districts or to classes, 
thus: Satsuma origi- 
nates from the island 
of that name; Hat- 
tankio is called after 
“hatan,’’ an almond, 
which this large oval- 
pointed plum resembles. 
Many hybrids have 
been raised and named 
in California; none of 
these plums make a 
large tree on their own 
stocks; they grow 
larger on peach. The 
best of these, in the 
order they ripen, are: 

SHiro Smomo (syn. 
Red June), E., Fig. 1. 
—Ripens first. Tree 
of spreading habit, 
foliage dull, fruit deep 
crimson all over while 
still firm; shaped much 
like a small Kelsey, 
that is, with very 
marked and lengthened 
apex. Size 134 inches. 
Cling. Flesh yellow, 
juicy, moderately firm, 
good for market. A 
sure cropper. 

Botan oR ABUND- 
ance, E.—Glossy foli- 
age and inclined to 
grow upright. Fruit 
roundish with very 
little point and gets 
dull red on one side. 


246 


Ripens a week after Red June is gone, and gets soft very soon 
after ripe. A strong grower.’ 


Burpang, E., Fig. 2.—So called after its introducer. Tree, 
imported from Japan, vigorous, with strong upright sboots, and 
large, rather broad leaves; comes into bearing very early. Fruit 
almost globular, large rich cherry red, slightly mottled with yellow, 
and freely dotted with same tint. Flesh, deep yellow, juicy, very 
sweet, and of fine, somewhat peculiar but agreeable flavour; pit 
very small, clingstone. Very productive. Ripens beginning of 
March; should be picked while still firm and ripened indoors like a 
Bartlett pear; it will colour well and become juicy. Good for home 
or distant market. 


Wickson, L., Fig. 3—A cross between Burbank and Kelsey. 
A valuable market plum, its time of ripening being late when the 
glut of peaches and other plums is over. Shape somewhat similar 
to Kelsey, but more symmetrical. Colour cherry red to claret. 
Flesh amber, pit small. Is picked before it colours up, and on 
keeping develops an intense carmine. ‘Tree a shy bearer in its 
younger days. Rather given to scalding in the warmer districts, 
but very profitable in cooler localities. The fruit needs thinning out 
to secure good size, and with a slight bloom, peels easily when ripe; 
good for cooking, fair for dessert. 


KELsey (syn. Hattankio), L., Fig. 4.—Tree upright in growth, 
having a tendericy to long slender branches, which should be fre- 
quently pinched back; leaves narrow, twigs brownish grey. Very 
productive and apt to break down. Fruit large, from 114 to 2% 
inches diameter, heart-shaped, wtih a distinct suture on one side 
from stem to apex; stem is short and set in a depression at the 
large end; colour, mixed yellow and purple, which vary in depth, 
but rarely make a brilliant appearance, covered with a bloom; flesh 
yellow, very firm, and clings to the stone, which is rather small, 
and nearly always partly surrounded by a eavity; when fully ripe 
the quality is very good. In California the tree resists drought 
remarkably; it is almost an evergreen, liable to injury in severe 
climates; comes into bearing as young as the peach; requiring 
same pruning, ripens late. Likes heavy, moist Jand; when planted 
in proximity with other sorts, such as Satsuma, the blossoms set 
better. Ripens end of March. Likely to prove a profitable market 
and shipping variety. 

Suiro.—One of the Burbanks. Ripens in the Blackwood middle 
of December when dessert fruit is comparatively scarce. May he 
gathered weeks before it is ripe. Yellow transparent colour. Good 
size, round, clingstone, one of the best. 

Satsuma Bioop (syn, Yone-momo), L.—Leaves more lanceo- 
late than those of Welsey; fruit averages about 244 inches in diam- 
eter, nearly round, and but slightly sutured on one side; colour 


247 


dark red under a thick bloom; dots rather conspicuous and num- 
erous; flesh dark purplish red (blood colour), firm, stone very small 
and pointed. Ripens earlier than the Kelsey. Keeps well, and 
will not spoil for weeks after it is ripe; can be Jeft hanging on the 
tree for three or four weeks after it gets deep red. 


Crrrus Fruits. 

Supposed to have been brought from China to India and thence, 
step by step, to Europe and later, to America. Tree tender to 
frost. Should never be set deeper than they were in the nursery, 
and on damp, low-lying soils a few inches higher. On deep alluvial 
soil, moist and fertile, it thrives best although lemons are more 
accommodating in this respect; avoid swampy sodden soil and shal- 


Unsuitable Citrus Soils 
3 


4 


4 Very shallow 
Loon 


Retentive 
:| fed 


| Jeep 
| Sandy 


<| loam 


| Deep 


Loam 


"| Porous Clay 
- are 


2 |umestone Mart Porous 


Yellow 


Porous Clay Cla 
one, Sus od 


Limestone Mart 


Gravel Crave 


*| Craver 


overlying Gravel 


low dry soil. For heavy erops and quality, water is essential, but 
this must be running water or irrigation on well-drained soil. Pro- 
pagated by seed, layers, cuttings; the seedlings are generally budded. 
Such heavy fruiting trees require liberal manuring, and a combina- 
tion of concentrated chemical fertilisers is needed to restore and 
maintain the fertility of planted orchards. Excess of potash thick- 
ens and toughens the rind, and reduces the saccharine qualities. 
Phosphorie acid, on the other hand, favours the formation of sugar 
and modifies the acid contents while highly nitrogenous application 
favours rank growth and abundance of insipid juice. A combina- 
tion of the three gives the best results. In a dry climate the culti- 
vation must be frequent and, except when the roots strike deeply, 
it must be fairly shallow but thorough in order to maintain a dust 
muleh and prevent loss of moisture. 


248 


The climate must be warm, free from hard frosts and suffic- 
iently moist unless irrigation can be practised. 

Numerous species belong to the citrus family, but of these four 
or five only have for us a commercial value, viz., the Orange, the 
Mandarine, the Pomelo, the Lemon, and the Kumquat. 


ORANGE (Citrus aurantium). 

The most notable of these are arranged in the order in which 
they ripen. The sorts we favour are smooth, thin-skinned, tender, 
juicy fruit, that will sink in water, preferably the seedless varieties. 
They are known as “sweet” oranges in contradistinction to “sour” 
oranges of which the Seville is the type. 

The orange stands frost better than the lemon, and does not 
succumb to a temperature of—3° or 4° C. (20° to 25° F. of frost) if 
these low temperatures are not lengthy, and when the thawing is 
gradual. It requires a mean summer temperature of 22° or 23° C. 
(71° to 74° F.) to ripen. 

Tue Navat (syn. Bahia) stands prominently to the forefront 
amongst our choicest oranges. Imported from Bahia, Brazil, into 
the United States, it has been distributed to every part of the world 
offering suitable climatic conditions to its successful cultivation. 
The blossoms of navel oranges are double, having a _ secondary 
blossom within and no pollen. When an occasional seed is found 
in them it is the result of transported pollen. With us the Navel 
Oranges do well from the Gascoyne River in the North to the Har- 
vey in the South. The ripening season ranges from April to Aug- 
ust, and they can thus be landed in the European market where 
the variety is little known in the summer when the demand is the 
greatest. 

Few citrus varieties sport more readily than does the Navel, 
and we have now in cultivation a number of these oranges, which 
differ materially from one another as regards appearance and time 
of ripening. Amongst the most noted are:— 


AustTRALIAN Navet.—tThe foliage resembles that of the Wash- 
ington Navel. The fruit varies in size, all sizes generally being 
found on the same tree. A very shy bearer. Blooms profusely, 
but very few of the blossoms set; often the trees are loaded with 
fruit, and after having attained the size of marbles drop to the 
ground, without any apparent cause; fruit also has a tendency to 
split at the navel, which is, usually large and prominent, unlike that 
of the Washington Navel, which is round and generally small. 
Seedless. Flavour as good if not superior to that of the Washing- 
ton Navel. The tree is a strong grower. 


Wasutneton Navet.—The variety was, like all Navels, intro- 


duced from Bahia, Brazil, into the United States, whence they 
found their way to every part of the globe where climatic con- 


249 


ditions are suitable to orange culture. No market has ever yet 
been glutted with well-grown oranges of this sort. The tree, al- 
though hardy and vigorous, is of medium size, with dark-coloured 
leaves and is armed with a few small thorns. .\ rapid grower, and 
an early and abundant yearly bearer; requires a free, deep, well- 
drained loam, and does not thrive on poor, sour, and badly-drained 
land. Fruit, large, solid, and heavy; skin, smooth and of very fine 
texture; very juicy, high flavour; is generally seedless. Apart from 
the valuable qualities enumerated, this variety is one of the earliest 
and best tested of all the Navel oranges; it is a good keeper, and 
well suited for export. 


The season in California for the Washington Navel is from 
January to July, while in Florida it extends from November to 
February, but in Florida, as well as in Cuba, and in the West 
Indies, its cultivation has never been a success, and it has been sup- 
planted by other kinds and by the grape fruit—a variety of Pomelo. 
The dry summers and wet winters, as in the case of California and 
in the South-West of Western Australia, retard the maturing of 
citrus fruit. Not so in Florida, where the summer rains, like that 
of India and of the Northern coast of Australia, and the dry win- 
ters, hasten the maturation. 


JAFFA.—Mid season. Large, oval fruit; skin coarse; pulp rich 
and juicy, almost seedless. Tree strong grower, with very large 
leaves curved and wrinkled on the strong young shoots; thornless. 
In Jaffa rainless summer accompanied by heavy night dews, and 
winter without frost, are well suited to the growth and development 
of the trees, which are watered in the summer and _ plentifully 
manured. 


VALENCIA, Lare.—Tree a strong grower, does not begin to bear 
as soon as most other budded sorts; few thorns, dark foliage; fruit 
medium size, roundish oval, tapering towards the stem, skin smooth; 
pulp acid till fully ripe, few seeds, solid, of good quality. The fruit 
ripens in the early spring, and will hang a long time. Commercially, 
it is placed next to the Navel. The tree is inclined to produce a good 
crop only bi-annually. <A strain known as “Hart’s Tardiff” in Cali- 
fornia, has been widely propagated. Does well in Florida, and 
should also do well in Northern Australia. 


Tue SEVILLE (syn. Sour or Bitter Orange), C. Bigarradia or 
Vulgaris, said to have been brought from the East by the Moors, 
who established large plantations of it about Seville, in Spain, hence 
the name. The hardiest of all varieties, enduring very hard frosts 
without injury. It has the largest and most fragrant flowers; the 
pulp, however, is bitter and acid, and is valued chiefly for marma- 
lade. Several types are grown, which raised from seeds have some- 
what varied, viz., the Round, the Flat, and the Sweet Seville; fruit 
fairly large, about three inches in diameter, and flattened at both 


250 


ends; skin rough and thick, dark orange, and bitter; when boiled 
becomes transparent. The pulp, when cooked with sugar, sets to a 
jelly. Tree a strong grower, with large, shiny, bright green leaves, 
long and pointed, with well-developed wings, thorny. Thrives on 
heavier soil better than do sweet oranges. 


QuEEN.—An Australian variety, thriving well in the drier locali- 
ties. Fruit medium size to large, somewhat ovate, regular in shape 
and size; skin thin, smooth, rather light in colour; often a ring at 
the calyx end; flesh juicy and of good flavour. 


SEEDLINGS.—-Numerous seedlings exist, some of which exhibit 
features which are worth propagating, but they often fail in some 
of the standards required from a profitable commercial orange. One 
of the best of these West Australian seedlings is the 


CHERITON (syn. Gingin).—A West Australian seedling, grown 
from seeds about 50 vears ago by Mr. H. Brockman, in his orchard 
at “Cheriton,” on the Gingin Brook, some fifty miles north of Perth. 
Tree a very strong grower, erect, thorny, with good foliage. Fruit 
large, roundish, and a little tapering towards the apex. Thirty 
oranges picked from different gardens gave an average weight of 
lloz. to 120z., while a few weighed over 1lb. each. Skin medium 
thin on fruit on the top of the tree to thin on fruits on older bearing 
branches at the base; peels off easily. Fleshy, few seeds, solid, 
juicy, segments parting easily after peeling, sweet, hangs well. 
Ripens from July to end of September. 


Manparins (Citrus nobilis). 

“Much grown in India. The leaves and blossoms are smaller 
than those of the orange. Branches slender; fruit flattened, with 
segments loosely adhering, forming a hole in the centre; rind yellow, 
glossy, easily detached. Fruit very juicy and sweet when ripe. Tree 
medium size, and almost thornless. 


ScarLer MANpaRIN.—Very profitable on account of its earliness 
in bearing and in maturing its crop. ‘Tree upright, spreading, 
vigorous grower, above medium size, almost thornless; fruit large, 
flattened at both ends. Before ripening the rind is moderately tight, 
but as the fruit ripens kecomes puffy and assumes a reddish orange 
colour; it is easily detached from the pulp. When fully ripe the 
segments surround a hollow core. Pulp dark orange, sweet, of fine 
flavour. Grows best in a semi-tropical climate. A bad carrier, and 
requires careful picking and sweatiny before shipping. 

THorny Manparin or TANGERINE,—One of the best flavoured 
of all mandarins. Tree a dense bush requiring severe thinning out 
to bear large fruit; thorny, except some sub-varieties which are 
thornless. Fruit small to large, according to number of fruit, vigour 
of trees, and soil and climate; roundish, flattened; stem fine and 


251 


firmly attached to fruit; skin tight, thin, and smooth, pale yellow. 


Pulp juicy and aromatic. This fruit becomes dry and puffy if 
allowed to hang too long. 


Emperor Manparin (syn. Canton).—Tree large, upright, 
strong, and good bearer; few thorns, leaf large; a heavy bearer. 
Fruit not so handsome as the Scarlet, and varies somewhat in type; 
medium size to large, roundish, irregular, and flattened at the eye. 
Skin yellow, brittle, tearing easily, and somewhat puffy when the 
fruit is over-ripe. Called in China the Mandarin or Noble Orange. 


Beauty or GLEN ReTreat.—Origin obscure, although the parent 
tree from which all the trees of that variety are derived grows in 
the orchard of Mr. W. H. Parker of Glen Retreat, near Brisbane. 
Tree of large size, vigorous, forming a dense head unless kept 
pruned, thornless, possessing a distinct foliage. Bears early and 
abundantly; fruit large, solid; skin thin, smooth, tough, and tightly 
attached to the pulp, which contains practically no rag. Pulp, firm, 
juicy, sweet; few seeds. Fruit a good carrier. 


Kumaquat (Citrus Japonica). 

Is very hardy and prolific and bushy. A native of Japan, where 
it is known as “I<in-Kan,” which means “gold orange,” “Kumquat” 
being Chinese for the same name. Being dwarf it can be planted 
close, i.e., 12ft. apart. Two varieties are grown—a round and an 
oval-shaped fruit; small, about the size of a large gooseberry; rind 
sweet and smooth, yellow, thick; high scented; pulp acid; many 
seeds. When quartered and boiled with sugar makes excellent pre- 
serves; steeped in spirits constitute very good bitters; crystallised 
it makes very good confection. The Chinese export considerable 
quantities put up in small stone jars. They also eat the fruit with- 
out peeling the rind. Apart from its economic value, the Kumquat is 
well worth cultivation in gardens for its ornamental appearance. 
The tree has slender branches without thorns, small leaves, and bears 
freely. 


THe PomELO (Citrus decumana). 

Also called “Shaddock” after a sea captain of that name, and 
in the United States of America “grape fruit,’ on account of the 
tendency of the tree to carry its fruit in bunches. The Dutch, who 
first procured it from Ceylon, introduced it into Mauritius under the 
name of Pampelmous, a corruption of the Indian name for fruit. 
The name Pomelo is generally given to the bigger kind, and the 
American term “grape fruit” to the clustered and smaller fruit. Of 
these the Florida kinds are better liked than the Californian. The 
fruit is borne in bunches—-“Grappes”—at the end of the shoots. 
The young growths and flower buds are coated with silvery hairs. 
Trees vigorous and resistant. Several varieties are grown, weighing 


252 


from 11b. to 12lbs. each. Some of the smaller varieties, with a fairly 
thin rind and oblong, which are imported from Singapore, are the 
best. The larger sorts with a thick, spongy rind are much esteemed 
for making into preserves and for candying. The pulp is regarded 
as very wholesome and refreshing, and possessing valuable tonic pro- 
perties. Large quantities are exported from Jamaica to the United 
States, and its cultivation is regarded as quite as profitable as that 
of the orange. 


TRIUMPH.—Slightly flattened at the base and apex. Size 3Yin. 
x 4in.; light yellow, smooth rind, not so bitter as other sorts, fairly 
sweet, juicy. 

MarsH’s.—Seedless, oblate roundish, 3in. x 4Yin., light yellow, 
sections thirteen; flesh greyish green; bitterness not strongly 
marked; acidity and sweetness medium; seeds absent, or very few. 

The Pomelo or Grape Fruit should be allowed to get thoroughly 
ripe on the tree to attain its full flavour. The tree when budded, 
either in the sour orange or the rough lemon stock, is a vigorous 
grower, and very prclific. This fruit does particularly well in 
Florida, which has a climate much like that of our tropical provinces 
of Kimberley, where I have seen very fine pomeloes growing. 
Thousands of acres of grape fruit are cultivated in Jamaica, Porto 
Rico, Cuba, California, and Florida. In the latter State the area 
under this fruit is greater than the total area of all sort of citrus 
fruits in Australia. The fruit always meets a ready market all 
through America. In Queensland the returns from the few grape- 
fruit trees is said to vary from £2 to £6 per tree. The fruit carries 
and keeps well. 


Directions for Eating Grape Fruit—Do not peel; with a sharp 
knife cut transversely; cut out the seed centres; cut round the pulp 
next the skin, loosening and dividing neatly; sugar; leave in these 
natural (slightly bitter) cups for several hours; eat it thence with 
a spoon. The taste, a wonderful blend of slight bitterness, acidity 
and sweetness, is very pleasant. The fruit has great digestive and 
tonic virtues. 


THe Lemon (C. limonum). 

Does not withstand low temperatures as well as the Pomelo, 
Mandarin, and the Sweet Orange. A temperature of—2° C. (28.5° F. 
of frost), if at all prolonged and if the thawing is rapid, will hurt 
it; whereas oranges will withstand—3° C. (26.5° F.) The lemon 
will stand more prolonged drought than the orange. The autumn- 
picked lemons cure and keep best, and may be stored until the 
spring. 

Vitus Franca, Europe (Fig. 1).—A summer-bearing lemon, sets 
to fruit early. Tree almost thornless, branches spreading and 
somewhat drooping, leaves long and pointed; foliage abundant to 


203 + 


protect the fruit from the sun; said to withstand a lower tem- 
perature than other varieties. Fruit of medium size; considered 
to be one of the finest 
of lemons grown. Fruit 
oblong, slghtly pointed 
at the blossom end, rind 
thin, without any trace 
of bitterness even when © 
green; acid strong, juicy; 
nearly seedless. Keeps 
and ships well. 

Eureka (California).— 
Fruit medium in size, oval, 
and more oblong than the 
Lisbon, sweet rind, a very 
good keeper and very 
popular. Skin bright yel- 
low, thin and smooth; 
very juicy and_ briskly 
acid; hardy and _ prolific. 
The drawback it has is 
that the leaves are in- 
clined to curl, searce foli- 
age, fruit produced at ex- 
tremities of branches, and 
liable to get sunburnt; 
but this is generally 
avoided by letting the 
branches hang low, and 
prune as little as possible. 
Tree almost thornless. 

Lisson (Portugal, Fig. 
2).—Tree a strong grower, 
bears fruit all through 
the tree, not very early in 
coming into bearing; pro- 
lifie bearer, and makes a 
larger tree than _ other 
varieties, for this reason 
the trees of this variety 
should be planted a good 
distance apart and not less 
than 24ft. from one 
another; quite thorny, but 
thorns decrease in size as 
the tree grows older. Fruit 
uniformly medium size, 


254 


fine grain, sweet rind, very juicy and briskly acid; very few seeds; 
a good keeper; can be picked at any time of the year. There are 
several sub-varieties of the Lisbon, such as the “thornless” and 
the “variegated,” differing from the parent to the extent their 
names imply. When allowed to ripen on the tree the rind thickens, 
and the fruit is coarser. 


Stcrnan (Fig. 3).—Rounder than the Lisbon, which it other- 
wise resembles. Tree almost thornless and prolific; an early bearer, 
and a good market lemon. 


THE LIME (C. limetia). 

The most tender of the citrus tribe, as it is always 
growing. Does not stand frost and is best suited to the 
the tropics. Grown from seed which generally comes up true to 
kind, seeds from the best fruits being selected; is also budded. The 
stock sueceeds well on dry soil or even on rocky soil or those un- 
derlaid with rock. Around Port Darwin I have seen lime trees 
growing unattacked by the ubiquitous white ant which destroys 
other citrus trees. The tree is of shrubby growth, can be planted 
closer than other citrus trees, very thorny, except a few varieties; 
excedingly robust and requires little attention. The fruit varies 
in size from a small egg to a good size lemon; pale yellow, pulp 
light green and filled to bursting point with a very sharp acid juice, 
used in preference to the lemon in the tropics; a bad carrier. Early 
and very prolific bearer. Used in the manufacture of citrie acid 
and of lime juice and for seasoning food and providing cool drinks. 


Of varieties :— 

West InpIAn.—Small and very good; much prized for lime- 
juice. 

TAHITI grows as a round-topped shrub. Fruit broadly oval— 
3in. x 2.5in., lemon yellow, smooth thin rind, flesh fine-grained, juice 
plentiful, almost colourless, very acid and pleasant flavour, few or 
no seeds. 


FIGS (Ficus carica). 

The fig like the grape vine thrives in Western .\ustralia 
where other fruit trees sometimes fail to be productive. In the 
cooler districts sometimes fails to mature its fruit, and is better 
suited for the warmer localities. Moist, sandy loams are also 
more congenial to the fig tree than are heavy clays. The fig itself, 
which is generally spoken of as a fruit consisting of a mass of pulp 
enclosed in a thin skin, is to the botanist an inflorescence, in which 
the outer covering is a receptacle for the hundreds of microscopic 
flowers inside. The tree attains large dimensions and is long-lived 
and when many are planted together, they should be set wide 


255 


apart, viz., at least 40 feet or more, the space between utilised for 
some years and, until the figs have attained a large development, 
with Japanese Plums, Peaches, Loquats, Passion Vines, etc., whieh 
can be grubbed out after they have outlived their period of utility. 
Fig trees are very useful for the shelter they afford and for their 
fruit, in pig paddocks; the trunks, however, should then be pro- 
tected as they would be sure to be damaged by the pigs. For all 
practical purposes, edible figs may be considered under three 
classes: (1) the Wild or Capri; (2), The Self-sterile or Smyrna 
type; (3), The Self-fertile or Adriatic type. 

Tus Wiip or Capri—tThe only value of this class of fig is to 
serve as host for the minute wasp (Blastophaga grossorum) which 
enters the self-sterile or Smyrna type of figs and fertilises them. 
In fact, it has been said that the Capri fig and the Smyrna fig stand 
in the relations of male and female to each other. They both, how- 
ever, possess male and female flowers, but these ripen at different 
times and therefore need external interference for their fertilisa- 
tion. 

This is provided by the minute wasp above referred to, and 
which acts in this way: The fruit of the Capri fig, which as a fruit 
is worthless, is like all figs really a hollow inflorescence. It produces 
three crops annually. The profichis first of all; the mammoni, 
which buds out when the profichis are ripe and the third crop or 
second mammoni, which makes its appearance as the first mammom 
ripens. 

These inflorescences are possesed of male and female flowers, 
both with a predominance of male or staminate flowers in the pro- 
fichis, On this account this crop is of more particular value to the 
Smyrna or self-sterile class. The succeeding second and third crops 
or mammonis serve only as a habitat for the fig wasps and enable 
them to tide over the seasons. 

The propagation of the fig wasp proceeds as follows:—The 
female Blastophaga wasp forces its way through the ostolium or eye 
into the fig and having done so lays one egg in each of a number 
of the ovaries of the female flowers and dies within the fig. In 
consequence of this puncture the ovary swells and forms a gall 
with a wasp embryo inside instead of its own embryo. From the 
eggs that are laid some produce wingless male and some winged 
female wasps, the first issuing first; these then gnaw their way into 
the gall ovaries in which the females lie, impregnate them, and die. 
The fertilised winged females then gnaw wider the passage made by 
the males, and either enter the following crop of Capri figs or 
mammonis, or if Smyrna fig trees are close by they penetrate the 
eye of these figs then in proper state of development. In issuing 
from the Capri fig they brush past the staminate or male flowers 
which surround the eye, and issue out of the fig dusted with fig 
pollen. 


256 


This pollen, in their endeavours to lay eggs on the ovaries of 
the figs they penetrate, they scatter about and thus fertilise the 
female flowers. Should they have entered a Capri fig or mammoni, 
they puncture the ovaries and propagate their kind, whereas should 
fate have taken them to a Smyrna fig they die, leaving no offspring. 


Blastophaga Wasp (greatly enlarged). String of wild capri figs 
carrying the fertilising insect (reduced size.) 


In Smyrna fig plantations it is therefore important to also 
plant a few Capri figs or graft branches here and there with this 
kind, or to adopt the practice prevailing in the South of Europe 
and in Algeria, which consists in attaching the Capri figs to strings 
and hanging a few in each tree. 

Mr. J. Hawter, of the Blackwood Nurseries, secured some years 
ago the stock of Capri and of Smyrna figs introduced from Caii- 
fornia by the Department of Agriculture, and has since propa- 
gated them together with other kinds also capable of carrying the 
fertilismg wasp. ‘These were twice introduced from California and 
from Natal by the Department of Agriculture, but they will not be 
permanently established until the Capri and the Smyrna figs can 
be more widely planted. The State entomologist, Mr. Newman, has, 
however, located the fertilising wasp in figs grown in the vicinity 
of Fremantle, where they appear to have established themselves. 

Tur Siryrna Cuass embrace all those figs which are not self 
fertile and require external agency for the snecesstul production 
of their erop. 

Several varieties of figs are dried and exported from Smyrna. 
Most of them need the wild fig pollen and the agency of the 
Blastophaga grossorum wasp. 

Fruit large, turbinate-pyriform, flattened; short neck, ribs dis- 
tinct, orifice large, skin lemon yellow, pulp reddish amber, very 
sweet. Dries readily. 


257 


The Smyrna Vig of commerce proper stands out amongst them, 
almost as prominently as does the Washington Navel amongst 
Oranges. 

Two distinet crops come out in the season—the first coming 
out in the Spring out of the previous year's shoots; and the second 
growing on the new wood just as the former is ripening. 

Only a few of the first crop mature, the bulk of them drop- 
ping from the tree when quite small. Like all immature first crop 
figs, these, although of large size, contain nothing but hollow seeds 
and lack flavour and substance. The ostiolum or eye is closed, and 
fertilisation cannot take place. 

The Aprtaric or self-fertile class comprise all those figs which 
need no external assistauce to mature their fruit. 

Most of them bear two crops, and some drop their first crop. 
Only white, ercam, and pink fleshed figs are dried; black-skinned 
have no commercial value for drying. Three to four pounds of 
green fruit yield one pound of dried. 

SruBBerRFIELD’s Extra Earny.—A new kind of value for rip- 
ening very early. 

Waite Gonxoa. (svn. White Marseilles, White Naples).— 

One of the most delicious figs in cultivation. Good for 
table, peels off easily, and dries remarkably well. Frnit: above 
medium, quite round, with a 
short neck and well-marked 
longitudinal ridges running 
from the stalk to the apex. 
Skin pale green. [Eye open. 
Flesh opaline, exceedingly 
rich, juicy, and sugary. 

Wuite Apriatic (syn. 
Fico di Fragola or Straw- 
berry Fig)—One of the 
finest grown, and a strong 
growing and hardy kind. 
Fruit: medium size, rounded 
pyriform, with medium 
neck. Skin greenish in 
the shade, greenish-yellow 
in the sun. Eye open, with 
red iris; pulp bright straw- | 
berry red, drying to a rather 
pale yellow. Skin very. thin, 
and together with the pulp 
forming a most delicious 
sweetmeat when grown in 
favourable places. The first 
crop does not set but the White Adriatic. 
second is abundant. 


; 258 

Brown Turkry.—One of the earliest sorts. Tree very pro- 
lific, hardy, fruit large, oblong, pyriform; skin brownish red with 
darker ribs; blue bloom; thick pulp, sweet and good, dark pink 
colour. 
‘ Brunswick.—Very, large, pyriform, ribs distinct, skin pale 
amber with a violet tint; pulp amber colour, early and large, but of 
poor flavour. 

Boursassortr Birack.—A much prized early fig, medium, 
flattened, black skin, pulp blood red. : 

ApAM.—A fine shade tree, with large leaves, very hardy, fruits 
late; colour bluish, with a pronounced bloom. 


Fias ror Srock.—tThe first important fig. plantation for the 
purpose of grazing stock amongst the trees was established some. 
fifteen years, near Pinjarra, by Mr. Wm. Paterson. The trees 
were planted 40ft. x 40ft., all side branches were lopped off to 
send the trees up and permit of grazing. AIl stock do well on 
them, eating fruit and also fallen leaves, To secure a rotation, 
the kinds planted were mostly Brown Turkey, White Adriatic, 
Adam. 


The composition of figs compared with wheat and 
potatoes is:— 


Figs. Wheat. Potatoes. 
Water .. : .. 18-8 11-4 78:3 
Protein .. es i 8 13-8 2-2 
Fat x ke 2 1-9 1 
Carbohydrates .. 2. 74:2 71-9 18-4 
Food values per lb... 1475 1675 385 


The figs have, besides their food value, a physiological value 
in keeping the digestive organs open. 

Mr. Paterson advises keeping cattle off; they break down the 
trees; some horses do too; sheep, pigs, fowls do not hurt. A 
plantation set out 22ft. x 22ft. was soon overerowded, and the 
opinion is expressed that 60ft. x 60ft. would be a better distance 
than 40ft. x 40ft. 

The fig drying industry can only be satisfactorily developed 
where the late summer and early autumn months are hot and dry. 
Such conditions oceur in Western Australia. The more favourable 
localities are where the figs undergo a preliminary curing on the 
tree itself and, when dead ripe, shrivel and droop on the stalk and 
begin to dry. The foothills is particularly favourable, it is away 
from the hazy atmosphere of the sea coast, where the ripening of 
some kinds of figs is not so thorough, and where the fruit still 
hanging on the tree keep watery, ferment, and turn sour. 

When dead ripe on the tree and ready for drying, a sharp 
shaking of the branches causes them to fall to the ground, when 


259 


they are picked up in baskets and spread out in the sun on trays 
which are stacked up before the evening dew is felt. Hand picking 
a single fruit at a time would be too lengthy and costly a process 
for drying. 


THE GRAPE VINE. 


Probably no other more rustie plant is suitable for intense cul- 
ture than is the grape vine. It is particularly well adapted for the 
conditions of soil and climate that portion of the South-West of 
Western Australia presents which extends from the Leeuwin to 
the Murchison River. On that belt, stretching between the Darling 
Range and the coastal sandhills, it can be profitably cultivated 
almost anywhere. 

In the following notes the kinds recommended are grouped un- 

« ¢der the three classes of Drying, Table grapes, and Wine grapes. 


For Drytne. 

In France the period of ripening of wine grapes has been 
reckoned by Pulliat from the time of ripening of the Golden 
Chasselas thus:—First period of maturity, to which belong all 
vines which ripen their grapes five to six days before or after 
Golden Chasselas. Second period of maturity, including all vines 
ripening their grapes 12 to 14 days after Chasselas. Third period, 
ineluding those ripening their grapes 24 to 30 days after Chasselas. 
Fourth period, including those ripening their grapes 36 to 40 days 
after Chasselas. Fifth period, including those grapes which ripen 
later than eight weeks after Chasselas. 


Wurtr Muscat or ALEXANDRIA.—An oval white Muscat grape. 
Season medium; will keep in good condition long after ripening. 
Merits: medium to first class; the most handsome and valuable 
table and drying grape in cultivation. Extensively cultivated for 
raisins in Valencia and Denia, in Spain, and also in Southern 
California, the Cape, and Australia. Vine: A short, rather strag- 
gling and bushy grower, well adapted to short spur pruning, as it 
forms rather a bush than a vine; very free fruiting, but the 
bunches sometimes set badly, except where local circumstances are 
favourable. Leaves of medium size, round, bright green above, 
light green below, deeply lobed, somewhat wrinkled, commencing 
early to turn, and becoming yellow round the edges. The leaf- 
stalks, or pedicel, and veins reddish; young shoots a light green. 
Wood gray, with darker spots, short jomted. The laterals produce 
a second, and even, sometimes, a third crop. Fruit bunches very 
long, from 12 to 20 inches, loose, tapering, and often strongly 
shouldered; a somewhat shy setter. Berries very large, long ovate 
on stout stalks. Skins rather thick, clear greenish vellow, or, when 


260 


highly ripened, pale amber, and sometimes with a flusn of cinna- 
mon where much exposed. Flesh firm, crackling, or fleshy, exceed- 
ingly sweet, rich, and with a strong museatel flavour. 

Cultural Notes—Although the vine is hardy and fruits freely, 
at an early age it is found to require a warm temperature and 
drier atmosphere than, most other varieties to set the berries 
properly, and ripen the fruit thoroughly; and on that account 
rejected from general extensive cultivation, except where those 
conditions prevail. Experience has proved it to be a safe vine to 
grow in Western Australia from the latitude of the Murchison at 
the North to that of the Murray and even beyond in favourable 
locations. Affected by the oidium and anthracnose. Deep Red 
Gum soil more suitable than our heavy White Gum soils. 


Museatels for drying are thus trained around Malaga where a 
considerable raisin-drying industry exists. It is found there that 
a low head, 5-7 inches above ground, carrying 6-8 spurs of two eyes* 
only each—counting the axillary or base eye—give bunches which 
naturally rest on the ground, and that these low canes are the best 
and produce the best raisins. Grapes from taller pruned vines 
seldom have the same sweetness and are often scorched by the 
sun or scalded by hot winds. 


If the grapes are not of good quality, the number of spurs 
is reduced; if superior, it is increased so as to get the greatest yield 
of first-class grapes. There is nothing gained in leaving more eyes 
than two. If more eyes are left, the lower ones will not develop 
and the result will be to lengthen the arms, inerease the size of 
the head, and place the leaves and grapes further away from the 
centre of the vine and the spring of sap. 

Mvscaret Gorro Buanco.—So similar in many respects to 
Museat of Alexandria that the one is sometimes confounded with 
the other. A seedling of Museat of Alexandria, much eultivated 
in Spain; the best type of raisin grape of Malaga and known in 
ecommerce after that name. Fruit bunches, a closer buneh than 
Museat of Alexandria; fruit sets better as a rule; berries rounder, 
a erease often found at the apex. Skin inelined to be a little 
darker in colour, and not nearly so green when ripe. Flesh not 
quite so hard as Museat of Alexandria. Thicker and finer bloom 
than Museat of Alexandria, which loses its bloom very rapidly 
when packing and drying. Muscat of Alexandria has to be dried 
a little more than Muscatel to ensure its keeping condition. The 
same treatment suggested for Museat of Alexandria applies in the 
case of this grape. 

SrepLess Museat.—As a variety does not exist, but it often 
happens that bunches of muscats carry a number of small 
seedless berries from imperfectly pollenised flowers, an occurrence 
known by the French as “millerandage’’ and by English growers 


261 
as ‘‘shot grapes.’’ These berries, after the raisins have gone 
through the stemmer and graded, are kept separate and packed 
and sold as such, the demand being active and an advanced price. 


Sunrana (syn. Seedless Sultana, Sultanieh, Sultanina ; in 
California, Thompson’s Seedless; in England, Lady de Coverley; 
in Asiatic Turkey, Kismish, a term given to seedless grapes of 
which two are cultivated—the ‘‘round-fruitel” and the ‘‘oval- 
fruited” (also more valuable one, which is here described) :— 
Vine: growth strong, upright, with long climbing canes; bark 
rough, and tearing in long’ strips. Wood: very lone and sirong 
canes, long-jointed but not very thick nodes; smail buds; laterals 
and tendrils numerous; wood not hard, red brown; bunches car- 
ried from the fifth, sixth, or seventh node, hence the necessity of 
long pruning. Leaves: large, not very deeply lobed, strongly 
serrated, thin and flat, bright green, smooth and shining above, 
lighter green and smooth below, die yellow in autumn, long leaf 
stalk. Bunches large and loose, from 6 to 12 inches long, and 4 
to 6 inches wide at the shoulders; stalk long, green, and not 
woody. Berries: small to medium, oval, skin green, thin but tough, 
semi-transparent, becoming pale-yellowish as it ripens, covered 
with light bloom, flesh tender, sweet, juicy, firm, and erackling, of 
the consistency and flavour of the Sweetwater, and contains no 
seeds, 


Cultural Notes——The defect of this vine is to be a poor bearer 
unless pruned long ; and even the long pruning, as generally 
practised on other varieties, does not yield the best results. <A 
modification of this is advisable in pruning the Sultana. A suffi- 
ciency of laterals which shoot out along the canes should be left 
on the long rods which are cut back about three feet lune, These 
laterals possess plump buds, and are well summered to the very 
tip. Train the long rods bearing these laterals along the central 
wire of a T-shaped trellis, and blind the buds at the joints of rods, 
except the first two from the stem; bend the laterals about 12 
inches long in ares; they bear the crop. Wood for renewing is 
supplied by encouraging the vigorous growth of one or two canes 
at the base of the rods. For that purpose rub off or destroy all 
barren shoots, and only leave on the fruitful laterals sufficient 
wood to carry a crop commensurate with the strength of the vine. 
This is done by pinching the shoots from these fruitful laterals 
back to the eighth or ninth leaf and limiting the length of the 
rods to about three feet only. 

The Sultana does well in deep, fresh, alluvial soil with good. 
natural water and air drainage. In Australia it is grown on strong 
and gravelly soil. If matures its crop towards the end of the 
middle season, and is a good packer as well as an excellent raisin 
grape. Subject to oidium and to anthracnose or ‘‘black spot.” 


262 


Late pruning, by delaying the spring growth, often helps to ward 
off the early attacks of this fungus. The grapes begin to eelour 
and sweeten several weeks before the Muscat, but they become 
fully ripe later than this variety. Suitable for districts with long 
summers and autumns. If the dipping process is used in curing, 
the grapes must be very ripe, else they will turn zeddish aud dark 
and lose quality. A little salad oil is put with the lve in Greece to 
keep the colour ‘‘amber.’’ At the Wagga Wagga experimental 
orchard it was found impossible to graft the Sultana, with any 
degree of success, upon the following sorts:—-Gros nillaume, 
Royal Ascot, Corinth Currant, and Solonis. Sultanas grafted on 
15 varieties of American stock grew vigorously, and carry guod 
crops of large compact bunches. 


Buiack Currant (syn. Zante, Passerina nera in Italy).—A cor- 
ruption of Corinth, the Greek port from which most of these are 
shipped; the berries resemble currants in size. The home of the 
Black Currant is the Grecian Islands, as well as Morea, especially 
around Patras, Zante, Cephalonia, and Ithaca; all produce currants 
of the highest quality. Vine: growth erect and climbing, moderately 
robust and very fruitful. Leaf medium size, fine lobed, smooth 
above, and downy beneath. Fruit: Bunches from four to six or 
eight inches in length; tapering, and cylindrical, with long, loose 
shoulders; stalks slender. Berries very small, about the size of 
small peas, round, Skin, purplish red, Flesh: juicy, sweet, ples- 
ant, and without seeds. Ripens between the 1st and 2nd period; on 
the Swan, middle of February. 


Cultural Notes—The vines in Asia Minor are grown on low 
bushes, and are pruned short; the young branches requiring staking 
in order to bear well; the crop ripens in suecession from the first 
shoots, and the laterals, which also bear. For Australia, T head 
trellising, as shown previously, has been found to answer well, 
although the ordinary two-wire trellis is now generally adopted. 
The Currant grape, generally seedless, sometimes produces full- 
sized large berries with seeds, reverting to the grape as it were; 
and where this tendency is very marked its cultivation has to be 
abandoned. This vine is not suited to clayey soils if wet and cold, 
but does well on a light free loam or when heavily manured with 
bone dust on sandy loam over a clay subsoil. 

To Mr. W. C. Grasby is due the credit of having introduced 
the system of cincturing the vine to make it fruitful, a method 
followed for that purpose in Greece and which has already been 
referred to in a previous chapter. At the University of California 
fair crops have also been obtained by grafting it on phylloyera re- 
sistant stocks. 


Wuite CormntH.—The bunch and berry resemble the Black 
Currant, but differ in not being black, and in lacking the peculiar 


263 


aroma and flavour alone possessed by the black and true currant. 
The absence of pips in currant grapes is due to a malformation of 
the floral organs. The vine possesses many of the characteristics 
of the previous kind and will bear even without cincturing; aiso 
with the same treatment that succeeds with the Sultana. The berries 
are intermediate in size, between the Black Currant and the Sultana, 
but not equal to either in flavour. 


EXPORT GRAPES. 

Western Australia offers special advantages over the other 
States for the cultivation of export grapes. Its geographical posi- 
tion places it a week to ten days nearer the overseas markets of 
Europe, India, China, and Malaya, where we are able to place our 
grapes in the spring of the year; whereas the Spanish grapes are 
marketed in the winter months, when the demand is not so active. 
The test of time. besides, has proved that its climate, characterised 
by rainy winter and spring months followed by dry summer and 
autumn, ensures a more satisfactory ripening of the grape crop, 
which ean be raised to a degree of perfection required in a first class 
export fruit without the additional cost of irrigation. To the late 
Mr. Geo. Barrett-Lennard is due the credit of having demonstrated 
the practicability of growing grapes for export market, an 
industry which is now receiving a considerable amount of attention 
along the Swan River Valley, in close proximity to the port of ship- 
ment at Fremantle. 

In Western Australia grapes for export are packed in neat 
hardwood, mahogany-like boxes containing 2Slhs. of fruit, in addi- 
tion to 4tlbs. to 5lbs. of cork dust, and they are kept during the 
voyage in the ship’s cool chamber at a temperature of 32° to 34° F. 

Although several kinds of grapes have been shipped with more 
or less success, the following few stand the long sea journey best. 


Manaca Rep (svn. Red Olivette, Pause Rose, Corezon de Galle, 
Red Portugal).—Plant not very strong. Bunches long, handsome, 
well filled with very large olive-shaped berries of a dull-red colour, 
with thick skin. Ripens late. Subject to Black Spot, and requires 
careful attention. A characteristic of this variety is the nature of 
its leaf, the lobes and teeth of which are rounded off. It is bare 
underneath with the exception of a few short hairs about the nerves. 
Hangs late. 

Mazaca, Buack.—.\ better carrier than Red Malaga; not so 
subject to fungoid diseases. This grape grown on a light loam 
usually carry as well as Ohanez, is more juicy, and has a better 
flavour. 

Frame Toray (syn. Red Amar of Kabylie)—Vigorous 
growth, heavy joints, and leaves large, light yellowish-green 
in colour, lightly lobed, long toothed, smooth on both sides, 


264. 


Bunches large, moderately compact, shouldered, conico-cylin- 
drical, thick peduncles. Berries large, longer than wide, flat- 
tened at the ends, red, covered with lilac bloom, green 
where too much shaded; fleshy and crisp; ripens late. A very 
showy grape and a good packer; quality indifferent; bears well 
either short or long pruned, and does best on clayey soil. On damp 
sandy soil fails to colour well. One of the most showy grapes 
grown. Does very well trained on overhead trellis. Subject to 
Black Spot. 


Gros COLMAN (syn. Dodreladi of Caueasus).—A round, black 
vinous grape; season late; very handsome and valuable kind for 
late winter and market purposes; second rate as to quality. Vine: 
free-vigorous, the shoots stout, with large prominent buds; very 
fruitful; wood long, stout, not hard, with abundant pith, long joints, 
buds large, slightly downy. Leaves large, broad, very downy, often 
presenting the appearance of flagging, and very early in the season 
assuming a iusty aj pearance, from which they change to a dull 
reddish hue, which is very ornamental. Fruit: bunehes medium 
sized, rather short and broad, with usually one large shoulder, giving 
the bunch a one-sided appearance, sets very freely; stalk lone. thin, 
hut very tough and strong. Berries very large, round, sometimes 
inclined to oblate; the stvle-point depressed. Skin thick though 
adhering to the flesh, dark purple or black, covered with a thick 
bloom. Flesh firm, coarse, and generally with an indifferent flavour, 
but when highly ripened and commencing to shrivel it is pleasant. 


Cultural Notes—-A very strong-constitutioned vine, doing well, 
like the Alicante, in many Jocalities, and also requires plenty of heat 
to ripen to perfection. The enormous size of the berries and weight 
of the bunches necessitate some care in thinning and not over- 
cropping—an error of treatment which is soon apparent in the want 
of colour. Requires spur pruning. In damp soil, or when highly 
manured with organic fertilisers, the berries split and become 
mouldy. 


Cornicuon Purrie (syn. Pizutello)—Vine a vigorous and 
erect grower; thick, light brown, short-jointed wood; leaves large, 
fine lobed, dark green above, lighter and hairy below, coarsely 
toothed, with thick, short petiole; bunches very large, loose, on long 
peduneles, and on this account easy to pack, even when the bunches 
are very large. Berries large, long, and curved, darkly coloured 
and spotted, thick skinned, firm, on long pedicels; ripens late; of 
attractive appearance and a good packer. Pruned short. 


OnANEZ (also written Joannés—the J being silent, also Daria 
and Almeria, after the province and the port of shipment).— 
A Spanish variety of splendid shipping qualities and largely ex- 
ported from the ports of Almeria and Malaga to London and New 
York. Vine vigorous; leaves medium size, and lightly lobed, 


265 


smooth on both faces; 
teeth obtuse and alter- 
nately large and small. 
Bunches evenly set; loose 
lberries, white, medium | 
to large, long oval, 
flattened on the ends, 
hard and fleshy, which 
prevents them from dry- 
ing up; strongly attached 
to the stalklet or pedicel. 
If a single berry is pulled 
off the bunch the pedicel 
breaks clean off from the 
main stalk and remains 
attached to the grape, sav- 
ing it from deeay. Flavour 
indifferent. The vine re- 
quires a warm locality | 
and large development, 
with long pruning, with f 
laterals on the canes as Ohanez. 

explained in the ease of 

Sultana. It is sent out from Spain, packed in cork dust or 
little chips of cork of about one-eighth inch in size. 
This prevents close packing and does not favour the growth 
of mould. This grape is suecessfully shipped to England from West- 
ern Australia as well as fron the Eastern States. It is the safest 
grape to ship, and until lately much neglected because it had proved 
an unreliable bearer. Now, however, it is proved, like the Sultana, 
and is found to ke a prolific vine. Jn the ease of these two vines 
the fruiting buds are not so much on the main canes of the previous 
spring’s growth as on the laterals or secondary growth 
off these canes, being really summer growths. The Ohanez 
and the Sultana throw out these laterals readily. The 
beautiful trellis erected by Mr. George Barrett-Lennard at 
Belhus, on the Upper Swan, as shown on the plate attached, is 
built on more substantial lines than those one sees around Almeria, 
and the result so far has proved «quite as_ satisfactory. 
In Spain these trellises are high enough to permit horses and 
mules working underneath. The single stem is carried about Sft. 
high, and the skeleton of the vine spreads overhead on longitudinal 
wires in conjunction with cross wires, making a kind of large-size 
netting. The vines are planted 18ft. to 20ft. apart. The high 
trellis, besides offering all the room required for working, allows 
plenty of air and light to exercise their beneficient influence; the 
grapes hang underneath the leaves, which protect them against the 


266 


sun; the ground, besides, being sheltered from the direct rays of 
the sun keeps cool and moist, and a vigorous growth is thereby en- 
couraged. 


TABLE GRAPES. 


Apart from the export grapes mentioned, and which are also of 
value for the local fruit market, the following varieites are recom- 
mended. 


Farty Mapetetne (syn. Madeleine Angevine).—Vine a vigor- 
ous grower, bursts into leaf and blossoms early, and fur that reason 
unsuitable for frosty localities. Suitable for either eating or wine 
making. Prune half-long or long. Leaf medium, deeply lobed, 
somewhat woolly below. Branches medium size, fairly compact and 
not always well set unless artificially fecundated with a camel hair 
brush or by running the hands over the blossoms; berries medium, 
oblong, greenish white, turning to golden when ripe. Hangs well 
on the bunches. Does well trained on trellises. 


CHASSELAS OF FonraInesLEAu (syn. Royal Museadine).—A 
round white grape, of the Sweetwater type. Season early. Merits: 
first class as to quality and earliness; it will also keep in good 
condition long after becoming ripe; packs well. Vine: growth free 
and vigorous, with a fine constitution, the young shoots slender but 
ripening well; wood brown, long jointed, slender, but riyening well; 
very fruitful. J.eaves small, roundish, thin, lobed, bright green end 
of shoots and voung leaves, brownish green. Leaves dying off early 
a pale yellow colour. Branehes medium sized and small, long, 
tapering, broadly shouldered and somewhat loose; compact and freely 
set. Berries medium, round, pale greenish vellow, becoming trans- 
parent when fully rive, or, if exposed to the bright sun, the one side 
becoming of a bright cinnamon russet, in which condition they are 
very much richer and sweeter. Flesh firm yet tender, crackling, 
juicy, sweet and agreeable to the palate. When kept until they 
begin to shrivel they are very rich. 


Cultural Notes—A standard early table grape; makes fairly 
good wine; ripens a fortnicht before Black Hamburgh. Generally 
pruned short. 


CHASSELAS Vipert.—A better hearer than the preeeding. Young 
shoots reddish and glossy. Bunches well set, berries green. Good 
for eating and for wine making. 


CIIASSELAS OF NeGrepont.—Must be allowed to hang until quite 
ripe, when it turns from a yale green to a bright red, changing to 
violet. Dossesses a fine arpearance and a pleasant aroma, also makes 
a clean, clear white wine. Ripens after Chasselas of Fontainebleau. 
Vigorous grower, spreading; canes long, thin, few tendrils, young 
leaves round and red; leaves medium size, green and glabrous, re- 


267 


main green in autumn. Bunches medium size, cylindrical, thick, 
regular; pedunele short, slightly coloured; berries medium size, 
‘Jarger than Chasselas Rose or Chasselas Violet, spherical, firm. Very 
fertile; sets well. One of the Archipelago grapes. 


Granp CENTENNIAL. sport of Waltham Cross raised in Vie- 
toria. Vine very vigorous. Leaves large, woud strong. Bunches 
large to very large, shouldered loose. Berries large, oval, greenish 
yellow, of irregular size, with a tendency to crackling; fleshy and 
cracking when ripe; few seeds; very handsome. Succeeds well on 
deep, fresh loam. 


Wa.LtHam Cross.—Berries large, oval, amber coloured, very 
sweet. Make a fair raisin. A profitable grape. 


Mapresrtenp Courr.—a black oval muscat grape. Fairly early 
to mid-season, excellent in quality and very handsome. Vine: 
moderately strong grower; wood with prominent dark brown buds, 
often covered with a thin coating of down. Leaves medium sized, 
rugose, deeply lobed, deep green, leaf stalk and ribs reddish; leaves 
die off crimson. Bunches large, long, and tapering, well set; the 
point often forked; shoulders small, stalk stout. Berries large, oval; 
skin tough, dark purple, covered with large blue bloom; flesh thick, 
greenish, tender, and sweet. Said to be a eross between Muscat of 
Alexandria and Black Moroeco. 


Rep Muscat or FrRoNTIGNAN (syn. Grizzly Frontignan, Mus- 
eatel-Constantia in W.A.).—A round red or tawny Muscat grape. 
Season: mid-season (third period). Merits: first-rate in quality, 
but rather small; makes a luscious wine. Vine: growth strong, 
free, and ripening freely; very fruitful. Wood: spreading shoots 
of a brown-red colour, thick but short internodes, not very prominent 
nodes. Leaves medium sized, as broad as they are long, three or 
five lokes, deep ly toothed, very thin; upper surface of a fine grey 
colour and glabrous; under surface of grey colour, with a few stiff 
hairs covering the veins, which are slightly prominent, yellow and 
smooth, dying off yellow. Fruit: bunches medium sized, rather 
long, somewhat cvlindrieal in shape, but occasionally shouldered; 
generally well set. Ferries medinm sized, round, closely set. Skin 
thin, membranous, of a dull red or tawny colour on the side most 
exposed, and paler on the shaded side, generally covered with a thin 
bloom. Flesh very firm, with a verv rich, pleasant, and decided 
museat flavour; when kert hanging on the vine after being ripe 
the fruit is very art to shrivel, but is then exceeding rich and ex- 
cellent. There is a white variety which answers the same description. 


Cultural Notes.—Extensively grown in the South of France and 
in Australia, as well as at the Cape, where, blended with Tinto, it 
makes the “Constantia” sweet wine. Imported from the Cape into 
Western Australia in the early days, and is generally known locally 


268 


under the name of “Constantia.” The buds burst early and are 
subject to spring frosts. Pruned either short or long, preferably 
short for wine making, as the juice of the grape is then richer and 
its density heavier. A hot, strong, and well-drained soil produces 
a must of high quality. Bears well on the limonite ironstone gravel, 
particularly if trellised, Makes a very good fruity wine. Somewhat 
subject to the attacks of oid?wm and anthracnose. 


Much like Black Hamburg, but 


Kicumisi Aur VIOLET. 
superior to that grape. 


Rep Prixce—A handsome, oval grape; loose bunch; a good 
packer. Mid-season, sells well in London. 


Hasnapop (syn. Bouteille a large panse).—Introdueed from 
Shiraz (Persia), a vigorous grower and productive bearer. Bunches 
large and shouldered. Berries oval, fleshy; skin amber colour, tough; 
prune short. Largely grown as a table grape in the vineyards of 
Constantia, on the foothill of Table Mountain, near Cape Town. 
North of Caye Colony indifferent suecess has, at times, met the 
efforts of the growers when grafting Hoenapop on Rupestris stock, 
whilst most satisfactory results are obtained when Jacquez or 
Riparia stocks are used. 


Ratsin pes Dames (syn. Bieane, Panse jaune).-—Does not set 
well in poor soil; requires long pruning. Bunches large, winged, 
conical, and lose. Berries very large with small ones amongst them, 
oval, of a yellow amber colour when ripe, thick bloom; flavour in- 
different, very showy, and a good packer. Vines vigorous, long 
straight canes, leaves medium size, dark ereen above, glabrous, very 
little down at the angles of the ribs on the under surface. Fruitful, 
but a bad setter unless frequently pinched back at blossoming time. 


Ross or Peru.—Vine a strong grower, with dark brown, short- 
jointed wood; leaf deep green above, lighter in colour and downy 
below. Bunches large shouldered, rather loose; berries large, round, 
purple turning to a darker colour, firm, and crackling; ripens late: 
a handsome grape and productive vine. Pruned either short or 
long. 

CorntcHon Buaxc (syn, Santa Paula, Lady’s Finger, Testa di 
Vacea).—Very similar to Purple Cornichon. Leaves not deeply 
eut, bright green and smooth on both sides; skin thinner than the 
previous one, and for that reason better for the table, but poorer 
parker; very often. one single large seed. Suitable for warm dis- 
tricts. Requires long pruning, even though the canes may appear 
slender. 

DorapvitLo (syn. Jean Blane).—-A white Spanish grape, suit- 
able as a late tahle grape and for making a light wine, and also 
in Spain for leria, or third-class raisins. Season late. Merits: 
much valued for export and useful for making a light wine or 


269 


brandy. Vine: growth—a hardy plant, erect grower, requiring 
neither trellis nor stake. Fruit: bunches moderately loose; berries 
large; skin white, slightly amber colour on sunny side, thick. Flesh 
firm and sweet. 


Culivral Notes—DPruned short. Admirably suited for warm 
districts, where, in a fertile soil, it will bear an enormous erop. Its 
thick skin and firm flesh are qualities which fit it as a good packing 
grape, preserving it from drying up, or being erushed out of shape. 
Large quantities of this grape are shipped from Adelaide to Syd- 
ney, long after the bulk of the N.S. Wales grapes have ripened, 
and thus command a very good price. 


Granp Turk (syn. Cinsault, Danugue).—A vigorous grower, 
semi-erect, carries its grapes some distance from the butt of the cane, 
and bears heavily when pruned long. Canes long, straight, thick, 
hard, with small pith, streaked. Buds burst a few days after 
Golden Chasselas; young leaves, round, green, hemmed with brown 
red. Fruit rijens late in mid-season. Bunches very large, conical, 
winged, regular in outline; peduncle very strong; berries not too 
closely set, very large, spherical, firm, skin thick, black violet in 
colour, heavy bloom; flesh firm, sweet, and pleasant. A Provenve 
variety, very productive, sets well, stands great heat and hot winds. 
A vigorous grower, very suitable for high trellising. 

WortLtey Haut (syn. Trifere du Japon).—Vigorous grower, 
leaves smooth and glabrous. Berries very large, thick bloom, ripen 
late, bears a second crop in April; a good grape for preserving. 


GREENGAGE or Large Green (syn. Leather Jackets).—Very 
hardy and vigorous, late in ripening. 


WINE GRAPES. 

Of these a number offer for selection amongst the kinds 
already established in Western Australia, while many more un- 
procurable here are naturally omitted as the introduction of grape 
vines is absolutely prohibited in order to shut the door effectively 
against the introduction of the phylloxera pest of which this State 
is free. 


Rep WINE GRAPES. 


ArRAMON (syn. Fontainebleau in W.A.).—Round, black, vinous 
grape, popular in the South of France and Algeria, on account of 
the heavy yield of light red wine it produces. Season: mid-season, 
or third period of grape ripening. Merits: second-rate, 
and on rich alluvial flats only third-rate; produces a light 
red wine of quick maturity; made also into a light white wine, 
which is either sold as such or distilled for brandy. Vine: 
stem strong and very vigorous in rich soils; spreading habit 


270 


of growth, producing whenever topped a great mass of 
young shoots, which are remarkably brittle. Shoots of a 
light-red colour in summer; greyish in winter. Buds of a dirty- 
white colour; much developed. Rods strong, short-jointed. Leaves 
large; not deeply indented; upper side glossy, under side 
covered with loose down; petiolar sinus open; dies off yellow. 
Fruit bunehes large and long, almost eylindrical, or slightly 
shouldered with a brittle herbaceous stalk, which remains green 
after the ripening of the grape; very regularly but closely set. 
Berries large, round. Foot-stalks thick. Skin of a dull, purplish- 
black colour, with a thin bloom; very thin, thus exposed to burst- 
ing and rotting in damp soil. Flesh tender, juicy, with a very 
brisk, rich or strong vinous flavour, when well ripened, and toler- 
ably good for table. 


Cultural Notcs—A remarkably free fruiting vine wherever 
grown, requiring a considerable amount of heat to ripen the fruit 
thoroughly. On rich, deep, and free alluvial soil, and under irri- 
gation, over 3,000 gallons of grape must have been obtained per 
acre; does not do well in poor and cold soils. On account of the 
brittleness of the stalk no knife is required to pick the crop, which 
is thus gathered in less time. Comes into leaf early, and is, there- 
fore, liable to suffer from late frosts; is subject to the oidiwm; 
pruned short; eultivated for quantity more than quality. The 
grape being juicy, the must represents as much as 66 per 
cent. of its weight; whereas in the case of most other grapes, the 
ratio is 60 to 65 per cent. only. In France, the wine made from 
the Aramon grape is light in colour, and only contains 9 per cent. 
alcohol, and in the plains the average yield is about 800 gallons; 
whereas in Western Australia the average yield is 400 gallons, 
and the alcoholic strength 11 per cent. The wine matures quickly, 
and is generally consumed the year of its making. 


AspiraN (syn. Verdal Spiran)—One of the choice varieties 
of the South of France, where quantity more than quality is 
sought for. Season medium (third period). Merits: second rate; 
produces better wine than Aramon or Mataro. Vine: growth 
rather vigorous; shoots semi-erect, slender, with medium-sized 
joints of a light-red colour; buds slightly downy. Leaves of medium 
size, five-lobed, deeply indented; teeth deep, uneven, which gives to 
the leaf a feathery appearance; upper surface yellowish green and 
smooth; under surface with slight woolly down near the veins; 
petiolar sinus almost closed; and leaves die with a red margin, also 
the stalks. Fruit: bunches crete size, Somewhat shouldered, close 
set, c¢ylindro-conical. Berries: medium size, slightly oval; skin 
rather thick, of a purplish black colour covered with bloom. Flesh : 
very juicy, of a slight acid taste, making it a pleasant table grape 
as well. 


271 


Cultural Notes—Is pruned short and trained bush fashion. 
Produces in warm localities a pleasant wine of fair keeping quali- 
ties, but light colour; a good bearer, producing from 200 to 400 
gallons per acre. Comes into leaf medium early, but does not 
suffer from spring frost. Grows best in a deep, free soil, prefer- 
ably gravelly, and of a reddish colour. Not much subject to 
fungoid diseases. 


CaRIGNANE (syn. Carvignan).—A useful grape for the drier 
and hotter districts. Does well about Toodyay. Season medium 
(third period). Merits: combines in a happy degree both quality 
and quantity wherever the circumstances are favourable. Vine: 
growth of stem thick and vigorous; an erect grower. Shoots: 
strong, thick, and hard, henee the name it often goes by—Bois 
dur; tips of shoots seldom ripen properly; short-jointed at the 
base, of a light-red colour, turning to brownish-red in the autumn; 
young shoots as they burst are downy and slightly pink on under 
margin. Buds dark in colour, and rather large. Leaves large, 
rough, and wrinkled; five-lobed; sinus deep; upper surface dark- 
green and smooth, under surface light-green and slightly downy; 
leaves turn red in the autumn. Fruit: bunches large and well-set, 
subdivided into small bunches. Berries: medium size and slightly 
oblong; black, juicy, and rich. 


Cultural Notes.—Prune short and train bush fashion. Very 
subject to fungoid diseases, therefore moist and damp localities 
are unsuitable for its cultivation. Grapes ripen fairly early, but 
the buds burst late, thus eseaping spring frosts. Requires a good 
deal of heat to bring it to maturity. Does best in well-drained 
soils of good consistency. The wine is better on the hills than on 
the plains, is generous, keeps well, spirituous, possesses a rich 
dark colour, but is a little coarse and harsh. Sometimes the wine 
is of a bluish-eolour when the grapes have been allowed to get 
over-ripe. 


CaBERNET SauvIGNON (syn. Petit Cabernet)—One of fhe 
choicest red wine kind of France, making the high-class Medoec. 
Season: mid-season (third period). Merits: of the highest as to 
quality, but giving a small crop, particularly in a dry climate, and 
therefore unprofitable. Vine: growth vigorous when young, some- 
what spreading, but on unsuitable soil grows weak with age; 
shoots of a dark-reddish mahogany colour, of medium thickness, 
long joints; buds medium size, downy. Leaves very characteristic, 
medium sized, as long as they are-broad; five-lobed; the indenta- 
tion or sinus deep, rounded, and overlapping towards their ex- 
tremities in such a way as to make the leaves appear as if they, 
were pierced with fine holes; teeth sharp and uneven; upper sur-" 
face of a dark-green colour, smooth and glossy, but uneven; under 
surface covered with close, short down. Fruit: bunches medium 


272 


j 
size, conical, slightly shouldered, and rather loose, slender 
peduncle. Berries, small, round, on a long and slender foot-stalk, 
which turns red as the grape ripens. Skin thick, hard, and black, 
covered with a fine blue bloom when ripe, apt to fall off when 
over-ripe. Flesh hard and juicy, with peculiar flavour, which is 
common to the Cabernets. 

Cultural Notes—Requires long rod pruning; rather subject to 
oidium and anthracnose. and should therefore be grown in perfectly 
well-drained soil, such as a rich loamy soil mixed with gravel. 
Does well also on ironstone gravel underlying a rich loam, 
whether light or heavy, and not so well on limestone soil or on 
heavy marl. Does better when grafted on a stronger stock, such 
as Mataro, or better still, on American phylloxera-proof stock. 
Suitable for the cooler districts. It forms in the Bordeaux district 
of France the foundation of the first growths of the world- 
renowned Chateau Lafite, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour, ete., 
where it is blended with Malbeck, Merlot, and Verdot. Blended 
with Malbeck and Shiraz, and other good sorts, it makes a most 
suitable wine for either the local or the export market. The wine, 
which possesses a deep and brilliant ruby colour, is rather harsh 
at first, but mellows down with each racking. Keeps very well, 
and is remarkable for its bouquet. A good average yield would 
be 150 gallons to the acre. 


CABERNET GRos (syn. Cabernet Franc, Carmenet).—This 
variety differs but slightly from the Cabernet Sauvignon, from 
which it is difficult to be distinguished; yields a better crop, 
Season: a little earlier than previous one (second period). Merits: 
very nearly as good as Cabernet Sauvignon. Vine: growth 
vigorous. Shoots: semi-erect, of a paler colour, grey, yellowish- 
red. Leaves: medium; similar to C. Sauvignon, but coarser and 
less glossy; holes not so well marked. Fruit: bunches rather 
smaller than C. Sauvignon. Berries: larger with thinner skin; 
ripens a little earlier. 


Cultural Notes.—Is not superior to the Cabernet in any respect, 
and will not do in a limestone country. This is the variety recom- 
mended where autumn rains are frequent, being hardy, and will 
stand a lot of wet before rotting. The wine from this variety is, 
at first, very astringent, but loses that rapidly, and is fit for 
bottling-earlier than that made from C. Sauvignon. 

Doucerro (syn. Uva ad’ Acqui).—This grape does well on the 
moist flats and valley lands of the South-West. It is widely eulti- 
vated on the higher valleys of the Piedmontes Alps, notably at 
Alba and Aqui, where a good commercial red wine is made from its 
‘juice. 

Vine vigorous and fruitful. Wood: filbert colour, short-jointed. 
Buds: large and whitish before bursting, Terminal shoots; the 


273 


young leaves are red, and covered with a light whitish down. 
Leaves: medium size to large, broader than long, smooth and al- 
ost glossy ahove, very slightly woolly below; three or five lobes; 
lines, round and deep; teeth pointed; tendrils, leaf-stalks, and ribs, 
reddish. Bunches: medium size, pyramidal, long-shouldered, well 
set, with a long brown stalk. Berries: medium size, almost round, 
b-uish-black, covered with bloom, thin-skinned, juicy, and sweet; 
otten falls off the bunches when very ripe. 

This graye ripens early, bears heavily, and makes a light sweet 
wine, which matures fairly quickly, and is superior to that made 
from the Mataro grape. Requires long pruning. 


GreNscHE (syn. Roussillon, Alicante) —Grown extensively in 
the south of France and Spain, where it largely enters in the mann- 
facture of the Tarragona port valuable as a commercial rapidly 
maturing fruity tawny wine. Season: mid to late season (third 
period). Merits: combines quality with quantity; wine matures 
quickly and loses its colour early, and for that purpose very suit- 
able for making a sweet wine of the port tvpe. Vine: growth verv 
vigorous, semi-erect grower; shoots short-jointed and tapering with 
swollen buds of a yellowish colour, and often unripe towards the 
extremity; voung buds green and almost smooth, burst soon after 
Aramon and a few days before Carignane; leaves medium size, 
smooth and glossy on both sides, slightly lobed, with sharp teeth 
on the margin of a yellowish-green colour, turning yellow in the 
autumn; yetiolar sinus open. Fruit: bunches large, eylindrical, 
irregular, small shoulder, woody stalk. Berries: medium size, 
closely packed, slightly oval, not very dark, and of a reddish-blue 
colour, thin-skinned, covered with bloom, and subject to rotting in 
damp localities. 


Ciltural Notes—Not verv subject to oidium, but easily 
attacked bv anthracnose and mildew, or peronospora; pruned short 
and trained bush fashion, Heavy bearer, producing a wine that is 
roather coarse at first, and not suitable for making wine of the claret 
type, as it loses its colour quickly, assuming a tawnv brown tint 
very suitable for port; very good for blending with some dark- 
coloured wine. On rich flats gives an abundant vield of thinner 
wine; while on gravelly slores produces a more full-bodied wine. 
This vine exhausts itself fairly early—after 15 to 20 vears. The 
best results are obtained on granitic or red ironstone sandy soil. 


Matreck (syn. Cét)—A choice red variety. Season: early 
(second period). Merits: first-class, and enters with Cabernet in 
the making of hieh-class clarets; when fortified makes good wine 
of the port tyre. Vine: growth vigorous, half spreading; shoots 
sharp pointed, average thickness, brownish-fawn colour with red 
stripes; large buds, light-red to whitish violet. Leaves: of a pinkish 
white when young, medium siezd, three-lobed, circular; upper sur- 


274 


face bright green, glossy,:and rough; under surface covered with 
flaky down; leaf-stalk, short and thick. . Fruit: bunches larg 
branched, loose, and somewhat pyramidal. Berries: rather large, 
roundish, with long thick pedicel. Skin: thin and tough, dark- 
violet, covered with bloom. Stems: red, especially the extremities, 
io whieh the berries are attached. Sweet. Picked when fully ripe 
the berries readily fall off the bunch; they are also closely set to the 
wood. 


Cultural Notes.---Temperate districts are the best for its eulti- 
vation, but is also grown in the warmer and drier districts. Re- 
quires well-drained soil to set well, preferably rich loam or lime- 
stone formations, where it generally gives best results. Pruned 
with long rods, Suffers but slightly from the oidiwm, but lable to 
be attacked by anthracnose. Berries ripen a little before Cabernet, 
but hang well. Makes a beautiful wine of the claret type, with rich 
ruby colour; rather astringent and bitterish when young, but sus- 
ceptible of correction by blending. Comes into leaf rather earl; 
and in frosty localities should not be planted in hollows. Unlike 
most vines, has the peculiarity of bearing fruit on shoots growing off 
the old wood if the normal fruit-bearing shoots are destroyed. 


Meruot.— Another choice claret grape, and a good bearer; snit- 
able for cool Ivealities. Vine: a strong grower; slim, erect wood, 
short-jointed, streaked, greyish-fawn in colour. Leaves: medium 
sized; five-lobed; wider than long; sinus open; teeth sharp and 
uneven; smooth above, tomentose below; dying off red. Bunches: 
conical, elongated, shouldered. Berries: small to medium, round, 
bluish-black, covered with bloom, juicy, sweet, and pleasant. Ripens 
early (second period). Pruned either short or preferably long. 
When grown in suitable localities, the wine is velvety and matures 
quickly; but does not come up to Cabernet, with which it blends 
well. Does best in cool and moist localities, where its leaves are 
not scorched, and where the berries hang longer on the vines. One 
of the best Australian clarets I have tasted was produced from 
Merlot grapes grown at Bendigo, in Victoria. The vineyard has 
since been found infested by the phylloxera, and was on that ac- 
count destroyed. 


Mararo (svn. Espar, Mourvédre, Lambruseat in N.S.W.).—- 
Largely cultivated in the south of France and in Spain, Italy, and 
Algeria. Season: late (third period). Merits: a good blending red 
wine, but withont much character by itself. Vine: growth vigorous, 
erect grower: short-jointed wood, of a reddish-brown colour when 
ripe; large buds. Leaves: medium size, five-lobed, rough and 
coarse; wwpper surface dark-green, under surface downy and 
whitish; Jeaf-stalk and veins dark reddish-brown; lateral sinus not 
much marked; petiolar sinus open. Fruit: bunches medium, close, 
eylindro-conieal, smal] shoulders, hard, woody — stalk. Berries ; 


A 


275 


medium, round; skin thick, black, covered with a thick blue bloom; 
juicy, and rather astringent. 


Cultural Notes—Wine of no special character. Comes into 
leaf late, Resists all sorts of fungoid diseases well. Pruned short, 
and trained bush fashion. Heavy yielder; very hardy; grows in any 
soil, but does especially well on drained limestones and in hot 
localities. 


Morrasten (syn. Burgundy [?] in W.A.—A profitable red 
Wine grape. Season: mid-season (third period). Merits: combines 
quality with quantity; resists diseases well. Vine: strong, up- 
right, fruitful. Wood: thick, pretty hard, of a reddish colour; 
joints not very long; nodes strong and swollen. Buds, hairy white. 
Leaves: strong, light green, three to five lobes, not very indented; 
glabrous on upper surface, and somewhat cottony on underside; 
leaf-stalk and veins red; dies yellow with red patches. Bunch: 
large, winged, and conical; berries close set, black, with blue bloom, 
obong, juicy. 


Cultural Notes—F¥ruitful in soil well adapted to its 
growth. Does remarkably well on hillsides, where it produces a 
wine full of character, with a rich grenat colour, suitable for 
blending. It also does well in heavy or in loamy soil. The buds 
burst late, and is therefore late affected by light frost; the bunches 
set very well; resists well cryptogamic fungoid diseases. Does not 
do so well in sandy land, where its yield is not so great. In damp 
places the vine is liable to rot at the crown, and shoots come up 
again from the roots; in rich soil it grows wood and leaves too 
luxuriantly for fruit production, The lower buds being fruitful 
and the growth erect, short pruning suits it best. 


Rep Muscat or Frontignan (syn. Constantia, in W.A.)— 
(See above.) 


Suiraz (syn. Hermitage) Extensively grown in the cele- 
brated Hermitage vineyards of France (Rhone Valley), supposed 
to have been introduced from Persia. Ripens mid-season (second 
period). Produces an excellent wine of good colour, body, and 
keeping quality, particularly adapted for the natural conditions 
met with in Australia and should constitute the foundation of red 
Australian wine, both for the local and for the export market. 
Vine: somewhat spreading, vigorous and fruitful. Wood: long- 
jointed, strong, of a brown-grey colour in the winter. Leaves: 
large, of a light-green, somewhat undulating, glabrous on the top 
and with flaky down underneath; particularly along the veins, fine- 
lobed, but not very deeply indented; teeth large and blunt. Fruit: 
bunch elongated, cylindrical, sometimes rather loose, but in well 
selected vines closer in the bunch, winged, with a long, slender, 
yellow stalk, which snaps easily when picking; berries medium- 
sized, oval, black, covered with bloom, thin but tough skin, juicy. 


276 


Cultural Notes—In good deep soil, and on slopes, the Shiraz 
bears heavily and reeularly. Jn light and shallow soil, subject to 
drought, its fruitfulness decreases greatly, and must be kept up by 
means of manures. Not very subject to fungoid and inseet pests, 
although it must be kept well sulphured. Yields better crop under 
rod pruning and on account of its spreading habit of growth. and 
in order to keep the grapes up the stem should not be too short. 


Verpor.--One of the “claret” grapes, Season, mid-season 
(8rd period). Merit, first class, although not so much perfumed as 
the Cabernet. Vine growth vigorous, spreading. Leaves medium- 
sized, longer than broad, when young covered with a characteristic 
silvery-white down; when full grown three or  five-lobed, teeth 
uneven, sinus rather open and not very deep; upper surface 
smooth, uneven, of a paler green than Cabernet, underside downy. 
Fruit bunches small, shouldered. Berries round, small, dark purple, 
with several small green berries amongst the others; thick skin, 
large seeds. 


Cultural Notes.—Pruned long, like Cabernet. Malbeck, ete. 
Better bearer than Cabernet, and is often blended with it when 
grown on the rich alluvial flats (palus) along the banks of the 
Gironde River, near Bourdeaux. Wine possesses good colour, 
vigour, and very good keeping qualities. Subject to oidium. 


CHoicE Wuite WINE GRAPES. 
CHASSELAS.— (See above). 
DoraviLuo.-—(See above). 


CLAIRETTE (syn. Blanquette).—A vigorous vine; leaves glabrous 
on top and whitish underneath; prune long, bunch well formed, 
oval berries, grapes hang well, make a clear and pleasant wine; 
blended with red grapes, assists in extracting colour. Should be 
planted on well-drained soil on account of anthracnose. 


Forte Buancuu—One ‘of the Sauterne type of grapes, but 
more widely cultivated in France for the distillation of brandy, 
under the name of “cognac,” and as a blending wine. It is pruned 
short; vine a strony grower; eanes short and thiek, erect, reddish, 
with medium-length internodes; leaves, medium size, fine lobed, teeth 
short and obtuse, deep green and shiny above, slightly puckered, 
downy below; bunch medium size, compact, conico-cylindrical ; 
pervies medium to large, spherical, of a whitish green or yellow, 
according to soil and aspect; skin tough; ripens fairly early (2nd 
period). It adapts itself to all kinds of rich soils, but sets poorly 
where early frosts oceur and also rufs easily in wet autumns. 

Govais (syn. Wleinberger).—Vine a strong grower, bunches of 


medium size, conical, compact; berries over medium size, round, 
very juicy, without special flavour, ripen late, skin thin; a heavy 


277 


bearer; long or short pruning; gives a clean wine, without much 
character, but fermenting easily; suitable for blending or for dis- 
tillation. 


MaArSanne (syn. White Shiraz).—Vine vigorous; cane strong 
with long internodes; leaves large, wrinkled, with deep lateral and 
closed petiolar sinuses; teeth short, wide, obtuse, glabrous above, 
a little downy below; bunches long, cylindrical shouldered, compact; 
berries round, white, with a mother-of-pearl shine, juicy. This 
grape produces a good clean wine of the chablis type; ripens late 
(3rd period). Spur prune on permanent arms if trellised, other- 
wise spur prune. When long pruned the berries are uneven and the 
bunches sometimes dry up at the extremity. 


Muscat or FronxrigNan (syn. White Constantia). —(See 
above. ) 


Prepro XIMENES.—A grape of the sherry type, rich in sugar and 
low in acid. It is the principal wine grape of Malaga and Grenada 
and Jerez. In conjunction with Palomino, it is used in the manu- 
facture of dry sherries and oceasionally with the Tintas for the 
manufacture of red wines. Vine vigorous and productive; slender, 
short-jointed wood; leaves medium size, smooth, veins light yellow; 
bunches large, branching, loose but well filled; berries small to 
medium, somewhat oval, firm, fleshy, of a yellow-golden colour, go 
off quicly and do not hang long; ripening late. Requires a rich 
soil and short pruning. 


PaLoMINO (syn. Listan), also called “Sweetwater” in Australia. 
—One of the leading sherry grapes. Very easy to pick—the large 
bunches are torn from the vine. 


Pineau WuHiItTe CHARDONNAY (syn. White Morillon).—Vine 
more vigorous than most of the Pinots, with slender but vigorous 
wood; leaves medium size, yellowish green, glabrous above, slightly 
downy below, teeth uneven; bunches small, short, somewhat com- 
pact, conico-cylindrical; berries small, spherical, light green when 
ripe and golden on the sunny side; flesh firm and of more flavour 
than the true Pinot Blane. Ripening early, a week or two later than 
the Black Pinot. Adapts itself to all soils, but bears better crops 
in well-drained deep loam. This grape enters to some extent 
into the manufacture of the best champagne wine, and also those 
famous white wines of Burgundy—Montrachet, Chablis, and Pouilly. 
Another white pineau, under the name of Auxerrois, produces in 
the dry districts of New South Wales and in Victoria a fine sweet 
white wine. 


Riesutinc.—A choice white grape of which hock is made on the 
Rhine and in Moselle. Season fairly early (2nd period). Merits, 
one of the best varieties for cultivation. Vine growth: stem slender; 
shoots semi-erect, slender, rather long jointed, hard bark of a glossy 


278 


gray colour, turning to silver white in the autumn, numerous laterals. 
Buds downy, grayish colour. Leaves medium, thick, three to five- 
lobed, wrinkled, rather deeply indented sinus, teeth almost even; 
upper surface smooth, dark green; under surface downy; light 
green colour, veins thick and covered with short stiff hair; petiolar 
sinus almost closed; leaves fall early in the autumn. Fruit: 
bunches large, close set, vylindro-conical, with short and thick pedicel. 
Berries small, round or somewhat oblate, of a greenish colour, 
covered with bloom and with small black ‘specks; very juicy and 
rich, with a peculiar aromatic flavour. 


Cultural Notes.-—Long pruning, comes into leaf late; gives best 
results on granite or schistose formations; fairly resistant to oidium, 
and not attacked by anthracnose. Yields fair crops. 


SHEPHERD’s RIESLING (syn. Orleans Riesling, Gros Riesling).— 
A variety of the above, bears heavier crops, has larger berries, resists 
wet better, but the wine not quite so good as that of the true Riesling. 
Vine vigorous, leaves of medium size, longer than wide, glabrous 
above, slightly downy below, three to five lobes, the upper sinuses 
deep, the lower scarcely marked; bunches medium size, somewhat 
compaet, conico-cylindrical, slightly shouldered; berries larger than 
those of Riesling, slightly ovoid, juicy, whitish yellow. Ripens 
second period, a little afer Riesling. This variety is much grown 
throughout the Palatinate and the Rhingau, and round Rudesheim. 
Does not require long pruning. 


DesirnaBLeE RED WINE GRAPES. 

The following vines, exhibiting characters which would very 
likely be suitable to conditions which obtain in Western Australia, 
might with advantage be introduced under the authority and care 
of the Department of Agriculture :-— 


Becuan.—Especially suited, says Prof. Bioletti (Bull. 193: 
“Best Wine Grapes of California”), for certain parts of the coast 
counties of California, owing to the frequent oceurrence of ocean 
fogs, where many varieties do not ripen their fruit properly. Suit- 
able for dry red wine of good quality; has the advantage of being 
very resistant to oidium. The Blne Portuguese, also a good bearer, 
ripening easily, blends with Beclan, giving a good wine of the 
Burgundy type. 

Monpvevuse (syn. Grosse Syrah).—One of the leading kinds on 
the Alpine slopes east of the Rhone, where it is grown on the hills 
and also in the cold, humid valleys. Vigorous growth, straggling. 
Wood yellowish-green, long joints, leaves long, smooth on top, 
downy below. Bunch large, long, loose, pyramidal, with a shoulder. 
Berry medium size, ovoid, bluish violed, juicy and sweet, a little 
acid and astringent even when ripe. Mid season. Sets well, little 


279 


affected by frost and fungoid diseases. Pruned long or even short. 
Yields well and produces a wine somewhat harsh when new, well 
coloured and of good keeping. 

Touriga—Grown at Mt. Athos, Rutherglen, Victoria, and in- 
troduced hy Ar. F. de Castella, is thus reported by Mr. d’Arbley 
Burney, Messrs. Burgoyne Bros.’ representative:—‘Carries a good 
erop, larger than that carried upon Grenache. Bunches solid and 
well filled; shows no signs of shrivelling from the heat. Ripens 
after Shiraz, and standing dry weather better. Resists drought well. 
Quality of wine shows great promise. A variety recommended for 
extensive culture.” é 

Touriga, if left in prolonged contact with the skins, would pro- 
duce a wine of very deep colour. Has a distinctive colour, with a 
flavour suggesting “vintage port.” Grenache treated under identical 
conditions is a far more neutral wine. 


SEMILLON (syn. White Ivanhoe in Victoria)—The most largely 
cultivated Sauterne grape. Regarded as one of the most valuable 
French white wine sort. 

Roussanne (syn. White Burgundy in Australia).—On the 
Rhone it is blended with Marsanne for Chablis; vine very vigorous. 
Pruned short. Leaves large, lobed, somewhat downy. Bunches med- 
ium size, cylindrical, shouldered. Berries medium size, somewhat 
close, globular, golden-yellow when ripe. (2nd _ period.) 


VERDELHO (syn. Gouveio, Madeira in Australia)—An oval- 
shaped white grape, which makes an excellent white sweet wine of 
the Madeira type. Season: mid-season. Merits: produces a high- 
class wine, but the plant is very subject to oidium. Vine: growth 
moderately vigorous; shoots slender, rather close-jointed, of a 
reddish colour with dark streaks; leaves medium, almost entire, 
upper side dark-green, smooth, and rather shiny, under surface 
slightly downy; teeth even, short and blunt. Fruit: bunches 
medium to small, long in shape and conical; berries small to 
medium, not very closely set in the bunch, oval, sometimes without 
seeds; skin thin, yellow-green, does not burst readily in wet weather. 

Cultural Notes—Prune long. Vine very subject to oidium, and 
for that reason should not be planted in a moist district. Another 
good variety is the— 

SERCIAL grape; a round, white berry, which makes a high-class 
Madeira wine. 


PHYLLOXERA-RESISTANT VINES. 

These vines, which grow wild in America, offered until recent 
years but a casual botanical interest. The unintentional introduc- 
tion of the Phylloxera insect from the New World some fifty years 
ago soon caused, wherever introduced, the death of all varieties of 
European vines or Vitis Vinifera. 


280 


For a long time the methods adopted for combating the deadly 
insect proved abortive, until a systematic study was undertaken of 
the conditions under which the Phiyllorera vastatriz, an insect of 
American origin, lived on the American wild vines without percept- 
ibly affecting their constitution. 

The conclusions drawn from these researches are that by a 
slow process of natural selection numerous varieties of American 
wild vines have perished under the bite of the Phylloxera louse, but 
that several varieties have been able to withstand the attacks of the 
insect, and while tolerating its presence on their roots, are able to 
grow without being perceptibly inconvenienced. This much having 
been found, vineyard proprietors who had hitherto been fighting the 
Phylloxera by means of costly chemicals or of methods involving 
considerable outlay of money and of labour, followed headlong the 
line of least resistance and planted for stock anything known as an 
American vine; on these they grafted the choicer European vines. 

Experience, which is generally costly, showed that of the dozen 
or more of known species of wild American vines, two or three only, 
the Vitis Riparia and the Vitis Rupestris, and the Vitis Berlandieri, 
embodied such qualities as made them desirable Phylloxera-resistant 
stocks. Fortunes were spent and fortunes lost before this fact was 
established, so anxious were the vineyard proprietors to speedily 
reconstitute their vineyards. 

Then a Riparia and Rupestris craze set in, and it was argued 
that as these vines were of a wild nature, and had not been modified 
by cultivation and by the handiwork of man, their seeds would 
prove a quick and ready wav of propagating the vines. Disappoint- 
ment likewise followed; a majority of the seedlings proved to be 
different and inferior in the qualities sought for to the mother plant. 

Of Riparias and Rupestris, numerous varieties are known; the 
great majority of them are worthless as stocks for European vines. 
Some take the graft badly; others cannot thrive on the particular 
soil it is intended to plant them; the ground is either too dry or 
wet, or too compact, or contains too much lime, ete. 

It is thus necessary in selecting a resistant vine to know, in the 
first instance, something about the depth, the moisture, and the rich- 
ness of the soil it is intended to plant; and, secondly, which of the 
best varieties as regards aptitude to take the graft and to withstand 
the attack of the insect is more likely to thrive under the conditions 
disclosed by that preliminary inspection of the ground. 

In Europe, where abundant summer showers maintain the soil 
moist during the growing months, the shallow-rooted Riparias (river 
bank vines) have given widespread satisfaction. In California and 
in Australia, as well also as in Algeria, where the summer months 
are dry and the surface ground possesses comparatively little mois- 
ture, the deeper rooted Rupestris (hillside vines) vield better re- 
sults, . 


281 


One important factor, to a great extent, influences the efficacy 
of all American resistant vines as a suitable stock for vines, and 
that is: deep and thorough cultivation. On the vigour and the 
strength of their roots will depend their power to counteract the 
wasting effect of the sap-sucking insect, and of infusing life and 
energy into the scion, and unless the ground be deeply stirred, the 
roots will fail to grow with the same Inxuriance they show in easily 
penetrated soil; the standard of resistance will as a result be lowered 
and the graft will fail to receive the amount of sap required to 
produce and nourish a large crop. 


By standard of resistance is meant that scale adopted by viti- 
eulturists all the world over which determines the degree of resist- 
ance to Phylloxera possessed by vines. In that table, 20 represents 
the maximum degree of absolute resistance, while 0 represents its 
minimum. Thus the resisting power of the best Rupestris and Rip- 
aria is 19.50; that of some of the hybrids, such as Jacquez and 
Leonir, 11 to 12; and that of Chasselas, Aramon, Grenache is 0, or 
absolutely nil. 

The resistance expressed by the numbers 16 to 20 is sufficient 
for all soils; that expressed by 14 or 15 is sufficient, too, where deep, 
free, moist, loamy soils occur, where roots grow rapidly; while all 
vines possessing a degree of resistance under 13 shuuld be discarded 
as non-resistant stock. 


The following table, drawn up by Viala, shows the resistance 
of some of the best known vines :— 


Comparative Resistance to Phylloxera. 


Species (Wild Vines). Cultivated Vines and Hybrids. 
Vitis Rotundifolia ( Eyeeey Gloire de aimee sca 
nong ) se dQ aria) 18 
Vitis Rupestris (Rock or Rupestris Martin Se 18 
Sand Grape) 5 .. 18 | Rupestris Monticola (du Lot) 18 
Vitis Riparia (River Bank Rupestris Metallica .. 16 
Grape) mi F .. 18 + Solonis Si ve .. 14 
Vitis Berlandieri #5 exes Fo Lenoir = te one. Ds 
Vitis Aistivalis (Summer Isabella 33 iD 
Grape) ° 16 
Vitis Labrusca (Fox Grape) 5 
Vitis Californica .. 4 
Vitis Vinifera ( European 
Grape) ae oe za 0 


A readily visible external indication of the degree of resistance 
to the attacks of the insect is afforded by nodosities and by tuber- 
osities on’ the root. The “nodosity” is a swelling on the tender root- 
lets of the grape vine. which is caused by the bite of the Phylloxera. 
All vines attacked by the Phylloxera show more or less these nodosi- 
ties, which are the result of local irritations. When these nodosities, 
however, assume a more pronounced appearance, such as deeply- 


282 


seated cankers, they become “tuberosities,’ and the more numerous 
these tuberosities are on the roots of a vine the less resistant it is 
found to be to the attacks of the Phylloxera. 

To sum up the value of the American resistant vines to use as 
stock for grafting our European vines on, their degree of resistance 
is due to the fact—lst, that they are exceptionally luxuriant growers 
and impart to scion or graft both vigour and strength; 2nd, that 
the Phylloxera insects do not increase so rapidly on their roots; 
3rd, that the swelling of diseased tissues caused by the bite of the 
insects form at most only nodosities on the roots, and seldom tuber- 
osities or cankered ulcers, and that these swellings rapidly heal and 
leave the affected part as healthy as ever, little or no inconvenience 
heing suffered by the vine. 

Some fifteen years ago our Department of Agriculture intro- 
duced amongst a collection of valuable grapes some of the best 
American resistant vines, a description of which ig given below. 
Although the Phylloxera is non-existent in Western Aus- 
tralia, it was thought advisable to be prepared, if ever 
the pest should break out, with resistant stock. Since 
that time Mr. Fr. de Castella, the Government Viticulturist of 
Victoria, has mtroduced into Victoria, Phylloxera Resistant Hybrids 
of particular value for their adaptation. to Australian soil and clim- 
atie conditions, and for the readiness they carry grafts of cultivated 
European vines. Should it at any future time be found necessary 
to reconstitiitte our vineyards and re-establish them on phylloxera- 
proof roots, the Australian experience now being gained in Victoria 
should be of great value. 

Vitis Rupestris (the Rock or Sand Grape).—Of the two lead- 
ing species of resistant vines used to graft on, the Rupestris offers 
all the characteristics which should make it a favourite in Western 
Australia. In Europe, where the climate is moist in the summer 
months, the Riparia is often preferred on account of the readiness 
with which it takes the graft and the fact that it does not sucker 
as does the Rupestris. With us, however, the circumstances are not 
the same. The summer months are dry, and a deep-rooting vine 
stands a better chance of getting a good hold of the ground than 
does a shallow-rooted one. 

For soils that are dry, sandy, or gravelly, the Rupestris is 
therefore the vine to select. Should the ground be moist and fertile 
it will of course thrive the better, although under these circumstances 
the Riparia will excel it. Thus speaks Professor Viala, a recog- 
nised authority on viticulture, on Rupestris:—“Among the diverse 
form of Rupestris, we recommend the following from a strictly. 
practical point of view as the most valuable in replanting vine- 
yards: Rupestis Monticola (Du Lot or St. George”), Ruprestis Mar- 


* Norr.—The R. du Lot has now proved superior to the other three mentioned which 
are discarded for the hybrids 3306 and 3309 which are quite satisfactory in Victoria. 


283 


tin, Rupestris Mission, and Rupestris Ganzin. These alone should 
remain under culture. The others, though possessing a certain un- 
doubted value, are inferior, because they lack resistance or all-round 
adaptability. The Rupestris Martin, on account of its great resist- 
ance to the Phylloxera, should always be used in poor, silicious, 
gravelly soils, with or without a considerable amount of lime. The 
Rupestris St. George replaces actually the Lenoir and Solonis in 
poor calcareous soils where formerly the Vialla, Lenoir, ete. were 
used. The ungrafted Rupestris will frequently show an alarming 
number of black spots on the leaves, so abundant in some cases as to 
cause the dropping of a few of them. This is due to the Melanose, 
a disease of the vine that never does any harm at all and should 
alarm no one. As soon as the Rupestris is grafted this will disap- 
pear from the vineyards, as it can scarcely live on the Vitis Vini- 
fera, but takes more kindy to the American vines.” 


The Rupestris have a low, bushy growth, with young wood, 
reddish brown. Tendrils discontinuous and leaves small, light green 
and shiny, wider than long, without lobes; when young, transparent 


Rupestris Monticola. 


and brilliant, of a russet red; they are folded together so as to form 
a gutter. The sinus of the petiole is open and scarcely perceptible; 
it has well-marked, wide, obtuse teeth-serration. Berries small, 


284, 


spherical, in small bunches. Roots deep sinking, long, slender, and 
very hard, but exceptionally large and fleshy, as in the Rupestris 
Monticola (Du Lot or St. George); grows very readily from ecut- 
tings, suckers freely. Of the Rupestris there are two groups, 
classed according as they have small or larger leaves. The second 
group is the best. They exhaust themselves during youth, and on 
the whole lack longevity. 


Rupestris Monticona (syn. R. du Lot, St. George, Sijas) is a 
stock vine, particularly suited to local conditions of soil and climate’ 
in Western Australia. It has so far proved the best adapted variety 
for the sandy soil of the coastal districts and the gravelly hills of 
the Darling Range. Mr. F. de Castella is likewise of opinion that 
it is very suitable for conditions met with in Victoria in any well- 
drained soil when it can get its roots down, and the soil is not too 
rich, in which case wood grows at the expense of fruit. An erect 
grower, stands drought admirably well, on account of its vigorous 
deep-sinking root system. Unites readily with the European vines, 
suckers less than other Rupestris. 


Rupestris Martin. 


Rupestris Martin.—Introduced from Texas; suitable for cold 
clay formations; does not stand drought or limestone formation so 
well as the above variety, but in every other respect is a good stock; 
growth vigorous and straggling, canes wavy; leaves heart-shaped, 
thick, dark green, gutter-shaped, wavy; petiolary sinus, V-shaped; 
teeth rounded and large. 


285 


Rupestris Missiox.—Very vigorous and spreading; stands 
drought well. Leaves small, gutter-shaped, with margins turned in; 
wood violet red at fist, then dark and dull. 


Rupestris Mission. 


Vitis Riparta (River Bank Grape)—In Europe, where the 
conditions of soil moisture and fertility are frequently met with, 
the R. Riparia is often a favourite, and where these conditions 
occur it is of all the stock, vines the best to use. It is distinguished 
from other species by having very thin diaphragms at the nodes of 
the stem. light green, shining, glabrous leaves, almost or quite with- 
cut hairiness beneath; large stipules, and very early flowering habit. 


One advantage the Rinaria has over the Rupestris is that it is 
more easily grafted when old than the Rupestris. and if the stock 
is planted straight out instead of first grafting and sticking in nurs- 
ery rows, Riparias stock will, for that reason. succeed more easily. 
The large-leaved vigorous varieties only should be used and all others 
discarded. Its only defect is that im the case of some sub-varieties 
the stock is sometimes more slender in growth than the vine it sup- 
ports. 


Riparia GLory or MONTPELLIER (syn. R. Portalis) —A very 
vigorous variety, with spreading habit of growth. Wood long, light 
hazelnut colour; long joints with a small kink at the nodes; few 
laterals, light blocm; young shoots bright purple. Leaves large, 
roundish, dull, straight hair on the veins underneath. Petiolary 
sinus open, U-shaped. Especially suited to deep alluvial soils, red 
loamy, and rich, moist, sandy loamy. Does nct do well in soils con- 


286 


taining a large amount of soft limestone, where it contracts chlorosis. 
Takes the graft readily. After trial, discarded as a stock vine in 
Victoria. Mr. F. de Castella, the Government Viticulturist, favours, 
instead of the Riparias, hybrids 3306 and 3309, which are good al- 
most anywhere; also A.R. 611. Grafted vines on this stock are very 
fruitful. 


\S 


‘SS 


Riparia Glory of Montpellier. 


Riparia (+LABRE GIAnT.—One of the most vigorous of the 
Riparias and capable of withstanding a certain proportion of lime- 
stone in the ground; does well in dry, deep soils; straggling grower. 
Stem slight, canes loug, with long joints, purple when tender, turn- 
ing to hazel nut with bloom; wood very red with numerous laterals. 
Leaves large, elongated, but not cordiform (the sides almost paral- 
lel), shiny, petiolary sinus, V-shaped. The fig, as illustrated, com- 
pared with the others is somewhat undersize. 


Vitis BrrLaNprert. —— This variety, also introduced from 
America, las proved the saviour of vinegrowers on the ecaleareous 
soils of the Cognac districts of France, when hitherto every Phyl- 
loxera resisting stock tried had succumbed to chlorosis. Introduced 
into Victoria by Mr. F. de Castella, who expects good results from 
the B. Hybrids 41B, 420A, 34K. For stiff clays he hopes much from 
the Cordifolia hybrids; 106-8 is well spoken of. 


287 


Tue Soronis.—Believed to be a cross between I’. Riparia and 
V. Rupestris and V, Candicans. To its first two parer.ts it owes its 
immunity from the attack of the Phylloxera, and to the last its 
remarkable aptitude for thriving in wet and marshy soils, where 
most other stocks would die. Well adapted for heavy, clayey, and 


Riparia Glabre Giant. 


wet soils. From its last parent it derives a certain degree of sus- 
ceptibleness to anthracnose or black spot, and must receive suitable 
treatment for that disease. A most resisting stock for soils impreg- 
nated with saline substances. ‘The cuttings do not strike so easily 
as those of V. Riparia. 


PERSIMMONS OR KAKI (Diospyros Kaki). 


This fruit is also called Japanese Persimmon, tw differentiate 
it from the American Persimmon (D. Virginiana). It is a pulpy 
fruit, with few and sometimes no seeds, and a yellow fiesh, which in 
some varicties is streaked with brown. On account of its tap-root 
the tree requires deep soil, moist and rich. Plant in 
deeply dug holes. The trees seem to draw much of the nourishment 
from the subsoil. When not ripe enough the fruit is harsh and fla- 
vourless; but when soft and pulpy it is rich, and much liked by 
many; hence the botanical generic name which literally means ‘food 
of the Gods.” The Japanese gather the fruit when just ripe, and 
pack it into cases for a time, when it mellows down and becomes 
eatable. In China and Japan some are eaten fresh and others dried 


288 


like figs, to which it is said they are superior. Some varieties carry 
their fruit even after the leaves have dropped in the early winter. 
-\fter a touch of frost the late fruit improves in flavour. The fol- 
lowing varieties are described by Professor H. E. Van Deman, 
Pomologist to the U.S. Department of Agriculture :— 


TaNne-Nasu!.—Zoene meaning seeds, and Vashi without; the 
fruit being almost or entirely seedless. Excellent fruit either for 
eating when ripe, for drying, or for making into preserves. Size 
medium to large, about'3 inches in both diameters; conical, sym- 
metrical in outline, not furrowed or ribbed; stem cavity deep; 
skin smooth, reddish orange, with bloom; flesh jelly-like, clear orange 
yellow, not stringy or streaked. 


Hacuty:—Named after a county in the province of Mino. 
Fruit very large, often three or four inches in diameter, oblong- 
conic, but tapers rather abruptly at the apex; often quadrangular; 
dull orange in colour, with dark specks and faint reddish streaks 
towards the apex. Flesh firm and solid, of a brownish yellow colour, 
flecked with dull red. Seeds long and slender. Ripens late. Used 
for drying in Japan. 


YeuMmon.—This word is the name of a badge that is worn on the 
outside of clothing. One of the best; of excellent flaveur, and great 
productiveness. Fruit large, rather flattened, with distinct and deep 
furrows running into the deep cavity at the stem, and shallow ones 
meeting at the opposite end, where a slight depression usually 
occurs; generally quadrangular. Bright orange red colour. Flesh 
unmixed orange red, very soft; can be eaten off the tree. Often 
seedless. Flavour sweet when soft, but astringent when hard. Sea- 
son early, and does not require frost to ripen it. 


Dar-par Maru (Fig. 1)—Fruit medium to large, about three 
inches in diameter, round shape, with a little depression at the base, 
and slight cavity at the apex; surface smooth, free from dark specks 
and cracks. Colour, pale orange; flesh, orange red; soft when fully 
ripe; seeds plump; rich. sweet flavour. 


Hyaxunr (Fig. 5).—hiterally translated “one hundred mé,” 
the word mé a unit of weight in Japan, and a hundred mé being 
about equal to one pound of our weight. Similar in shape to the 
Tane-Nashi, but is not seedless. Slightly conical’in shape, but de- 
rressed and somewhat furrowed at the point; light orange in colour, 
and not so dark as the other varieties; near the apex a number of 
marks like pin seratches; flavour excellent; tree a good grower and 
an abundant bearer; seeds, when present, about twice as long as 
they are broad. 


289 


THE OLIVE (Olea Europoea). 


One of the first trees introduced and planted in Western Aus- 
tralia by the early settlers was the olive; and the magnificent speci- 
mens now seen at the older established places bear testimony to 
its adaptability to the conditions prevailing. The olive has, how- 
ever, never yet been extensively nor systematically cultivated here, 
on account of the labour difficulty. The tree likes a deep free soil, 
well drained, where the roots penetrate deeply. It does very well on 
limestone formation. One kilo of olives contains 7 grammes of 
potash, 3 of nitrogen, and 1 of phosphorie acid. Green leguminous 
crops, well manured with potash and phosphates, may be ploughed 
in at blossoming time. As regards climate, frosty localities are in- 
jurious to some kinds. Generally speaking, a climate where the 
Muscat vine does well suits the olive best, z.e., moist winter and 
spring months and dry, clear summer. 

The olive begins to bear when four to six years old. As in the 
ease of the peach, the fruit is either clingstone or freestone. When 
ripening it turns from green to purple, reddish brown, bluish, or 
black, with or without bloom. Even when ripe the fruit is harsh 
and bitter, with the exception of a few varieties such as the Piru, 
bearing sweet fruits which may be eaten fresh from the tree. For 
pickling, this bitterness has to be removed. In size olives differ 
ereatly, from the size of a small grape berry to that of a small 
plum. In selecting varieties the choice should be directed by the 
purpose in view—oil or pickles. 

If for oil: productiveness, quality of the oil, even ripening of 
the fruit upon the tree, and hardiness of the tree should guide one’s 
choice. 

If for pickling: size of fruit, firmness of flesh when nearing 
maturity, shape of fruit, quality of the pickled fruit, productiveness 
and hardiness of the trees should be considered. Oil is also made 
from pickling olives, either too small or from damaged fruit. Thus 
may be turned into account what would otherwise be wasted. It is 
profitable as a by-product of the pickling industry. 

Propagation may be done by seedlings, which must, however, 
be grafted when strong enough. The oily pulp of the olive is in- 
jurious to the germination of the seed and should be removed by 
steeping for a day in 10 per cent. solution of caustic potash and 
washing the kernel clean. Nurserymen also at times feed the olives 
to ducks and collect and wash the kernels ejected from the birds. If 
a few seeds only are planted, they may be slightly cracked by press- 
Ing in a Vice. 

The most common method of propagation, however, is by cut- 
tings, which strike readily and reproduce trees, true to kind. Small 
twigs of recent growth or “tips” are thus struck in sandy loam 
under glass; in the spring they grow a root system almost as good 
as a seedling. Stronger wood, or “truncheons,” is also used and 


290 


struck much like vine cuttings in a nursery; many plant truncheons 
or lengths of wood about one inch in diameter and a couple of feet 
long, sawn half through into sections a few inches long. These are 
laid in shallow trenches with a few inches of loam on top and kept 
moist. A number of shoots spring from these truncheons, which are, 
when planting out, sawn completely off into short sections carrying 
growing wood and roots. In Spain, where olive wood is easy to 
procure, a common method of planting is to dig a hole and plant a 
piece of olive wood a couple of inches cr so in diameter much as if 
it is a fencing post; a mound of earth is banked up around the stick 
and a tile or two agave or aloes leaves are inserted at the base of the 
mound to serve as a channel into which water is poured in the sum- 
mer to maintain the ground moist around the stem. In this manner 
a bunch of shoots soon grow on the top of the green stick which 
readily takes root, and a tree two or three feet high is obtained in 
one season, which bears fruit when two or three years old. The 
olive is best planted in rows wide apart, say, 40 to 60 feet, with in- 
termediate rows of quick growing and shorter lived trees, such as 
peaches, loquats, Japanese plums, passion fruit, ete.; these being 
removed when the olives spread out. 

Grafting and pruning have been dealt with in a previous chap- 
ter. 

Olive trees are much neglected as far as cultivation goes; hence 
the impression that the tree is slow of growth and tardy bearing. 
They, however, respond to manuring and to cultivation, and when- 
ever necessary to irrigation—preferably few and copious—as readily 
as most orchard trees do. The olive, like the almond tree, is parti- 
cularly suitable for planting along drives or boundary fences and 
also in odd corners and sloping banks, provided the soil be deep and 
friable. If rocky or underlaid wich a hardpan the spot where it is 
intended to plant may be loosened by the use of explosives, such as 
gelignite. 

The olives ripen in the latter part of the autumn; the harvest- 
ing being somewhat costly, particularly if the crop is light and the 
trees high, and amount on an average to 3s. 6d. to 4s. Gd. per ewt. 

If for pickling the fruit is picked when just turning—for green 
olives—or-when dark for ripe pickles. In any case it is essential to 
avoid bruises, and for that purpose baskets lined with hessian are 
used or buekets with a little water in them. Where the pickling fac- 
tory is distant haulage in barrels containing water are used. 

For oil the harvesting is best done by shaking the branches, 
also by beating down the ripe fruit, which are collected over sheets 
spread under the trees. This treatment often reduces the subse- 
quent crops by breaking the bearing shoots. The stray olives are 
picked by hand; a special ladder, illustrated (page 128) in the 
chapter on picking fruit, being used for the purpose. At the factory 
these are put through a winnower to remove dirt, leaves, etc. 


291 


Amongst some of the best olives for “oil” are:— 

VERDALE (Fig. 1).—Ovoid-shaped, early ripening, berry a 
little flattened at the base and elongated at the top; of a green 
brown coldur when ripe; not very prolific, but giving an oil of a 
high quality. The tree makes relatively little wood, early and con- 
stant bearer, carrying fruit low, enabling the harvesting to be done 
at less cost; also used for pickling. Can be planted 25 feet apart. 

Picnouine (Fig. 2).—A hardy, rapid-growing variety; good 
bearer; produces berries of medium size, ripening early, and yield- 
ing about 16 per cent. of good oil, but not of a superior quality; 
better adapted for pickling. Stands frost well. 

Bovuquetier.—A favourite French oil producer. When checked 
by judicious pruning will yield a large quantity of fruit. Grows to 
a large tree. Plant 40 feet apart. 

Of the following four the Principal of the Dookie Agricultural 
College says: “Where they can be procured, no others should be 
favoured” :— 

Mission.—111 olives to the pound, 17.56 per cent. of oil. 

PLEuREUR.—170 olives to the pound; untested for percentage, 
but gives high practical test. 

CORREGGIOLO (syn. Frantoio).—262 olives to the pound, 21.15 
per cent. of oil; oval, medium size, narrow at the stem end, broader 
towards the point. 

Hersequina.—144 olives to the pound, 24.80 per cent. of oil. 

Other fairly good oil varieties are Boutillano, Pigale, Attica; 
but where the first four mentioned can be procured, the principal 
considers no others should be favoured. 

Olive Oil is found clear and ready made in cells in the pulp of 
the ripening fruit and also in lesser quantity in the kernel. To 
obtain it the fruit is crushed and the mash is pressed, when it runs 
out with the water of vegetation, from which it separates by virtue 
of its specific gravity, as oil is to water, as 915 is to 1,000. 

The fruit is picked when just about to turn, when it has 
turned violet in colour and also when almost black. At the first two 
stages the oil is of the best; when made from dead ripe fruit it 
does not keep so well. The yield averages 15 to 16 lbs. at six years, 
50 to 60 Ibs. at 10 years, and about 2ewt. at 20 years. A poor crop 
succeeds a big one unless by judicious pruning, good cultivation, 
manuring, watering where practicable, and care in picking the 
growth and productivity of the grove is maintained. 

Varieties yielding less than 17 per cent. of recoverable oil, or 
38 gallons per ton, are considered poor. Some kinds yield as much 
as 50 gallons per ton. 

The olives that are picked by hand produce the finest oil. 
Long keeping before crushing causes a fermentation with genera- 
tion of heat; with lack of scrupulous cleanliness during the opera- 


292 


tions of crushing, pressing, and filtering it is the cause of the oil 
turning rancid and lacking in keeping quality. The picked olives 
having been cleaned on the winnower, and if necessary washed, as 
is the case when they are swept from the ground under the trees, 
they are crushed fresh; when sound and in good order they may 
be allowed to be spread on the floor for a few days in layers a few 
inches thick until they can be crushed; during that time they 
wither and lose a certain amount of their water of vegetation. 

The crushing is done over a grooved, circular cement trough 
by rotating, heavy millstones, which reduce flesh and stones into a 
mash. Instead of millstones, crushers like those used for grapes 
are used; they consist of a hopper over two cylinders of cast- 
iron, fluted, horizontal and turning slowly in opposite directions. 

The paste is collected into a tub and put into flat bags or 
envelopes made of specially woven esparto grass, of rushes, a 
coarse cotton fabric, or even hessian. In some parts of France it 
is customary to sprinkle over the paste, before putting into the 
bags, a small quantity of vinegar, or of a decoction of tannin- 
bearing bark to coagulate the mucilaginous matter and facilitate 
the flowing out of the oil. A dozen or more of these flat pulp bags 
are piled up on the platform of the press, light wooden battens or 
tinned dises being sandwiched in between to favour the running of 
the oil when the pressure is applied. 

Instead of the pulp bags, a galvanised iron cylinder, reinforced 
with iron hoops and perforated with holes, may be used; the 
flowing of the oil from the metal recipient is facilitated by insert- 
ing perforated boards or mats of rushes at short intervals through- 
out the paste; lining with sackcloth inside prevents the pulp being 
squeezed out. Pressure is brought on gradually, to allow the oil 
to flow out. The first run is the virgin oil. The pressings are col- 
lected in tinned receivers and transferred to larger ones when it 
settles, the lighter oil floating over the dregs is carefully skimmed 
off with a tin ladle or else with cotton or a sponge. There still re- 
mains some oil in the water of vegetation and the dregs; these are 
collected in bigger reservoirs where in time the oil separates and 
floats, when it is collected. 

When the first crushing is done the press is opened and the 
compressed mash is broken up; some pour a little boiling water 
over it to coagulate the albuminoid matters, others prefer, for that 
purpose, a solution of some mild vegetable acid—citrie, acetic, or 
tannic. Pressure is brought on again and a further quantity of 
oil is extracted from the squeezed-out liquor. 

The clarification of the oil is effected by natural means, i¢., by 
rest and decantation, or by artificial means, such as filtration and 
treatment with vegetable acids for fine oils or with mineral acids 
and alkalies for the common oils. After a few days’ rest the oil 


293 


frees itself and is more or less clarified. It is generally necessary 
to transfer it to other receivers and allow it to rest again for a 
few days. It may then be stored until sold, and during that period 
it continues to clarify. 


PICKLING OLIVES. 


1. Verdaleandkernel. 2. Picholineandkernel. 3. Sevillano and kernel. 
4. Gordaland kernel. 5, Pendoulier andkernel. 6. Manzanillo and kernel. 


A quicker clarification is obtained by treating the oil with a 
diluted solution of such vegetable acids as citric, acetic, or tannic, 


294 


which act chemically and mechanically upon the foreign matters in 
the oil and bring about their precipitation. 

Filtering offers a quick way of separating the albuminoid 
matters and other impurities from the oil. The filters consist of 
horse-hair sieves or wire gauze set in tin funnels. Over the sieve 
is spread a piece of felt with a layer of cotton wool. Filtering 
should be done prior to bottling. Of the pressed-out juice, about 
one-quarter is recovered as olive oil. The proportion of fresh fruit 
to recoverable oil is in the neighbourhood of six to seven, and of 
partly dried olives, about five to one of oil. 

For pickling, the following is recommended :— 

SEVILLANO, syn. Regalis, Pruneau de Catignan, VEspagnole (Fig. 
3).—One of the largest olives grown, viz., 134in. thick. This is the 
variety exported from Spain as the Queen olive. Round, ovate pit, 
generally straight, square at the base, pointed at the apex; a cling- 
stone; bluish-black when ripe. Picked for green pickling, and yields 
a small quantity of a deep yellow oil. Tree small; fruit ripens 
medium late. 37 olives per lb.; 17.23 oil per cent. 

GorDAL, syn. Hispalensis, Olive Real (Fig. 4)—Fruit differs 
from the Sevillano in being less symmetrical, being larger on one 
side than the other. Much esteemed for pickles, and also yields a 
good oil. Tree very large and vigorous, with shiny branches, lance- 
shaped leaves, dull green above and clear white below. Ripens early; 
stands cold well. Like Sevillano, requires deep, fertile soil; requires 
heavy pruning. Very widely grown in Spain. 

ASCOLANO, or Olive or Ascoli—aAlso a large fruit of the shape 
and size of a French prune, valuable for green pickles, and, like most 
olives of that description, better suited for warm districts. 

PICHOLINE.—See above. 

Misston.—111 olives per Ib; 17.50 oil per cent. 

PENDOULIER, syn. Oblitza (Fig. 5).—Fruit large, oval. Tree a 
good grower, and productive. 

Mawnzanitua (Fig. 6).—Large, 1 inch long; rounded oval. 
Ripens early. Fruit much like the Sevillano; grows on long stems. 
Pulp rich. Readily loses its bitterness when pickled. 72 olives per 
Ib.; 16.90 per cent. Fruit large, of dark colour when ripe. 

Pickled Olives—Both green and black or ripe olives are pickled, 
but they are treated separately. ‘The fruit must be carefully picked 
or else bruises will show. The treatment consists in neutralising the 
bitterness and acridity by steeping in a lye solution made up of 2oz. 
caustic potash to one gallon of water. <A float will keep the olives 
submerged and exclude the light, which has a darkening effect. An 
addition of salt, 20z. to the lye, is used if the olives are soft. The 
fruit is occasionally stirred with the hand. If on cutting an olive 
with a knife the flesh is seen horny-looking, without a white ring, 
it is ready, and the lye is run off, generally after eight to twelve 


295 


hours soaking, but sometimes longer. Taste will also show whether 
all the bitterness has been removed. Secondly, the lye is washed off 
by running it off carefully and replacing it with soft or rain water, 
which is renewed twice a day until all the lye bas been leeched out, 
which takes longer if salt has been used. This takes two or three 
days. A piece of red litmus paper dipped into the water before 
salting should not turn blue if all the lye has been removed. Thirdly, 
salt is then added in the form of a brine containing 6ozs. to 
the gallon of water, which, after two days, is run off and a 
stronger brine—8ozs. to the gallon—poured over the olives. Afier 
a few days, a stronger brine still, i.e, 12 to 14 oz. to the gallon, is 
used Unless the strength of the brine is only gradually increased the 
olives will shrink and shrivel. Finally, before bottling or casking, 
a strong brine, strong enough to float an egg is made, boiled, 
skimmed, and when cool, poured over the olives previously placed in 
bottles, which are then corked down and sealed. The addition of a 
little vinegar improves the colour of green olives, while some also 
like to add a few bay or all-spice leaves. 

For pickling “black or ripe” olives, salt is generally sufficient to 
remove the bitterness which it less pronounced as the fruit ripens. 
The olives are placed in jars or in barrels, sterilised by steam; they 
are then mixed with fine salt when they part with the bitter juices. 
After a few days they are steeped in fresh water for a little while 
and half dried. Before eating they are dipped in a light brine or 
in oil. Thus prepared, large quantities are consumed as an article 
of diet in olive-growing countries in the Mediterranean. Ripe olives 
in this form are more easily digested and possess a higher nutritive 
value than green pickled olives. 


NUTS. 


These fruit are true seeds only, and are made up of fleshy cov- 
erings or pericap, such as plums, apples, ete. They constitute a 
highly concentrated form of food, having less water than most fruit, 
with a higher percentage of protein or albuminoids and of fat. 

SPROUTING SEEDLINGS.—Nuts are generally sown in seed beds, 
and subsequently grafted to the kind it is desired to grow. 

The pits from natural fruit or seedlings are the most reliable 
stocks; they germinate easily, make more vigorous growth, and 
produce longer lived trees. 

They should not be allowed to dry after being taken from 
their covering or from the fruit, and they should without delay be 
put in sand or layered in the ground, to prevent the germ from 
drying. If allowed to dry, the pits either die or remain dormant in 
the ground for a year, and sprout the following season if left un- 
disturbed. 

In the cultivated and highly improved fruit, the union of the 
two halves or valves of the pits is often imperfect and “split.” Such 


296 


nuts will not readily germinate, and are destroyed by moulds, and 
rot. In natural seedlings they are more tenacious, and the kernel 
better retains its vitality. When layering nuts or pits of stone fruit 
a well-drained spot is chosen; the place is marked with stakes or 
enclosed within boards, the soil is dug out, and a layer of nuts or 
stones from five to six inches thick laid down and covered with loose 
earth. They are allowed to remain until early spring, when the ker- 
nels are swollen and some commence to sprout. They are then 
planted out in nursery rows and carefully cultivated, and when 
strong enough the seedlings are either budded or grafted. 


Atmonps (Prunus amygdalus). 


Australia is in a great measure dependent on imported almonds 
for its requirements. Some old hardshell seedlings are seen grow- 
ing around homesteads and bear a good erop of nuts, but orchardists 
have been too long dependent for their trees on Californian and over- 
sea kinds of almonds, which, while highly praised in their natural 
habitat, fall short of expectations when grown under Australian 
conditions. The same difficulties have been experienced in America 
until locally-raised seedlings selected among a great number raised 
for experimental purposes, showed points of superiority which 
single them out amongst the duffers growing around them. 

Experiments show that locally raised seedlings carry and ma- 
ture fruit where the imported almond fails. 

Several experimenters in Western Australia have succeeded in 
raising such seedlings of great promise which have so far given a 
good account of their productiveness and their value. Mr. J. P. 
Lauder, on the Chapman River, and Mr. Sanderson, of Guildford, 
among others, have brought out seedlings which appear to be sup- 
erior to the majority of the introduced kinds enumerated in nursery- 
men’s catalogues. 

My personal observations of the North-West coast, however, 
lead me to believe that the cultivation of the almond under irriga- 
tion promises to be more remunerative there than in the South-West 
of this State. The cool winter followed by warm, sunny and dry 
weather at blooming and setting time, should be more favourable for 
the bearing trees than the showery, cold, early spring months fur- 
ther south. 

The majority of almonds bear two classes of flowers: the female 
and the male. These issue at some days’ interval, and at times so 
early in the spring, as to fail to set on account of light frost or of 
defective pollenation. Fungoid diseases—Rust and Shothole—by 
weakening the fruit buds so interfere with the normal setting of the 
blossoms that unless preventive treatment is applied, the crop is ser- 
iously reduced. On this account it is advisable to grow the trees on 
warm slopes; mix the kinds for a better pollenation, and spray and 
frée the trees of fungoid diseases. 


297 


The almonds are propagated by budding on seedling bitter 
almond stocks or on peach stocks. The apricot is condemned as a 
stock on account of its imperfect union with the scion. 

Plant only varieties which are good annual croppers, hull easily, 
and have a clean, thin, soft shell, with smooth, plump, single kernals, 
in preference to those with double or triple nuts, which commerce 
does not seek for. The newer Californian sorts are better in this 
respect, 

An average of 10lbs. of hulled nuts per tree is a very good crop, 
and 5lbs. a good crop- 

For confectionery the kernels of hard shells, which are easily 
secured by the use of specially devised machinery, are just as profit- 
able as kernels of soft shells, and even more so, as hard shell almonds 
are often better and more reliable bearers. 

Gathering the nuts by hand is tedious work, and can only be 
practised when the tree is small. The harvesting is generally put 
off, when half the nuts have burst their hulls; if the tree is then 
shaken, the nuts are collected on a sheet of canvas, and allowed to 
remain a few days before being hulled. The hulls having been either 
naturally or forcibly removed, the nuts are placed in trays and dried 
in the sun. This requires three or four days. This hulling and shell- 
ing, when done on a large seale, is done by machinery, a very small 
percentage of the nuts being broken in the process. This work is 
particularly well done on “stick-tights,” when the hull and the shell 
are closely stuck together. When dry, the nuts are bleached by 
being lightly sprinkled with water and exposed to sulphurous fumes 
for a few minutes. After the odour of sulphur has dissipated, the 
nuts are then graded; the broken and inferior ones are shelled and 
sold as kernels, the sound ones are packed in sacks and marketed. 

In the south of France a good proportion of the crop is gath- 
ered when quite green and before the skinny covering of the kernel 
has turned brown at all. At that stage the shell has not yet hard- 
ened, and the nut is easily cut with a knife. These nuts sell readily 
at a good price for hors-d’oeuvre. 

LN.L. (Figs. 1, 14)—Tree a sturdy upright grower; large 
leaves and nuts, single kernels; hulls easily, and’ does not require 
bleaching; shell soft and very suitable for the table; good flavour; 
a good and regular bearer. One pound of these almonds contains 
on an average 9oz. kernel and 7oz. shell. 

Lanevuerpoc (Fig. 2. 24).—A French almond, known to the trade 
as soft shell; nut large; not a very regular bearer; kernel 7140z., 
shell 8140z. to the pound of nut. 

Nonpareiu (Figs. 3, 34)—A weeping habit of growth; smaller 
foliage than I.X.L.; an abundant and regular bearer; a paper shell 
nut with almost invariably a single kernel of excellent flavour. A 
large proportion of kernel to the pound of unshelled nuts, viz., 120z. 
kernel and 4oz. shell. 


298 


Jorpan (Figs. 4, 44).—A corruption of the French “Jardin,” 
meaning “garden”; a standard variety; long and slender nut, not 
strictly hard shell, although harder than soft shells. 


ALMONDS, 


1a, 1.X.L. and kernel; 2, 2A, Languedoc and kernel; 3, 3a, Nonpareil and 
kernel; 4,1a, Jordan and kernel; 5, 5a, Ne-Plus-Ultra and kernel. 


299 


Lauper (Seedlings).—West Australian seedlings raised on the 
Chapman River. 

SANDERSON’s SEEDIING.—Also raised in Western Australia. 

Ne-Puus-Untra (Figs. 5, 54).— Like I.X.L. and Nonpariel, a 
Californian seedling. The three should be planted in close prox- 
imity, to favour pollenation. Paper shell; nut large and long; 
hulls freely; single kernel, which is long and sender, resembling 
the commercial Jordan. A heavy and regular bearer; 10o0z. kernel, 
6oz. shell to 1b. of nuts. 


CuestnNur (Castanea sp.). 


Several varieties are grown, of which the European species (C. 
vesca), known as French, Spanish, and Italian chestnut, are more 
widely known. Another variety, the Japanese chestnut, is also 
gaining favour. It is a dwarf tree, suited for hedges and copses 
rather than for independent growth, but yields a nut which is larger 
than the largest European chestnut, and bears in four or five years 
from planting. The European chestnuts reach large dimensions, 
and, being quick growers, would do very well for avenues and shade 
trees. They require planting widely apart, and do best on free, 
moist, gravelly soil, beyond the reach of spring frosts. Limestone, 
clayey soil, and swampy land should be avoided. 

Chestnut trees of majestic size grow with great luxuriance in 
the rich valleys of the Darling Ranges about Jarrahdale, and also in 
the southern districts about the Vasse. Although not widely planted, 
they should thrive well in our cooler climates. 

The trees are readily grown from seeds, of which the largest 
and finest are selected. These are stratified in damp sand in the 
autumn and the winter, and planted, with the sprout up, in nursery 
lines, two to four inches deep, in the spring. At the end of the first 
year they are lifted, the tap root is eut off, and the trees either 
planted out or reset, giving them more room. 

Grafting by means of the ordinary cleft graft secures earlier 
fruiting and fruit of a known character. 

The composition of chestnuts is starehy rather than oily, con- 
taining 43 per cent, of starch, sugar, dextrin, ete., and about 6 per 
cent. of oily substance. _ 

Storing chestnuts for market or for home use is generally pre- 
ceded by scalding in boiling water and stirring with a stick. After 
15 or 20 minutes the nuts are spread out and dried. Wormy nuts 
floating on the surface are removed. The nuts kept in bags or in 
barrels are then used as required. The meat after this scalding being 
less horny and hard. 

Spanisu.—A sweet European kind, bearing its fruit in burrs. 
Splendid shade tree. 


Paragon.—Large, sweet, European, Early and abundant hearer, 


300 


Parry’s JAPAN Giant.—Large leaves, vigorous, upright grower. 
Nut very large, smooth, dark coloured; one or two nuts only in a 
burr; the sear covers nearly half the shell. 


EartH Nut, Arachis hypogea. 


These annual leguminous plants thrive to great perfection in 
Western Australia. In Spain, Algeria, South America, and India 
they constitute an important industry. The nuts are graded, sacked, 
and sold in large quantities for eating, while an enormous amount 
is crushed in mills, where the oil—of which the nut contains over 
40 per cent.—is extracted, and the residue compressed and sold for 
feeding stock. 

The oil, which is largely used for lighting and for soap making, 
is imported into Australia in large quantities. 

The nuts are brought by the shipload from the Levant and from 
India and treated in the large olive oil mills around Marseilles. 

The nuts are first crushed and cold pressed, yielding an almost 
colourless oil, of pleasant taste and smell, which is used as an adul- 
terant of salad oil. It is easily extracted, does not readily turn 
rancid and is palatable. The paste is then sprinkled with water and 
pressed again, cold, the oil being used mostly for lighting. The 
third oil is next extracted from the steamed paste, and is in great 
demand for soap making, while the residual cake constitutes ex- 
cellent food for stock, being palatable, rich in protein and in starchy 
and sugary matters, apart from the unextracted percentage of oil 
remaining in the residue. 

The climate best suited for the cultivation of earth nuts is one 
free from frost for about five months. The soil should be free and 
light and deeply ploughed to permit the easy penetration of the 
flowering organs, which curve downwards into the ground, where 
they enlarge and ripen. A gravelly loam with a retentive clay sub- 
soil suits it well. Lime or marl, if not naturally present, must be 
added either with the fertilisers used or independently; without 
lime the nuts will not develop properly, a large proportion being 
empty shells, called “pops.” 

Several kinds of earth nuts are grown—notably a white and a 
red one. They present somewhat the appearance of a large kind of 
clover. The white nut has a more spreading habit of growth than 
the red, is said to be more prolifie, and is later in coming to maturity ; 
the red is earlier, and yields fewer imperfect pods or “pops.” The 
colour of the skin of the kernel differentiates these two varieties. 

The land is prepared by deep ploughing, and the distance be- 
tween the rows generally set two to three feet apart, and planted two 
inches deep in ridges, with furrows between if irrigated and on the 
flat if planted on moist land. When irrigated, water is run along 
these furrows and the soil is cultivated after each watering until the 


301 


vines cover the ground. Selected kernels are used for seeds. These 
are slightly cracked, and set along the rows at intervals of two feet, 
two together, and covered about an inch deep. It takes 40 to 50lbs. 
of earth nuts to plant an aere (two bushels of 22lbs. to 25lbs.). 
Weeds are kept down and the surface prevented from setting hard. 
Cultivation ceases when the flowering organs have penetrated the 


Fea Nut or Earth Nut, 


302 


soil and when the vines have spread sufficiently to keep down the 
weeds. : 

The crop should be harvested before the first frost (when ripe 
the tops begin to dry up). For that purpose the tap-reots of the 
plants are cut deeply with the hoe, or, if the field be large, a plough 
with the mould board removed and with a “sword” or long-cutting 
flange welded to the point is run down each side of the row. The 
plough is run deep enough to cut the tap-root without disturbing the 
pods. Some dig the plant up by the aid of a close-pronged fork, 
and the root portion, with the pods adhering, is exposed to the sun 
to dry. When wilted, the earth is shaken off the roots of the plants, 
which are loosely stacked round a pole six or seven feet high, in 
small stacks which will not heat. After a few weeks the nuts may 
be picked off the vines and stored in a dry and well-aired place, 
prior to being screened and sorted for marketing. Where the dry 
vines are not consumed by stock they should be returned to the 
ground, to be ploughed in. 

The green and unripe pods are less oily than the ripe ones, and 
more easily digested; they are pleasant eatmg when reasted. 

An average yield is about 10ewt. per acre, or about 50 bushels, 
weighing 22 to 30lbs. according to the plumpness of the kernel. The 
wholesale market value runs from 214d. to 3d. per Ib. 

At the Hamel Experimental Station Mr. Berthoud grew several 
kinds, viz., Tanjore, Barbadoes, Mauritius, and White Valencia, 
which all did well, but would, I have no doubt, have yielded better 
still if grown on a moist marl or in calcareous soil in the 
warmer portions of the State. At Port Darwin and in the, Kim- 
berleys pea nuts do well; under moderately favourable conditions 
crops of 50 bushels are obtained. In Queensland the average yield 
of the crop is 1,675lbs. (56 bushels), valued at £21 per acre. 


Tue Fiupert and Cop-nuts (Corylus Avellana). 


These nuts are improved varieties of the common hazel nut of 
the woods of Europe. These small nuts have not been sufficiently 


er. 


Cob. Filbert. 


grown yet in Western Australia to ascertain what measure of success 
their cultivation promises. Jn California, which in so many respects 


303 


may be compared to Western Australia, their bearing has not been 
satisfactory, except in the cooler and moister situations. It would 
seem, therefore, that the localities best suited to the filbert and cob- 
nut in this State would be the moister and cooler Southern dis- 
triets. The soil must not be water-logged, but moist. The plants 
may be set at distances 10 to 14 feet apart. Propagation from 
nuts does not produce reliable varieties, and for that reason layers 
made in the spring are preferred, shoots two or three years old 
being simply notched with the knife, and pegged into the soil two or 
three inches. When planted out the year after, the base buds are 
removed, as is done in the case of the gooseberry, so as to get a clean 
stem. They are not allowed to sucker, but are grown in the form 
of low bushes, “branching out about two feeet from the ground. 

A distinction is made between the cob and the filbert. The cob- 
nuts are rounder, and are not covered; while the filberts (full 
beards) are entirely covered with long husks. 


Tue Watnut (Juglans regia). 


This nut, incorrectly called “English walnut” and “Madeira 
nut”; introduced from Persia. It forms a handsome spreading 
tree, bearing crops of large and excellent nuts enclosed in a simple 
husk. In the fertile Lower Blackwood and Warren districts of the 
South-West, walnuts grow to great perfection, and its more exten- 
sive cultivation deserves in this State more attention than it has 
hitherto received. Fine young trees from the Warren nuts are 
grown at the Forestry Department State Nursery at Hamel. 
The nu‘s are stratified, and when they begin to germinate are planted 
in nursery rows, where they are generally left for three years before 
planting out. There they grow in size while the roots also attain 
good development. When planting out, the tap-root is severed with 
the spade and the stem cut back to four or five feet, irrespective 
of branches. The trees should be planted about 40 feet apart on 
deep free loam. They begin to bear at the age of six to eight years, 
and continue bearing regular and increasing crops of nuts for a 
great number of years after. When planting, soft-shell, heavy nuts 
alone should be selected. As the plantation is so wide apart, and as 
the land suitable for the walnut trees must be deep and moist, it is 
found profitable for the first few years to grow root and _ other 
crops between the rows, or to interplant smaller, earlier fruiting 
trees, which, after a period of ten or twelve years, can be removed 
to make room for the larger walnuts. 

The same tree bears both male or staminate buds, which de- 
velop into “catkins,” and pistillate ones, which are terminal, and 
produce the nuts. These are gathered from the ground as they drop 
off the trees, or the operation may be hastened by jarring the 
branches lightly. After gathering, the nuts are exposed to the sun 


304 


for a few days, until the husks are dry enough to be torn off. The 
shells may be bleached as are almouds, but this often injures the 
flavour of the kernel. An average yield would be 40lb. of nuts for 
a tree 10 years old, and lewt. for trees in full bearing. 


Some of the best French varieties are:— 
EnGuisH Wabnur of commerce—productive. 


CuaBente-—Small fruit; hardy. Chiefly used for extracting oil. 

Santa Barpara.—A California seedling from a French variety. 
Soft shell; bears early and annually; not as strong a grower as other 
walnuts; its being so prolifie retards its growth. 


305 


FertiLis.—Dwarf; prolific. Bears well; has quite a small bush 
at the Blackwood Nurseries; not such a large tree as the English 
Walnut. 


PROEPARTURIANS (Fig. 1)—As its name implies, an early 
bearer; of dwarf habit and good quality. 


FRraNQueTIA (Fig. 2)—A large elongate nut of  exeellent 
quality. Buds out late. 


Mayerre (Fig. 3).--Round nut, large, full-fleshed; late in bud- 
ding out in the spring, and for that reason suitable for frosty places. 


PanisI—ENNE (Fig. +).—Nuts large, a little elongate, even out- 
line: excellent quality. Tree blooms late. 


SMALL FRUITS. 


The cultivation of small fruits as a distinctive feature of horti- 
cultural enterprise becomes more prominent every day. As large 
holdings are cut up into smaller ones, and as settlement becomes 
denser in close proximity to larger centres of population, a desire 
is shown by many to utilise to its full capacity small patches of 
moist and fertile land. For this purpose, small fruit and berry 
culture should command the attention it deserves. A great choice 
offers to the grower, as there is hardly a locality where, provided 
care and attention be bestowed upon it, some kind of small fruit 
bush cannot be grown. 


BuacKBERRY (Rubus, Bramble). 


Belongs to the same family as the raspberry, it in- 
cludes the dewberry, which, however, is not superior to the black- 
berry, and also the wineberry, and the Loganberry. The fruit is 
a collective mass of drupes attached to a receptacle, which falls off 
whole and does not separate as in the raspberry. The berries are 
small, ovate, brown or black; some are yellowish white. 

LoGANBERRY.—A vigorous grower, handsome foliage; large red 
berries, resembling raspberries before they are ripe. An American 
hybrid between black and raspberry. Flavour is rich when cooked. 
When used for dessert. fruit needs to be fully ripe. 

All species of the Bramble family adapt themselves to a great 
variety of soils and climate; some, if overlooked, spread over the 
land and become a pest; cuttings strike root readily. The trailing 
kinds require the support of a fence to keep them up, and have been 
ground round orchards and paddocks; they, however, harbour vermin 
and birds. These berries are more suited to the cooler and moister 
S.W. districts than to the drier inland ones. Among the sorts which 
have done well in Australia are: Himalayas, Wilson’s Early, and 
Lawton’s (New Rochelle). 


306 


Cape Gooseserry (Physalis peruviana). 


A Peruvian fruit introduced into Australia via the Cape of 
Good Hope: hence its name. The name “gooseberry” is misleading, 
as it is not a gooseberry at all. 

Three species of this genus are cultivated for fruit, known under 
the names Alkekenge or Cape Gooseberry, Husk tomato, Straw- 
berry tomato, Winter or Ground cherry. The plant is a branching 
perennial herb, belonging to the Solanacee, which includes such 
well-known plants as the tomato, tobacco, etc.; its roots are fibrous 
and surface feeders; by deep manuring ‘deeper root growth is en- 
couraged. The plant is somewhat susceptible to cold, therefore 
does best in localities free from frost. It likes a good subsoil, rich 
in available potash, and this is probably the reason why it does so 
well on newly burnt-off serub, the ashes of which provide the required 
potash. The fruit consists in a berry of the size of a cherry, enclosed 
in an enlarged and persistant calyx which forms a bladder-like en- 
velope. They are sweet and pleasant, and are considerably used for 
stewing or for preserves, and also for eating. 

The seeds are sown in the spring, and will not endure much 
frost, and for that reason are planted as soon as the warm weather 
sets in—August. They are sown in seed beds, like tomatoes, and 
then transplanted a month or two after and set 8 x 4 feet apart. 
They are easily propagated from off-shoots in the autumn. 

In the autumn cut right back, manure in the early spring, and 
fresh growth will come up. Picking is a tedious and costly process, . 
the price paid being about 144d. a lb., a man picking about 40lbs.- in 
one day. This is done when the zalyx is seen to dry up; the fruit 
is also often allowed to fall to the ground and then picked up. 


THE CurRANT (Ribes). 


Like the Gooseberry, belongs to the natural order Grossulacce 
and to the genus Ribes, of which two species, viz., R. nigrum is the 
parent of the Black Currant and R. rubrum that of the Red and of 
the White Currant. The curants are indigenous of Northern Europe. 

Low, deciduous schrubs, with smooth stems; leaves variable, and 
not unlike a vine leaf in outlines; more or less lobed; flowers small, 
vellow, crimson or white. 

The English name Currant is derived from Corinth on account 
of their resemblance with the Zante Grape, which was formerly al- 
most entirely imported from Corinth. 

Propagation by eutting when the wood is ripe is generally 
resorted to. The buds, except the topmost two, which are above the 
ground, are cut off before setting in order to check the suckering 
habit of the plant. The soil must be heavy, rather than light and 
sandy, and must also be fertile and well manured, the plant being a 
gross feeder. : 


307 


The white varieties are the mildest flavoured, and, therefore, 
better for eating when used fresh from the bush. The red are 
preferable for jellies, ete., on iccount of their beautiful colour; 
many of them possess a musky taste. Currants may be planted 
5ft. x 5ft. or 6ft. x 4ft. apart. 

Biack Napies.—One of the largest and hest black currants; 
has a musky flavour. A vigorous grower, bears profusely after a 
few years. 

LeEe’s Prouiric.—Very similar in quality to the Black Naples, 
but the plants are more productive. 

‘VERSAILLES.—Dark red, not so acid as the cherry, which it re- 
sembles. Fruit of the largest size. Plant a coarse grower, productive 
and excellent for marketing purposes. The shoots are apt to break 
off at the base. Best trained supported. 

Wautre Dutcu.—A vigorous, upright grower; productive; very 
large and sweet berries, yellowish white, transparent with white 
veins; good for dessert. 


GOOSEBERRIES (Libes grossularia). 


Low, deciduous shrubs, stems mostly thorny at the base of the 
leaf-stalks; in some the thorns are scattered. Fruit: one-celled 
berry, produced in smal] clusters, smooth or prickly. 

They are strongly acid fruits, that come early in the season, and 
in the cooler and high level localities should be grown largely for 
family use. In such localities any good soil, well drained, well culti- 
vated, and manured will grow good crops of gooseberries. They re- 
spond well to liberal applications of potash. In Europe this is one 
of the popular berries, and small fruit-growers figure on obtaining 
greater profit from the gooseberry crop than from any other shrub 
fruit. They require annual pruning, mulching, and some attention. 

The bushes may be set in rows 6ft. apart or 1,200 to the acre. 
Gooseberry culture has not, so far, attained the importance in Aus- 
tralia which is devoted to it in England, mainly on account of the 
thorny nature of the bushes. By dint of persevering attention, how- 
ever, some varieties of spineless gooseberries have been obtained 
and established, the colours of which range from rose to almost 
black. 

Layering is a sure and quick method of propagating the goose- 
berry; suckers are rejected on account of the tendency to produce 
more suckers; cuttings from well-ripened, vigorous growths are, of 
all the methods of propagating this bush, the method most generally 
adopted; all buds and prickles are removed for a few inches from 
the lower end. 

The best wethod of harvesting the gooseberry is to pull the 
berries from the bushes by stripping with a hard-gloved hand and 
blowing off what leaves may have also come off when pulling. 


310 


at their best for two or three seasons; after this they become less 
productive and more subject to leaf-diseases and to attacks by in- 
sect pests. For this reason it is advisable to have fresh beds made 
every year, the cold beds being rooted out and left fallow. <A 
regular output is thus secured and pests more easily kept in check. 


CLASSIFICATION OF THE STRAWBERRY.—The modern cultivated 
strawberries are derived from four prototypes, two of European 
and two of American sources. Those improved varieties are, how- 
ever, widely different from their originators,. but they, nevertheless, 
retain certain characteristics which are essentially their own. By 
means of hybridisation or pollenation, many of the choicest berries 
have issued, and which combine some of the most preminent features 
it is sought to develop. 

FracariaA VEscA.—Alpine or Wild Wood 
Strawberry, of which the “Queen of Four 
Seasons” is one of the most prolific and best. 
Seeds superficial, on the conical or hemis- 
pherical fruiting receptacle (not sunk in a 
cavity). Flower stalks longer than the leaves, 
erect, hairy, hairs closely pressed upward. 
Fruit drooping, conical or globular. Leaves 
thin, pale green, upper surface uneven. 
Slightly wavy, unlike those larger  straw- 
berries; the result of artificial cultivation. 
Easily propagated from seeds; very hardy; 
bearing season protracted. One section of 
this species is the Bush Alpine or Green 
Strawberry (F. collina), whose only distinct 


ueen of Four ° . a < é 5 if 
Q Seasons: character is in its fruit, which is greenish 


brown when ripe. 


FRAGARIA ELAtIon.—Hautbois strawberry, a native of Central 
Europe. Larger, more erect, and are of longer appearance than the 
Alpine, often shy bearers, and amongst other peculiarities possess a 
distinct musky flavour. “Belle Bordelaise” is one of this type. Calyx 
reflexed, seeds superficial. Flower stalks longer than the leaves, 
erect. Fruit round or oblate, usually drooping, but sometimes erect, 
possessing a musky flavour. Hairs on both leaf and flowers. Stalks 
long, widely spreading, somewhat reflexed. Leaves larger than F, 
vesca and more or less hairy, giving them a rough appearance. 


FRAGARIA ViIRGINIANA—The Virginian strawberry, and the 
parent of the greater number of the improved strawberries in culti- 
vation. Seeds imbedded in the deeply-pitted receptacle. Fruit 
roundish, ovoid to conical, highly perfumed. Flower stalk shorter 
than the leaves, hairy. Hairs spreading, more or less erect. Leaves 
obovate, wedge form, variable, coarsely serrate, usually dark green; 
upper surface smooth, often shining. 


311 


FraGArta CHILENSIS OR GRANDIFLORAW—The Chilian  straw- 
berry, also a native of America, from Oregon to Chili. Calyx erect, 
slightly spreading, seeds set in a shallow depression. Flowers larger 
than in other species. Fruit sweet, perfumed, firm. Flower stalks 
shorter than the leaves- When first introduced, it did not find favour, 
as the blossoms are not self-fertile. This defect has been got over 
by crossing with the Virginian strawberry. 


BoranicaL Srructure.—The strawberry is described as a 
genus of perennial herb, belonging to the general order Rosaceae. 
It has trifoliated leaves, flat or reflexed, creeping stolons or runners, 
flowers white or yellow. The petals of the flowers are disposed 
around the more or less enlarged receptacles of the flower stalk. 
The strawberry is not a fruit in the true sense of the word, but an 
exaggerated fleshy receptacle of the flower stalk, in which are em- 
bedded a number of small, hard, seed-like bodies, which are the true 
fruits. As the swollen, fleshy receptacles grow in size and mature 
they become coloured, juicy, and flavoured. In a strictly botanical 
sense, therefore, the strawberries are neither berries nor fruit any 
more than turnips or potatoes are roots. 

Naturally the strawberry flower possesses stamens or male 
organs and pistils or female organs. It is, therefore, perfect, as both 
these organs are necessary for the production of fruit. This is so 
in the wild state. Under the influence of cultivation, however, or 
when transplanted amid surroundings which are foreign to its primi- 
tive habitat, the strawberry, like a great many other plants, may 
become subject to structural alterations which deeply modify its 
sexuality. 

The figures show two types of flowers: the “bi-sexual” or self- 
fertile flowers and the “pistillate” or imperfect flower. 

Both possess petals; in the perfect or bi-sexual blossom, and 
around the convex core which, when developed, constitutes the 
strawberry are two sets of organs, viz.: the 
female organs or pistils (p) in the centre, and 
around them the male organs or stamens (s). 
In perfect blossoms, these stamens are equal 
in length, or longer than the pistils, and they 
are then able, when the anthers or seed-sacs 
which surmount each of them, are ready to 
burst, to shed the grains of pollen on the 
stigma or receptive end of the pistil, a tubu- 
lar organ down which they travel to the Bi-sexual. 
ovary, where pollenation or impregnation 
takes place. 

The imperfect flowers on the other hand, or “Pistillate,” only 
possess the female organ (p), the stamens being either absent or 
diminutive in size, or else reflexed. Such flower, to produce fruit, 


312 


must be fertilised: by a flower possessing stamens. It follows in 
practice that whenever pistillate varieties are 
planted, it is necessary to intermix with them 
bi-sexual or hermaphrodite varieties. 

Such intermarriage must be made with dis- 
cernment, and it is imperative that the sorts to be 
mated should blossom concurrently; the period 
of blossoming of the polleniser or perfect flow- 
ering plant should, moreover, be more protracted 
than that of the “pistillate,’ so, as to fertilise all the blossoms 
throughout the blossoming period. 

It is convenient in that case that the sorts brought together, 
instead of being intermixed haphazard, should be planted in alter- 
nate rows, one row of perfect or bi-sexual strawberries to three rows 
of “pistillate.” ‘The pollen in that case is conveyed from blossom 
to blossom by the agency of wind, insects, and notably bees, which 
in every well conducted strawberry garden should receive every care 
and attention. 

Although it is recommended that the amateur should do well 
to entirely avoid pistillates, the commercial grower, on the other 
hand, will find them as a rule, under proper treatment, more pro- 
lific, hardier, and better packers than the majority of strawberries: 
ex Haverland. 

Nor are all imperfect strawberries exclusively pistillated; 
amongst them, and especially in the Hautbois and the Chilian 
strawberries, male organs only are 
found on separate plants, as well as 
female organs on others, and the 
former are strictly “staminate.” Hither 
of the two if left alone would be bar- 
ren. Occasionally even these species 
produce perfect flowers, and it is by 
propagating such plants by runners 
that self-prolifie stock have been 
raised. When the Chilian strawberries 
were first introduced into Europe, they 
found little or no favour, all the plants 
introduced being found to possess fe- 
male organs only, and it was only after 
their cultural peculiarities became bet- 
ter known that they were reinstated 
and attained to the position they now 
occupy in the estimation of profes- Haverland. 
sional growers. 


Another peculiarity with regard to some of these varieties is 
that the male plants are generally more numerous in runners than 


Pistillate. 


= 


<< 


313 


the female, and grow to vigorous, healthy plants, which tempt the 
growers; their selection will, however, only lead to so many barren 
plants being planted. 

The conclusion growers should draw from these notes is that 
although pistillate sorts are highly profitable, they should not be 
planted alone, but other sorts with perfect flowering organs should 
be planted amongst them. 


Propagation Strawberries are propagated from seeds, run- 
ners, and divisions of the roots. Propagation by seeds is only re- 
sorted to for raising new varieties or crosses. 

“Runners” are the most common way of propagating straw- 
berries. To ensure their rooting, the surface of the soil should be 
kept loose and open. Mr. G. Whittington, once of the Orchard In- 
spection Staff of the Department of Agriculture, thus expresses the 
method of preserving strong suckers: “Starting to make a fresh 
plantation, the first three runners shooting from three-year-old 
stock should be laid down between the rows, and small pieces of 
wood placed upon them to keep them in position. If the soil is 
loose and moist, the young plant will soon take root. As soon as the 
young plant has developed a few leaves, the runners proceeding 
from it should be pinched off and all other runners separated from 
the parent plant. At the end of the season the young plants are 
severed from the parents, taken up and planted out. Strong plants 
are thus obtained.” Root division is seldom employed except with 
the Bush Alpine Strawberries, which produce few or no runners. 
In the early spring take up the stools and divide them, leaving only 
one crown to the plant. If the old root is very long, cut off the lower 
end. 


Soil and Location.—Strawberries adapt themselves to a wide 
range of soil and location. Too much sand or too much clay should 
be avoided. Like the other small fruits, the strawberry needs a rich, 
well-drained, and moist soil. In Western Australia the soil which, as 
yet, has been found best adapted to the cultivation of the greater 
number of varieties is the soil which, as on the slopes of the Darling 
Ranges and the undulating country of the lower plain below, sup- 
ports in its natural state spear wood thickets and red gum with 
bracken. Such a soil consists of a deep light loam, warm in colour, 
well drained and generally moist, overlying a stiffer subsoil at a 
depth of 18 to 24 inches; of the various species of strawberries the 
wild wood strawberry (F’. vesca) and the Hautbois (F. elatior) do 
well on light sandy loams. Calcareous soil of a drier nature suits 
the Bush Alpine (F. collina), a section of F. vesca. A rich clayey 
loam, moist, but well drained, is better suited to F. virginiana, and 
most of the large fruit strawberries. A stiff heavy clay and soil 
that is liable to become very dry in a short period is unsuitable, 
and should be avoided; on such soils once the growth of the plants 


314 


is checked the crop likewise suffers and is never again a remunera- 
tive one. 

As a rule, even the same sorts are influenced by variations in 
the soil and locations. Thus, all things being equal, a strawberry 
will ripen earlier on a warm sunny slope in light loam than on 
heavier and moister flats, where on the other hand, the crop, if 
later, is generally a heavier one. The practical deduction to be 
drawn from these facts is that the experienced growers are careful, 
in order to lengthen the season, to place early sorts on a warm, 
sunny slope, on light loam, and the later sorts on heavy moist flats. 
Some varieties besides, which show a healthy growth on high, well- 
drained ground and slopes, are badly affected by leaf blight when 
struck in damp, hollow ground, and conversely, by moving some of 
the choicer and more delicate varieties, too blighted to be profitable, 
from low, damp ground up to more healthy locations, they speedily 
become more fruitful and more resistant to blight. 

Preparing the Soil—Although the land need not be virgin land, 
it is essential that the plot should be new; that is to say, that it 
should not have been under strawberry culture before, or for many 
years previously. Strawberries, indeed, are gross feeders, and ab- 
stract from the ground large quantities of fertilising elements, the 
depletion of which makes the ground unsuitable for that crop after 
a period of a few years. Old ground, besides, gets foul with para- 
sitie insects and fungi, which prey on the crop. The simplest way 
of getting rid of such pests is by a system of starvation, which 
is attained by refraining to plant strawberry after strawberry on 
the same ground. The ground should be prepared in the spring 
and laid fallow for the summer preceding planting. If only a small 
plot, it ean be broken up with the spade or the fork to a depth of 
12 to 15 inches. If a larger field, two ploughs, one following in the 
wake of the other with its mould board taken off, should be made 
to break up the land to a depth of at least 14 inches. 

Several harrowings following this deep ploughing reduce the 
ground to a state of fine tilth, sweetening it by favouring the atmos- 
pheric action upon its mass. This clean cultivation also frees the 
ground of a great many troublesome weeds and of such destructive 
underground insects as the wire worms, the white grubs of the cock- 
chafer, and other insects that cause injury to the root system of the 
plant. Besides, the deeper the ground is worked up the better able 
it will be to absorb and retain moisture, and the greater mass will 
there be through which the roots will penetrate in search of food and 
moisture. 

When the time of planting comes—about the end of March— 
the requisite manure is spread over the ground, which is ploughed 
again to a depth of 6 to 8 inches, and gathered into lands, narrow 
if the spot is wet, broader if dry; it is then harrowed, and if still 
lumpy, lightly rolled down, 


315 


Manuring—The strawberry is a gross feeder, and the more 
liberal the grower is in feeding it, the more prolific it proves itself 
to be. The crop is, moreover, a perennial one, that is to say, when 
establishing a strawberry bed we must store, at the same time, into 
the ground a stock of fertilisers which will supply all the require- 
ments of the plants for at least three seasons. Nor must the food 
be stinted to them, but it should be given in plenty and under an 
easily assimilable form. 


These fertilisers should not be buried too deep either, as the 
strawberry feeds in 15 to 18 inches of soil. After the deep fallow- 
ing, but before the light ploughing which precedes plarting out, the 
manure is placed on the ground. 


If well-rotted stable manure is procurable, nothing is better; 
manure which is not tainted by sawdust litter, and which is procured 
from stables where the animals are well fed, is the best. Thirty 
loads to the acre is by no means an excessive dressing; and as the 
composition of the manure varies according to the class of animals 
kept, their food, and the way it is secured, it is always advisable to 
supplement its richness by a further dressing of such chemical 
fertilisers as kainit or muriate of potash, and of superphosphate of 
lime, in the proportions of 3ewt. of kainit or lewt. of muriate of 
potash and 2ewt. of superphosphate. The stable manure is evenly 
scattered first, and the chemical fertilisers broadvasted afterwards, 
and the land ploughed to a depth of 6 to 7 inches. 


The main objection of stable manure, however, is that it gener- 
ally conveys seeds of troublesome weeds; its haulage is, moreover, 
costly, and it is not, besides, always possible to get it in sufficient 
quantity. For these reasons some growers prefer chemical fer- 
tilisers at the rate of either, for fairly good land, 5ewts. to Tewts. 
Thomas’ phosphate or superphosphate and same quantity kainit (or 
one-third the amount of muriate of potash, containing 50 per cent. 
of potash). For poor, hungry land, 8ewts. to 10cwts. each Thomas’ 
phosphate or super and of kainit. The mixture is prepared on a floor, 
or a tarpaulin, by first sifting through a wire screen with ‘in. 
meshes, and mixing thoroughly with shovels. One-half of this amount 
applied broadcast is used when giving the last working to land be- 
fore planting, and the other half own between the rows during the 
first season. Just before planting a light dressing of ewt. of sul- 
phate of ammonia or of nitrate of soda is given along the rows, 
and also early the second spring, just as the plants are moving 
from their dormant state, another similar application will stimulate 
a vigorous growth and an abundant setting. Shoull an abundance 
of unleached wood ashes be procurable it would form an ideal fer- 
tiliser, as it contains both potash and phosphate. A dressing of 
60 to 80 bushels to the acre broadcasted would be a liberal one. 
Although it contains a good deal of potash the strawherry plant is 


316 


not beneficially affected by the direct application of potash sorts 
alone; these are better applied in conjunction with other fertilisers. 


Transplanting—After thorough cultivation and manuring, the 
land should be made smooth by rolling, which also consolidates it. 

The time for transplanting having arrived, at the beginning of 
the rainy season, the plants should be got together. In our climate 
April will be found a good time; a small crop may then be expected 
in the spring. Strawberry plants will strike at any time, provided 
the ground is moist and warm, but autumn planting is found more 
profitable. If not planted till the spring, all the fruit buds should 
be removed as they appear, otherwise the plants become feeble and 
die. Should a large plot be planted, it is advisable to commence 
with the early sorts and proceed with the latter varieties. 

The lines for horse cultivation should be at intervals of 3ft. 
or 4ft.; for hand cultivation 2ft. will be found enough. In either 
case the distance along the rows should be from 12in. to 18in.; this 
the grower will regulate as he becomes familiar with the habits of 
growth of the varieties he plants. For horse cultivation the lines 
must not only be well stretched, but the plants should all be set on 
the same side of the line, so that as the implements run along the 
rows the soil is stirred at an even distance from the plants all along 
the drill. 

The following are the number of plants to the acre at the dis- 
tances mentioned :-— 


oft. x 1ft. .. 21,780 | 3ft. x lft, Gin. .. 9,658 
ft, x 1ft. Gin, .. 14,520 | 4ft, x lft. .. 10,900 
aft. x 2ft. .. 10,900 | 4ft. x 1ft. 3in. .. 8,712 
aft. x 1ft. ». 14,520 | 4ft. x 1ft. Gin. .. 7,260 


It is often the practice, however, to plant strawberries amongst the 
trees in young orchards, and in that case ample room should be left 
between the row nearest to the trees and the trees themselves—4ft. 
to 5ft. at least; this would reduce the number of strawberry plants 
to the acre very considerably. Growing strawberries in a young 
orchard, under such conditions must be, if the plantation has been 
well looked after, beneficial to the trees, as the ground is, after two 
or three years, left in a high state of fertility and tilth, which can- 
not but be conducive to the growth of the trees. 

If the beginner has not raised his plants himself, he should 
procure them from a careful grower, and he should be particularly 
careful that the parent plants are strong, fruitful, free from leaf 
blight and other pests; plants affected. by disease are dear at a gift. 
The rooted runners of the previous year’s growth having been lifted 
and bunched up in convenient handfuls, it is important that their 
roots are not exposed to the desiccating action of the sun and wind. 
Some place them over the moist earth with a wet bag thrown over 
them; others, after trimming off the dead leaves and young runners 
and shortening the roots one-third, place them in buckets with an 


317 


inch or so of water; they will then keep for a day or two. A little 
quantity of lime or wood ashes in the water would kill any 
possible slugs which might have secreted themselves amongst the 
roots of the young plants, and when planting a garden free from 
such pests every care should be taken against its introduction by 
means of plants, manures, or packages. 

This planting is done either by means of special tcols or almost 
as readily by using either a spade or a spading fork, but whatever 
the method of setting is followed, it is important that the plants be 
set at the correct depth; that is to say, 
not too shallow nor too deep, as in the one 
case they would perish from desiccation, 
and in the other through suffocation in 
the earth; the right way of setting the 
young plants is with the crown level with 
the ground, the roots spread out, and 
never stuck in gathered up in a bunch; 
in any case, the earth should be well set 
and pressed firmly around the roots. 
Plants of even strength alone should be 
planted together, or else the fruit crops, 
which generally sets in the second year Correctly Set. 
after planting, is otherwise uneven. 

The illustrations from Bulletin No- 32 of the Georgia Experi- 
ment Station show clearly how to do and how not to do the planting. 
If the weather be too dry at the time of 
planting it is better to suspend this work 
until the ground is in a better condition. 
Small plots, however, may be planted even 
then, provided this is done in the evening 
when the sun is low, and one pint or so of 
water is given to each plant. The next day 
break the crust to check evaporation, and if 
the weather continues dry, water two or 
three times the first week, then once a week 
Too deep. until the rain comes. 


Cultivation Careful cultivation, following up careful selection 
of plants, set into equally carefully prepared soil, is the third ele- 
ment of success of a strawberry plantation. If possible, do not let 
a single weed go to seed the first season, and the result will be 
apparent on the crop the following year. 

Hoeing should be done whenever a crust forms, a week or two 
after planting; where horse cultivation is used the hoe should be 
set shallow—a Planet Junior is excellent for that work—while for 
a hand hoe, a thin steel tool with both narrow and wide blades, is 
very convenient—so as not to disturb the young roots. Air and 


318 


moisture thus freely penetrate the ground, and weeds will be 
checked. Hand hoeing alone should, however, be used on the ground 
around the plants. About that time—the second or third hoeing— 
a slight dressing of sulphate of ammonia or of nitrate of soda, 4 
of a ewt. or a little more, is used with advantage along the rows; 
this dressing will greatly stimulate the growth of the bushes, which 
will then begin to show their energy by throwing out runners; these 
should be treated as weeds the first one or two hoeings, so as to get 
the plant well established before making any new plants. Cultiva- 
tion should almost cease from blooming time until fiuit is har- 
vested. Weeds and grass gain a foothold during that time; the 
larger weeds are pulled up by the roots, the ground also sets hard 
under the tread of the pickers and from that cause, as well as from 
the gradual exhaustion of the soil by continuous cropping and also 
owing to the spread of pests and parasites, a plot ceases to be very 
profitable after three or four years. After the season’s growth and 
at the approach of the wet weather in winter, the last working is 
given to the land; growers in moist localities set their Planet Jr. 
behind with left and right mould boards, which gather the soil from 
the plants and make a ridge in the centre, jeaving the plants stand- 
ing in rows of unploughed ground 9 or 10 inches wide. This allows 
the water to run off, and, later on, when the ground is worked afresh, 
these ridges are levelled down by the implements, and the soil is 
made smooth and mellow. 


Mutching.—Two or three months after autumn planting, and be- 
fore blossoming, it is advisable to coat the ground with some sort 
of mulching two inches thick. Clean straw or grass, rushes, pine 
needles, or some other such like material may be used for the pur- 
pose. Stable manure, owing to the ammonia it gives off, and which 
rots the berries, or makes them too soft and tender to travel, is not 
to be recommended; it also conveys weeds and many insect enemies. 
Nor is tan from tanneries, which favours the growth of moulds in 
the ground, desirable material, as these moulds smother and destroy 
the roots. Mulching, besides answering the purpose of keeping the 
fruit free from grit and dirt, thereby adding to its marketable value, 
also checks weeds, maintains the surface of the ground moist and 
porous, and adds a large amount of vegetable matter to the soil when 
ploughed in. In horse cultivation, and where the rows are well 
apart, it is better to mulch around the plants, leaving the centre of 
the rows bare, which enables cultivation to proceed whenever re- 
quired. Any mulch that packs closely will do more harm than good. 


Pruning—The pruning of strawberry plants is of the simplest. 
First, when planting, as previously mentioned, all dead and withered 
leaves are excised and the roots shortened to one-third of their 
length; then, at the time of the first two hoeings, all runners are 
pulled off and all blossoms from autumn-planted strawberries picked 


319 


until the spring, while it is advisable to pick them all through the 
first season from strawberries planted in the spring. The necessity 
of cutting the first runners off is obvious, as, unless this is done, the 
plants will be weakened and will not bear such a heavy crop of ber- 
ries. Advantage is thus taken of turning the energies of the plant, 
always bent on reproducing itself, in two directions, from throwing 
runners and making new plants into producing fruit-buds in abund- 
ance, which eventually will mature into a profitable crop. Once the 
plantation is well established, runners are only permitted in such 
cases as are required for propagating purposes. At the close of the 
growing season, old Jeaves are best trimmed off so as to minimise 
the spread of the leaf blight and check the harbouring of insects. 

Irrigation and Drainage—Although it is admitted by all ex- 
perienced growers that irrigation lengthens the strawberry season, 
and that a command of water in a dry spring is of great value and 
often turns into a bountiful crop one which would otherwise have 
been hopelessly shortened at a critical period of its growth, yet it is 
also recognised that irrigation presents serious objections. 

It is generally costly when undertaken on a large scale; it 
makes the ground boggy at the time when cultivation and picking 
should be actively pursued, it causes a considerable amount of decay 
of the berries. Good strawberry land, well cultivated, should not, 
if the plants be mulched, need irrigation. 

Deep underground drainage, likewise, with the object of turn- 
ing unsuitable ground into soil fit for strawberry culture, generally 
involves growers in an expenditure of time and money which is sel- 
dom compensated by an adequate increase of crop. Better not at- 
tempt growing strawberries on dry, stiff, or marshy ground than to 
attempt to remedy its natural defects by methods involving any con- 
siderable cost. 

Marketing.—Morning and evening are the best time for pick- 
ing. The fruit, picked when fully coloured and with the stalk on, 
is graded as picked and placed in light wooden punnets lined with 
vine leaves. The punnets are then placed in rows in crates, and in 
this way they are easily conveyed to market and distributed without 
further handling of the fruit. 

Little damage is caused by birds, but slugs and snails, where 
they oceur, prove a troublesome pest. 

Points or A Goop StrawBerrRyY.—Mr. F. L. Jansen, in a com- 
prehensive paper on the strawberry, published in the Agricultural 
Gazette of the Department of Agriculture, N.S.W., thus summarises 
the desiderata of a good strawberry:—“The qualities essential to a 
first-class variety are: fruit large, of a regular, firm, and nearly 
uniform size, to the end of the season; texture fine, flesh rich and 
firm, with a moderate amount of acid, and with an aromatie flavour. 
A longitudinal cut should show no hollow space; the seeds should be 
deeply embedded, and the calyx set high, so as to be easily detached. 


320 


The plant should be hardy, vigorous, and strong, with perfect flow- 
ers, i.e., self-fertilising, a prolific bearer, with stalks of sufficient 
length to keep the fruit out of the dirt.” 

A Frew PROFITABLE STRAWBERRIES.—The number of varieties of 
strawberries which, at one time or another, have found favour with 
growers, is now very considerable. Most of them have some special 
points of merit which make it more or less desirable under the par- 
tieular prevailing conditions. It is only, however, by experimenta- 
tion, by selection, and by observation of what others are doing else- 
where, under conditions somewhat similar to our own, that we are 
mainly. guided in deciding upon what varieties to grow. Some of the 
varieties best adapted to local conditions are Australian seedlings, 
such as Melba, Sunbeam, ete. The strawberries described have 
either proved themselves profitable with us, or are highly recom- 
mended by successful growers. 

Aurie—A Queensland straw- 
berry grown by Mr. A. Court, 
at Mooloolah, and valuable for 
its extreme earliness, great pro- 
ductiveness, and robustness. It 
is said to come in some two 
months earlier than the Mar- 
-guerite Hautbois or any other 
strawberry. The first fruit are 
picked early in June, and the 
crop sent down to Sydney has 
sold at first up to 6s. and 7s. a 
quart. 

The fruit is large, uneven, red 
in colour, glossy; the foliage 
healthy; roots, long and abund- 
ant, penetrate the soil deeply, 
and withstand drought well. 


EpitH (Edith Christy).—-Very early, and 
one of the most popular strawberries for early 
market. An Australian seedling. Fruit lar2e, 
elongated, conical, bright crimson; flesh 
rather tender, white, tinged with salmon 
colour; pleasant sub-acid flavour. Plant 
strong, very hardy, and a_ heavy bearer. 
Adapts itself readily to a great variety of 
soils and climate. Earlier in lighter soil, es- 
pecially on a N.E. slope at Kalamunda on the 
Darling Ranges. 


MarcurritE.—Very early and popular 
variety well tested in Australia; fruit large, elongated conical, or 
cockscomb shape, bright red, shining; flesh white, tinged with pink; 


321 


core hollow, lacking a high flavour; 
seeds rather deeply sunk. Plant 
robust, very prolific and bears for a 
long time; a better carrier than Edith. 

Mixapo.--Mr. W. J. Palmer, Mo- 
mohaki Horticultural Station, North Ts- 
land, N.Z.: Without exception the best 
strawberry I have ever met, both for 
cropping and flavour. The foliage is 
healthy and free from disease. This 
is a New Zealand raised seedling. 

Nosite.—A valuable early English 
variety. Plant hardy, with large 
= leaves, prolific; fruit large, roundish 

Marguerite. conical, dark glossy red; flesh firm, 

solid, dark salmon colour; ripens 

early to mid-season, at the same time 
as Paxton. Carries well. 

Parker EaArue (H.).—A tall, vig- 
orous grower, but burns badly, mak- 
ing, however, a good recovery; sets 
practically no runners, and hence 
only adapted to hill culture; leaf 
medium in size, and grcen in colour. 
Berry medium, with distinct neck, 
long, bright crimson, wtih a pro- 
nounced, rather unpleasant, flavour; 
ripens evenly. Productive and valu- 
able both as a late shipper and 
pollenator. Requires much moisture 
to perfect its crop, and does best 
on heavy soils. 

Pinx’s Prouiric (H.).—A splendid late strawberry, does very 
well in Queensland on low, rich serub land, being quite free from 
leaf blight. 


SuarpLtess (H.).—A vigorous and 
healthy, but straggling grower, standing 
drought well and setting a sufficiency of 
runners; leaf large, rather deep green, 
and fruit very large, irregular, and mis- 
shapen, many possessing the “cocks- 
comb” form so characteristic of this var- 
MY iety as to be generally termed the “Sharp- 

‘i aA less shape.” Yet the berries are very 

i alt handsome, bright searlet, flesh pink, firm, 

wy sweet and good, but with little individ- 
Sharpless. uality of flavour; ripens unevenly and 
inclined to green tips. 


m 1 ; 
\ 


qi 


322 


Fairly productive, will never be discarded as a home berry 
eo not so well adapted to market purposes. Does well in heavy 
soil. 

_ Sir JoserpH Paxton.—Early to medium, excellent, of English 
origin. Colour dark glossy red. Flesh pale red, firm, and highly 
flavoured. Plant strong and productive, will not suit every district, 
but when it will succeed it is useful for all purposes, does well in a 
light chocolate soil; a good carrier, 


Trollope’s Victoria. 


Sir J. Paxton. 
(Half ‘size.) 


(Two-thirds size.) 


TROLLOPE’s VicTorra.—An excellent English variety, and very 
popular in Australia. Fruit large, roundish, even outlines; deep 
bright red. Flesh pale red, tender, juicy. Plants vigorous and pro- 
lifie; like Edith and Marguerite, adapts itself to varied conditions, 
but requires heavy loam to attain perfection, ripens after these two 
varieties. 

Mex.spa.—aA Victorian strawberry; prolific, bearing also on young 
suckers which makes it almost a continuous bearer. <A profitable 
and good market sort. 

Sunpeam.—aA new Victorian variety of good colour and in other 
respects said to rank with the best. 

New ErrerspurcH.—Tree strawberry. An American sort; does 
well in dry locations. Robust, strong healthy foliage; fruit firm, 
medium, juicy, hangs in bunches. 


Passion Fruits (Passiflora). 

The family of the Passion vine is largely represented in various 
parts of the world. The most commonly grown species for the sake 
of their fruit are the common Passion fruit, Passiflora edulis and the 
Granadilla P. quadrangularis. The name of the genus is derived 
from a fancied resemblance of the floral organs to the cross and other 
emblems of the Saviour’s crucifixion. 

All the Passion vines are rapid growers, and for that reason 
great exhausters of the soil, which should be liberally manured. The 
common Passion fruit vine does well in almost any soil, but better 


it. 


A well-packed Case of Passion Fru 


Grapes cased for export. 


323 


in deep, moist, rich loam, where it bears most abundantly for a num- 
ber of years. On light, moist soil, well limed and manured, the 
plant makes more leaf growth than on heavy lands and could well 
be planted wider apart, say, 12 to 15 feet. After bearing three or 
four full crops, the vines, unless judiciously thinned and heavily 
manured with bone and blood and potash (four of one and two of 
the other), and well cultivated, give a large proportion of immature 
fruit. The seeds are hard, and do not germinate very readily. The 
young plants are easily raised by squeezing ripe fruit in a sandy 
seed bed in boxes, like tomatoes. When the plants are strong 
enough, in their second leaf, they are picked out and transplanted 
in tins or pots and finally set out in the spring and trained on trel- 
lises like grape vines. The system of trellis recommended is des- 
cribed in a previous chapter dealing with pruning. Unless the situ- 
ation is well sheltered from the wind, the young plants do best when 
protected by a wind-break, made of a strip of hessian or bagging 
fastened to three stakes, driven in a triangle, round the vines, As 
the young plant grows, the young shoots are tied to the wires until 
the vine is well established, when the ties are cut off lest they cut 
into the growing canes. 

If the Passion vines have been well treated, they will bear a 
fair crop the second season, i.e., the third year from planting, and 
under favourable conditions three to four cases per vine are not un- 
common. 

In practice the fruits are not picked from the vines, but allowed 
to drop on the soft and well cultivated land. The fruit, which is 
egg-shaped, is ripe when it turns chocolate colour. It contains a 
watery pulp of a pleasing aromatic flavour, with a delicate acid 
taste. It carries well. The best way to eat it is as one takes a boiled 
egy, that is, eut off one end and take the contents with a spoon, 
adding a few drops of port wine instead of salt and pepper. 

For marketing, half-cases are of handy size; they are lined with 
paper and hold of first grade fruit three rows. 

The remainder is further graded into second grade, which is 
like the first grade, but smaller, and into third grade or “culls,” 
which comprises small fruit deformed and of bad colour. 

It is worth repeating there that the winter crop and not the 
summer crop is the profitable one, and the methods of securing the 
result aimed at are further explained in the chapter on pruning. As 
the plants are not long-lived, fresh planting must be arranged to 
seeure a continuance of cropping. 


_MELons. 
A quick return on newly cleared and cultivated land may be 
derived from water melons, rock melons or pumpkins, while the 
young fruit trees are growing. 


324 


AA warm location, alluvial soil, or a light but moist free soil is 
the best, provided the distance to market be not too great. Deep 
ploughing is an advantage. The “hills” are placed 8 to 10 feet 
apart for melons and 6 to 8 feet for rock melons: they should not 
be built above ground. Vive to six seeds are planted in each hill; 
these are planted a few inches deep. When the plants are young, 
they are thinned out to two in each hill. The surface of the hills 
need not be raised above the level of the ground. Spring is the time 
for sowing the seeds, as the plants are gross feeders. Manuring 
should be on the liberal side, bone dust and dried blood preferably. 
Thorough cultivation will keep the ground moist enough in the 
coastal zone, although irrigation considerably increases the yield 
of the crop. When insects are troublesome, a dusting with air- 
slacked lime, ashes, soot, ete., is generally sufficient to keep the pest 
under control. 

Of water melons, plant the sorts which do best in the locality. 

“Cuban Queen” has long been a standard sort, although not the 
best to eat, it is a most reliable cropper, the others needing irriga- 
tion. It is also the easiest handled, and can be sent out by the truck 
load, either in bags or loose and does not burst. 

It requires cultivating when it is voung, after it has commenced 
running it is all right. Yields on the Swan Valley, which is close to 
the Metropolitan market, vary from 3 to 9 tons to the acre. The 
fruit weighs 6 to 30 Ibs. but the best marketing ones weigh 12 to 
18 Ibs. They should be graded when sold and they are sorted out 
in the auction market in square frames about 3ft. square, 1 dozen 
to 2 dozen in each. Water melons are sold by the ewt. or by the 
dozen. Four to 10 melens weigh 1 ewt., or on an average eight. The 
crop is sown in September and harvested in January, or four months 
after. 

Inexperienced growers are sometimes puzzled as to the right 
stage to gather the melons. 

Water melons often sound hollow to pereussion and when fit to 
pick the stalk begins to wither, although this is not an infallible sign. 
The tendrils wither, a crackling sound is heard when pressing lightly 
on the melon. One of the surest indications, however, is the clearer 
colour of the rind, which at times shows a faint tint of yellow. Musk 
and Rock melons, when ripening, sometimes crack more or less up 
to the stem. On pulling they should come off clean. Some of the 
larger varieties do not part so readily from the stem, and, if pulled, 
show a large hole in the rind; with those it is best to eut the stem. 


TROPICAL FRUITS. 


Of the several Australian States, two--Queensland and Western 
Australia— possess natural conditions which permit of the profitable 
cultivation of tropical crops and fruit, Tt is true of the Common- 


325 


wealth territory in the tropics, but its overland distance from the 
populous markets of the more temperate latitudes will always prove 
a formidable obstacle in the way of providing the southern markets 
with productions of tropical latitudes. The cultivation of the sugar 
-cane has already proved highly remunerative in Queensland, and 
other crops as well await development at the hands of settlers in the 
warmer latitudes of both States. 

Coffee, cocoa, cotton, and tea also grow with great luxuriance, 
but at present would prove risky ventures, on account of the lack of 
suitable labour to exploit them. 

Tropical fruits stand differently. To the increasing number of 
settlers on the sea board of tropical Western Australia they would 
prove a blessing and a luxury, whereas the population at the South 
could absorb large quantities of such of the delicious tropical fruits 
which are capable of being raised at the Nor’-West and the North. 
Among such crops are:— 


Atnicaror or Avocapo PEar (Persea gratissima). 


Is a native of Mexico and Brazil, whence it was introduced 
into the West Indies. The tree, which has somewhat the appearance 
of the apple tree, is a fine spreading evergreen, with leaves large, 
oblong, and smooth, and of a bright green colour. The tree bears 
towards the extremity of the branches, the fruit being in appear- 
ance not unlike large pears. They weigh from 14lb. to 2lbs. each. 
They consist of a single large rugged seed wrapped up in a mem- 
branous cover, inside a firm buttery flesh of a bright greenish yellow 
colour. The skin, which changes from bright green to yellow green, 
is tough and leathery, and when the fruit is ripe can be peeled clean 
off the pulp, to which it firmly adheres until then. Very unpalatable 
when green, it is deliciously melting, with a delicate fresh walnut 
flavour, when ripe. The pulp contains six to eight per cent. of a 
greenish oil. In the tropics it is also sometimes eaten with pepper 
and salt or with sugar and kirsh, or with port wine. 

The Avocado Pear thrives as well beyond the tropics, and should 
be an acquisition to the orchards from Sharks Bay northward. It is 
easily grown from seeds or from young cuttings. It requires moist 
soil, and is unsuited for droughty localities. When marketing it 
should he picked before it becomes soft, and should be carefully 
packed, when it ripens in a week or 10 days after gathering. 


Banana AND Puantsin (Jfusa sp.). 


Probably the most widely known fruit in the world, although it 
does best in the tropics proper. The plant grows from a rhizome 
root, a cylindrical spongy stem, surmounted by an ornamented head 
made up of large leaves. 


326 


The Banana may be said to be one of the most useful produc- 
tions of the vegetable world. Its fruit, either in the green or the 
ripe state, is highly nutritious; its stem yields a valuable fibre, and 
it affords, in tropical climates, a protecting shade as well as material 
for thatching, mats and baskets, and an endless variety of articles 
of everyday use. 

It is essentially a hot climate plant. In some sheltered and 
favoured parts of the more temperate zone it may be made to grow 
and even fruit, but the plant never attains the luxuriant growth, nor 
is it as fruitful as within the more congenial tropical regions. Pro- 
tection from the withering blasts of high winds is essential, and if 
properly protected, it can be grown quite near to the sea coast 
in an atmosphere charged with salt. From long propagation from 
offsets or suckers, seed has almost entirely diseppeared from the 
fruit, although, at 1imes, a few are found which are capable of 
giving rise to new varieties. 

The suckers used for planting should be about a couple of feet 
long, and four or five months old. When smaller they are delicate; 
when longer they do not root so easily. As many fibrous roots as 
possible should be secured when cutting them off the parent plant. 
In a little over a year’s time, in favourable localities, the first stem 
flowers and bears a bunch of fruit, which takes four or five months 
to develop. That first bunch is, as a rule, not so fine as that from 
the second sucker and the few which succeed it. After a few years 
the ground becomes impoverished, and needs stirring up and manur- 
ing. Complete chemical fertilisers, particularly rich in pot- 
ash, at the rate of 1%lbs. to 2lbs. per clump, can be 
applied. Under favourable circumstances a banana _plan- 
tation remains jrofitable for seven or eight years. Hach adult 
stem bears one bunch, which consists of a long stalk with fron:ls 
consisting of ten to fifteen hands spirally arranged round it; each 
hand eight to twelve bananas or more. The bunches, according to 
variety and size, weigh from 10 to 60 lbs. each and over. All ban- 
ana trees are good bee plants. 

Bananas are great exhausters of the soil. They reyuire rich, 
moist soil. As the eating varieties do not secd, nature provides them 
with numerous suckers. In some places these suckers are grown at 
intervals of about 12ft. to 15ft. in trenches 2ft. or more deep and 
about 3ft. wide. This gives 200 to 300 holes to the acre. The larger 
growing bananas, such as the Sugar Banana, Lady’s Finger, Plan- 
tain, ete., require 20 to 25 feet apart each way, or 100 to 70 plants 
to the acre. Every now and again a good dressing of cow-dung and 
a copious watering is given, and for that purpose the trench system 
is very suitable. Where the soil is naturally very rich and moist the 
trenches are dispensed with. Three or four stems are left to each 
clump, and all the other suckers are cut off with a sharp spade and 
either removed for planting or left to rot on the ground, together 


balan 


Zs 


(Clonal Mau ste) 
PERTHWA. 


Banana Plantation in a Windy Locality. : 


Cavendish Banana in the tropics. 


327 


with the chopped up stems which have just fruited. This form of 
mulching keeps the ground cool and checks the growth of the weeds. 

The bavana is not left on the plant until fully ripe, but is cut 
about a week er ten days before. If intended to be shipped long 
distances the spike is cut even earlier, being what is called “three- 
quarters” fit, and the fruit gradually becomes yellowish and more 
sugary. The bunch must be cut with a portion of the stem retained 
for easier handling, and the terminal bud is removed. When trans- 
ferred to market it need be aandled with the greatest care, as a 
bruise that may not be apparent at ihe time will soon cause decay 
of the delicate tissue of the fruit. A great number of bunches are 
rejected when repacking for market cwing to careless handling in 
the fields or during transit. Three grades of bananas are cut from 
the bunch, large, mediiun and smell. They are packed in crates 
with open slats, and should be stacked on deck in the open air, 50 
to 46 doz. pcr erate. 

Every banana-growing ccuntry proves that until growers can 
inarket this fruit in the bunch, their industry will not be the success 
it should be. The success of Fiji in the Australian market; of Jam- 
aica in Europe and America is largely owing to the fact that most 
of the fruit arrives in wunches. 

The weight of the bunch at times pulls the plant down unless 
it is propped up by means of a forked stick or a stake sharpened 
at each end, one in the ground and the other into the soft stem. 

Bananas which ripen on the plant lose the delicate flavour of 
those cut from bunches removed when fully grown, but before the 
ripening stage has set in. 

The “plantain” is gathered at cifferent stages. When three- 
fourth grown it is rather milky and contains much starch. At that 
stage, if boiled or roasted in ashes, it is almost as nourishing as 
bread. Shortly after this stage, when full grown but. still 
green, it is not so starchy, but contains more sugar. In this 
state it is eaten as an accompaniment to meat. Lastly, when quite 
ripe it becomes sugary, and is then eaten either raw, roasted in 
ashes, or in the form of fritters. 

The banana is seldom eaten cooked in the unripe stage, but is 
allowed to mature, when it is soft, full of sugar, melting, and is pos- 
sessed of a peculiar perfume. 

The Banana constitutes a perfect food. Medical men recognise 
that banana flour is excellent as a food for infants and invalids. 
The scientific name of the fruit—Musa sapientum—means “food for 
the wise man.” 

As regards its food value, it is more nutritive than the potato. 
1t contains 27 per cent. of dry nutritive matter; the potato gives 
25. The 27 per cent. of dry matter are approximately made up 
of 2 per cent. of nitrogenous matter and 22 per cent. of saccharine 


328 


substances, with small quantities of fibre and ash constituents. Of 
the ash constituents, potash represents 50 per cent. and phosphoric 
acid 15 per cent. 

Until lately Western Australia has heen drawing supplies of this 
fruit from Fiji and Queensland. Since then Java, which is nearer 
our ports, has diverted the trade. On account of the protracted 
time required in shipping them from the extreme East to the West 
coast of Australia, the fruit we receive is of very indifferent qnality. 
It had to be picked before it is fully developed and when quite green, 
and it therefore ripened in an artificial manner in the crates used by 
the shippers. Bananas were then introduced in our market during the 
winter and spring months when all fruits are searce, and there is no 
reason to doubt that considerably larger quantities would readily 
be consumed if better fruit grown nearer our own market was cb- 
tainable, more especially if sold at a lower price. 

In 1918 there were 7,817 acres under Bananas in Queensland, 
and the published returns are 1,267,640 bunches, an average of 162 
per acre, or reckoning the bunches at 10 dozen each—a low ayeraze 
under favourable conditions—1,620 dozen. 

In the nine years, 1910-1918, the average bunches per acre 
numbered only 158, or 1,580 dozen. : 

In the decade, 1890-1899, the average was 467 bunches, or 4,670 
dozen. 

In New South Wales there were in— 

1910 under Banana crop .. .. .. 100 aeres. 
1919 there are .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3,000 acres. 

In Fiji the acreage under eee is 4,000 acres. There is still 
ample room for expansion. In the cities the sales could be much 
iereased. Rural towns and the back country hardly ever see 
Bananas offered for sale. The consumption of this nutritious fruit 
would more than double if prices could be lowered and a better 
article offered for sale. The waste is very great in handling this kind 
of fruit. It has to he carried on deck and covered with tarpaulin 
when the sea is rough. The soft spray and the confined dark at- 
mosphere cause a great deal of waste. These conditions would, to 
a great extent, be minimised by shipping the fruit from our North- 
West ports, a shorter distance away and in smoother seas. 

In New South Wales and Southern Queensland, bananas are 
grown on the hillside, where the use of horses and implements is 
often impossible, but in the north where frost is not to be reckoned 
with, they are preferably grown, on flat country where machinery 
can be used in the cultivation. 

Where handiwork only is possible it takes one man to properly 
handle four or five acres of Bananas. 

Under other conditions and where horses can he used a larger 
area ean be attended to. 


329 


Apart from the fresh fruit, a considerable quantity of “‘desic- 
cated bananas” and “banana flour” is now placed on the market 
which keeps good, if kept dry, for years. When cooked it retains the 
pleasant taste of the fruit. It can be dried at a small cost and 
carted to the sea-port at leisure, taking up far less space in trans- 
port than the perishable fresh-plucked fruit in rind. Under the 
Commonwealth Bounty Act a bonus of 10 per cent. on the market 
value is offered for quantities not less than Sewt. 

This industry, and also that of “banana figs,” or dried fruit 
compressed and wrapped up in bundles has taken some importance 
in the Cameroons. Some of the factories handling 3,000 bunches a 
day each. 

There is room for a profitable trade in this class of fruit, both 
fresh and manufactured, within the State. 

-Bananas would do best in the Kimberleys, where the rainfall 
is heavier and reliable, and where, provided they are dried and manu- 
factured, long distance transport would not prove a barrier to the 
development of an industry capable of being handled by white 
labour. They should also be irrigated as well as fertilised, as pre- 
viously stated, to ensure larger bunches, as the roots must be kept 
moist. 

When in North Queensland I visited, in 1910, on the Johnstone 
River, banana plantations 10 to 40 acres in extent on jungle land 
leased for £1 per acre. The trade is mostly in the hands of the 
Chinese. That State had then 5,000 acres under bananas. The full 
bunches, which carry 15 to 18 dozen fruit, are shipped whole, each 
bunch carrving a tin tag on a piece of wire run through, with the 
number of the shipper on it. Smaller bunches are cut into hands 
and the green bananas are closely packed in cases about the size 
of 4doz. heer bottle cases. Each bunch averaged 6s. in Melbourne, 
the net return Geraldton (now Innisfall) being 3s., or 2d. per dozen. 
Cases, carriage, freight, wharfage, and commision absorb the greater 
portion of the return, and the industry is one which leads to the 
circulation of a good deal of money. 

In Queensland the yield varied then from 150 to 300 bunches 
per aere; the total average being 200 bunches, and the average net 
return about £20 per acre. 

The varieties of bananas cultivated in various countries may be 
numbered by the score. Two groups are known, viz., the edible and 
the fibre-producine sorts. 

The edible bananas are often referred to as “Bananas” or as 
“Plantains,” and a good deal of confusion has in consequence re- 
sulted. Perhaps the best distinction is to designate as “Plantains” 
those varieties which are generally consumed cooked, and “Bananas” 
the varieties which are eaten fresh and ripe. .\s a rule the stem of 
the first is green, and that of the latter somewhat mottled. 


330 


PLANTAINS (Musa parasidiaca)—Long, large fruits. The 
Dacca plantain is about nine inches Jong, the Madagascar plantain 
as large as a man’s forearm; while it is reported that in the Philip- 
pines a couple of fruit of plantains are a load for a man. The trees 
are 15ft. to 18ft. high. The fruit is cut before maturity, when rich 
in starch, and cooked or allowed to ripen, and eaten when, sweet. 


BraHMINE Banana (IM. Sapientum) is small. A native of 
India; its cultivation has spread all over the semi-tropical wor!d. 
The tree is tall, reaching 18ft. in height; should he planted in well 
sheltered and warm spots. The frujt, eaten when sweet and ripe, 
is of the best. 

To this group belong the varieties known in Queensland as the 
Sugar Banana and Lady’s Finger Banana. These kinds are not 
grown commercially in Fiji as they do not carry well. 


Tue Gros MicHEL, a West Indies kind, is the favourite Fiji 
Banana. It has been introduced to Northern Queensland, but ex- 
periments in New South Wales and in Southern Queensland have 
not been satisfactory. The rainfall is not sufficient; the Gros Michel 
can, it is said, do with up to 200 inches of rain annually, or its equiv- 
alent in irrigation water on well-drained soil. The difficulty of pro- 
curing healthy suckers would retard its expansion as disease is 
rife in Fiji, and Jamaica is not free from it. It is a much better 
carrier than the Cavendish, having a thicker and tougher rind. When 
ripe it keeps its colour longer and many consider its colour better 
than the Cavendish. This kind, like the Cavendish, is reeommended 
as being the best shipping banana. 


CHINESE Banana (IM, Sinensis or Cavendishit) is a compara- 
tive dwarf species, and a squatter plant, with large, long leaves, and 
attaining a height of six to nine feet. It produces excellent fruit, 
stands high winds better than the preceding; is altogether more 
hardy and stands a greater amount of cold weather. The tree bears 
early most excellent fruit. 


BREADFRUIT (Artocarpus incisa). 


The botanical name is derived from the word artos, bread, and 
carpus, a fruit, and the generic name incisa in contradistinction to 
the genus integrifolia, or entire leaved, which applies to the Jack- 
fruit. 

This plant is distinctly tropical, and requires for growing and 
bearing a deep moist soil, well sheltered in a uniformly warm clim- 
ate. A handsome evergreen tree, 20 to 30 feet high, it has its native 
habitat in the islands of the Pacifie and the Malay Archipelago, 
whence it has been introduced into Mauritius and Madagascar, where 
it thrives well. Such glowing accounts were given of this fruit by 
the early navigators, that steps were taken to introduce it into the 


331 


West Indies towards the end of the eighteenth century, and the ex- 
pedition, which was connected with the historical mutiny of the 
“Bounty,” first failed to achieve that end. A second attempt was, 
however, made and again entrusted to Captain Bligh, who succeeded, 
and the tree has since become quite common in the West Indies. 

The breadfruit, together with the banana, forms a staple article 
of food of the islanders of the Pacific. The average size of the 
fruit varies from that of a child’s head, and often weighs 30lbs. and 
more. It is more or less round or oval in shape, and is carried on 
the stem, and the main branches. Externally it is not unlike the 
Jack-fruit, which is illustrated at page . The outer rind is 
rough, and covered with diamond-shaped facets. The inside is a 
white fibrous pulp, becoming succulent at maturity, when it is rich 
in starch. Eaten boiled or baked, it tastes of dough, with a pleasant 
nutty flavour, and is very sustaining. Like the plants of the same 
family, the breadfruit tree exudes, when freshly wounded, a sticky 
latex which is as strong as bird-lime. The breadfruit would, I dare 
say, thrive in the Kimberleys and the more tropical regions of this 
State. It is propagated from root-euttings, which readily sprout, 
and from which shoots can be detached with a heel attached. In 
tropical West Africa another tree belonging to the same natural 
order exists. It is chiefly grown for the sake of its seeds which, 
roasted or boiled, taste somewhat like chestnuts. 


Butiocn’s Heart (Anona reticulata). 


One of the “Custard Apples,’ constituting a fine evergreen tree 
30 to 35 feet high. 

It grows readily from seed. The fruit is larger than a pear, 
and its shape has won it its name; in colour it is a brown chestnut. 
The pulp inside is eaten with a spoon, and is much liked. In the 
tropies the tree is vigorous and prolific. The fruit should be picked 
when hard, and ripens a week or 10 days after gathering. A tree 
grown from seed in Mr. George Lefroy’s garden, Guildford, ripens 
its fruit on the Swan in September. 


The illustration is from L’Agriculture pratique des pays Chauds. 


CustTarD APPLE, syn. CHERIMOYER (Anona cherimolia). 


A native of Peru, widely grown in tropical and semi-tropital 
countries. The tree, which grows 10 to 12 feet high, requires rich, 
moist soil, in a well sheltered place. The leaves are oval, the flowers 
very fragrant and solitary, the fruit globular or heart-shaped, three 
or four inches in diameter, greyish-green turning to brown when 
ripe. The flesh, in which some 30 or 40 hard brown seeds are em- 
bedded, is much relished, the fruit being eaten when soft and yield- 
ing to the touch. For marketing it needs gathering when hard, a 


332 


week or so before eating. 1 have seen in Queensland one kind which 
attains the size of a child’s head, and is full of a sweet pulp. The 
average yield there is 40 to 45 bushels, worth £35 per acre. 

Two other Custard Apples—the Sour Sop (syn. Corossol), 4. 
muricada, and the Swrer Sop, A squamosa—are trees of the same 
family, which are grown in the tropics and valued for their fruit. 


THE Coconut. 


Personal inspection of coconut plantations at the Aru Islands, 
and in the Malay States and Java, leads me to believe that the sea- 
coast from Port Darwin to Beagle Bay, Kimberley, is in many places 
very suitable for the cultivation of this tree. 


Several varieties are grown of which the large Java nuts are 
particularly prized in Java and also in Ceylon, but it remains to be 
seen whether under less favourable conditions other varieties bearing 
smaller nuts would not be more profitable. 


The nuts should be selected from picked trees, and are placed 
in trenches with the stem part up. Ashes and salt are placed in 
these trenches, which are filled with soil and kept moist. When the 
nuts have sprouted they are planted in holes dug 25ft. to 30ft. 
apart, and also manured with compost and ashes, and, if the ground 
is not naturally salty, some salt is added. I have seen splendid 
groves in sand right against the sea. The trees commence bearing in 
five to six years, and carry from six to twelve nuts or more on each 
flowering spike, which come out right through the year, the trees 
yielding fifty to one hundred nuts during the year, and continwng 
to bear for half a century or more. In Malaya I have seen splendid 
groves established on poor, gritty, sandy loam with a coarse sand 
subsoil. Trees in good bearing average 10 to 12 nuts at each picking 
every two months, or 60 to 72 a year. In Ceylon a plantation aver- 
aging 50 nuts per tree a year would be worth £100 per acre, and in 
the Malay States a plantation yielding the same average, which I 
visited, was estimated to be worth £60 to £70 per acre. In Java I also 
had an opportunity of visiting a small plantation from which the nuts 
were sold on the trees at 45 5 guilders per 100 (8s. 4d.); the trees, 
which averaged 50 nuts, brought in a clear income of 4s. 2d. each. 
On each tree was hanging a small gunny bag containing a mixture 
of salt and ashes, which are washed down the stem by the rain and 
fertilise the tree. These also receive occasionally some manure placed 
around the stem in a ring from which the soil had heen dug out. 


If intended to be tapped for juice or “milk,” the fruits are 
not allowed to mature. Ripe nuts give a coarser fibre (coir) than 
when unripe, but if “copra” or the thickened milk is required the 
fruit must be ripe. The coir is torn off by means of a shod stick 
placed upright in the ground; the shell is then broken and the copra 


TOTPHIS Ysa Ay AON V Lo GUpAT ayy 


spn wed eyed 


333 


quartered and dried in ovens or on cement terraces as shown in the 
photograph I took at a coconut plantation visited in the Malay 
States. Copra-drying should be done immediately after the opening 
of the nuts, and should be finished in 24 hours. The result of ex- 
periments in New Guinea show that 4,500 nuts give a ton of copra, 
and freshly cut kernels give 63 per cent. of dry copra, 
worth £24 a ton, and a steady demand exists for it. The extracted 
oil is largely used for soap making, lubrification, for culinary pur- 
poses, and of recent years a refined vegetable butter is manufactured 
at oil mills in the South of France, and largely exported to Russia 
and Northern climates, where it remains hard and congealed without 
trouble. It is claimed to be superior to lard or butter for culinary 
purposes, baking, or confectionary, and much cheaper. 

If grown, as explained, in Kimberley, along marshy flats and 
moist, salt, sandy, places close to the sea, it is improbable that the 
tree would be seriously attacked by white ants. 


Tue Date Paum (Phoenix dactylifera). 


As its name implies, the Date belongs to the Palm family, to 
which also belong the coconut and other palms. Unlike these, it 
throws, when young, offshoots or suckers (“djebars,” in Arabic) at 
the base of its stem. Later on, when the tree is in full bearing, it 
ceases to throw suckers. The stem of the tree grows from a terminal 
bud, and remains of the same diameter all through its existence. The 
leaves, which are feather-shaped, measure 10 to 15 feet in length, 
and are persistent. The tree is dioeceous, its staminate (male) and 
pistillate (female) flowers appearing on separate individuals. If 
grown from seed, about half the number of resulting palms are 
male, and about half female. In cultivation, however, this number 
is considerably reduced, and the staminate trees are cut off and a 
small proportion only allowed to grow, viz., about one in 50. As it 
is important that the male flowers and the female trees should blos- 
som at the same time, it is advisable to leave at the start a surplus 
of male trees which can subsequently be weeded out. With the help 
of artificial pollination this number may even be reduced. For that 
purpose a piece of male flower is tied to the female inflorescence 
of the pistillate tree at blossoming time. To provide pollen for fer- 
tilising early blossoming female trees the Arabs always keep a few 
bunches of male flowers from the previous year. These are placed 
in tight paper bags or in glass jars covered with calico, as cock- 
roaches would otherwise devour the pollen. These packages are kept 
in a cool place. The pollen is said to keep without deterioration for 
two years. The reproduction of the date palm by seeds is not much 
favoured, and often results in worthless trees; and it is preferable to 
effect the multiplication of the good varieties by means of suckers. 
These transmit the sexes and the characteristies of the parent plants. 


334 


Failure in connection with the profitable cultivation of the date 
palm is often due to the fact that some imagine that the tree is one 
fitted for any hot, arid desert. Its likings have, however, been fit- 
tingly summed up by an Arab proverb: “The date palm, the queen 
of trees, must have her feet in running water and her head in the 
burning sky.” . 

It is a fact worth noting that a very dry atmosphere favours 
the production of dates of high quality, and that the best dates are 
grown in the hottest regions of Sahara, and remote from the cooling 
and humid neighbourhood of the sea. In fact, heavy rain, followed 
up by a few days of cloudy weather at the period of the ripening of 
the fruit, at times spoil the date crop. 

Permanency of moisture is needed more than any great volume 
of water at any time. When this is available, even if the water is 
alkaline, the hot winds of the desert do not injure it, and it will 
thrive in a climate too hot for any other known fruit. 


Suckers of good strengths and weighing 20lbs. to 30lbs. are 
preferable, if sent a long journey. Large shipments have of late 
years been sent from Northern Sahara by Mr. W. T. Swingle, Agri- 
cultural Explorer to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
from Biskra and the oasis around a distance of 400 miles to the 
south of Algiers, to Arizona and California. These consignments 
consisted of suckers removed from the parent palms by means of a 
sharp chisel and a mallet. They were simply packed in the date palm 
fibre bags and slung on pack camels, slipped three in a bag, and diz- 
ected to the nearest railway line, whence they were carried to Al- 
giers, dipped in water, and packed in wooden boxes, after having 
been wrapped in moist moss or sphagmum, and shipped as ordinary 
cargo. This methcd of packing proved vastly cheaper than the 
shipment in tubs which had been followed by the French and British 
Governments in shipping Algerian palms to South Australia. The 
suckers were at times a long time growing, and some, after plant- 
ing, remained for 12 months dormant; but 93 per cent. eventually 
grew. Date palm trees raised from seeds are six to eight years before 
they bear, whereas from suckers they begin to fruit when five or six 
years old, and come into full bearing when 10 or 12 years old, and 
continue bearing from this stage, if well cared for, until they are 
100 years or more old. The average quantity of fruit borne an- 
nually amounts to 100lbs. to 200Ibs.; some trees yielding ag much as 
400lbs or even more. 


Although the Arabs plant the date palms without any system, 
the French colonists find it preferable to plant them in rows 25 
to 30 feet apart; the wider the better. 


The flowers of the date palm are white, and are carried on an 
inflorescence not unlike the tail of a horse. If the flowers have 
been pollinated, two of the three fruit produced from each flower 


335 


fall, leaving a single date. If, however, the flowers have not been 
fertilised, all three dates generally remain attached, and continue 
to grow, crowded and deformed. These are seedless; never pro- 
perly mature; and are of no value. The cultivator thus knows the 
bunches which are not fertilised, and cuts them off. The fruit is 
at first green, and gradually turns bright red or bright yellow. As 
ripening proceeds, the yellow dates change to a clear amber colour, 
and the bright red ones become reddish brown; they become 
translucent, and from astringent and unpleasant to the taste be- 
come charged with sugar. 

Several types of dates are known, one only being exported— 
the soft date of the Deglet Noor type. These contain as much as 
60 per cent. of their weight in sugar, and being, as it were, candied 
on the tree, keep without trouble. Others are more syrupy, and do 
not dry readily; like the grapes which are cured into raisins, they are 
either eaten fresh from the tree or they are dried. 

A third type are almost dry, and, although not exported, are 
consumed by the Arabs, for whom they constitute an important 
article of food. 

For our requirements in Western Australia, it is important that 
we should secure early ripening sorts, which would not be affected 
by the tropical summer rains. 

Of these, one of the most important is the Rhars, which is ex- 
tensively cultivated both by the Arabs and the French colonists 
of Algerian Sahara. It is a syrupy date of good quality, which is 
packed in skins or boxes for shipment. This date palm grows 
rapidly, and fruits when young. 

The Tedalla is another variety which can be easily dried. It 
is very large, sometimes three inches long, and ripens at the same 
time as the Rhars. The tree is vigorous, and bears large crops of 
fruit which matures early during the rather short and relatively cool 
summer of the coastal region of Northern Algeria. . 

The Deglet Noor, or “date of the light,” a later variety, is 
better adapted for drying. The province of Biskra derives from 
the sale of the djébars, or suckers, of this variety an increasing rev- 
enue; the djébars of Deglet Noor selling for about five franes each, 
whilst those from Rhars sell for three francs. 

The Deglet Noor is cultivated throughout Western Sahara wher- 
ever the season is long enough to enable it to mature. It is a med- 
ium-sized date, amber-coloured, and translucent when ripe, with a 
soft flesh of excellent flavour. These dates do not become sticky, 
as most of the soft dates, and can be eaten without soiling the fin- 
gers. This variety does not fruit abundantly unless well fertilised 
and irrigated. 

Other good varieties are cultivated in Egypt and along the Per- 
sian Gulf which present features of great value. 


336 


The gathering, curing, and packing is of the simplest. Varieties 
of the Deglet Noor type become, when ripe, self-candied on the trees. 
They are either picked singly from the bunch as they ripen, or else 
the whole bunch, weighing 10 to 20 pounds and even more, is cut 
off when the majority of the dates show signs of ripening, and hung 
up for a few days in a dry and shady place. The best fruit is picked 
and arranged in layers in neat light boxes holding from one to ten 
pounds. 

The syrupy sorts, such as the Rhars, are not so easily handled. 
The Arabs hang up the bunches, and collect the sweet juice that 
drains off, and which they call date honey, into jurs; the drier fruit 
being subsequently packed tightly in boxes, skins, or straw bags, 
and exported. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that the cultivation of the 
date palm is one particularly suited to the arid regions of Western 
Australia, where the summer is hot and long, and where water— 
even not of a particularly fresh deseription—is often obtainable at 
a shallow depth. They do best when grown on moist ground and are 
often set on places where there is standing water a few feet from 
the surface. 

A profitable market is within our reach in supplying the re- 
quirements of Australia; but nothing but the best varieties should 
be planted. 

The Forestry Department has in several instances supplied ex- 
ploring expeditions with a quantity of dates, the seeds of which 
have been sown at soaks in the interior where water is found at the 
surface; but sufficient is known of the date to doubt whether the 
trees which have been issued from these seeds will equal in merit 
some of the varieties mentioned. 


The local government of Algeria have on several occasions gen- 
crously assisted in procuring for other countries some of the best 
dates grown within that province, and from that source consign- 
ments of suckers could well be drawn. It is important, should such 
introduction be made, that these suckers be dipped into water for a 
day on arrival, and then fumigated by means of hydroecyanie acid 
gas, in order to destroy the date scales (Parlatoria victrir), one of 
the most troublesome pests of that useful tree. 


Even in their natural home in Northern Africa, and particularly 
in Algeria, I have not seen finer date palms than those growing on 
the Gascoyne, around Roebourne, and at Beagle Bay. 

At Pyramid, Sherlock, Mallina, Portrea, and Boodaree Stations, 
without mentioning Woodbrook, Tambray, Millstream, and others I 
could not visit, the date palms proved itself the best fruit and orna- 
mental tree grown. 

The suckers of Algerian palms I introduced seventeen venrs ago 
from Biskra in Algeria, are now vood sized trees at Portrea (F. 


337 


Craig), Boodaree (T. A. and A. E. Hardie), and at the Beagle Bay 
Mission. They blossomed ten or twelve years ago and have since 
entered the period of productiveness. 

I tasted some dates grown at Tambray on the Fortescue—one 
in particular is as good as the best date imported. 

At the Beagle Bay Mission there are some 70 odd date palms 
planted, and the community there intend setting out a larger plan- 
tation. 

It would be advisable, in view of the fact that the earlier dates 
ripen their fruit at the North-West about February, to introduce 
some of the later ripening kinds which would mature after the rainy 
season (April) when the fruit would not ferment. The climate there, 
which is dry from April on, enables us to harvest a date erop with- 
out seeing it spoilt by the rain, as is the case in Queensland in par- 
ticular, where the palms grow well, but are said not to fruit satisfac- 
torily. 

Referring to the possibilities of starting an important date in- 
dustry at the North-West, I previously pointed out :— 

Whereas there is a duty of 3d. per lb. on dried currants, raisins, 
and other fruits, the duty on dates is only 1d. per Ib., but as a good- 
sized tree bears from 1 to 5 ewt. of fruit annually, that industry is 
protected to the extent of about Ss. to £2 per tree, and if freshly 
ripened dates could be placed on the Commonwealth market—and we 
ean do it—the consumption of that fruit would increase at a rate 
it is difficult to gauge. In addition to this duty a bonus of Id. per 
lb. is offered for 15 years for quantities not less than 10 ewt. 

Date palms offer very good shelter for fruit trees. They begin 
to bear from the fifth to the sixth year, but are not in good bearing 
until ten years or so after they are planted. They continue bearing 
until they are 100 years or more old. Fair trees average 100 to 200 
pounds of fruit a year. 

As mentioned above, if the flowers have been pollinated, of 
the three fruit forming to each flower two drop, leaving but one; 
if not all three dates remain attached, and become de- 
formed through overerowding, and never mature properly, being 
without seeds, and of little value. The eutting off of the surplus 
clusters is delayed until this point is ascertained. Only two or three 
clusters, which will bear 10 to 30lbs. each, are left on young trees, 
and eight or ten on old trees. Some kinds are shy bearers and others 
overload themselves. 

Some kinds are cut, packed, and shipped as soon as they have 
ripened, and in the case of the choice dates the fruit which has first 
ripened is hand-picked, arranged in rows in boxes, and marketed. 
The inner fruit thus ripens better. 

With other kinds the whole bunch is cut off when most of the 
dates are ripe, and the rest begin to ripen; they are hung up in a 
dry shed, when any date which has begun to ferment is re:.oved. 


338 


THE Guava (Psidium). 


One of the hardiest of all tropical fruits, its cultivation can, 
in favourably situated places, be extended to semi-tropical regions; 
and in Western Australia it flourishes alongside the orange, the 
apple, and the pear. In the cooler regions the Guava is easily kept 
within bounds, whereas in the tropies birds and cattle freely dis- 
tribute it over wide areas; while its easy suckering habits under 
the tropies cause it to spread wherever it grows. The tree is an 
evergreen, varying in size from that of a shrub three or four feet 
high to a tree of 12 to 15 feet. It grows readily from seed, cutting, 
or sucker. In size, the fruit varies from that of the tomato to that 
of a duck’s egg, while species are even larger. The internal struc- 
ture of the fruit is somewhat like that of the tomato. The flavour 
is peculiar and pronounced; it is not always liked at first, but 
cooked or stewed with sugar or into a jelly, it is greatly relished 
by everyone. The crop ripens late in winter, although some 
varieties bear fruit pretty well all the year round. The plant dis- 
likes stagnant water, but grows readily on sand and clay alike, 
although a light loam suits it best. 


Brazit Guava (P. Araca).—A shrub four to six feet high, grow- 
ing in the West Indies, Guiana, Peru, and Brazil, where it is fonnd 
in dry, high-lying places. Leaves oblong, obtuse, soft to the touch 
above, somewhat hairy below; veins reticulate, somewhat raised; 
peduneles axillary, one to three-flowered. Fruit ovoid, greenish 
yellow, flesh white, of excellent taste. 


STRAWBERRY Guava (P. Clattleyanum) or PuRPLE Guava.— 
A native of Brazil and Uruguay. One of the hardiest of the guavas, 
thriving over a very wide range of latitudes. A shrub or small tree 
of five to fifteen feet high. Branchlets smooth; leaves smaller than 
those of the former round species, obovate, thick, and glossy; pe- 
duneles solitary, axillary, opposite, one-flowered ; fruit almost spheri- 
cal, tapering at the eye, small, rarely exceeding 114 inches in diam- 
eter, fine deep claret colour, with numerous brown dots on a slightly 
roughened surface. Pulp fleshy, soft, and juicy, purplish red next 
the skin, but white at the centre, with a strawberry-like flavour, and 
free from the strong odour of P. Guayava. 


Another species, the “Mexican Guava,’ sometimes called “Yel- 
low Cattley Guava,” is also cultivated, and has proved very hardy. 
In flavour it is somewhat tart, and possesses little of the peculiar 
guava smell, 


THE Lemon Guava (P. Guayava) syn. P. pomiferum-—A shrub 
or small tree, eight to sixteen feet high; leaves, four to five inches 
long by two inches wide, oval to oblong; lanceolate, smooth above, 
pubescent below, peduncles three to many-flowered; fruit, two to 


339 


three inches in diameter, globose, yellow, aromatic, somewhat astrin- 
gent. Very good for jellies and preserves. There are several varieties 
of this species, which differ slightly in form, size, and colour. One 
variety is pear-shaped, the leaves are acute, peduncles one-flowered, 
smooth skin, yellowish when ripe. This variety supplies most of the 
guava jelly of the West Indies; it is also preserved and canned as 
are other frutis. This matter is touched upon in a subsequent 
chapter. 


THe Jack Fruit (Artocarpus integrifolia). 


Ts closely allied to the Breadfruit trees, but is hardier, and a 
larger tree. In size it reaches 30ft. to 40ft. and is a very quick 
grower. The branches, which are numerous and spring all over the 
trunk, carry a thick evergreen foliage which is much liked by stock. 
For that reason, if planted for ornamental purposes, the young tree 
should be protected by means of a tree guard for the first few years 
of its growth. The Jack tree, which is a native of India, is now 
naturalised all over the tropical world. Several varieties are culti- 
vated, and amongst others the “Honey Jack, and the “Root-bearing 
Jack”—an esteemed variety which bears excellent fruit on its super- 
ficial roots. The tree is easily grown from seeds, which germinate 
readily and come to bearing at an early age—three or four years 
after starting. The fruit is extremely heavy, and is carried dlong 
the main limbs or the trunk. In weight it varies from 5lbs. to 50lbs., 
and even more. Rough outside, it contains when ripe a mass of 
sticky fibres around yellowish sweet envelopes which surround the 
seeds. Both these sweet envelopes and the seeds are edible. The pulp 
possesses a delicious flavour, which is much liked once the objection 
to the peculiar penetrating smell which characterises them has been 
overcome. This smell can to a great extent be neutralised by throw- 
ing the sweet pulpy envelope into a bowl containing some water and 
salt. The seeds, which many prefer to the best chestnuts, may be 
eaten either boiled or roasted. They are oblong in shape, and about 
114 inches long. 

The sometimes objectionable smell referred to is more percept- 
ible in over-ripe fruit, and is much lessened by burying the fruit 
for a while. 

In tropical countries a very sticky bird-lime is prepared from 
the milky juice of the tree, which is extracted by wounding the bark. 

Very handsome cabinet work is made from the yellow satinlike 
wood. 

Either for ornament or usefulness, or both, the Jack-fruit de- 
serves a place in every tropical garden. 


Litcui (Nephelium Liteht). 
A handsome evergreen tree, some 20 to 25 feet high, native of 
Sonthern China. The best sorts are propagated by grafting, seed- 


340 


ling, or layering. Extensively cultivated in India, Ceylon, and in 
the coastal lowlands of Mauritius, where the excellence of the fruit 
has marked for it a prominent place amongst the best tropical fruits 
grown. At the time of ripening the heavy clusters of crimson fruit 
form a startling contrast with the dark glossy foliage. The fruit, 
which is roundish conieal, consists of a large, smooth, oval, brown 
stone, covered by a pulpy arillus of a nearly transparent white, like 
jelly ; sweet, with a delicate sub-acid flavour. The whole is encase 
in a rough, crimson shell-like covering. 

The sun-dried fruits are largely exported from Canton and 
Hong Kong, and can be seen in Chinese greengrocers’ shops of Perth. 


Lonean (Nepheliwm longanum). 


The tree ix much like the litchi, but taller; it is also hardier, 
and can be raised true from seed. The fruit is not so rough ex- 
ternally as the litehi, and, like it, is contained in a shell-like covering ; 
it is roundish in shape, with a round brown stone, covered by a pulpy 
arillus like the litchi, but not so palatable. 


Tue Manco (Mangifera indica). 

The mango, all the world over, is classed amongst the best of 
tropical fruits; few rival and none excel it. The tree is a handsome, 
large-spreading evergreen, which grows from 10 to 30 feet in height, 
and even more. It is a native of India, but is now widely cultivated 
all over the tropics, and even in many subtropical countries. The 
leaves are lanceolate, and the flowers in terminal panicles. In size, 
shape, colour, flavouring. and quality of flesh the fruit varies widely. 

Its varieties range in weight from 2ozs. to 2lbs. each. In shape 
it is generally kidney-form, although some are roundish and flattened 
and others elongated and curved. The colour of the skin is gener- 
ally green at first, although some are red or purple, and they as- 
sume, when ripe, a yellowish colour. Other varieties are mottled 
with various shades of red, while a few do not change colour at all 
in ripening. Between the skin and the kidney-shaped stone in the 
centre is the fleshy pulp, which is yellow, sweet, and luscious. The 
“tar and turpentine” flavour which some varieties are said to possess, 
is only applicable to inferior varieties. The better kinds have little 
or no fibre, and if they possess any trace of turpentine at all, it is 
not disparaging to the deliciousness of the flavour. 

The list of varieties of mangoes would be a lengthy one. The 
Agyri.-Horticultural Society of India publish a list of forty odd 
kinds, of which they sell grafts; forty varieties or more are known 
in Java; some thirty varieties or more are cultivated in Mauritius; 
while a great many are also known in the West Indies. 

The mango does not reproduce true to name from seed, and, 
as if does not readily take the cleft graft, it is generally propa- 


341 


gated by inarching. Grafted mangoes come into bearing in about 
five years after planting out. Varieties highly praised are: The 
Alphonso mango of India, the August mango of Mauritius, the 
Strawberry, Carpenter, and a host of other good sorts which would 
prove a great acquisition to our North and North-West provinees. 

The mango is not only eaten when ripe, but large quantities 
are used green for pickles, chutney, or served raw with salt, 
pepper, and vinegar. The natives of India also use the leaves for 
its medicinal virtues. 

The trees grow luxuriantly in the Northern Territory and in 
Northern Queensland, and withstand the attacks of white ants 
fairly well, probably on account of the turpentine taste of the 
wood. 


THe Papaya (Carica papaya). 


A native of Central America, it has now reached every corner 
of the tropical world. Sometimes called pawpaw. 

The tree, which is unisexual, consists of a soft-wooded trunk, 
smooth and without branches, reaching 10 to 15 feet in height. 
The male flowers are white and hang down in clusters, whereas the 
female flowers are large, yellow, and carried close to the main stem 
at the base of the leaves which are palmate, with long stalks, and 
carried at the top of the tree. As the tree grows another lot ap- 
pears above with the broad leaves spread out like an umbrella on 
top. 

The papaya trees are easily raised from seed, and, when strong 
enough, may be planted out. The first year they require a certain 
amount of protection in localities likely to be visited by frost. 
They bear within a year, and, as they are not long lived, they 
should be replaced every three or four years. Mr. G. C. Rose, of 
Parkfield, near Bunbury, states that they grew splendidly with him 
on the banks of the Fitzroy, West Kimberley, till the white ants 
ate them down. 

Papayas will grow in almost any kind of land, but naturally 
prefer good soil. The seed should be sown in rich soil in a sheltered 
spot. The seedlings may be removed to their permanent positions 
when 6-9 inches high. Plant close—6ft. apart—which will allow 
for thinning out at the first flowering of the trees—10-15 months 
after planting—of those bearing long-panicle flowers, which are 
mostly male, the female flowers, if any on them, bearing poor fruit. 
When in Queensland I procured from Mr. Howard Newport, at 
Kamarunga, seeds of a superior variety of papaya from New 
Guinea, growing under the name of “New Era,” which carries both 
male and female flowers on the same tree. The fruit is of excep- 
tional size and quality. I distributed seeds amongst a number of 
settlers in Kimberley and along the North-West coast. Shade each 


342 


young seedling with a small leafy branch and give a light mulch 
of leaves or stable manure to retain moisture in the soil and keep 
the surface loose. Do not injure the stem when transplanting. 

The female trees bear numbers of flowers close to the stems, 
at the axils of the leaves, and these require to be thinned out to 
give room to the set crowded fruit to develop. By means of 
“forced nourishment” it is said much benefit follows. Bore a hole 
into the trunk about Gin. from the ground, lin. deep and of a 
diameter slightly larger than that of red rubber tubing. Fill a 
quart bottle half full of sugar and dissolve in water, connect the 
bottle with the hole in the tree by means of the red tubing. In 
24 hours the tree will have absorbed the contents of the bottle. 

Papayas, like Grenadillas, if carefully gathered and well 
packed in eases only holding one layer of fruit, should carry well 
to the Southern markets if sent in the cool chamber. 

The papaya bears heavily from the first year. The fruit has 
the appearance of rock melons and is excellent eating and whole- 
some, 

An aerid sap pervades the whole tree, and possesses marked 
digestive power for nitrogenous substances. In fact that property 
has been availed of in medicine, and papaine, the active principle, 
is used as a vegetable pepsin and as a vermifuge. The fruit is 
used in the tropics with benefit in cases of internal inflammation. 
In Mauritius, where the papaya grows to great perfection, this 
property is often availed of to turn tender, tough old roosters. 
They are simply wrapped up in papaya leaves and hung for a few 
hours under a papaya tree. 


PINEAPPLE (Ananas sativa). 


A native of tropical America. This plant has been success- 
fully grown in countries situate 28deg. North and South of the 
line, wherever the conditions of moisture, shelter, and soil have 
favoured its growth. 

With us it is susceptible of growing in the open air in 
proximity of the seaboard as far South as Champion Bay, pro- 
vided the annual rainfall be supplemented by judicious irrigation. 
Beyond this limit its cultivation may be extended even farther 
South under the protection of sheds, as is done in Florida, but 
under such artificial conditions pineapple culture ceases to offer 
commercial possibilities, and can only be attempted by amateurs. 

Too rich soil does not suit the pineapple. It is intolerant of 
wet and retentive clay soils. A deep free loam, permeable and 
fresh, with perfect drainage, and which at no time becomes water- 
logged, is the ideal soil for the pineapple. When the ground is not 
naturally drained the plants are usually set in ridges. In Mauritius 


Pineapple Plantation, Queensland, Northern Australia. 


343 


it is most successfully grown on friable volcanic soil. In other 
countries it does well on sandy soils, especially those of coraline 
formation, with a thin layer of vegetable mould on the surface. 

The pineapple is a biennial plant, not unlike a miniature aloe, 
but the leaves are much thinner. Is seldom propagated from seeds, 
unless new varieties are desired. Most good pineapples, besides, 
are seedless, but seedling plants are generally very slow growers, 
and do not bear for 10 years or so. 

The crowns or the tufts of leaves at the top of the fruit are 
sometimes grown, but they require two to five years to mature. 
For that reason the extensive propagation of this fruit is effected 
by means of slips and of suckers. The slips are produced from 
buds on the fruit stalks under the fruit. They are smaller than 
the suckers, but are more abundant. If it is intended to use them 
for planting, all but two are rubbed off; they are planted as 
quickly as possible after they mature, which takes place when the 
stem under the leaves turns brown. Slips fruit about 18 months 
after planting, and produce fine fruit; suckers, which spring from 
buds below the soil, fruit about a year to eighteen months after 
planting. Two or three are generally left on the plant, one of 
which replaces it after fruiting, the others being removed for further 
planting. 

The plants are set in lines at distances of 5ft. x 2ft., if a 
horse-hoe is used, and 3ft. x 3ft. if manual labour is employed. 
These will number 4,356 and 4,840 plants to the acre respectively. 
and with proper treatment should give from 3,000 to 3,500 fruits 
at the end of two years. The sets or suckers should have their 
basal leaves trimmed, and the contracted hard buds by which they 
are attached to the parent plant partly cut off. They are firmly 
set into the ground to a depth of 3in. to 4in. Fertilisers are 
worked into the ground between the rows. The practice of broad- 
casting chemical fertilisers is injurious to the leaves, as the salts 
of ammonia and of potash so used exert a caustic effect. Weeds 
should be kept down. After some years, and unless the suckers 
or rattoons are largely removed, the beds become almost im- 
penetrable. The period of usefulness of a plantation lasts from 
five to eight years. 

When the fruit is marketed to long distances, it is cut before it 
is quite ripe, a portion of the stalk being left attached, or else the 
fruit will bleed. The crown is also left intact, and should not be 
trimmed, so as not to rob the fruit of its decorative appearance. 
The pines are packed in large crates, but its advisable to provide 
partitions in these crates, so as to separate fruit in lots of four to 
half a dozen each. 

At present we annually import some £4,000 worth of this fruit 
and do not grow any. 


344 


The best varieties imported are the Smooth Cayenne, the Ripley, 
and the Queen. 

Queensland growers vet on an average for all grades, 3s. per 
dozen; Melbourne wholesale dealers, from 4s. upwards. This fruit is 
cheaper in the summer, and the price per case containing 12 to 15 
is 4s. to 6s., and occasionally 10s. for choice fruit in Melbourne. 

Taking the cost of a case of this fruit at 6s. Melbourne, 2s. 
freight, 1s. wharfage, inspection fee, handling and railage to Perth, 
making a total of 9s., or 9d. each, without counting waste and im- 
porter’s profit, it is seen that good pinapples cannot be sold for less 
than 1s. each. At that price only the wealthy can afford to buy this 
fruit fresh. 

The varieties grown are either spineless leaves or spiny leaves. 
Of the spineless-leaved pineapple, the most commonly grown is— 

THE SMOOTH-LEAVED CAYENNE (syn. Giant Kew).—Leaves long 
and smooth, or with very few spines, broad, dark green; flowers 
purple; fruit very large, pyramidal, dark orange yellow; flesh pale 
yellow, rich, highly-flavoured; pips large, flat. Does not sucker so 
freely as other varieties. A very handsome fruit, weighing 6lbs. to 
10lbs. An autumn and winter growing variety. Largely grown in 
the Azores for the purpose of supplying the English market during 
the winter and early spring months. 


Of the spine-leaved kinds, some of the best are— 

Buack Jamaica (svn. Black Spanish).—Leaves long and nar- 
row, dark green, almost a blue purple in the centre. The leaves 
are hollow, not open and flattish. The leaves have little hooked 
prickles; not spines like the teeth of a saw, but set distinctly from 
each other. Flowers purple; fruit oval, somewhat pyramidal, dark 
green at first, and fit to eat before it shows any yellow or red; pips 
middle-sized, prominent; flesh firm, yellow, rich, juicy, and highly 
flavoured. Weight of fruit, from 4lbs. to 5lbs. Ripens in the winter. 


QurEN.—Leaves very short, broad, of a bluish green, very mealy; 
spines strong, set widely apart; flowers lilac; fruit evlindriecal, of a 
rich deep yellow; pips middle sized, prominent; flesh pale yellow, 
juicy, sweet, rich. Best in summer and autumn. 

RIPLEY QUEEN.—Of these there are two varieties—egreen and 
red. The Ripleys belong to the Queen varieties. Leaves green with 
purplish longitudinal streaks running up the centre. As the plant 
gets old and weak, the purple streaks become irregular, and the green 
of the leaf yellow. The spines are numerous. 

Lavy Beatrice LAmBTon.—A pyramidal pineapple, very juicy, 
grown with marked success in the Cairns district, North Queensland. 

In Cuba the pineapple is largely grown for export. The Red 
Spanish is nearly always planted as it is hardy and a good shipper. 

Other kinds cultivated are Abbaka, Black Antigna. Tong Green 
and Red Ceylon. 


345 


FRUIT-DRY ING 

Is a valuable and expedient method of stopping physical 
and chemical changes and extending under a convenient form the 
sale and the uses of fruits and of vegetables. 

In the height of the fruit season, much that should never be 
put on the market to compete with the higher-grade produce can 
with profit be disposed of as dried fruit. 

It is not meant to infer that a high-class dried fruit can be 
manufactured out of an inferior sample, but rather that it may be 
more profitable to convert such produce into a more readily saleable 
article. 


It may also happen that in the glutted market in the midst 
of the season even first-class fruits cannot be sold at a profit, 
and it then may be advantageous to hold them back and prepare 
them into some other commercial form. 

Drying affords a cheap-and-ready way of converting into a 
commercial commodity (which may be,stored and disposed of to the 
best advantage in due season) such quickly perishable products as 
ripe fruits. 

To those situated in remote localities beyond easy distance of 
markets or of the highways leading thereto, drying also offers a 
convenient way of utilising their bulky and perishable crops. 

Observation, experience, and such education as is conveyed by 
the mistakes of others have resulted in a variety of methods and 
practices being adopted when drying different fruits. The prin- 
ciples which underlie these methods are the same, but local con- 
venicnee, the cheapening of the handling, and the ultimate appear- 
ance and commercial value of the products turned ont have been 
the main causes of such modifications as the treatment of each kind 
of fruit suggests. 


Raisins 
is the name given grapes dried in the sun or by artificial evapora- 
tion. During that process the vine fruits loose a little over two- 
thirds of their weight, owing to the evaporation of the water they 
contain. 

In practice, however, Lexias, Sultanas and currants whieh are 
run through the stemmer and the grader, where stalks and small 
unmarketable fruit are eliminated, show a bigger shrinkage in 
weight; an amount ranging from 3% to 4 to 1, ie, it takes 314 to 
4 tons of the fresh fruit to produce 1 ton of marketable dried. 

Three main types of raisins are made :— 

1. The Muscat or Malaga type, of large size, which is again 
subdivided into Lexias or Pudding Raisins and Table 
Raisins. 


346 


2. The Sultana type—of medium size, amber colour, and 
seedless. 

3. The Currants, or small size, dark coloured, seedless, made 
from the Black Corinth grape, and sometimes from the 
white Corinth. 

4. The Dried Grapes, made oceassionally from grapes, such 
as the Waltham Cross, Doradillas, but mostly from wine 
grapes, which, in Greece, Turkey, and some of the 
Mediterranean islands form an important industry. The 
product is exported to France, Germany, England, where 
it is turned into white wine, either consumed as such or 
turned into brandy. 


Puppine Ratsins orn Lextas. 


The bulk of the raisins are of this class. The name Lezia_ 
(L. Lixivium) they owe to the fact that unlike Table Raisins they 
are dipped in a lye. The grapes used in the manufacture of these 
raisins are the Museate]) Gordo Blanco, the Museat of Alexandria, 
and the seedless Sultana. 


Picking—The grapes should never be picked for drying before 
they are dead ripe. 

The currant crop is ready for picking a fortnight before the 
Muscats, and the same trays answer for drying both crops, so that 
the advantage of growing them together is evident. 

There are several ways of ascertaining whether the crop is 
fully ripe:— 

(1.) By the colour, which, in the case of the Sultana and of the 
Muscatel Gordo Blanco, should be a bright amber, perfectly sweet, 
without a trace of acidity in any of the berries. (2.) By the sac- 
charometer, which gives more accurate indications, as a bunch 
grown in the shade may be ripe and yet colourless. It is reckoned 
that the juice of the grape should contain at least 24 to 25 per 
cent. of grape sugar (1344° Baumé) to produce a good raisin. 

Pieces of stalks, dead leaves, also imperfectly ripe berries, 
which would dry brown instead of a bright colour, are removed. 


Dinping—The ripe grapes are usually picked in baskets. The 
baskets should not be piled on the top of each other, nor should 
their contents be dumped on to the ground. They are brought to the 
dipping tank and draining terrace where the grapes are placed in 
galvanised iron baskets or sieves, or in perforated kerosene tins; at 
least two such baskets are required, which are lewered into the dip 
and filled alternately. The lye tank may consist of any convenient 
open boiler, such as a washing boiler, or even a 200 or 400 gallon 
square iron tank cut in half and set in mortar over a fireplace. 

The strength of the lye used varies. The stronger the lye the 
shorter the time the fruit is dipped. 


347 


Alkalies of known strength in water, brought up to the boil, are 
now generally used in preference to the old time rule of thumb 
mixture of ashes from vine prunings and powdered quicklime. 

Thus, 1b. caustic potash or caustic soda to 16 gallons of water 
is sometimes used, although many prefer a stronger lye made of 
llb. of caustic soda to 8 gallons of water, claiming that fruit quickly 
dipped retains a brighter colour when dried. 

The strength of the lye having been settled, the solution is 
brought nearly to the boil, and all seum floating on the surface 
is skimmed off. Some of the least ripe grapes are then dipped for 
two or three seconds into the boiling liquid, and the result of the 
dip ascertained a few minntes later. The object of dipping is to 
make the drying process more active by dissolving or saponifying 
the waxy covering which constitutes the bloom, and opening up the 
pores on the skin, thereby allowing the quicker evaporation of the 
juices of the fruit. If as a result of the test on these more tender 
berries numerous small holes like pin-pricks show, the length of the 
dipping is sufficient, whilst, on the other hand, should the skin show 
cracks and slits, the time of immersion of the fruit in the lye 
should be shortened, or the strength of the lye itself should be re- 
duced by means of a further addition of pure water. 

The minimum time for dipping is two seconds, in the stronger 
lve, and the maximum 18 seconds in the weaker. Thickness of skin, 
stage of ripeness of skin, abundance of waxy bloom, and strength 
of the lye all govern the length of dipping, and this, as has been 
explained, can be adjusted by means of personal tests. 

The strength of the lye must be kept up by the addition of the 
eaustie potash or soda. 


Rinsing —After dipping, the galvanised iron baskets are 
allowed to drain for a minute or so, and are then plunged into 
clean, cold water, and emptied on the trays or on the racks to dry. 
Some do not rinse the fruit, and claim that the colour is then 
brighter. 


Sulphuring—After dipping and before drying, the fruit is 
often exposed to the bleaching action of sulphur fumes in order to 
obtain a bright amber-coloured sample. Trade requires this colour, 
and the process has little or nothing else to recommend it as the 
fruit is often over-sulphured and is rendered acid, heavy to digest, 
and much of the peculiar fruity aroma inherent to the fruit is more 
or less destroyed. 

The extent of the sulphuring cannot be determined by any hard 
and fast rule, and must be adjusted by practice; but it is necessary 
that the several charges in the bleaching chamber should be exposed 
to the same amount of sulphuring, otherwise an uneven sample 
would result, and the value of the article would thereby be greatly 
affected. 


348 


A small sulphuring chamber may consist of a box large enough 
to cover several trays charged with fruit, or, preferably, of a larger 
chamber into which trollies laden with the fruit trays are wheeled 
and taken out again to make room for a fresh load. Mr. W. J. 
Allen, in New South Wales, recommends a room, 9ft. by 10ft. by 
6ft. Gin., built of tongue and grooved boards, and put together with 
white lead. Any small cracks ean be filled up with putty, or it can 
be papered inside. A room such as this requires about 2lb. of 
sulphur. Some push the bottom trays leaving a little room 
at the back, whilst the next tray is pushed a little farther, so that 
the interval be at the front, and so on until the last tray is put in. 
This arrangement favours the even distribution of the sulphur 
fumes, which are generated in a roaster set outside the box, with 
which it is in communication by means of a flue. A simple hole dug 
into the ground, and covered with an oil drum with a tin tube con- 
necting it with the sulphuring box, will answer. The sulphur is set 
alight, the fumes allowed to enter the box, which has a hole at the top 
which can be either left open or shut by means of a sliding damper. 
When the fumes begin to issue from the box at the top, the damper 
is closed, and the fruit is allowed to remain for a few minutes im- 
mersed in the bleaching fumes. The trays should not be made of 
raetal which is readily attacked by the sulphur fumes and turned 
into noxious sulphates. Highly bleached fruit is charged with sul- 
phurie acid, which checks digestion and causes headaches. Ten to 
fifteen minutes is quite long enough. Sulphured fruit is prohibited 
from sale in several European countries. 


Drying —This is effected either through direct exposure to the 
rays of the sun, or where the sun’s rays are not potent enough, 
through the artificial heat of specially-constructed evaporators. 

At times the grapes are first half dried in the sun, and finished 
off in the evaporator, of which some good types, such as the 
“Vrai,’ and more recent types are well spoken of from the Murray 
River Irrigation Colonies. 

In Western Australia, where a dry, sunny autumn may be re- 
lied upon with a fair amount of certainty, grapes, apricots, prunes, 
and such like fruit can be sun-dried with little trouble, and without 
entailing the extra cost of kiln drying. 

Late-picked fruit, however, especially in the cooler districts of 
the State, might, in particularly early rainy seasons, be damaged when 
sun-dried; but, as a rule, all fruit ripening not later than the end 
of March may with safety be sun-dried, provided provision is made 
for covering the stacks of trays when the weather is unfavourable. 

Around Malaga and the other famous raisin-producing districts 
of Spain, the raisins are exposed to dry on drying terraces, built on 
a slope, facing the hot sun. These terraces consist of brick wall 
quadrangles, filled in with earth, over which is spread several inches 


Tle largest overhead trellis in Australia—“ Relhus,”’ on the Swan—My. Barrett-Lennard, 


Stack of Raisin-drying wire trays. 


349 


of clean small gravel, on which the grapes are laid; on these they 
dry evenly, whereas if laid on the bare hard earth, one side is often 
dry, whilst the other remains moist. 


The drying ground is, however, cumbersome and antiquated, 
and can with advantage be superseded by the drying tray or the 
drying racks. The trays are made of different sizes, but for the 
sake of convenient handling, trays 36 inches long and 24 inches 
wide are to be recommended, 

They are either made of four 6in. matchboards, 3ft. long, held 
together by nailing head pieces of 2!5in. x lin. and 2ft. long at 
each end, or instead of matchboards, on which in damp weather the 
fruit mildews more than on lath trays, or of broad Oregon laths, 
set close, side by side, and which allow a free circulation of air. 
On the upper side a 34in. rim is nailed all round the trav, and 
keeps the fruit from slipping off when turning it. 

Over these trays the fruit is placed and exposed to the sun. 
When half dry they are turned. This is done by placing an empty 
tray upside down over the first tray to be turned, and swinging 
the lot over. The tray which had the fruit is then empty and ready 
for use in turning over the next tray in the row, and so on until 
they have all been turned over. 

Of late years in Australia, these wooden trays have been dis- 
carded for the Raisin drying racks, made of a wooden framework, 
with wire netting shelves, over which the cut bunches of ripe grapes 
are placed to dry. As a protection against wet weather these drying 
racks generally carry a light galvanised iron roof. These racks 
are now superseded by the cheaper and more suitable wire netting 
trays. These consist of wooden battens, 3in. x lin. of desired 
lencths, 6 to 1l0ft. by 3ft. wide, for instance, set on edge, 
with inch battens nailed across to keep them apart, 214 to 
3 inches; over these wire netting, 115in. in mesh, is nailed. The 
currants are evenly spread over the netting, the muscats with the 
larger bunches cut into handy sizes, are laid over, and when, one 
tray is full, another is placed on top, and also charged. They are 
thus built up into stacks of convenient height—3 to 5ft. The cross 
inch battens also provide an opening which permits the air to 
freely circulate over the currants, while the strong light does not 
affect the fruit, and a better colour results. In broken weather, 
wooden trays or loose sheets of galvanised iron are placed on top 
to throw off the rain. The orientation of the trays does not matter 
much, but if placed east and west, the influence of the sunlight 
would be less pronounced. 


When drying sultanas or museatels, it is advisable to give more 
space between the trays to avoid erushing and close contact, and 
for that purpose bricks or blocks of wood are placed between the 
trays to provide a greater interval. 


350 


When grapes or other fruit get wet whilst drying, they turn 
dark brown and are discoloured, and to prevent this, in case of 
rain or heavy dew at night, the trays are piled over one another 
to a-height of three or four feet, and securely covered with a tar- 
paulin of roofing iron. When thus stacked, the thickness of the 
end cross-pieces prevents the fruit from getting erushed. After 
turning, the drying proceeds more rapidly, and the raisins should 
be watched to prevent them from becoming too dry. 

Where a fairly heavy crop is gathered it is usual to stack the 
pile of trays laden with grape-fruit in process of drying under cover 
of permanent sheds, which afford protection against damage from 
a passing storm. The stacks are built in single or double rows, and 
in that ease a passage way is provided between. The trays present 
over the racks the advantage of being movable, easy to load 
at the dipping tank, and to unload after drying, by the simple 
process of tipping upside down over a clean floor, or over spread 
canvas. 

When sufficiently dry the raisins are removed from the trays. 
A ready method of ascertaining this is to pick up a few average 
berries and roll them gently between the finger and thumb. If a 
drop of liquid exudes at the stem end, the raisins require further 
drying; but if jelly only shows, the raisins are dry enough. 

Stemming.—The next process consists in removing the stalks. 
These will be brittle if the raisins are taken up towards the after- 
noon, and will then break off easily. This ean easily be done over 
a quarter-inch sieve, which will also let through some of the rubbish. 


Winnowing—This done. and before the stalks get lmp, the 
loose berries are run through a winnowing machine, which separates 
a greater portion of the stalks and grades them in sizes. 


Sweat Boxr—The fruit must then be sweated for a fortnight 
or so before being packed and put away. Sweating is an operation 
whieh all dried fruit must undergo. 

If the raisins on the trays are examined, part will be found 
dry enough. while part may be too dry and some not sufficiently 
cured. At this stage the sweat-box is found useful for equalising 
the sample and making the stems tough and ready for packing. 
The sweat-boxes are 8in. to Yin. deep, and contain about 1 ewt. of 
raisins. The boxes are only about two-thirds filled with raisins, 
and they should be stirred about every now and again until suffi- 
ciently dried. They may be used at other times for carrying grapes 
from the vineyard and other purposes. 


Packing.—When the sweat-boxes are full they are put away, 
one on the top of another, for ten to twelve days, to sweat, after: 
which they are taken to the packing room, which is provided with 
tables, scales, presses, and neat boxes of different sizes, holding 
5lb., 10Ib., 15]b., and 201b., in layers of 5lb. each, 


351 


They are then placed in proper boxes and pressed hard by 
means of a lever or screw press so as to set them well in a mass, 
and exclude insects which prey upon dried fruit. 


Where a community of vine-growers is engaged in the fruit 
drying, the work of processing the dried crop, cleaning, grading, 
and packing, is better and more expeditiously done at a central 
packing shed run on co-operative lines, where a more even and 
better marketable article is turned out. 


Cost of drying Raisins and Currants from vine to sweat- 
boxes vary naturally with facilities for handling and management. 
Under ordinary conditions it is claimed to be about £5 per ton in 
the “Vrai evaporators” or some other efficient evaporator, to about 
£7 10s. when sun-dried in the River Murray district of Victoria 
and South Australia; this estimate being based on pre-war cost. 
Besides the certainty of drying in a good class of evaporator, there 
is also a lesser deterioration in weight caused by fermentation, and 
depreciation in value resulting from infection of flies, moths, dust, ete. 


SEEDLESS RAISINS 


are the produce of the Currant vines, the Sultana vines, or small and 
imperfectly developed Museatel grapes, which now and then are 
found on muscatel bunches. When dried, these small raisins are 
separated in the grader, and sold as “seedless muscatels.” For cook- 
ing purposes, seedless raisins are in better demand than the seeded 
lexias or pudding muscatels, and in order to meet the demand for 
that class of article, small and inexpensive raisin seeders are sold 
for a few shillings, which can be clamped to the corner of the kitchen 
or pantry table, and neatly extract the seeds from the raisins. 


TaBLE RaIsINns. 


The drying of Table raisins and of Currants is effected much 
after the fashion of pudding raisins, with the difference that they 
do not undergo the dipping process, which spoils the appearance 
and removes the bloom. : 


Great care should be taken in picking, for this reason, not to 
remove the bloom, which would spoil the appearance of the raisin. 
The bunch is handled by the stem, cut with a sharp knife, all im- 
perfect berries, pieces of stalk, dead leaves removed, and then 
placed upon either shallow baskets or directly upon the trays right 
side up, i.e., the side showing less of the stem. In large vineyards 
there is economy in placing the trays between the rows of vines 
and covering them ‘at once with grapes, whereas on a small vineyard 
it may be convenient to take them all to the drying terrace. 


The finest bunches having been carefully picked as described, 
they are simply put on wooden trays made 2ft. wide and 3ft. long. 


352 


Tf too large, they are not so convenient to handle when filled. Each 
tray receives from 20lb. to 30lb, of grapes, which should produce 
534lb. to 9b. of clean raisins. Sun drying, though longer, is pre- 
ferable to the evaporator, and under favourable conditions it takes 
two to three weeks to eure good table raisins. 

Upon the state of the weather and the size and degree of ripe- 
ness of the berries will the time required for drying depend. Rapid 
drying gives a hard and tough raisin, and should be avoided. At 
the end of eight to fourteen days, according to circumstances, the 
grapes being about two-thirds dry, are turned by placing an empty 
tray, as already described, on the top of a full one and reversed 
top to bottom. After turning the drying will proceed more rapidly, 
and the raisins should be watched to prevent them from becoming 
too dry. 

In transferring from the trays into the sweat-box the raisins 
are slid off in the same position as when they lay on the 
tray. To prevent the stems getting entangled, two sheets of paper 
of the size of the box are put in at intervals as the box is being 
filled. The sorters have two or three sweat-boxes, and grade the 
raisins into first, second, and third quality. 

The packing of table raisins is of paramount importance, as 
appearance considerably enhances the value. The flat boxes are 
artistically got up, and carefully lined with lace paper. Nice 
clusters of bunches of the same grade as the contents of the box 
are either flattened between the fingers or by passing through rollers 
and placed at the bottom of the box, which is then filled with as 
many grapes as it will hold; the lid is then placed on the top and 
naiied down after pressure has been applied. The box is then 
turned upside down and so labelled that what was the bottom now 
opens top. Facing plates are also used for the same purpose. They 
consist of a brass plate of the size of a box. In these plates are rows 
of small eup-like eavities, into each one of which a flattened raisin 
is set and lightly pressed, and loose raisins are carefully filled in 
on the top. After pressing, it is found that this top layer has re- 
tained its arrangement and is regularly faced. 

The Australian Dried Fruits Association has declared prices 
for new season’s currants, sultanas and lexias at a substantial ad- 
vance on those of previous years, currants being 2d. per lb. dearer 
than last season, sultanas 2°4d. per lb., and lexias and seeded raisins 
24d. per lb. Single box rates compare with those for the preced- 
ing four seasons as under :— 


1916, 1917. 1918. 1919. 1920. 


Currants— d. dd d. d. 
Four crown .. <. ee a. T3440 —= T3 — = 
Three crown .. ., .. .. 7% 63% 7% 714 9% 
Two erown .. .. .. «. 7% 64% TY TY, 914 


One erown.. .. .. .. «) OA — ~~ —~— ~~ 


353 


1916. 1917. 1918. 1919. 1920. 


Sultanas— dad daiadaéid d. 
Four crown .. .. .. .. 8% 8% 834 9 — 
Three crown .. .. .. . 8% 8 844 834 11% 
Two crown... ........ 8% 7% 814 81% 11% 
One crown .. .. .. .. 7% 7h 74 8B 10% 

Lexias— 

Five crown .. .. .. . 7TH 63% 7% 7% 10 
Four crown .. .. .. .. 7 64% 7 Ty 934 


Lexias, 2 and 3 crown, for seeding only, are fixed at 9d., as 
against 614d. last year, seeded raisins in cartons 11s. 6d. per dozen, 
against 9s., and loose 104d. per lb., against 734d. per lb. 

This year’s prices are abnormally high and not likely to be 
maintained, while it is reasonable to expect the prices ruling for 
the four previous season’s will be obtained for some years to come. 

Favourable conditions of soil and climate, a liberal protective 
tariff, and an increasing demand for godd grade raisins, sultanas 
and currants have made Raisin drying one of our most popular and 
profitable rural pursuits. 

For the last five years the home prices of dried grape fruits 
have benefited: 1st by the disorganisation of the Mediterranean 
production of currants and raisins during the war; 2nd by 
the organisation of the industry which aimed at maintaining the 
price of the locally dried article by the compulsory exportation 
of a considerable portion of the crop. On account of the war the 
exported product found sales at a profitable price on barren 
markets; 3rd by the increased home consumption, which is 
estimated as follows :— 


Currants. Sultanas. Lexias. 

tons. tons. tons. 

TOW ee on oa aes 3,000 3,900 1,250 
£920) 22 sen Gai ws 4,200 6,500 1,700 


During the war, too, the importation of spirits from oversea 
had met with restrictions which have brought about an enormous 
increase in the value, and the substitution of Australian spirits for 
the imported article. Because of this, large quantities of grapes 
have been absorbed by the distilleries which otherwise would have 
been dealt with as dried fruit. 


With the return of normal conditions, keener competition 
must be encountered on the export markets for the largely in- 
creased output of the considerable areas planted of late years 
with vines. Cost of production has also so much increased lately 
that it is essential, for vine growing to prosper, that larger outlets 
for the increasing crops be found. 


354 


APRICOTS AND PEACHES 


should be picked when fully ripe, but not overripe. The fruit 
should not be so soft as to be mushy, and when cut in halves with a 
sharp knife, should still retain their shape. The picking is often 
done by shaking the tree over spread canvas, but the better class of 
fruit is picked by hand. The fruit should be cut clean round, 
and the parts not torn apart. They are placed on the tray cut 
side uppermost, and should be taken to the sulphur room, described 
when dealing with the curing of Lexias Raisins, within an hour of 
being pitted, this is best done immediately after picking. It is esti- 
mated that in properly made sulphur rooms two to three pounds per 
300 eubic feet capacity or 1b. of sulphur per ton of fruit is sufficient 
for bleaching. About three to four hours is long enough to keep fruit 
in sulphur fumes; when the skin, unlike the pulp, is not bleached, the 
fruit curls up and looks small. During the sulphuring the cups fill 
with juice. Three or four days of sun-drying will be sufficient. If 
placed in the evaporator do not place the fruit in the hottest 
place to begin with, but start at that part which is 140 degrees and 
finish off at about 180 degrees. The fruit should not be dried hard 
enovgh to rattle on the trays. The proper stage is determined by 
handling the fruit, which should be soft and pliable to the touch, 
but not sticky. The fruit which is not quite dry, may at this stage 
be put on other trays for a few hours to complete the drying. The 
dried fruit having been taken from the trays, is put into clean 
calico bags and tied up securely to keep out moths. Small and in- 
ferior fruit is graded off, and tied in separate bags. These bags are 
placed in a cool, dry place, or else the fruit lose in weight and 
deteriorate. After sweating, if it is intended to box it, the fruit 
is graded and packed. A layer of fruit, flattened between the 
fingers or run through a clothes wringer, is placed at the bottom, 
cup-side down, the box is well filled, and pressure is applied. When 
the box is taken up and dressed, it is so done that, when opening 
what was the bottom becomes top. 

Moth infected fruit is cleaned by dipping into boiling water 
for a few seconds and spread on trays and sun-dried for a few 
hours. Fruit so dipped will not keep its colour long, and should 
be consumed speedily. 


The most suitable peaches for drying are Freestone, with a firm, 
yellow flesh, above medium size. 

Peaches are dried either peeled or unpeeled. On account of the 
extra cost, peeling is generally dispensed with. A paring knife is 
used for peeling, and the knife for pitting Clingstone peaches. 

The pit of Clingstone peaches is best removed with a knife, 
{known as the Tarlton knife, such as is represented in the accom- 
panying figure. It consists of a strong blade, with a short U-shaped 


355 


blade at the point. Unlike the spoon-shaped knife, whicih can only 
be used on soft fruit, it answers for both soft or firm fruit. 


Like apricots, peaches after being cut in half are placed on 
travs, with the cut side up and fumigated for two hours only, the 
cup filling with juice, and then dried in the sun or the evaporator 


Knives for pitting Clingstone Peaches and soft fruit. 


at the same temperature as the apricot. The drying is stopped 
while the fruit is quite pliable, when it is tied in calico bags and 
stored in cool, dry places, until ready to pack. 


It takes 5lbs. of apricots, 4 or Slbs. of dry fleshed peaches, 
and 5 to 7lbs. of more juicy peaches to 1lb. of dried fruit. 


PRUNES AND PLUMS. 


Plums are dried for stewing, they are cut open and pitted. 
Prunes are dried with the stone. Being a fruit of firm texture and 
not easily bruised, the labour of hand-picking is generally dispensed 
with. 


The fruit is allowed to hang until dead ripe and they fall from 
the trees, when these are lightly shaken; the last crop has to be 
gathered by hand, and is generally used for a second quality. 


They are graded before drying, either in some home-made grader, 
consisting of a long chute with three different sizes of wire screen 
on it, or they run through some grading maehine of which several 
patterns are used. Unless properly graded, of the one size for each 


356 


tray, they dry unevenly, some being over-dried and others not dried 
enough. They are then dipped, as explained above, for three to 10 
seconds in a lye brought up to the boil, containing Ib. of caustic 
soda to 10 gallons of water. Immediately after the dipped fruit is 
plunged in fresh, cold water, so as to rinse it, the water bemg 
changed freely. Should the lye take off the skin, shorten the time 
of dipping slightly. It is then spread on trays, and in the case of 
light coloured prunes subjected to the action of sulphur fumes, 
just long enough to set the colour. Drying takes place in the sun 
or the evaporator; when exposed to the sun, according to the 
weather and location, it takes seven to 14 days to dry. If kiln- 
dried the operation is done in as many hours. The operation being 
done in three successive periods. The first two gradually dry the 
fruit, the last finishes the work and puts the gloss on. 


The first “cooking” is at a temperature of 113° to 122° F. 
(45° to 50° C.), during which the fruit loses much of its water. If 
the heat is too great at this stage there will be expansion and burst- 
ing and dripping of fruit juice. After each cooking the prunes are 
simply rolled over the trays without handling the fruit. | When 
cold, the trays are returned to the oven or evaporator and exposed 
to a temperature of 140° to 160° F. (60° to 71° C.), and in the 
third cooking to a temperature of 176° to 194° F. (80° to 90° C.), 
or even slightly higher. 


Careful watching is required during the third heating to guard 
against the puffing and burning of the fruit. While still pliable 
the fruit is placed in sweat-boxes to even up. and left there for a 
couple of weeks, the fruit being frequently turned. Table prunes 
receive the “glossing” by dipping the dried fruit in hot syrup or 
in hot water with a small amount of glycerine added (1lb. to 20 
gallons). This hot dip also kills insect’s eggs. After the fruit has 
sufficiently dried from this dipping it is packed in boxes or jars 
and pressed. Three pounds of fresh prunes make one of dry. The 
price is regulated according to size, which range from 40, 50, 60, 
and up to 100 to the pound. 


APPLES AND PEARS 


should be more heavily sulphured than other fruit but not to excess, 
and dried as soon as pared and quartered. <A better device is to 
cut the apples into rings with an apple parer. This machine also 
takes out the core which, boiled down with the skins, makes a jelly. 
A light-coloured article is preferred by the trade. In an evap- 
orator kept at a temperature of 140° to 160° F., the drying is done 
in six to eight hours, and placed in sweat-boxes for a few days to 
even up, when it is tied in calico bags away from moths until ready 
for packing. 


357 


The yield of dried apples evaporated to a water content of 
25 per cent., varies from 12lb. to 16lb. per 100lb. of fresh fruit, the 
sweeter autumn apples yielding better than the summer varieties, 
as a class low in total solids and in sugar. 

When sufficiently dried for the sweat-box the fruit still contains 
more moisture than the finished article is to have. The slices should 
be pliable; when fresh eut no moisture can be pressed out, but 
they should be slightly sticky, and a handful of slices pressed into a 
ball in the hand should separate at once when released. 


Fics 


are picked when quite ripe, and when they commence to shrivel; 
the stalk should be left on them. The practice is to shake the 
branches vigorously; the figs are placed in perforated buckets and 
dipped up and down in a solution, brought up to boiling point, of 
salt, 30z. to each gallon of water. This cleans the figs, hastens the 
drying, and softens the skin. After dipping they are spread on 
trays in single layers, the eye pointing up to prevent the syrup 
treacling out during the first day or two of drying. They do not 
dry very evenly, and after exposure to the sun for six to ten days, 
during which they are turned once, the dry ones are removed, and 
those not yet ready allowed to remain longer. 

Black figs are not sulphured, whereas white ones are improved 
in colour by bleaching. If too syrupy inside, and when the juice 
oozes at the eye, as occurs with some varieties, the eye is slightly 
raised for a day or two until the juice thickens. Figs should not 
be dried too hard; this is the cause of tough skins. If on examina- 
tion no juice oozes out of the eye, and the fruit has a slightly 
leathery feeling, it is ready to go into the sweat-box, where it is 
turned over every few days, the skin becoming moist and pliable 
during the curing process. After coming out of the sweating 
boxes, after 10 to 12 days, and before packing, they are softened 
by dipping into boiling brine or hot syrup. A 214 per cent. solu- 
tion of salt, or 40z. to the gallon of water; the over-dried figs or 
“floaters” being removed, the remainder being placed on trays a 
couple of inches deep and dried for a day or so. Previous to pack- 
ing into boxes, neatly lined with paraffin paper, they are sorted, 
moulded under a screw press, and packed in layers with stalks 
facing alternately all one way and then the reverse. Pressure is 
applied to keep out inseets and prevent the fruit drying excessively. 
Three to four lbs. of ripe figs yield one of dry. 

Thorough cultivation, manuring with potassic and phosphatic 
and lime fertilisers, and, where necessary, one irrigation a month 
before the fruit ripens, ensure finer fruit. 

Sometimes dipping is dispensed with, and the fruit dried with 
the bloom on; the operation then takes longer. 


358 


DRYING VEGETABLES. 


Tf fruit drying is, under the influence of West Australian 
autumnal climate, susceptible of being profitably carried out in 
the sun, the use of evaporators utilising direct fire heat should in 
many instances prove of great value to the market gardener. Tons 
of vegetables at periods of glut are hardly worth picking, packing, 
and forwarding long distances from the gardens in moister coastal 
districts to the distant inland, arid centres of population. In many 
parts of the Eastern Goldfields fresh vegetables are never seen, and 
an important field is yet open to our enterprising vegetable growers 
in catering for those centres, and supplying them with vegetables 
differing from the fresh article by being simply deprived of its 
watery portions, which amounts, according to kinds, from three- 
fourths to nine-tenths of the weight of the vegetables. 


In the first instance, surplus vegetables thus treated, would not be 
wasted and regarded by the grower as a loss of so much invested 
capital. They could be treated at any time of the year. The cost 
of dehydrating should be more than recouped by the very material 
reduction in carting and in railway freight; a perishable article 
subject to quick decay could be kept almost indefinitely and be sent 
over long journeys, when it could be used in small quantities at a 
time, and as required, and preserve unimpaired to the very last its 
taste and its succulent and refreshing, wholesome properties. When 
required for use it is only washed, then soaked for 12 to 24 hours in 
four to six times its weight of water, and then cooked as desired. 


Fruit Evaporator. 


Of evaporators a great many patterns are made; some hori- 
zontal, others upright. The charge is fed from underneath and the 
finished trays removed from the top. 


359 


A handy portable evaporator is constructed by Metters, Ltd., 
of Perth, and the trade also offers numerous other designs of fruit 
and vegetable dehydrators. The principle which underlies their 
construction is that the heat is made to circulate amongst the trays 
as rapidly as possible, and finally escapes through a flue at the top, 
carrying off with it the watery constituents of the fruit or 
vegetables. Provision is made for opening the evaporator and in- 
specting the progress of the drying. From the evaporator the goods 
are removed to a moth-proof chamber, where they are left to sweat, 
and are finally placed in suitable packages for marketing. 

The “Vrai” evaporators manufactured at Torrensville, in South 
Australia, in standardised 9ft.. room, cost £400 to £700 and £1,060, 
the patentees reserving a royalty of a 14d. per lb. of dried fruit. 

Other evaporators claiming more or less distinct features are 
also in use on the Murray irrigation colonies in Eastern Australia. 
Dehydrators were much used during the war for drying vegetables, 
fish, and other produce for use by the armies and the navy. 


FRUIT CANDYING 
is the process by means of which the juice is extracted from the 
fruit and replaced with sugar syrup, which, upon hardening, pre- 
serves the fruit from decay, and at the same time retains the 
natural shape of the fruit. 

After the preliminary candying process has been effected the 
confectionery is ready to be either glacé or erystallised. Glacé 
fruit is prepared by dipping the candied fruit in thick sugar syrup 
and leaving it to dry and harden quickly in the open air. The 
sugar thus forms a glaze on the fruit, which gives it its name. If 
it is to be erystallised, the fruit, prepared as described below, is 
dipped into the same kind of syrup and then removed and allowed 
to dry slowly in a room at a heat of 90° to 100° F., when the sugar 
appears in small crystals on its surface. 

The method of fruit candying is clearly outlined in one of the 
U.S. Consul’s Reports on— 


Canprep Crrron anp Lemon PEEL. 

The industry is very well adapted to the Australian States, 
where all the material essential—fruit, sugar, and fuel—required is 
raised and produced. 

“Leghorn, in Italy.—The fruit and every ingredient and article 
necessary to the preparation of the candied peel come from abroad. 
The fruit of the best quality comes from Corsica; Egypt furnishes 
the sugar, Great Britain provides the fuel, Trieste and distant pro- 
vinees of Italy contribute a portion of the raw product and wood 
for the boxes in which the peel is exported. The province of Leg- 
horn provides nothing but the labour necessary for the manufacture. 

“Nor is this industry, the Consular Report says, one which 
has fallen into Livornese hands from any specially acquired local 


360 


handicraft or skill. It is mainly supported by the large drawback 
granted by the Italian Government upon the duty paid on the chief 
and dearest ingredient in the manufacture: sugar. The customs 
tariff in force imposes a duty of 76.75 lire (lire = 10d.) upon 106 
kilos (2 ewt.) of the sugar used; but grants a drawback of 69.50 
lire upon 100 kilos of the exported article. Without this large 
measure of support the industry would immediately and wholly 
collapse. 

“The citrons are shipped to the factories in casks, and, when 
the distance is not considerable, in sacks, but usually in hogsheads 
filled with brine. In preparation for shipment in brine, the citrons 
or lemons are cut in halves and salted—100lbs. of salt to the cask 
—and the cask is then filled up with salt water. They are left in 
soak for two or three weeks, when the casks are opened and the 
citrons weighed; 770lbs. of citrons are allowed to each cask; sea- 
water and a little salt are added, and the cask is ready for exporta- 
tion. A small auger-hole in the bung allows the gas produced 
in the cask to escape. Salted citrons and lemons sell for about 
$10 to $12 a eask; when arrived at the factory they are removed 
from their packing, and the pulp is separated from the rind. This 
is done by women, who, seated around a large vessel, take out the 
fruit, skilfully gouge out the inside with a few rapid motions of 
the forefinger and thumb, and, throwing this aside, place the rind 
unbroken in a vessel alongside them. 


“The next process consists in ridding the rind of the salt by 
maceration in fresh cold water for two or three days, the water 
being changed occasionally. Then the rinds are boiled for one to 
two hours to soften them and prepare them to absorb the syrup, 
and also to rid them completely of any trace of salt. At this stage 
they become of a green colour. 

“They are next put in a syrup for a slow absorption of sugar. 
This oceupies no less than eight days, as this absorption of sugar, 
to be complete, must be slow and gradual. The syrup is at first 
weak. To every kilogramme (2lbs.) of fruit a syrup is added made 
of 1lb. of sugar and one litre (quart) of water. 

“The fruit has now passed into the saturating room, where, 
on every side, are to be seen long rows of immense earthenware 
vessels of about 4ft. high and 214ft. in extreme diameter, in outline 
roughly resembling the famed Etruscan jar, but with a girth 
altogether out of proportion to their height, and with very short 
neck and large open mouth. All the vessels are filled to their 
brius with citron, lemon, or orange peel in every stage of absorp- 
tion, t.e., steeped in sugar syrup of, roughly speaking, eight diff- 
erent degrees of strength. I have said before this is a process 
which oceupies almost always eight days; and, as the syrup in each 
jar is changed every day, we may divide the mass of vessels before 
us into groups of eight. Take one group of this number and we 


361 


are able to follow the fruit completely through this stage of its 
treatment. With vessels of such great size and weight, holding at 
least half a ton of fruit and pulp, it is clearly easier to deal with 
the syrup than the fruit. To take the fruit out of one solution and 
to place it in the next stronger, and so on throughout the series, 
would be a toilsome process, and one, moreover, injurious to the 
fruit. In each of these jars, therefore, is fixed a wooden well, into 
which a simple hand-suction pump being introduced, the syrup is 
pumped from each jar daily into the adjoining one. 


“¢ How is the relative strength in each jar regulated?’ is the 
next question. ‘The fruit itself does that,’ is the foreman’s reply; 
and this becomes clear from the following explanation: Number 
your jars from 1 to 8 respectively; and assume No. 1 to be 
that which has just been filled with peel brought straight from 
the boiler, in which it has been deprived of the last trace of salt, 
and No. 8 to contain that which, having passed through every stage 
of absorption but the last, is now steeped in the freshly-prepared 
and therefore the strongest solution of syrup used in this stage. 
‘We prepare daily a syrup of the strength of 30deg., measured by 
the “provino,” a graduated test for measuring the density of the 
syrup,’ continued the foreman; ‘and that is poured upon the fruit 
in jar No. 8. To-morrow the syrup from this jar, weakened by the 
absorption from it by the fruit of a certain proportion of sugar, 
will be pumped into jar No. 7, and so on daily through the series. 
Thus, No. 1, containing the fruit itself, regulates the strength of 
the syrup, as I said” ‘But if the syrup has lost all its strength 
before the seventh day, on arrival at No. 1” we ask. ‘Care must 
be taken to prevent that, by constant testing by the “provino,”’ 
is the reply, ‘and, if that is found to be the case, a little stronger 
syrup must be added to the jar.’ 


“A slight fermentation next takes place in most of the jars; 
but this, so far from being harmful, is regarded as necessary. Of 
course, it must not be allowed to go too far. There is yet another 
stage, and that, perhaps, the most important through which the 
peel has to pass before it can be pronounced sufficiently saturated 
with sugar. It is now boiled in a still stronger syrup, of a density 
of 40deg., by the testing tube; and this is done in large copper 
vessels over a slow coke fire—care being taken to prevent the peel 
from adhering to the side of the vessel by gentle stirring with a long 
paddle-shaped ladle. The second boiling will oceupy about an hour. 
Taken off the fire, the vessels are carried to a large wooden trough, 
over which is spread a coarse, open wire netting. The contents are 
poured over this, and the peel distributed over the surface of the 
netting; so that the syrup, now thickened to the consistency of 
treacle, may drain off the surface of the peel into the trough below. 
The peel has now taken up as much sugar as is necessary. 


362 


“Now comes the final process, the true candying of the cover- 
ing of the surface of the peel with the layer of sugar crystals which 
is seen upon candied fruits. To effect this a quantity of erystallised 
sugar—in Leghorn the same quality is used as is employed in the 
preparation of the syrup—is just dissolved in a little water; in this 
the now dried peel, taken off the wire netting, is immersed. The 
same copper vessels are used; and the mixture is again boiled over 
a slow fire. A short boiling will suffice for this, the last process, 
for the little water will be quickly driven off, and the sugar upon 
cooling will form its natural crystal over the surface of the fruit. 
Poured off from these vessels, it is again dried upon the surface of 
the wire netting, as before described. The candying is now com- 
plete; and the candied peel is ready for the packing room, to which 
it is earried off in shallow baskets. 

“In the packing-room may be seen hundreds of boxes of oval 
shape, or, if I may so speak, of rectangular shape with rounded 
corners, and of different sizes; for each country prefers its boxes to 
be of a particular weight, Hamburg taking the largest, of 15 and 30 
kilos; the United States of America preferring smaller, of 10 and 12 
kilos; Britain taking the smallest, of five kilos, and one containing 
about seven English pounds. The wood of which the tops and 
bottoms of these boxes are made comes to us in thin planks from 
Trieste; and a skilful packing is generally done by women—the 
boxes being lined with white paper. They are then packed in cases 
of 100 kilos, 10 of the smaller American boxes filling a case. The 
candied peel is now ready for export.” 

The proportion of sugar used in the candying process is 80 
per cent.—i.e., 80lbs. sugar for 100lbs. fruit. The wholesale prices 
of the best candied fruit fluctuate considerably, from 64d. to 9d. 
yer lb., early in the autumn. 


OTHER Fruits 


are candied pretty much after the same method, with this exception, 
that they are not put in brine, the object of which is to extract the 
bitterness peculiar to citrus fruits. 

They are, however, carefully assorted in respect to size and 
uniform degrees of ripeness, as different fruit require treatment 
with syrups of different strength. The fat, fleshy fruits absorb the 
sugar with greater difficulty than thinner and smaller fruit. 

Apples are not generally candied. 

Pears, pineapples, and quinces are pared, citrons are cut into 
quarters and soaked in brine, and the “pits” of apricots, cherries, 
and peaches are carefully removed. 

Thus prepared, the fruit is “blanched” or immersed in boiling 
water, which quickly penetrates the pulp, dissolving and diluting 


363 


the juice when the fruit is taken from the water and drained, leav- 
ing only the solid portion of the pulp intact. Skill is required for 
this process, as the pulp may be either overcooked or left too dry, 
preventing the perfect absorption of the sugar afterwards and 
causing subsequent fermentation. 

After being thus scalded some fruits—apricots, for example, 
are again sorted into two or three classes, according to the degree 
of softness that has been produced, as they take up the sugar differ- 
ently, the softer the fruit the stronger the syrup required for its 
preservation. 

For the same reason, each of the different varieties of fruit re- 
quires a syrup of corresponding strength. 

Pears, citrons, and pineapples, which remain hard and firm, 
take best a syrup having a density of from 18deg. to 25deg. Baumé; 
while apricots, plums, and figs are treated with syrup which weighs 
30deg. to 42deg. B. 

The syrup penetrates the pulp and gradually withdraws and 
replaces the remaining fruity juice, which, as it exudes and mingles 
with the transparent fluid, produces a certain filmy or cloudy ap- 
pearance, which marks the commencement of fermentation. When 
this occurs, the vessel is placed over the fire and heated to 212deg. 
F., ‘which kills the germs of fermentation, the impurities rising 
at the same time to the surface, when they can be removed by 
skimming. This process takes five to six weeks, during which time 
the heating is done two or three times. This done, the fruit is taken 
out, washed in pure water to remove the flaky particles that adhere, 
and is then submitted to the finishing “glacé” or “erystallisé” pro- 
cesses, after which they will bear transportation to any climate, and 
will keep firm and unchanged for years. It is packed in light 
wooden or cardboard boxes, and may be shipped in cases containing 
several hundred pounds each. 

Such fruit sells wholesale for about 1s. lb., the cost of fruit and 
of the processing amounting to about 10d. lb. The retail price is 
2s. to 3s. per lb. It takes 1 to 144lbs. of sugar to lb. of fruit. 


CANNING AND FRUIT PULP. 


This method of preserving edibles is modern in its industrial 
application, and is another illustration of some of Pasteur’s re- 
searches and investigations regarding the cause of fermentation. 

As demonstrated by Pasteur, fermentation is the result of 
peculiar decomposition set up by micro-organisms of definite sorts. 

Tn order to accomplish their work, these micro-organisms need, 
in, the first instance, proper food; and, secondly, sufficient moisture; 
and, thirdly, warmth. 


364 


By the abstraction of moisture, as occurs during the process 
of fruit drying or of dessication of meat, one of those essentials is 
removed, fermentation or putrefaction cannot take place, and the 
articles of food is preserved against decomposition. On the other 
hand, if warmth is needed for the satisfactory evolution and work- 
ing of those micro-organisms which cause fermentation or decom- 
position, it may either be insufficient or too cold, and then they 
remain inactive or dormant, or it may be in excess or too hot, and 
in that case their life is suspended or destroyed. 


On these principles are based the keeping of meat, milk, butter, 
etc., by freezing, or of the sterilising of wine, with a view to their 
better keeping, which is effected by heating it up rapidly to 150° 
F. (65° C.), and also rapidly cooling it to the normal tempera- 
ture. This process is known as “pasteurisation” after the name 
of the scientist who first suggested it and proved its efficiency. 


By an application of the same process, we find, in canning, a 
cheap, ready, and practical way of destroying germs of decomposi- 
tion from the articles of food we seek to preserve. How to success- 
fully achieve that end without materially dsetroying the natural 
flavour and appearance of the goods to be preserved, constitute the 
art of canning. 


A little experience will in this matter bring proficiency to the 
operator, and enable one to save much fruit that would otherwise be 
lost. 


The materials used for canning are much too numerous to 
enumerate, but amongst the more commonly used are—fish, oysters, 
meat, condensed milk, cream, asparagus, green peas, sweet corn, 
tomatoes; and amongst fruit—apricots, cherries, gooseberries, 
grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, pineapples, quinces, 
guavas, and many other fruits which endure stewing without injury 
to flavour or to the form of the fruit. 


Oranges, for instances, are not suitable for canning, on account 
of the peculiar bitter flavour they develop on cooking; while, on the 
other hand, sour or cooking apples are also unsuitable, as they cook 
into a pulp, and lose both their flavour and appearance on cooking. 

Besides preservation of fruit by drying or by sterilising by 
the application of heat, there is also a third way of preventing fer- 
mentation, and that is by heavy additions of spirits or of sugar; 
but these are unsuited for the purpose we have in view, and are too 
expensive. 


All three are legitimate ways of preserving fruit almost in- 
definitely. Another way also exists which is not lawful nor 
wholesome, and consists in the use of antiseptics which are antagon- 
istic to the development of ferments and other micro-organisms, 
such as salicylic acid, ete. These substances are all noxious poisons, 


365 


which paralyse the digestion and injuriously affect the health of the 
consumer. They are only permissable when preserving fruit speci- 
mens for show purposes. 


HovusEHoLp CANNING. 


No detailed account will be given in this chapter of the process 
of factory canning, as this constitutes an industry in itself, and re- 
quires a certain outlay of capital which is suggestive of the fact 
that whoever goes in extensively for it must previously have made 
himself familiar with the modus operandi of the business. 


In every household, however, it is not only quite possible but 
very easy to preserve, in seasons of abundance, all the fruit likely to 
be required during the off-season; and for this purpose all the outfit 
that is required merely consists of suitable jars or cans, and of the 
ordinary cooking utensils. Soldered tin cans are not to be recom- 
mended, as it may happen that the acid of the fruit will react on 
the solder and generate a toxic soluble substance injurious to health. 
Special canning glass jars, hermetically sealed, are, however, easily 
obtainable at a reasonable rate, and last indefinitely, until broken. 
One of the best is Mason’s or “lightning” jars, which are made to 
hold a pint, a quart, or two quarts of fruit. 


The fruit for canning must be of suitable kind; it must not be 
under ripe, over-ripe, or bruised; it must be graded according to 
size. Always keep the fruit in water, which cleanses it, prevents 
bruising, and, when cut open, preserves the natural colour. 


In order to execute the filling neatly, a tin funnel with a very 
wide tube, slightly smaller than the diameter of the neck of the jar, 
into which it fits easily, is found very convenient, but is not indis- 
pensable. 


Only the very best fruit is worth the trouble of canning; and 
all over-ripe, specked, or blemished fruit should be rejected or 
turned into jam. The fruit should be canned as soon as possible 
after gathering, and while still fresh, different fruit requiring dif- 
ferent preparation. 


Pears, peaches, and apricots are halved for convenience in 
cooking, although, whenever possible, a whole fruit will, as a rule, 
be more attractive to the look. A better method than paring 
peaches is to put a dozen or more at a time in a netting bag, and 
dip them for a few seconds into a kettle of boiling, weak lye. The 
fur is by this method easily rubbed off by wiping with a towel. 


A little sugar having been added to the fruit and water, the 
operation of cooking begins, and varies according to the sort of 


366 


fruit. The following table, taken from a paper by Mr. E. Shelton, 
Instructor in Agriculture, Queensland, will prove useful :— 


Time of Quantity of Sugar 


Cooking. to 1 Quart. 

Pears (halved) .. 20 minutes .. 6 ounces 
Peaches (halved) oe. 8 35 5 4 4 
Peaches (whole) sa (15 5 a6 4 33 
Apricots - en D5 si 4 +i 
Quinces (sliced) =a 19 - ee ald - 
Gooseberries .. Pot 8 55 oe 8 8 
Plums ei pe 10 ii se 8 5 
Cherries 2 a?) #3 a 6 5 
Tomatoes 23 ae - 20: . ra None 


The fruit having been picked, halved, and pared, as the case 
may be, is neatly packed into the glass jars. The jars are then 
filled with thin, clear syrup made of white sugar, in the propor- 
tions given above, or, roughly speaking, by boiling one cup of sugar 
in one quart of water; this will give sufficient syrup for two quart 
jars. The syrup is used only to make the fruit palatable, and not 
for its preserving effect. 

Place the jar in a boiler of tepid water reaching to within an 
inch of the top, and on a few nails or wooden racks with holes bored 
through. Screw on the stoppers loosely without rubber; cover the 
boiler, and boil till the fruit is done. <A lower degree than 
212° F. is unreliable; but this boiling should not be unduly carried 
on. Have some syrup ready on the stove for filling up the jars. 
When done, remove the jar from the hot water, put it in a place 
out of the reach of draughts of cold air, on a folded wet towel, so 
as to completely fill the hollow in the bottom of the jar, and thus 
ward against breakage; fill to the top with the hot syrup, wipe off 
the neck, put on the rubber, screw down the cover tightly; invert 
each can or jar, to make sure that there is no leakage and that no 
air can get in. 

If there is a leakage, remove the cover, refill with syrup, try 
another rubber, and cover if still hot; if cool, heat again as already 
explained. Thus prepared, fruit will keep indefinitely. Glass jars 
containing fruit should either be put away for keeping into a dark 
room or be wrapped up in paper so as to exelude light, which has a 
deleterious chemical effect on the fruit, causing it to turn dark in 
colour. 


Cannine In Factory. 


The following account of operations in one of the large 
Californian factories is taken from Pacific Rural Press:—“The 
fruit is pared and cored, and then washed in large troughs of clean 
water, Then each can is erowded full and marked with the grade of 


367 


the fruit to which it belongs. The cans up to this point have the 
large circular opening in the top, through which they are filled. 
They are then placed in racks holding several dozens, the racks being 
mounted on cars which bring them to the right height for convenient 
handling. They are then wheeled to the syrup tank and filled with 
syrup, about 300 to 350 pounds of sugar being used to a ton of 
peaches. The little caps to cover the circular openings, each cap 
with a small hole in the centre, are next soldered on with an ap- 
paratus by which a large number are handled in a minute. The 
truck on which stands the rack is then passed on to a tank full of 
boiling water, in which the rack, cans, and all are immersed. The 
hole in the cap is so small that no water enters, and none of the 
syrup comes out. Next, the rack full of cans is replaced on the 
truck and passed on to the second solderers, who deftly deposit a 
drop of solder on the hole in the cap. To make sure that no germs 
of decomposition are left within, the cans are again immersed in 
boiling water, and are then ready for packing, in which is included 
the placing of the proper label and boxing. The cans are made by 
machinery in the upper storey of the building, and come rolling 
down in a steady stream during working hours along a railway 


made for that purpose.” : 


PULPING FRUIT. 


Apart from fruit-canning, which needs to be done with a con- 
siderable amount of neatness, and requires a certain skill to be 
successfully carried out, a large number of the varieties of fruits 
cultivated in our orchards are not adapted for the purpose of can- 
ning. 

Pulping fruit does not present the same difficulties. The 
principles of canning apply broadly to this method of utilising our 
fruit, but the operations of pulping are, in the main, more within 
the means of the majority of fruitgrowers than is fruit-canning 
properly speaking. 

For pulping, the fruit is picked in approximately the same 
condition as for canning—firm and sweet, although the over-ripe 
fruit may be used as well. 


No sugar is required. The stone fruits are pitted and set to 
cook in a copper boiler, or preferably in a steam-jacketed pan. The 
object of this cooking is to kill all germs of decomposition, the 
time required varying from 25 to 35 minutes. The whole mass is 
kept continuously stirred to prevent caking and burning, which 
would materially damage the quality of the pulp. 

Immediately the pulp is cooked, the fire is drawn out or the 
steam shut off, and the pulp is run or ladled into tins of recognised 
size if for export. 


368 


These tins are cylindrical, 534 to 6 inches in diameter, and 10 
inches deep; they hold 10lbs. Fruit pulp is shipped from the 
South of France and Italy in packages of that size, 10 tins going 
to a case, which is reported to hold 100lbs. net. 


Occasionally, the fruit to be pulped, instead of being stirred 
and mashed in a cauldron or a basin, is halved and packed in tins, 
which are closed, then punctured and immersed in water to within 
an inch or so of the top, cooked for 20 minutes, when the tins are 
sealed. Fruit pulp done this way has a better appearance and 
bring a better price. 


For home use or for other markets, instead of the 10lb. tin, 
the large four-gallon tin, similar in shape and size with the ordinary 
kerosene tin, is used. When filled it holds 45lbs. of pulp. This 
package should be made of a heavier gauge tin than the kerosene 
tin, and thus guard against leakage caused by rough handling dur- 
ing transit. 

The filling of the tins is done in the case of small fruit through 
a good-sized funnel set over a hole three inches in diameter punched 
into the top. If apricots and such like are tinned, they are ladled 
in. 


To tomato pulp add a little salt to taste, or a mixture of salt 
and sugar in the proportion of 2 to 1. Two level teaspoonfuls of 
this mixture is added to each 2Ib. can. Select firm, red tomatoes of 
uniform size. If it is desired to peel them, dip the tomatoes for 
half a minute in boiling water and peel promptly, use a slender 
pointed knife to cut the core, without cutting into the seed cells. 


Some pulp settles down considerably when tinned. Should 
this occur, the empty space should be filled with scalded pulp. A 
small dise of tin, known as a stud, is then soldered over the hole, with 
a small vent-hole left open. ‘he tins are then treated like canned 
fruit, and placed in a hot water bath until the temperature right 
through the mass reaches over 180° F. (82° C.), so as to make sure 
that all germs are destroyed. This done, a drop of solder closes the 
vent-hole. If the operation has been successfully done there is no 
air inside, and on cooling a vacuum is created, which causes a con- 
traction, shown by a comparison of the sides and ends. If, on 
the other hand, the mass has not been thoroughly sterilised, or if 
germs have got access to it before soldering the cover, fermentations 
will before long set in, which will be accompanied by evolutions of 
gases inside, and the ends as well as the sides of the tin will bulge 
out. 


Should this happen, the “blown” tins are placed once again 
into the hot water bath, a hole is punched on the top to permit the 
escape of gas, and the temperature of the whole mass raised once 
more to 180° F., when the punctured hole is closed. 


369 


Freshly-filled tins should be kept under observation for a 
fortnight or so before being encased, and as a further precaution 
the tins are often tested. 

This is done by immersing them for a few minutes into hot 
water. The air inside thus expands, and should the least hole 
exist its presence will be revealed by a stream of small air bubbles. 

It is thus seen that fruit pulp affords a simple and ready 
means of storing until needed, all the out-of-season fruit we require 
for jam-making, marketing the balance at a time when the market 
is not glutted with the particular fruit thus preserved. 

One ton of apricots makes one ton of pulp, the water added 
making up the weight of the pits removed. 

For ccnverting into jam, about 34lb. of sugar is added to 
every pound of pulp and the mass boiled for about 30 minutes. 


JELLIES, 


Fruit jellies constitute one of the most attractive and tasty 
forms of utilising fruit; they keep indefinitely. Apples, quinces, 
loquats, plums, apricots, grapes, strawberries, guavas, Cape goose- 
berries, rosellas, and a host of other fruit can thus be treated. 

Peetie acid, sugar and heat combined with fruit juice, cause the 
mass to set in a jelly. For that reason fruits not quite over-ripe 
are preferable, as they contain a larger amount of pectic acid, which, 
on ripening, is gradually converted into pectin, whilst the fruit 
becomes soft to the touch. When combined with sugar, and boiled 
for a certain time and then cooled, fruit juices coagulate and set 
into a jelly. 

The amount of sugar required is approximately equal to that 
of the fruit juice. In order to impart to the jelly a clearer fracture 
lemon juice is at times added. If the fruit is cut with a sharp 
spoon (not iron) or with a plated knife, it will not brown. 

To make into jelly the fruit is boiled in an enamel, aluminium, 
or a copper vessel, peel, core, and all, until quite soft, but not 
pulpy, water to cover the fruit is used. It is then strained by 
squeezing through a cloth or through a flannel bag. To each pint 
of juice, add 34 to Ib. of brewer’s crystals. After boiling briskly 
for half an hour the liquid, placed on a plate, will jellify. This 
takes place at a temperature of about 113° C. (235° F.). Another 
good test is to let a drop or two of the boiled fruit juice into a 
tumbler of water, when, should it sink to the bottom of the glass, 
it is ready for bottling. The jars should be hot when filled to the 
edge; all air bubbles are removed with the back of a knife drawn 
across the surface. 

After standing for a few hours in a cool place, away from 
dust, the jars are covered with paper that has been dipped in milk, 
or white of egg, or in spirits of wine, and put away until required. 


370 


Fruit juice can be kept for jelly-making by running straight 
from the press into clean glass jars or bottles immersed to the neck 
in hot water, which is then kept above 140° F. for half an hour or 
so. Stoppers, corks, caps, or rubber rings should be heated (in 
the same way, and the bottles of juice closed when hot; such 
sterilisation of the acid juice obviating the necessity of adding 
chemical preservations. 


GATHERING AND MARKETING FRUIT. 


As the fruit ripens it is picked, packed, and marketed. More 
skill is required to effect these operations to the best advantage 
than is at first imagined, and in this respect past experience is of 
no mean value. 


GATHERING 


plays an important part in the keeping of fruit. Just when and 
how to pick is an art which is acquired, but certain peculiarities, 
when observed, will secure for the grower the reward of his labour. 

The right stage at which fruit should be picked is in a 
measure governed by the market it is destined for. The local 
market is best supplied with fruit fully ripe, when it possesses 
in its fullest measure all its succulence and attractive colouring. 
For shipment to distant markets, and for long keeping, it is im- 
perative to pick fruit when ripe, but before it reaches the period 
of full maturity. In such cases, quality, and appearance must give 
precedence to long-keeping property. There is no very well-defined 
line showing ripeness from full maturity, and here experience is 
needed; that experience, however, is easily acquired. 

If the fruit is picked too green it also often shrivels, lacks 
flavour, and does not sell to advantage. If too ripe, it does not 
earry well. 

Apples are picked at different stages. Most large, early soft- 
fleshed apples, such as Mr. Gladstone, Red Astrakan, Lord Suffield, 
and others of the same class, should be gathered early before they 
are fully ripe. They then travel much better. They should [be 
marketed as quickly as possible after picking. It is surprising how 
soon early apples lose their freshness and, therefore, their market- 
able value after being gathered. They soon become mealy, dis- 
organisation of their tissues set in, and they rot. 

As regards mid-season apples, the state of the market should 
influence the period of picking. 

Late apples for home use or local market should be left as 
long on the trees as possible. It is certainly a mistake to sell, with 
mid-season fruit, apples which if kept a month or so longer would 
sell much better. 


371 


For long-keeping apples for export, gather when the fruit is 
full grown, and the pips turn dark brown or nearly black. They 
will colour and mature during transit. 

Pears require, in gathering, much the same treatment. Few 
pears are at their best if allowed to ripen on the tree, they either 
become dry or mushy at the core or develop hard stone cells or a 
woody kernel. Early pears should always be gathered for market 
before they become fully ripe, and should be marketed rather 
under than over ripe. Mid-season pears may remain on the tree 
a little longer, except the Bartlett or William’s Bon Chretien, 
which, picked when fully grown, but hard, ripens without 
shrivelling. Late pears should be picked before they are fully ripe, 
or else they become gritty. Kieffer’s pears are picked two or 
three weeks before they are fit to eat, if allowed to hang until 
ripe, the core becomes a mass of woody lumps. Apples and 
pears, when fit to be picked, snap clean off the fruiting spur upon 
being lifted gently upwards. This avoids breaking off the fruit 
spur to which they are attached, and upon which next year’s fruit 
would be produced. For packing, they should not be allowed to 
remain on the trees until the surface bas a greasy appearance and 
feels greasy to the touch. When allowed to reach this stage, they 
will not keep as well as those gathered earlier. 


When picking peaches, it should be remembered that a fine 
appearance always infers good flavour and other merits. Peaches 
and apricots seldom colour well after they are picked, and picking is 
one of the most difficult parts of the business of peach and 
apricot culture. Most people can pick green pears and apricots and 
knock them down to the ground, but it takes some experience to 
judge, by a subtle feeling of the fruit when pressed between the 
finger and the thumb, when it is ready to come off. After a little 
practice the picker can generally tell by the colour of the fruit 
whether it is fit to pick or not. When a large number of trees have 
to be gone over it is advisable to pick a little too soon rather than 
let the crop get ahead of you, as, when ripe, the wind often brings 
them down by the bushel. It is sometimes two or three weeks 
from the time the first apricots and peaches are fit to pick until 
the last are ripe; the trees should be gone over two or three times a 
week. In some large orchards in America the pickers do not climb 
up the trees, this process being considered slow, and resulting in 
. much green fruit being knocked off. In those orchards it is pre- 
ferred to jar the tree when the dew is off and collect the ripe fruit, 
which then does not pick up dirt. For that purpose the ground 
underneath the trees is reduced to a fine tilth, so as to save 
bruising the falling fruit. The jarring is done with a long pole 
or bamboo with a hook fastened at the end, and the knack of de- 
livering the blow results in just that fruit which is of the proper 


372 


stage of ripeness being brought down. ‘A similar process is used 
when gathering prunes. 

‘Plums may be picked almost green for distant shipment, as 
they colour in transit. This ig even more noticeable in the case of 
the Japanese plums, which ripen and colour very well when stored 
in a cool, dark place. 

Cherries and plums, if allowed to hang too long, are severely 
affected by the fruit-rot fungus. For the same reason they should 
always be picked when dry, or else decay will soon consume them. 
When picking cherries and plums the stem should be cut off with 
the thumb nail, and the fruit itself should not be touched, lest the 
delicate bloom be rubbed off. 

Persimmons have not yet been shipped away to any large ex- 
tent, although they lend themselves to long shipment, as they are 
picked when well coloured but still hard, and on keeping soften and 
mellow. When the consumers learn what stage that fruit should 
be eaten in and acquire a taste for it, a large trade will develop. 
With careful packing, they would travel long distances and open 
up at the end of the journey sound and good. 

Figs are picked when fully ripe; they do not ripen after pick- 
ing, and do not become sweeter than when cut from the tree. As 
they do not ripen all at once, the trees must be gone over daily. A 
ripe fig is soft to the touch and is generally wrinkled and hangs 
downward. Some kinds, when ripe, show seams or cracks on their 
jacket. For drying, they should be cut when they contain about 
one-third of their weight of sugar; for eating, they may be gathered 
when they are sweet and palatable. They should on no account be 
shaken off the trees, as bruised figs soon sour, and a few such would 
spoil a whole box full. Pulling the figs from the tree will also 
injure them. The proper method is to cut each ripe fruit clean off 
the branch and carefully place it in boxes or trays. Those figs 
which hang high up the tree, beyond easy reach, may be picked by 
means of a readily-made appliance, consisting of a light pole with a 
jam tin with sharp edges, nailed to its extremity. The edge of the 
tin is pressed against the soft fruit stalk of the fig, which it cuts, 
and then the fruit drops into the tin. 

Grapes are best picked when fully ripe. If picked when just 
coloured, but tart, they won’t ripen further. The bloom always 
shows when grapes ripen. Care should be taken, when picking the 
hunch, to hold it by the stem, which is then snipped with shears. 
Karly, tender grapes, with soft skin will travel better if picked 
before they are fully ripe. More fleshy grapes, on the other hand, 
gain both as regards quality and appearance if allowed to hang 
until sun-kissed and quite ripe. 

Gooseberries may be marketed either green or ripe. It is con- 
sidered less exhausting to the bush when the smaller fruits are 


373 


picked green and the finest ones allowed to ripen. Green goose- 
berries are stripped from the branches quite rapidly. They may 
then be run through the fanning mill to free them from leaves and 
then packed for market. 

Currants are allowed to colour, and are picked when they are 
ripe. 

Strawberries are picked with their stalks when they have quite 
coloured. A strawberry which has a green or white tip seldom 
carries well if picked at that stage. 


Blackberries and raspberries are not necessarily ripe when they 
have coloured. They should be soft and free from acidity, when 
they shake off the bushes readily and part from the stem on which 
they grow. 


Melons sometimes puzzle the inexperienced growers. Water 
melons often sound hollow to percussion, and the stalk begins to 
wither, although this is not an infallible sign. A crackling sound 
is heard when pressing lightly ou the melon. One of the best 
symptoms, however, is the clearer colour of the rind, which at times 
shows a faint tint of yellow. Musk and rock melons, when ripen- 
ing, sometimes crack more or less up to the stem. On pulling they 
should come clean off. Some of the larger varieties do not part so 
readily from the stem, and if pulled show a large hole in the rind; 
with those it is best to cut the stem. 

For Pineapples, well ventilated crates are necessary. The 
width should be sufficient to take the pinapple crossways, the crown 
pressing on one side and the stalk on the other; soft paper or maize 
chuck being used to keep the pineapples from bruising one another. 
A erate 3ft. Gin. x 1ft. 6in. x 1ft. 6in. will hold a dozen good size 
pineapples placed in two layers. 

Of other fruits, bananas, plantains, and tomatoes are picked 
when just showing faint signs of approaching maturity, as they 
ripen during transit, and may with safety be held back until ready 
for use. 


Fruir Picking APPLIANCES. 


For the convenience of pickers, and for ensuring that fruit is 
gathered expeditiously and without bruises, a few ingenious orchard 
appliances are here illustrated. 

A long and light orchard ladder is essential when pruning tall 
trees and gathering fruit. Such a ladder can readily be made of 
some fibrous kind of timber, such as stringy bark or oregon pine. 
The peaked top enables it to be run into the top of tall trees and 
rested against a branch. 

On page 129 is illustrated a clumsy four-footed step-ladder, 
which is generally heavy and easily dislocated. An ordinary-hinged 


374 


step ladder with a flat top, where baskets may be placed, is very 
useful. 


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Fri it Ladders. 


Some fruit often hangs at the top of long branches and out of 
the reach of the pickers. One common way of 
getting them down consists in dislodging them by 
means of a long pole. It generally happens 
that such fruit is knocked about and bruised beyond 
recognition. In order to reach these outlying fruits, 
various kinds of fruit-picking devices are used, two 
of which are here illustrated. 

This picker consists of a long pole armed at 
the end with a V-shaped hook, which pulls the 
fruit from the stalk; a canvas hose 
stretched round a hoop fastened 
underneath the picker conveys 
the fruit to, the hand, one fruit 
only being allowed to come down 
the bag at a time. 

The second design is another 
ingenious one, which any tin- 
smith can make. It should, for 
the sake of lightness, be made 
caren of tin-wire. In that ease, the fruit 
delivery sack. is delivered to the picker by taking 

down the contrivance. 


Wire Picker. 


375 


A particularly convenient one is the orchard ladder, de- 
signed by Mr. Godfrey Hester, of the Blackwood, for pruning or 
for picking fruit. The ladder is deseribed as being really a wheel- 


« 


eyo ~| 


Mr. Godfrey Hester’s Orchard Ladder. 


barrow frame with a step-ladder attached, the step-ladder portion 
being brought forward on such an angle to insure absolute stability. 
The ladder is undoubtedly an improvement over all other appli- 
anees of this nature, inasmuch as it can be wheeled in close to the 


376 


tree and the fruit picked withcut damaging or destroying the tree 
or interfering with the crop. The same, of course, applies 
to pruning operations. The wheel of the ladder is 20 inches 
in diameter, with a 12-inch axle, thus raising the framework 10 
inches off the ground at the wheel end, whilst, at the ladder end, 
the frame work is 14 inches off the ground, insuring steadiness when 
standing on the top rung. The framework of the ladder is manu- 
factured from 3in. x 2in. jarrah, whilst the step-ladder portion is 
Gin. x lin. jarrah. There are forward stays to hold the ladder in 
position. 

Patent applied for 


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Fig. 4. 
Picking Bag. 


When picking, particularly for storage and for export, the im- 
portance of avoiding the fruit being bruised or pulling the stem 
out need not be stressed. A doubled-up bag fastened apron-like on 
the belt, or better still, the kind of picking bag shown in the illus- 


377 


* + tration is found very convenient. The fruit can then be carefully 
tipped into the picking cases—kerosene cases bound with light hoop- 
iron last for that purpose for years. 

Unless sufficiently experienced, apple pickers should be pro- 
vided with rings, and no fruit, especially for the early boats, should 
be pulled under 21% inches, unless it is not likely to fill out more. 

Fruit picked before the right stage is reached often shrivel, 
and do not ripen; on the other hand if exported when over-ripe, 
blemished or diseased, nothing but loss need be anticipated. 


GRADING. 


The farther the orchard is away from market, the greater the 
need of bestowing on picking and packing fruits the attention it 
deserves, The wants of the local markets are in a manner under- 
stood and complied with by most growers; but commercial fruit- 
growing, which generally means shipping to long distances and 
necessitate numerous and at times rough handling, must be known 
and studied. 

However carefully the frait has been picked, it is essential, in 
order to secure top market price, to grade it. This is best done by 
hand, as most mechanical graders advertised are only suitable for 
sorting out potatoes or second-class hard fruit, or for grading dried 
fruit. . 

A definition of what constitutes “first-class fruit” will prove 
instructive to growers. A perfect specimen is not necessarily 
first-cla:s fruit. First-class fruit as understood in the market 
is a parcel of fruit of one variety, full grown, well-coloured, 
without blemish due to insect or fungoid blight, carefully picked, 
all of as near as possible one size, shape, degree of ripeness, 
got up in neat and appropriate packages, showing no shrinkage, 
and correctly labelled. Some growers sort out their fruit into 
three or even four grades, such as “extras” or “selected,” “fancy,” 
and “first-class” and “culls.” In that case the term second-class 
or No. 2 is often substituted for the term “culls.” 

These names are preferred by some fruit dealers to the 
numerical descriptions representing the quality of fruit, as although 
No. 2 grade may, for all purposes, be almost as good as No. 1, yet 
many object to appear dealing in any commodity which is not first 
class. On the other hand, those fancy names described above do not 
convey any very clear and definite idea of the standard which directs 
their classification, and what appears “extra” or “fancy” to one 
dealer may not fill another dealer’s ideal. 

Of fruit graders a number of types are found in the market, 
but they are all constructed on the same principle, and the above 
diagram illustrates an easily constructed home-made grader, which 


378 


finds favour in California. A strong oblong frame is constructed of - 
4 x 4 timber about 9ft. apart, well braced, with the uprights set 
wide enough to allow the shoot to play between them. The shoot 
(B) is about 12ft. long by 2ft. wide, and is provided with as many 


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Home-made Fruit Grader 


screens as it is desired to have grades of fruit. These sereens may 
be made of galvanised iron with holes of the desired size punched 
into them, and may be changed to suit the kind of fruit to be 
graded. First comes the dirt sereen, 3ft. x 2ft., then, say, the screen 
for small fruit and culls, which is followed by a larger screen and a 
larger one again, while the largest fruit may, if so desired, be 
delivered into a box at the end of the shoot. The lower part under 
the shoot contains the bins with slopmg bottom so that the fruit 
will slide easily. 

The sereens shown in the lower part of the illustration are for 
apricots and plums; larger holes would be required for larger 
fruits. 

The shoot is hung on the uprights with iron straps about one 
foot long, in which holes are punche so that the pitch of the shoot 
may be changed. A rocking motion can thus he imparted to the 
shoot by means of a lever bolted to the under side of the frame. 


379 


This lever when puwled and released strikes a bumper provided 
alongside, and gives to the rocking shoot a jar, which sends the 
fruit along. It must be remembered that no machine grades to 
colour or throws out rejects. 


Although a preliminary grading is done in the orchard when 
picking, this necessary operation is completed in the packing shed, 
and in the case of export apples the grading and wrapping pro- 
ceeds with the packing. 


If the bulk of the fruit on the bench is 214 inches, the packer 
starts on that size, and when that is exhausted, passes on to the 
next grade which happens to be most in evidence. 


When grading, sizes range upwards not downwards; thus:— 
A 2-inch apple is 2 inches up to 2% inches. 
A 2%4%-inch apple is 214 inches up to 244 inches. 
A 2%-inch apple is 214 inches up to 234 inches. 
A 234-inch apple is 234 inches up to 3 inches. 
A 3-inch apple is 3 inches up to 314 inches. 


Large sizes are not much in demand, and the fruit does not 
carry so well as the medium size, which are the best for export. 


A good, experienced packer will grade, wrap, and pack 10 
bushel cases of apples an hour and keep up the average. 


Strawberries, cherries, and such like fruit are best packed 
straight away into the small wooden punnets, and when thus filled 
they may be placed without further handling into strong crates. 


PackIne. 


Good fruit deserves good packing, and bad fruit will not sell 
without it. Every orchardist should be well imbued of that fact, 
and keep it well in mind. Anything that tends to give the buyer 
the idea that extra care has been used in the packing will pay. 

It is admitted on all hands that apart from detracting from 
the look of the contents, and bringing for first-class fruit second- 
class prices, the pernicious practice of using soiled, stained, second- 
hand packages often proves to be the means of unconsciously 
distributing destructive orchard pests. 

The Commonwealth as well as the State Regulations fortunately 
prohibit the use of second-hand fruit cases for packing fruit. 

The lower price goods packed in second-hand cases invariably 
feteh whenever compared with the same grade goods packed in new 
cases is in itself sufficient to stamp this class of package as costly 
to the grower, who often, moreover, is given cause to repent having 
used them when new blights and pests carried as spores, eggs, or 
larve in the cracks and crevices of the timber, invade his garden. 


380 


Honesty in packing is a cardinal rule which should on no occa- 
sion be departed from, and especially on a glutted market is the 
grower made aware of it. The glaring fraud of topping inferior 
fruit and rubbish with picked specimens is, as a rule, so noticeable 
that it passes comprehension that some should still persist in it. 

It very frequently happens that in order to test the packing the 
dealers open the cases sideways, or on the bottom end; and even 
often, when a large parcel comes under the hammer, one or two 
cases, picked out at random, are tipped on the table exposed to 
view, and stand as a sample of the whole lot. 

For long-distance shipping, it stands to reason that nothing 
but first-class fruit will pay for freight, packing, for shrinkage due 
to natural causes, and other incidental changes. 


WEIGHT or A BusHEL or Fruit. 


With the object of bringing uniformity as regards the contents 
of fruit cases, growers, and also the Legislature have adopted 
cases of various sizes based upon the imperial bushel standard, 
which measures 2,218 cubic inches. 


When filled, however, the weight varies with the kind of fruit. 
Thus an average bushel of apples, pears, and quinces is put down at 
40lbs., although a bushel of good-keeping apples weighs 42lbs; 
peaches, nectarines, apricots weigh 48-50lbs.; plums 56-60lbs. and 
more; and grapes 35-40lbs. per bushel case. 


THe DraconaL Pack. 


Until the numerical system of diagonal packing for apples 
and oranges became more generally followed, the practice was to 
pack in almost any kind of ease, or in barrels, and it was per- 
missible to double face the package—bottom and top—a layer of 
fruit being carefully set at the bottom, these for the sake of 
uniformity showing the same side; over these, fruit of the same 
grade and type was used as a superstructure, and a top layer of 
even and picked fruit also facing the same way was set before 
pressing down gently and nailing the cover. 

This system has now been quite superseded by the “diagonal 
pack,” which originated in California in connection with the pack- 
ing of oranges for transport over long distances when it is essen- 
tial to provide a maximum of,tightness to ensure a minimum of 
bruising. 

The advantages from a marketable point of view were so 
obvious and the system moreover ensured that for a given grade 
of fruit a definite numerical content can be relied upon that it be- 
came universally adopted in Canada and in the United States. 


, ast 
Packing Apples. 

Under the “diagonal numerical system,’ apples and oranges, 
according to size, are packed, not in rows directly on the top of 
the other but in alternated rows so that each fruit comes over the 
space between two or three; this gives to the whole caseful more 
solidity and elasticity. 

Aceording to size, the fruit is packed as follows :— 

The 2-1 pack, containing 5 tiers or layers to the case. 
The 2-2 pack, containing 6 tiers or layers to the case. 
The 3-2 pack, containing 7 tiers or layers to the case. 

The constant number of tiers or layers in the case is due to 
the fact that all apples in the second tier rest in the space or de- 
pression formed by the three apples underneath on which it is 
set; this applies right through the layer and also applies to each 
layer following, right up to the top of the case. Where the bigger 
sized apples are packed the spaces are larger than is the case with 
the smaller and closer fitting fruit; they sit deeper into the space 
below. The number of layers or tiers for each numerical diagonal 
pack being constant, the number of fruit in the case is readily 


A.—2 — 1 pack. B.—2 — 1. 
5 x 5. 7x 6. 


known by multiplying the number in each layer or tier by the 
number of tiers in the case. The rows should be straight, both 
lengthways and diagonally. 

The 2-1 pack, the 2-2 pack, and the 3-2 pack. 

The fruits are so arranged that the rows run in direct lines 
lengthways, and also in straight lines diagonally. 


382 


The 2-1 pack is used for large size apples from 3in. upwards. 
The first fruit is one of the corners at the end of the case nearest 
the packer, the left-hand corner generally. The second fruit is 
placed in the opposite right-hand corner. The third fruit is sct 
between these two fruits as shown in the fig. and the fourth fruit 
should be placed in line with fruit No. 1. 

In Fig. A three rows of 5 apples each are shown and the pack 
is known as the 2-1, 5 x 5, which means that the three rows have 
4 apples each or 15 to the layer or tier. The five tiers will be alike 
and the number of apples will be 15 x 5 = 75 to the ease. 

Fig. B is packed with apples a little smaller and is made up 
of 2 rows of 7 apples each and one of 6 apples, or twenty to the 
tier. But as the second tier will have two rows of 6 apples and 
one of 7, the total for the tier will be 19. The third tier will be 
like the first, the fourth like the second, and the fifth or top tier 
will also be like the first and third. 

The number of apples will be 3 x 20 and 2 x 19, or 98 to the 
case. 

The 2-2 pack is used for apples going 2/in. to 3in. in diameter. 


THE 2-2 DIAGONAL PACK 


For Large Sizes 


First Layer Second Layer How to start 
a 2-2 Pack 


The 2 — 2 Diagonal Pack. For large sizes. 


The first fruit is placed in the left-hand corner nearest the 
packer. The second, also against the end of the box, with a space 
on either side as shown in the diagram. The third and fourth 
fruits are fitted into the spaces between the first and second and 
so on until the tier is all placed. 


383 


The second tier is started by placing the first apple in the 
right-hand corner in the space left by the first tier; the next apple 
in the space midway between the first and second apples, and the 
others in the spaces left in the first tier as shown in the fig. 


The 2-2 pack carries 6 tiers, and the illustration shows fruit 
packed 7 x 6, i.e., two rows of 7 and two of 6 apples, or 26 to the 
tier and 156 to the case. 


The 3-2 pack is used for apples of Zin. to 2Ygin. in diameter. 
The case contains 7 tiers and each tier has five rows lengthways 
to the case. 


A fruit is placed in eack corner, with a third midway between. 
The fourth and fifth are placed in the two spaces between the first 
three fruits. 


The illustration shows a 3-2 pack with three rows of seven 
and two of six, or 33 to the first, third, fifth, and seventh tiers, 
and 32 apples to the second, fourth, and sixth tiers, or altogether 
228 to the case. The adjoining case in the fig. shows 5 rows of 
6 each, or 30 to the tier, and 210 to the case. 


In all these packs, when the first tier is completed, it should 
be sufficiently tight to permit the box being held on end without 
the fruit falling out. 


384 


The illustration below shows the same kind of apple but of 
three different grades, cased as shown :— 


Wrapping. 


For the local or the interstate trade the fruit is simply graded, 
sorted, and packed, but for overseas export wrapping is the 
practice. The paper is glazed on one side and rough on the side 
next to the fruit. It is cut to the required size, varying from 
8in. x 10in. and 10in. x 10in. to even 12in. x 12in. 

Wrapping serves as a cushion and localises and checks the 
spores of fungoid diseases from spreading to the rest of the fruits 
in the case. 

The packer, who usually wears a rubber finger-stall to more 
readily pick up the paper, lays it flat in the palm of the hand 
and with the other hand places the apple to be wrapped with the 
eye in the centre of the paper, closes the fingers slightly, and 
twists the edges, enclosing the stalk of the apple in the twist. 


Packing Oranges, Lemons, and Mandarins. 


For export nothing but the best oranges should be packed. 
The fruit should be carefully picked from the tree and the stalk 
clipped above the star; fruit pulled from the tree will not keep. All 
citrus fruit should be allowed to sweat for four or five days to 
guard against the oil cells in the rind getting bruised, the rind 
also gets leathery, and the fruit carries better. Unless this is 
done there will be a notable shrinkage in the case which will open 
slack. 


385 


When packing naval oranges the eye should face downwards 
in the first tier, and upwards in the second. This class of fruit - 
is generally packed from the open side of the ease; smaller sizes, 
however, are often packed from the top of the case. 


Oranges—Side pack 


Lemons, after sweating, are also packed like oranges on the 
3-2 or, if packed from the open side, the 4-3 principle, with rows 
of 3 or of 4 fruit. 

Mandarins are packed in flat cases from the open side; like 
oranges and lemons they need to be packed tighter than apples. 
If they take three tiers, the first is set with eyes downwards, the 
third with eyes upward, and the centre on the cheek. 


Packing Pears. 


For local market pears are packed like apples in bushel cases 
according to the 2-1, 2-2, or 3-2 method. Good carrying sorts like 
Kieffer Hybrid may also be thus packed. 

In packing, the eye or calyx is turned towards the packer, 
except when the end of the tier or layer is reached, when the calyx 
of the two or three pears ending the tier instead of being turned 
towards the packer are turned away from him and face the end 
of the case; this helps to tighten up the layer. 


386 


flat cases 


kK, 3 xX 38. and 4 x 4. 


Two grades of Lemons in 


4 


3 — 2 pach 


Lemons 


AC. 


4—3 p 


Mandarina. 


387 


In the second tier and those following, the fruit is set in the 


spaces left by the pears of the bottom layer, and so on until the 
whole case is packed. 


3—2 2a YZ 2-1, 
5 xk 5 4x4 5 x 5, 
Pears. 


Pear trays have of late superseded cases and have proved very 
successful in packing and shipping such delicate fruit to handle 
as are pears. 

The inside measurement of these trays are 18in. x 1414in. x 


3in. Three trays are cleated together as shown in the fig., the 


Three Pear trays cleated together. 


. 388 


measurement of the package being much the same as that of the 
dump case. The top tray, when the three are cleated together, is 
the only one which requires a cover, the first tray of course having 
its bottom or outside cover. 

The illustration shows three grades of pears packed in trays. 
It will be noticed that all the pears face in the same direction with 
the exception of the top fruits, which are reversed so as to present 


3. 4— 3. 4 
3. 4x 3. 5 


Pears packed in trays. 


‘3. 
5. 


3 a" — 
4x x 
the eye or calyx to the outer end of the package. It is advisable 
to line the bottom and the top of each tray with a thin layer of 


wood wool which helps to guard against the pears rubbing and 
chafing. 


Nailing-down Cases. 


When the cases have been properly packed there should be a 
slight bulge of fruit over the sides. The case is placed for nailing 
down over two eross battens on the floor, or on the packing table. 
Cross cleats, soaked in water before nailing to prevent splitting, 
are nailed through at each end of the cover boards. When the 
first cross cleat has been nailed down the lid boards are pressed 
down over the bulging fruit, and a second cross cleat is nailed 
down at the other end of the case. 

Four 244in. case nails are sufficient to secure each cleat. 


Branding. 


Neat and distinct stencil plates with block letters are applied 
over the ends of the case and show the variety of fruit, nain2 of 
variety, size of fruit or the number in the case, name and address 
of the grower, name of the State, and the capacity of the case, i.e., 
“one bushel.” 

On the other end are stencilled the initials of the firm the 
fruit is consigned to, and the port of destination. 


Nailed-down case over cross battens showing bulge top and bottom. 


390 


Packing Grapes. 

Grapes do not all carry or keep well. Those late kinds with a 
tough skin and firm flesh and with a pedicel that breaks clean off 
the bunch instead of tearing off the berry, are the best for 
shipping. 

The bunches of grapes having been snipped off the vines with 
as little handling as possible, are carefully laid in baskets, and 
taken to the packing shed. It is preferable to pick them in clear, 
dry weather, and in the cool of the morning. When packing in 
the large cases, which are first lined with clean white paper, com- 
mence by packing the bunches firmly and neatly together, stalks 
inside and point downwards. After packing a few layers, rock 
the case sharply to cause the grapes to settle firmly, and proceed 
in a like manner until the case is full. The last bunch or bunches 
should fit in extra tight, the top layer having been carefully laid 
on the surface, which should stand an ineh or so above the side 
of the case. The lining paper is then folded on top, the lid laid 
flat, and pressure gently applied with the knee whilst the nails are 
being driven. Any small empty corner or hollow can with advantage 
be filled by means of a few berries snipped off by the scissors. 

Nothing in the shape of packing should be placed on the top 
or among the bunches for the local market. Growers within easy 
carting distance of the market take their fruit in open cases lined 
with paper, full loads being carted by means of an extra decking 
made of loose boards fitting on the lorry frame or on the spring cart. 
Grapes thus delivered to market look fresher and command a much 
better price than similar grapes nailed down and carted or railed 
to market. 

For export, cork dust is well sifte] in between the berries. 
The cork dust should be coarse, as, if too fine, it spoils the appear- 
ance of the berries, and works out of the case. 

The grapes should not be over-ripe or sunburnt, but may be 
exposed to the air for a little time to allow of the skin being 
toughtened a little before packing. 

After the bunches have been spread out for a few hours, each 
bunch is gone over, and faulty berries are removed with a pair of 
SC1SSOrs. 

Of the tough varieties, the berries of which adhere firmly to 
the stalk, only the more open bunches are fit to pack for distant 
markets, 

The amount of cork dust required for packing grapes (a bushel 
ease) varies from 4lbs. to 6lbs. Begin with 6 lbs., and with practice 
reduce to 4lbs. 

Some of the tougher grapes, such as Almeria, Flame Tokay, 
Emperor, when properly packed in grannlated cork, will carry 
without cool storage to distances of 12 to 14 days’ travel from the 
port of shipment, and open out in excellent condition. 


391 


With good carrying varieties of grapes, suitably packed, an 
important trade with India, Java, and Singapore, only ten to twelve 
days from our shores, lies within our reach. 

Export grape cases weigh 40 to 41 lbs. gross, the weight being 
made up of 28 to 30 lbs. of grapes, 4 lbs. cork dust, and 8 lbs. for 
the case. There is a shrinkage of a pound or two at the end of the 
voyage. 


Fruit Packing Howse. 


In all commercial orchards some roomy and well-ventilated 
and well-lighted shed or building is required for receiving, sweating, 
storing, sorting, and packing the fruit. The size should depend on 
the quantity of fruit to be handled at one time. 

The plan given below shows a fruit-packing house half as long 
again at it is wide. A dry well-ventilated cellar is convenient for 
storing cases in shooks and packing material. 


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PLAN OF PACKING HOUSE. 


Tt is found convenient to have the floor of the shed on the same 
level as the floor of the spring carts or lorry conveying the cases 
of freshly picked fruit from the orchard. 

A roomy table with as many compartments as there are 
packers, allowing 3ft. by 4ft., holds plenty of fruit, and can be re- 
plenished as required. 

The illustration of the interior of the citrus packing shed at 
Harvey, shows a sloping bench running along the side of the pack- 
ing house. The bench has rounded laths bottom, set 34in, apart to 


392 


permit leaves, twigs, etc., to fall: through. Packing trollies with 
cases set at a convenient angle for quick packing, and a tray hold- 
ing the wrapping paper and the packer’s ticket or number are also 
shown; also the packed cases ready to nail down. 


Interior Citrus Packing House, Harvey. 


Curing or Lemons 


Oranges and lemons must undergo a preliminary process of 
euring before they are packed and shipped to distant markets. 

Whenever possible, cittus fruits should be picked in dry 
weather, but this is not always practicable with us when they chiefly 
ripen during the rainy winter months; should they be wet, they 
must be dried before packing. 

When picking for long storing, only those fruits which are free 
from blemishes should be chosen; any thorn prick or scaly fruit will 
have a very poor chance of keeping. Some pickers are even so 
careful that they keep their nails well trimmed. Each fruit is 
individually clipped off the branch by means of specially constructed 
lemon clippers with blunt blade tips and a spring like those on 
secateurs; a knife at times grazes the fruit and causes it to rot. 

The fruit, when picked, is placed either in baskets or a waist 
sack, and carefully transferred to the sweat boxes. Before sweat- 


393 


ing the lemons are washed, if necessary, to remove scale insects, 
and the sooty mould or fumagine. This is done with hand brushes 
or in specially constructed washing machines. 


In large groves a good plan is to have a child follow the picker 
with a padded basket to receive the fruit. 


The rind of a fresh-picked orange or lemon is easily bruised, 
the oil cells are then turgid and distended, and the slightest bruise 
or seratch ruptures them. 


For long keeping, lemons are picked still green when they 
attain the size desired, pickers using metal rings of the required 
diameter, 7.¢., 2Ygin. to 2Yin. The trees are gone over about once 
every month, this lightening up of the trees help them to carry the 
later fruit. 


According to seasons a quantity of lemons will ripen before 
they attain the picking size. These “tree-ripe” fruit are picked as 
well as the right size green ones, but being already coloured and 
matured they do not require curing, and are marketed as soon as 
possible, as they lack keeping quality. 


Only the right size, sound, green lemons are “cured” for long 
keeping and a better market. During the curing process the colour 
gradually changes from green to a waxy, lemon yellow, the thick 
rind becomes thin, the layer of white, spongy material it is made 
of shrinking materially, leaving an apparent increase in the quality 
of juice under a thin, leathery rind. The process takes about a 
month to six weeks to run. 


In California, where the art of curing has been svstematised, 
the lemons are washed if necessary and sweated; then they are 
loosely packed in packing cases, which are stacked and covered by 
by curing tents. It is eonceded that for successful curing there 
should be as much uniformity as possible of temperature (85 to 
90 deg.) and humidity. The packing house and curing tents are 
so constructed as to bring about these conditions. These tents con- 
sist of rectangular rooms usually of sufficient size to hold about 
600 packing-cases of loose fruit, or about one car load. Thev econ- 
sist of a frame about 15ft. x 15ft. The sides and tops of these 
rooms are of canvas, the sides being lapped over one another at the 
corners and fastened with cords drawn through hooks. Both sides 
and ends of the tent can be raised or lowered by means of cords 
and small pulleys. A roller sewn at the bottom is found convenient 
for that purpose. In this way it is possible to allow air to circulate 
among the boxes or to shut it out almost entirely. Boxes are stacked 
insidéd these tents in blocks 12ft. x 12ft. x 8ft. high. On jealm 
nights the curtains can be rolled up and lowered again in the morn- 
ing. The fruit is gone through carefully every fortnight, each case 
being taken down separately and stacked up in a fresh heap. 


394 


A successful Californian lemon grower thus describes his curing 
room, which is based on the principle mentioned above, and offers 
the advantage of being simplicity itself: 

The lemons are always picked carefully in the autumn; but 
only those that are green are stored. The coloured ones are mar- 
keted at once. The lemons to be cured are placed in boxes 16 by 
10 by 24 inches, filled so that when stacked the case on top does 
not rest on the lemons below. 

If the weather is dry, and the lemons have sweated, these cases 
are the next to be placed in a cellar which is dug in the ground, 
the size being according to the space required. One top ventilator 
is all that is necessary, and there should be no others to cause a 
draught with the exception of the door which should be open at 
night, when the temperature should not be over 60° F. The cellar 
should be kept perfectly dry. The boxes are stacked close together 
to avoid the circulation of what air there is. The lemons are rarely 
sorted over if kept according to above directions. The rind is not 
thicker than one-eighth of an inch all through, smooth as a glove, 
and the lemons are as firm as the day they were picked off the 
tree. 

The essential conditions of such a house are exclusion of light, 
regulation of temperature, ventilation under control, convenience 
of handling. Provided these requirements are borne in mind, much 
less pretentious storing houses, readily constructed out of material 
on the ground, may be made to answer the same purpose. Any 
roomy shed, built with pug or pisé walls, about one foot thick, 
with ventilators at the top of the walls, will prove cheap and con- 
venient. The ceiling can be made of split logs with a layer of pug 
on top, whilst an iron roof, with projections to save the walls, would 
efficaciously keep out the weather. In order to keep such a house 
cool, the doors could either be left open at night and closed dur- 
ing the day, or a tunnel might be dug a couple of feet or so under 
the ground, leading into the storehouse. Such a tunnel, with a cowl 
or windsail on the outside end, would create a cool draught which 
could be regulated at will inside the structure. 

The sweat boxes are kept off the floors so as to insure the 
circulation of air around them. They are also better placed in tiers 
over the shelves with ample room above for the occasional examin- 
ation of the fruit. 

For home use when sound, green lemons of the right size mav 
be kept on a dry floor imbedded in dry sand, which is sifted over 
them. 


Wuart a Fruit CasE SHOULD BE. 


As packing-cases are at times scarce and difficult to procure in 
the height of the fruit season, thoughtful growers should lay in a 
stock some time beforehand. 


395 


Damp and light give a weather-stained look to the wood and 
turn it yellow, and the shooks should for that reason be stacked in 
a dark and dry place. The dryness of the wood is of great im- 
portance, much loss being caused by the use of green timber for 
cases that are used for export. 

The cases should be made of light but tough wood, which does 
not split when the slats are nailed together. Our hardwood cases 
are easier to nail when half dry, jarrah particularly splitting un- 
less blunt case nails are used. The material should be sufficiently 
strong to withstand a moderate amount of pressure, such as that 
caused by heaping up cases on the top of one another or by sling- 
ing them into and out of the ship’s hold. 

The cases should be lined with strong white paper, and after 
packing they should be left, if possible, for a day or two if the 
fruit is of a keeping class; they will thus settle before the lid is 
nailed down. 

The temptation of fastening the lids with twice as many nails 
as are really necessary should be resisted, as forcing the lids when 
much nailed down frequently spoils them, and also some of the 
contents of the box. 

Large readable labels showing the contents of the case may not 
always save the packages from rough handling, but will do so 
occasionally. 

Much confusion exists as regards the size and shape of fruit 
cases in the various fruit-growing countries, and perhaps more so 
in Australia. Although our cases and their subdivisions, approxi- 
mate as nearly as possible a bushel and fractions of that measure 
of capacity, their contents vary somewhat from the Imperial bushel, 
which measures 2,218 cubic inches. 


Cases approved by the Australasian Fruitgrowers’ Conference, 
October, 1911. 


Inside Cubic Recommended for 
Variety of Case. Measurements. | Capacity. Fruits of— 
Inches. 


1. Australian Dump Bushel Case} 18 x 14} x 8% 2,223 | Apples oe and 
expo! 
2. Australian Half Bushel Grape | 18 x11} x 5} 1,110 | Grapes, etc. 
ASC 
8. Australian Dump Half-Bushel 18 x 8% x 7} 1,1114 | Apples, etc. 
4. Asien Flat Bushel Case | 26 x 6 x 14} 2,223 | Citrus and other fruits 
(without division) _, (interstate). } 
6. Australian Flat Half-Bushel | 26 x 6 x 7} 1,111} | Citrus and other fruits. 
Case (without division) : ; 
6. Australian Quarter Bushel Case | 133 x 10} x 4 5565 ae, Gooseberries, 
ete. 
7, Australian Orange Export Case 243 x12 x12 3,564 Bananas, Pineapples, 


and with jin. divi- 
sion for Orange ex- 
port. 


396 


Tue Oversea Frurr Traps. 


Western Australia, because of its particularly suitable climate, 
its favourable geographical position, and the extension fruit cul- 
ture has attained, shares with gratifying success an important part 
of the Australian fruit trade with the European and the nearer 
Asiatic markets. 


Under the stimulus given by the settlement of returned sol- 
diers on the land, a fresh spurt has been given to further planting, 
and the importance of the oversea fruit trade is one that offers un- 
mistakable and gratifying signs of expansion. 


Both Albany, Bunbury, and Fremantle, the last ports of call of 
fruit-trading steamers, and of the mail boats, are a week nearer 
the large European markets than is Melbourne, and eight or nine 
days nearer than either New South Wales or Tasmania. 


Apart from the notable advantage of quicker delivery, a better 
position in the hold of the steamer, always militates in favour of 
the last shipped fruit. 


But the fact that our fruits are offered for sale on oversea mar- 
kets in the early European spring and summer ensures for them a 
ready sale due to absence of competitors. 


These new markets, which have only been opened compara- 
tively recently, have been made available by the improvements and 
expansion of cold storage during transit as well as before and after 
shipment. 


Cotp StoracEe For Fruit 


constitutes at the present time one of the safest and cheapest 
methods of dealing with fruit at times of glut of the market. It is 
often, with fruit and other perishable products, either a feast or a 
famine, but with more precise knowledge regarding methods of 
picking and packing, and also of cold storage, which private as well 
as public commercial enterprise has placed within the reach of all, 
it is now practicable to withhold fruit from the market when it is 
most abundant and when prices are low, and offer it for sale with 
profit when it becomes scarce. 


The profits, however, are not so large as they would appear to 
some, and there are risks to face and costs to incur in holding a 
crop over. The fruit, for instance, must possess keeping qualities; 
some are of such a kind that nothing will prevent speedy deteriora- 
tion. Most summer apples, it is well known, will soon, however 
carefully handled, go mealy and rot; most grapes are bad keepers; 
strawberries will, under no circumstances, keep more than a couple 
of days or so, Moreover the fruit may, on account of bad culti- 


397 


vation, rought handling, or attacks by insect pests and blights, fail 
to keep well although the variety itself is known to possess good 
keeping qualities. To risks and losses due to the causes just en- 
umerated must be added cost of handling, re-sorting, and re-pack- 
ing, also, rent of cold storage room, which all tend to greatly 
reduce the profits to the grower or the dealer. 


The conditions required for preserving fruit in cold storage are 
pure, dry, cold air, and the following table, issued by the Kansas 
Experimental Station, shows the temperatures which, for certain 
produets, give the best results :— 


Product. Temp. F. Package. Keeping period. 
Apples, winter .. .. 382-35 .. boxes .. 5 to 8 months 
Pears a a8 .. 83-38 .. 53 -- 2to4 , 
Quinees... ie .. 33-35. 3 38to4 ,, 
Peaches or Plums .. 36-40 .. crates 2to4 , 
Grapes 2 Pe .. 88-40 .. boxes 2to8 ,, 
Berries, Cherries Sua 40 .. punnets lto3 , 
Lemons and Oranges .. 40 .. boxes 8 to 12 ,, 
Water Melons... 5% 40 3 to6 ,, 
Musk Melons a8 Ba 400 as au 2to3 , 
Tomatoes eer .. 88-40 .. crates 2to4 ,, 
Cucumbers 2a .. 388-40 oe lto3 ,, 
Celery = or ba 35 
Onions bs 6 .. 384-40 
Potatoes .. .. 36-40 


Asparagus or Cabbage .. 84-35 


For juicy summer fruit the value of cold storage is not so much 
for keeping them for any length of time as for tiding them over a 
glutted market. Such fruit as strawberries and raspberries should 
not be kept over a day or two. Grapes on the whole do not retain 
their flavour, bloom, or appearance if kept longer than a week or 
two; a few stand cold storage well. Of pears, some will keep well; 
others, such as the Bartlett, may be put in early in the autumn, 
and stowed away in such a manner as will allow the cold air to circu- 
late freely around them, and should be sold as soon as the market is 
relieved. There is then a good demand for them. Late peaches, 
firm and sweet, may be stored with profit. Apples, of all fruit, 
keep best, and moreover, improve by keeping in cold storage, but 
with whatever fruit is stored, success will depend on the kind, con- 
dition when gathered, care in handling, packing, method of storing, 
as well as the temperature at which it is kept. 


Two other conditions influence the keeping quality of fruit to a 
larger extent than most people imagine. One is the quality and 
amount of fertilising nutriment the tree draws from the earth dur- 
ing the period of its growth, and the other its freedom from attacks 
of parasites, the sort of blight affecting it, and its state of health 
generally. 


398 


How to Coon anp THaw Fruit. 

Fruit for export in cool chambers must not be placed hot and 
fresh from the fields into the cool chamber. Thorough “sweating” 
must precede, then sorting, wrapping in oiled paper, and placing 
in non-ventilated, insulated chambers, the temperature of which is 
slowly lowered to 32° to 40° F. (zero to 4° C.). This temperature 
must be uniformly maintained during the whole period of storage. 
Neglect of this condition caused, in the initial days of fruit trans- 
portation to distant markets, considerable damage and loss. 

On arrival at its destination it is essential to the good keeping 
of that fruit that almost as much thought and time be given to its 
return to a normal temperature as was done when cooling it. This 
warming up should be slow, gradual, and carried out in a dry 
atmosphere in a room of about 40° F. To lack of proper attention 
to these details is chargeable a good many of the failures in fruit 
shipment. 


SHIPMENT CHARGES. 


Until a few years ago shipping fruit from the Australian States 
to the London market had not proved a uniformly remunerative 
enterprise. Apart from the heavy packing, shipping, and handling 
charges which are known beforehand, heavy losses have been sus- 
tained through circumstances which may be only guessed, but which 
nevertheless remained without reasonable explanation. 

Out of shipments of 100 cases of carefully selected, graded, 
and packed fruit, for instance, half the consignment or more would 
sell at a remunerative price, whilst the remainder would on opening 
show signs of decay, and would be sold at a loss. It is fortunate, 
however, that competition in the fruit-carrying trade caused the 
shipping companies to pay closer attention to details which safe- 
guard the interests of their customers, and every season since has 
shown less waste in the fruit cargoes shipped to the European 
markets. 

Prior to the war, the cost of shipping a case of apples from 
the orchard to London was:— 


B 
w 


Cost of case at orchard .. 
Wrapping paper and woodwool 
Sorting, packing, and branding .. 
Railway carriage (32 miles) 
Port charges and wharfage 
Freight and lighterage 

Insurance ae 

London charges 


Howooooo® 
SCHoOwWwwaAMHet 
eS 


| 


for) 
H 
o 


| 


399 


Fruit selling at 10s. a case of 40lbs. or 3d. per lb. would thus 
only leave to the grower 3s. 2d. net, which hardly paid the cost of 
growing. The average selling price, however, was 13s. to 15s., which 
proved a paying proposition, even when allowance was made for 
eulls and rejects, which found a market locally at a lower price. 


Since the war, freight has advanced from 72s. 6d. per ton of 
23 cases, or 3s, 2d. per case to 8s., while the cost of labour and of 
all requisites have so increased that all charges are fully double the 
pre-war cost, and it is more than ever a matter of first importance 
to only ship the best grades of fruit at the proper season. 


Bartlett pears should be sent at the end of January, and later 
varieties to follow. Apples, beginning with Jonathan, from the 
beginning to the middle of February. The early shipments pay 
well, even though the colour of the fruit may not be so good as the 
March shipments. Shipments after the end of April often bring 
lower prices, and it is not advisable to ship later, as the English. 
and French fruits are then on the market. 


Oranges, notably Washington navels, if landed in England be- 
tween August and the end of the year find a market ready to absorb 
large consignments, because during that period shipments from other 
countries, such as the East Indies, Florida, and California are not 
forthcoming. 


West Australian export grapes landed at European ports in 
April to June also find an empty market, and realise remunerative 
prices. 


Cost or Fruit Propucrion 


is governed by the capital cost of bringing the orchard or vineyard 
to productiveness, and must necessarily fluctuate with such factors 
as the quality of the land, the treatment it receives, the season ex- 
perienced, and the suitability of the kind of fruit grown. 


To arrive at the cost of a single case of fruit, a plan, adopted 
by Mr. G. Wickens of the Agricultural Department, is to first ascer- 
tain the cost of working an area of fruit land which can be man- 
aged by one man, and then divide the total cost by the number of 
cases obtained. 


Taking a 10-acre block as a convenient unit for basing calcu- 
lations, and provided the kinds are such as ripen in succession, 
one experienced man with necessary horses and implements is cap- 
able of supplying the labour required. 


The cost of good land, cleared, fenced, ploughed and subsoiled, 
planted with fruit trees or vines, manured and cultivated for three 
or four years, until the bearing stage is reached, would not be far 
short of £60 per acre or £600 for a 10-acre block. 


400 


House, water supjly, stable and sheds, horse, implements, cart 
and harness would absorb another £60 per acre or a total average 
of £1,200 for the 10 acres. 

Interest on this amount at 7 per cent. would amount to £84; 
wages at 10s. a day, £171; fertilisers, £3 per acre, £30; cases, say, 
2,000 at 9s. per dozen, say, £52; cartage, railway freight, commis- 
sion, horse feed, shoeing, spraying, depreciation, insurance, ete., £200, 
or say, for the 10 acres £537 as working cost, or £53 15s. per acre. 

Supposing the trees are planted 25 feet apart or 70 to the acre, 
at the average of one case per tree, the fruit would have to sell for 
something like 15s. 7d. to pay working cost and interest; if two 
cases per tree 7s. 9d. per case, and if three cases, at 5s. 6d. per case 

Experienced orchardists consider that: provided the land is 
in good heart, deep, well cultivated, and clean, an average of a 
large-sized orchard would be 3 bushel cases of 45lbs. for a mixed 
lot of varieties 8 to 20 years old, and under particularly favourable 
conditions, 4 bushel cases or a 6-ton crop. 

From the 5th to the 6th year, 1 ease per tree may reasonably 
be expected. 


WINE MAKING. 


Vintage commences with us late in January in the earlier 
districts, and continues until the end of April or the beginning of 
May in localities in the cooler Southern districts, or at a higher alti- 
tude on the Darling Ranges. 

Before describing the process whereby the sweet juice of the 
grape is transformed into wine, a few words about the vessels, 
machinery, and appliances used in wine making will not be out of 
place. 


A FrerMeNnTING SHED 


is, in the first instance, provided for the manufacture of wine. 
Such a structure need not be a costly one, but it is desirable that 
it be roomy, high, and well aerated. Plenty of room must be pro- 
vided for the crushing machine, presses, fermenting vats, pumps, 
sieves, tubs, and other necessary appliances. 

During the process of fermentation there is a rise of tem- 
perature which may be prejudicial to the successful fermentation 
of the wine, and to the alcoholic strength of the newly made wine. 
For that reason a shed which can be well aerated, and which at 
night can be left open to the cool breezes so as to counteract the 
rise of temperature, is preferable to the old-fashioned, costly fer- 
menting houses made of thick walls, with little ventilation. 

A eapacious galvanised iron shed about 32 to 36 feet wide 
and, according to the amount of grapes to be handled, from 60 


401 


to 80 feet long, with sides 10 feet high to the wall-plates, and a 
gable raised another few feet in the centre, will answer the pur- 
pose on a vineyard of 60 to 70 acres. 


In this all the machinery and fermenting vessels can be com- 
fortably lodged. 


One more condition must not be overlooked: the fermenting 
shed must be one apart from the maturing cellars, lest the germs 
of fermentation which, during wine making, float about in abund- 
ance in the air get access to and disturb the wine of previous years. 


As a good deal of water is used about the fermenting shed, 
both before and during wine making, the surroundings should be 
so drained that there is no accumulation of dirty liquids, which 
would foul the air. The building should not be damp, as moulds 
are not only injurious to casks and other wooden vessels, but alse 
cause the wine to become tainted during future keeping. 


A concrete floor with a slight fall and drains to permit flushing 
with water is desirable, and in order to carry the traffic it should 
be laid with some care. Such a floor consists of three essential 
parts :— 

(1.) A porous foundation, for drainage and because of the 
swelling and contraction of the earth, 

(2) The body, which furnishes strength and supports the 
third part. 

(3) The surface, which receives the wear. 


The first is cinders free from ashes, or coarse sand free from 
clay, loam, and vegetable fibre; the second, cement concrete; the 
third a mixture of cement and sand—the water used should be 
fresh. The proportion of sand, cement, and stone vary as 
1—2—4 or 1—3—5, It should be at least 3 inches thick, 1.e., 
21% inches in the body and half-inch surface, which is composed 
of mortar alone, not so wet as in the concrete. No more concrete 
or mortar should be mixed than can be used at once. 


To prevent cracking it is advisable to make the floor up in 
separate slabs. Deposit the foundation and wet and ram to a 
solid bed. On the foundation set guides of boards set on edge and 
of the desired depth, and lay the concrete. The next day remove 
the guides between the slabs and fill in the spaces, first placing 
strips of tarred paper or felt against the edges of the slabs already 
completed. Leave the top rough to receive the surface, which is 
finished with a trowel if a smooth finish is wanted or with the float 
if it is desired to have a surface that is less slippery. 


The floor should be protected from the direct rays of the sun 
to reduce evaporation, and spzinkled and kept moist for a few days, 
when it may be put into service. 


402 


CaSKS AND VATS. 


Two classes of materials are more commonly used in the 
construction of these vessels, viz., wood, and bricks and cement. 


Timber for Wine Casks and Vats. 


The wood best suited for coopering work is the oak, which, 
in that capacity, stands without rival. Of oaks, some are more 
suitable than others. The best is a sub-variety of Quercus robur 
or European oak, viz., Quercus pedunculata or Slavonian oak, 
from the forests of Croatia, Hunagry, and Russia, where it grows 
on the alluvial flats flooded by the Danube. The soil of these 
flats is exceptionally suitable for the growth of the oak tree, 
which, for the purposes of shipbuilding, cabinet and joiners’ work, 
and for coopering, must embody special features. This oak supplies 
these requirements, which are: equal proportions and dimensions 
and qualities; show the compactness, uniformity, and elasticity of 
the fibres; and the absence of knots and borer holes. Apart from 
these physical properties, it also contains a fair proportion of 
tannin and a special sugar called “quercite,” which has on the wine 
a very beneficial effect, causing it to clear readily, and imparting 
to it a peculiar but faint fragrance, without at the same time adding 
to it an excess of extracted matter, which is to be found in chestnut 
and other timber. 

Amongst other kinds of oaks used by coopers are also the 
Burgundy oak, the Dantzig or Memel oak, and the American oak. 
The latter, which is useful for providing those wider boards through 
which manholes are cut out in the larger sized casks, is less com- 
pact than the Slavonian or Dalmatian oak, and it also at first im- 
parts a somewhat bitterish taste to the wine. 

Besides the oak, other timber, such as the chestnut, the acacia, 
and the redwood of California (Sequoia), supply wood suitable 
for staves. } 

Amongst Australian woods, the mountain ash (Eucalyptus 
sieberiana) of Gippsland and New South Wales, from the moun- 
tains of South-Eastern Australia, supplies an excellent wood for 
fermenting vats or for large casks. It splits freely and smoothly, 
and is easy to work. For small casks, with thin staves, this timber 
does not do so well, being rather soft and porous. 

For vats, either for fermenting or when headed up, for storing 
wine, the two leading West Australian timbers, karri (E. diversi- 
color) and jarrah (FE. marginata), are much used in South Aus- 
tralia as well as in Western Australia. Of the two, karri is more 
elastic. Their worst features are their tendency to warp, and their 
heavy density. It is said that if felled towards the end of summer 
jarrah will be less given to warp. The first grows in the fertile 


403 


and humid valleys in the neighbourhood of Cape Leeuwin, the 
second on the ironstone ranges of the coastal region of the State. 
The sheaoak, or Casuarina, of our sandy soils is also used with 
satisfactory results for kegs and the smaller casks. 


Amongst other timbers which have been used in Australia for 
coopering work are: The silver wattle of South-East Australia 
and Tasmania (Acacia dealbata), well spoken of by Mr. J. D. 
Lankester, of Ettamogah, Albury. The silky oak (Grevillea 
robusta), which gives an elastic and durable wood, valued particu- 
larly for staves of casks. Mr. Th. Hardy, of South Australia, re- 
ports having placed shavings of this wood in light wines for several 
months without affecting their taste or colour in any way. 


The white beech (Gmelina Leickhardtii) of East Australia, 
which supplies a wood of shining paleness, not liable to rend. Mr. 
John Wyndham, of Dalwood, Hunter River, spoke well of this 
wood, which shrinks but little. Mr. E. Wyndham, of Buckalla, 
Inverell, considers it suitable for large storing casks, but its soft- 
ness unfits it for the smaller casks in which wine is sent to market. 


The blackwood (Acacia Melanoxylon) of South-East Australia 
is also used for casks, but requires previous seasoning and long 
soaking. The wood bends readily under steam, and does not warp 
and twist. 


The Tasmanian myrtle: a close-grained timber, making a good 
surface. This timber has been used for shipping wine by some 
of the Rutherglen vinegrowers, who say that it does not impart 
any foreign flavour to the wine. 

The kauri pine (Dammara Australis) of the North Island of 
New Zealand supplies an excellent straight-grained timber, excellent 
for vats, and sometimes used for heads of strong casks, but requires 
thorough seasoning to extract the resinous extracts, which give a 
mawkish taste to the wine stored in them. 


Size of Casks. 


The size of casks used for shipping wine differs according to 
the different producing countries, thus:— 


Extreme size. Contents. 

Port wine pipe eee .. O58in.x34in. ... 113 gallons 
33 hogshead ... .. 87in.x 30in. ... 564 gallons 
Sherry butt... des .. 650in. x35in. ... 108 gallons 
a hogshead_..... .. 88in.x28in. ... 544 gallons 
Marsala pipe ... no .. 65in.x32in. ... 91 gallons 
35 hogshead... .. 4lin.x25in. ... 454 gallons 
Brandy pipe ... ae .. 62in.x34in. ... 104 gallons 
- hogshead_... .. «40in.x28in. ... 57h gallons 
Rum puncheon aie .. 42in.x36in. ... 91 gallons 


Claret hogshead dis .. 86in.x34in. ... 50. gallinns 


404 


The larger storage casks somewhat vary in shape and size, but 
for the guidance of those about to enlarge their cellars or build 
new ones, I give here the extreme sizes of some useful casks made 
from Memel oak :— 


Thickness of 


Capacity. Wood. Dimensions. 
head. staves. 
300 gallons .. IJ}in.xl}in. ... 5ft. 10in. x 4ft. Qin. at bilge. 
500 gallons .. lin.xliin. ... ft. 10in, x Sf. 6in. 
750 gallons .. Qin, x Qin. ... 5ft. 10in. x 6ft. 
1,000 gallons . Qhin. x Qin ... 5ft. 10in. x 7ft. 2in. 
2,000 gallons .» 8imx2hin. ... 8ft. x 8ft. din. 


Besides these casks, known as “round” casks, it is often found 
expedient to store wine in “oval” casks, to economise storage room. 
The dimensions of these vessels are as follow :— 

750 gallons ... 2in.x2in. ... 5ft. 10in. x 5ft. 6in. x 6ft. Yin. 

1,000 gallons ... 2hin.x2in. ... 5ft, 10in. x 5ft. 9in. x 8ft. 6in. 

Theoretically, the square cask, viz., the cask with the diameter 
at the bulge equivalent to the length of the cask, is the strongest 
as if too high, as is the case in oval casks, the greater pressure 
sometimes causes wine to leak at the cross groove. 


Gauging Casks 
is the process of mensuration for finding the quantity of liquid any 
vessel is capable of holding, and also for finding its actual contents 
when partly full. 

Several methods are used. One which gives results practically 
correct is by means of the diagonal gauge rod. It offers the ad- 
vantage of doing away with calculations. These measuring rods 
are square rules four feet to five feet long. They are divided into 
imperial gallons and fractions. 

It is diagonally inserted through 
the bunghole into the cask as shown 
in AB, and a reading of the number 
of gallons is taken, just under the 
bung stave. Next take a reading in 
the opposite direction, to check the 
first reading. Should the two tally 
the contents are known at once, but 
should there be a difference between 
the two readings, an average is 
struck. <A proper gallon-measuring 
gauge is not always handy, and in 

Gauging a Cask. that ease an ordinary rod, showing 

linear inches, may be substituted for 

it. The cask being carefully measured as above from the lower 
surface of the bunghole stave to the lower junction of head and 


405 


bilge stave. The rule in that case is: cube the length shown, and 
multiply by .00226 for gallons. 

Example: a cask measured as above shows 25 inches; find the 
contents in gallons :— 


25° x -00226=15625 x -00226=35-4 gallons. 


When the volume of small casks of wine is required, it is often 
found easier to find its contents by weighing than by measuring. 
A gallon of wine is known to weigh 10lbs., so that the gross weight 
of the cask from which the weight of the empty cask is deducted 
will give, when divided by 10, the number of gallons of wine. Thus, 
say, the cask weighs, when full, 585lbs., and empty, 70lbs., the 
difference divided by 10 gives 5114 gallons. 


To Season Casks. 

A “woody” taste very often taints what would otherwise have 
been a good wine. It is too often surmised that because a cask has 
just left the hands of the cooper, and is made of new wood, it is 
fit to receive wine straight away; as a matter of fact, the staves 
are still full of sappy and resinous matters, easily extracted by 
the alcohol in the wine, which will, unless removed, impart to the 
first wine with which they come in contact an unpleasant and woody 
taste. 

Several methods are used for seasoning the timber :— 

(1) Fill the cask or the vat, as the case may be, with water 
—hot preferably—in which is dissolved 10Ibs. of com- 
mon salt for every 100 gallons capacity, and let it 
stand for a day or two; then run the water out and 
rinse the cask well with fresh water. 

(2) Another method, which is even better, consists in filling 
the vessel with water—either eold or tepid—and add- 
ing a handful of washing soda or of potash for every 
50 gallons capacity. Let stand for several days; run 
out the liquid, which will have extracted a brown 
colour from the wood. Fill with clean water, let 
stand for a day or so, then run it out. If the water 
is quite colourless, let the cask drain. For every 100 
gallons capacity, make hot one gallon of a sound wine, 
pour into it and bung lightly, and roll the cask about 
for a day or so to give time to the spirit to penetrate 
the pores of the new wood; then drain out all the 
wine and fill with sulphurous fumes, drive the bung 
or the plug in, and the cask is then ready for use. 
Rectified spirit can be used instead of hot wine, but 
care must be taken that no burning sulphur match 
is used for sulphuring, as the sudden expansion of 
the aleoholic vapour would cause an explosion. 


406 


If the vessel is too large to conveniently fill with water, use a 
more concentrated solution, and wash the sides every now and again 
by using a broom; this will extract much colour and resinous 
matter from the wood. 


To season new oak casks for export, pour into them a bucket 
of hot water, with a handful of washing soda, and turn about for 
four days; then run this out and wash twice with fresh water; 
then pour some good sound lees into them and sulphur heavily, and 
after two days wash again and sulphur, and the cask is ready to 
receive the most delicate wine. 


CLEAN CASKS. 


It may be said that wine making commences at the moment 
the ripe grapes reach the cellar and the berries are crushed and 
separated from their stalks. Preparatory to vintage, and before the 
first bunch of grapes is picked, the wine grower should have all his 
casks thoroughly overhauled, examined, scraped, rinsed out, brushed, 
and sulphured. 


Of the several diseases that affect wine, mouldiness and aceti- 
fication can, in almost every instance, be traced back to dirty and 
tainted casks, and acetification, lactic fermentation, or the mannitic 
disease, ropiness, etc., to defective fermentation. In every case of 
disease of wine, it may be said prevention is easy, and cure very 
often beyond practicable reach. 


For that reason it is absolutely necessary to secure the utmost 
cleanliness of all vessels—grape-mill, press, hose and pumps—used 
for handling the juice of the grape at the various stages of wine 
making. 

Casks and tubs may be deeply tainted with the most trouble- 
some germs of maladies of wine and at the same time appear clean 
on the surface. 


A mere scrubbing with a hard brush and water will often clean 
a cask superficially, but the meshwork of mycelial threads of moulds, 
which are in reality its growing roots, and which have penetrated 
more or less deeply into the pores of the wood, have not by that 
simple method of serubbing been destroyed, and a few days after 
such a superficial cleaning the mould will creep out of the wood 
as bad as ever before. 


When breaking some old cask down, we often notice on the 
inside of the staves some hollow blisters caused during the process 
of bending the staves; behind these lurk the germs of lactie or 
acetic fermentation as well as that of other diseases destructive to 
wine, and the best way of getting at them is by steaming. That 
part of the cask immediately around the bunghole should receive 


407 


more particular attention, as it is often overlooked. It is from this 
spot that the acetic germs generally start invading the cask. 


New casks, unless seasoned and treated, impart a woody and 
disagreeable taste to the wine. To free them from this defect they 
are first steamed and rinsed, then treated with a weak solution of 
sulphuric acid, the cask being allowed to stand alternately on one 
head, and a few hours after on the other; next a solution of wash- 
ing soda is similarly allowed to stand in the cask for a day or two, 
allowed to run out. After rinsing and draining the cask is sul- 
phured by burning a short length of sulphur tape, and it is bunged 
down until used. 


Another method consists in filling the cask with 1 per cent. of 
carbonate of soda (washing soda) for 8 or 10 days; or, again, 
filling with a 5 per cent. common salt, or sea water if handy. For 
small casks 1lb. of common salt in 2% gallons of boiling water; 
roll about, let stand, and rinse. 


To Discotour CasKs. 


Although it is not advisable to use casks which have contained 
red wine for white wine, one is sometimes compelled to use them. 
Large red wine casks which cannot be filled with water are not easily 
discoloured. Even frequent washings are not sufficient to dissolve 
the erust which covers the staves. Such casks should be thoroughly 
scraped inside. If possible, they should be filled with water, to 
which is added two or three quarts of sulphuric acid per 1,000 gal- 
lons, and left in soda for a few days. Whenever practicable it is 
advisable to turn steam into the cask and then wash thoroughly. 
It is advisable, when acidulated water is used, to grease the taps 
and other metallic parts which might be corroded by the acid. The 
wood may remain pink, but the colour won’t affect the white wine. 


To Distnrect CasKs. 


1st—Steam is the best mould and germ destroyer that can be 
used. It penetrates deep into the pores and cracks of the wood, 
effectively destroying all living organisms; it also leads to the 
detection of any flaw or erack in defective vessels, and soon causes 
the shrunken staves to swell and any leakage to stop in what may 
be otherwise sound casks. When leaky casks are filled with water 
it should not be allowed to stand long, as it soon turns putrid and 
becomes invaded by moulds. It is advisable in such cases to add 
to the water quarter of a lb. of bisuphite of lime or loz. of chloride 
of lime per hogshead. 

2nd. Chlorine Gas.—For casks, for every 100 gallons capacity 
pour into the vessel 162 grammes (2ozs.) of chloride of sodium 


408 


(common salt) or of chloride of lime, dissolved in a gallon of boil- 
ing water; to this add a small quantity of sulphuric acid, drive in 
the bung, and let the chemical reaction set in inside the cask. Under 
the influence of the sulphuric acide, chlorine fumes are disengaged 


A 


Steamingi Cask. 


from the chloride and effect a complete disinfection. This chlorine 
gas, however, should be got rid of before putting any wine into the 
cask on account of its strong irritating action on the tissues of the 
digestive organs, and also of its pronounced bleaching action, which 
would decolourise the wine. The method, although very efficacious, 
needs to be applied with a certain amount of care. 


The addition to the common salt of one ounce or so of pow- 
dered black oxide of manganese causes a more ready evolution of 
the chlorine gas at a lower temperature, and is for that reason an 
advantage. The chlorine gas combines with the hydrogen of the 
water and liberates the oxygen, which is then said to be “nascent,” 
and in that state combines with the vegetable tissues of moulds 
which may be present, and cause their destruction. 


409 


3rd.—Another method, which also answers well and is applic- 
able to tubs and open vats, consists in carefully washing, scrubbing, 
and whitewashing inside with a limewash made of two pounds of 
quicklime to every 100 gallons capacity of the vessel, just sufficient 
water being added to reduce it to the consistency of thin paint, 
viz., about two gallons. The limewash is left to stand and dry for 
a few days, and is then washed off. A small quantity of sulphuric 
acid added to the water will help in dissolving the lime inside the 
casks where the brush cannot reach. 


4th——The following method, too, I have often advised, and 
whenever it has been practised no taint has spoilt the wine throuyh 
bad caskage, viz.: The empty cask, if a large one, has its door re- 
moved, a man gets in, and a couple of bucketfuls of water are 
thrown into it; with a straw broom the inside is scoured all round 
and the dirty water swept out into a tub placed below the manhole 
to colleet it. 


If there are indications that the cask is sour or mouldy, a 
gallon or two of a solution of sulphuric acid one part, in water 
twelve to fifteen parts, is carefully poured into the eask—the acid 
being poured into the water, and not the water on to the acid, which 
would cause splashings—and with the long-handled broom the cel- 
larman, using every precaution not to get splashed by the acid, 
rinses every part of the inside of the cask. I would caution any 
raw hand at that kind of work against using the acid at all, and 
applying instead some simpler, if not as efficacious, method of dis- 
infecting the casks. This is followed by a couple of bucketsful of 
hot water in which a few handfuls of washing soda (one pound 
per gallon of water) are thrown, for a 500-gallon cask, or a little 
more for a 1,000-gallon vessel. With the aid of a hard brush—some 
very serviceable hard brushes for scrubbing casks, made of steel 
wires and coarse fibres, will be found useful—both heads, as well as 
the interior of the casks all round, are thoroughly scrubbed. By 
the time the scrubbing is done the water looks very dirty and of a 
washy coffee colour, especially if the cask has previously contained 
red wine. This dark wash is, in its turn, swept out of the cask, 
and two fresh bucketsful of hot water and soda are thrown in, the 
operation of serubbing being repeated. This wash having been 
swept out, the cask is well rinsed with clean water, then allowed to 
drain and dry. The next day a piece of sulphur rag is burnt in it, 
the door greased, replaced and screwed well home, and the plug 
driven in. Care should be taken to save the hands from contact with 
the caustic soda or acid washes recommended. 


Other methods consist in using for a hogshead, 2lbs. caustic soda 
in one gallon water; roll and let stand on end for one hour or two, 
and roll several times again. 


410 


Soda has a great affinity for acetic acid and the resulting ace- 
tate of soda thus formed is readily soluble in hot water used for 
rinsing. 


SULPHURING CASKS. 


Sulphuring should be repeated every two months or so if the 
cask is left empty. Should the cask be wet at the time of sulphur- 
ing, hydrogen sulphide would be produced, which would impart to 
the wine an abominable smell of rotten eggs. 


The object of sulphuring casks, as all those who have any ex- 
perience of cellar work know, is to consume all air out of them and 
thereby check the appearance of the germs of acetic fermentation 
and other diseases of the wine which are dependant on the oxygen in 
the air for life. : 


Suack CASKS. 


When overhauling empty casks stored away in a hot, dry shed, 
sometime before vintage, they are generally slack from being empty 
for a long time; the staves have shrunk, and the hoops have either 
fallen off or will do so unless the casks are carefully handled. 


When casks thus get slack, the sulphur fumes they contained 
escape and dissipate into the air, and moulds not infrequently pene- 
trate, and grow im patches inside as well as between the staves. 
Such casks should be treated as explained when dealing with mouldy 
casks. 


The hoops of these slack casks must be driven before the casks 
are cleaned. This must be done cautiously, or else when the cask is 
filled with wine the expansion of these shrunken staves and the head 
of the cask will be such as to buckle and warp, or the strain on the 
hoops is so considerable that they occasionally snap and much wine 
is lost before the contents can be saved. For this purpose drive the 
hoops lightly to prevent the cask falling to pieces, put a bucket of 
hot water into it; this hot water will often run out of the vessel in 
a short time; repeat the operation, and the leaks will soon take up. 
It is only occasionally that the hoops have to be driven. hard. 


FLAGGING. 


After a while the staves of casks shrink as also do the heads, 
but on account of their larger superficial area the staves shrink 
more and driving the hoops does not suffice to make the casks tight. 
It is then necessary to insert between the staves at each head flat 
reedy leaves to fill up the open interstices. When this shrinking 


411 


becomes excessive it may be necessary to re-cooper up the cask and 
replace one or more staves, removing one or more and substituting 
in their places wider ones so that the heads can then sit well home 
in the grooves and make the cask tight. Sugar-bag matting is often 
used ; it is first moistened to make it limp and prevent breaking, and 
is then split into two faces before using. The flagging is done with 
the help of a flagging iron, by means of which the end of the staves 
at the head are pressed apart. For that purpose, the two top 
hoops are taken off, and the third hoop may have to be loosened, 
just enough to save the head falling through. It is a good plan 
to mark beforehand with a pencil or with chalk the leaky spots. 


For a longitudinal flag, press out one stave and insert the split 
flag lengthways, double it if the fissure is large, and let the lower 
end of the flagging material come out where a hoop will cover it. 


For a circular flag, around the rim of the head piece, put in the 
moistened flagging material one stave at a time, using for so doing 
the flagging iron and also a blunt hard wood wedge. 


For a leak between head and chime, the flagging material 1s 
carefully inserted into the groove of the stave. 


CRACKED STAVES. 


Repeated use of the cask often damages one or more of the 
staves or the bung hole. If the bung hole is slightly splintered but 
not quite unsound, carefully drive down a bung, and treat like a 
eracked stave. For that purpose, first work a little white lead into 
the erack, then place a piece of brown paper over it, and cover the 
brown paper with a piece of sheet lead cut the required size. In- 
stead of white of lead, a paste made by boiling a little linseed is 
used, and this is covered as described. The sheet lead is tacked 
round, all creases being carefully hammered out, commencing at one 
end and proceeding to the other, as the tacking is done. The tacks 
of course should not be too large. Equal parts of beeswax and resin 
make a good mastic. 


Kerering Woopen Vats In Goop Orprr. 


During the period which elapses from vintage to vintage 
wooden tubs and vats are idle and shrink, although whitewashed, 
and this must give trouble when vintage comes on again. 


Some wine-makers fill them with water which keeps them to- 
gether, but the water often rots and taints the wood—unless made 
into brine or permanganate of potash is added. A method which 
finds favour with some is to first well dry the tubs and vats, after 
thorough cleansing, and then paint them over with melted paraffin 


412 


wax, which is then burnt in with a plumber’s lamp, starting from 
the lower part of the vertical walls. This fills the pores of the 
wood and prevents shrinking, and at the same time gives an even 
and uniform coat. If the tin containing the molten paraffin be 
placed in a bucket of hot water, the substance will keep fluid longer. 


To preserve the staves, rub or paint with boiled linseed oil, then 
pick out the hoops, painting them with boiled linseed oil with one 
quarter gold size added to make them dry quickly. 


Brick AND CEMENT VATS. 


Of late years wooden vats have been discarded in the more 
modern fermenting sheds in favour of cement vats, which offer 
marked advantages. Their initial cost is from one-third to one-half 
that of the wooden vessels; they occupy less room in the ferment- 
ing shed and thus constitute an economy of roof surface; they 
are easier to keep sound and sweet, and are less likely to taint wine, 
while they do not shrink, rot, or burn. 


Vats, rectangular in shape, with an inside dimension of 5ft. x 
5ft- x 4ft., and the angles rounded, would have a capacity of a little 
over 600 gallons, and would in practice ferment 500 gallons of wine. 
Another convenient size is 6ft. x 6ft. x 3ft. 6in., giving a capacity 
of 787 gallons. 


Two types of Cement Tanks. 


A good deal of care is required in their construction: bricks, 
elean, coarse sand, and cement are the only material required, no 
lime being used for setting the bricks. 


No very substantial foundation is required; ‘the top soil on the 
floor of the fermenting shed is simply scooped out with the spade; 
a 9-inch brick wall is built all round the space to be covered with 
the cement vats, and if resting on clay, which expands and shrinks 
very perceptibly according as it gets wet or dry, it is advisable to 
spread a layer of clean dry sand, two or three inches thick, within 


413 


that space and ram it well down. The surface having been made 
smooth, spread the cement, set the bricks and grout with liquid 
cement mortar made of cement one part and sand two parts.. 


Both sand and cement must be sifted, and the mortar must be 
very liquid. Over this foundation build up a single-brick-thick 
work—41% inches—to the height required. Round off the angles 
and corners inside, and have the floor sloping from every direction 
into one corner. 


This favours the drainage of the liquid, which can be bailed 
out with the dipper, and dried with a sponge. Before the cement is 
quite set it is found advisable to blow dry cement and rub it in so 
as to give a smooth polish to the surface. For that purpose use a 
wood float and finish off witha steel trowel. The top of the walls is 
also capped with cement. 


At intervals, on the top of the walls, small brackets are pro- 
vided, which help in making fast the false head which keeps the 
riare or skins and seeds submerged. Instead of having the bottom 
slope converging to one point inside into a cup or pit, a two-inch 
brass tap is sometimes inserted into the wall, flush with the lowest 
corner, and the liquid can be run out, without pumping or syphon- 
ing, which the other alternative would necessitate. In that case 
a small cement gutter with a gradual fall towards an underground 
tank, whence it is pumped out, is provided along the line of vats. 
Although this appears to be a convenient method of emptying the 
vats, yet some object to it on the ground that there may be a danger 
of the taps getting knocked out and causing a leakage, or of the 
underground tank requiring frequent and careful cleansing, thus 
involving extra work. 


The quality of the cement used is not immaterial. Of these 
there are two kinds—the “quick-setting” and the slow-setting”’ 
cement. The former are generally natural cements, containing var- 
iable proportions of lime; whereas the slow-setting cements are 
generally artificially manufactured with definite proportions of lime, 
which varies from 58 to 63 per cent., and are burnt without excess. 
It is said that this regularity of composition, and the way they are 
manufactured, insures their more lasting properties. Slow-setting 
cements containing less lime than some of the quick-setting ones, 
all the lime is taken up by the clay and transformed into aluminate 
cf calcium, and no free lime is left uncombined, which would, in con- 
tact with wine, rob it of some of its natural acids and cause it to 
go flat. 


When cement vats are ysed for storing wine, a roof is provided 
in the shape of a vault, and a manhole made of cast-iron, with a 
tight-fitting door, is set in the structure. It is also sometimes ad- 
visable to line the inside with glazed glass tiles. The St. Gobain 


414 


Company, near Paris, manufactures for this purpose glass tiles 
4 to 6 mm. in thickness and 24 cent. by 24 cent. The side which 
is against the cement is striated, to better hold to the cement, whilst 
the other side is smooth. For the floor, larger and thicker tiles are 
used. These tiles are set in soft cement mortar, and care should 
be taken not to allow any air to remain between the cement and 
the tile, which should be soaked in water before using. 


Apart from these brick and cement vats, some are constructed 
of a combination of iron and cement, or ferro-concrete, and are 
estensively used in Algeria. They are known as sidero-cement vats, 
and consist of a framework of iron rods, either rectangular or cylin- 
drical, as desired. On this iron lattice-work, which has the shape 
of the vat, cement mortar is plastered, and the desired polish is 
given, to the surface. 


These vats are thinner than the brick ones, whilst their cohesion 
is much greater, for although cement can stand a considerable 
crushing strain, it lacks in cohesion, or in other words, its tensile 
strain is not so great. 


In Algeria, where these sidero-cement vats are in great favour, 
the cost was set down some years ago as ranging between 2s. 6d. 
to 3s. 4d. per hectolitre (22 gallons) for small vats, and less for 
larger ones. These prices are equivalent to 114d. to 134d. per gal- 
lon, wooden vats costing 8 frances per hectolitre or 334d. per gallon. 


The combination of the iron and the cement, instead of being 
an element of weakness, considerably adds to the strength and 
durability of the vats. Both these substances expand or contract 
at the same rate, and therefore no dislocation ensues, whilst, on the 
other hand, the elose-fitting cement covering effectually preserves 
the iron from rusting. 


When these cement vats are made, and dry, they are first filled 
with water, and although they may sweat a little at first, this soon 
stops. 

It is necessary before using these vats to also wash them with 
some solution which will dissolve and neutralise the traces of lime 
which may be left close to the surface, viz., a weak acid wash, such 
as a 10 per cent. solution of tartarie acid, or of sulphuric acid; a 
protective coating of tartrate of lime or of sulphate of lime is thus 
formed. 


Fluoride of magnesium, 20°—25° Baumé, is applied with a 
brush, two or three times, with an interval of 12 hours between each, 
until the cement has absorbed about 14ozs. per square yard. When 
dry apply a single coat of fluoride of aluminium at 15° B., using 
7ozs. per square yard. After drying wash with water until the 
salty taste of the fluoride has gone. The vat may then be used 
without risk. 


415 


Another wash, much used in the South of France, is one of 
silicate of potash. A first application of a solution of 25 per cent. 
of this substance is applied with a brush, and after two or three 
days, when quite dry, the walls of the vat are washed with fresh 
water; when dry, the inside of the vats again receives a second 
coating of a 50 per cent. solution of silicate of potash, and is lett 
to dry for a few days, when the vats are again thoroughly washed 
with water. A coating of silicate of lime, which is unattackable by 
wine, then lines the vat. 

As an improvement on the brick and cement vats already de- 
scribed, it would, I believe, tend to strengthen the structure and 
prevent possible cracks to run a thin band of galvanised hoop iron 
between each alternate course of bricks. 


CRUSHER AND STEMMER. 


As the grapes are carted to the fermenting shed they are trans- 
ferred from the boxes or the barrels in which they were placed at 


di 3 


q 


WZ 


A ii) 


ay 


Stemmer and Crusher. 


the vineyard into the crusher. In the old days of wine making 
crushing was done either with bare feet or with the feet shod 
with specially constructed boots or wooden sandals, Since then 


416 


great progress has been achieved in the direction of reducing the 
grapes into a pulp by modern machinery makers. 

The following illustrations show two types of an excellent 
stemmer and crusher, of French make, which have been copied with 
more or less success by both American and Australian makers. As 
regards efficiency, workmanship, and durability they are, however, 
superior to many I have seen at work. 


Mc T=) 


Grape Stemmer and Crusher. 


No. 1 Mabille crusher and stemmer, which is the smallest model 
made, can be worked with ease by one man, and puts through about 
two tons of grapes within the hour. These grape-crushers can also 
be provided with a pulley for working the machine by motor if 
required. The cost was in pre-war days £18 at the factory exclusive 
of packing, railway and shipping freight to Fremantle, and duty, 
which would amount to another £12 or so. 

Several devices are used for conveying the grapes from the 
dray to the crusher, which it is often found convenient to have at 
such a height above the ground that the crushed grapes will run 
by gravitation along a chute into the fermenting vats. The 
simplest, but most costly in the first instance, is an elevated 


417 


roadway, which will take the cart up to the level of the grape- 
mill. A less expensive way is to have a grape elevator, which con- 
sists of a piece of belting about 10 
inches wide, with tin buckets or 
scoops fastened at intervals of a 
foot or so, and running inside a 
wooden box at an angle of 45° to 
60° to the height of the grape-mill 
hopper, where each bucket empties 
its contents. A 4 to 6 h.p. motor 
would afford ample power for work- 
ing both elevator and crusher and 
stemmer. 

Another mechanical method for 
lifting the grape pulp and convey- 
ing it into the fermenting vats is a 
specially constructed must pump 
constructed by Victor Coq, of Aix, 
near Marseilles. This pump is 
unchokable, and pumps over 2,000 
gallons of must and skin per hour. 
It is easily cleaned, and takes but 
little space, but it is essential that 
it be carefully cleansed, after using, 
Grape Must Pump. of the grape must slime, which 

coats it every day. 


WINE PRESSES. 


Conjointly with the grape crusher, one or two wine presses are 
required in the fermenting shed. A variety of designs are found 
to effect the mechanical separation of the juicy from the solid parts 
of the grapes. The simplest, probably, is the long beam or lever 
press which presses continuously. 

More convenient is the screw press, an illustration of which 
is here given, on account of its powerful leverage, the rapidity of 
its work, the simplicity of its mechanism, and the ease with which 
it is operated. 

After the’dry summer months preceding vintage, the timber 
forming the wooden tray has shrunk more or less, and the screwing 
of the nuts of the bolts running throught it, together with applica- 
tious of hot water over bagging spread over the woodwork, become 
necessary. Should the leak, however, persist, and cracks have 
formed in the wood, they may be filled with a putty compound of 
melted resin with a little tallow and fine ashes, which is applied 
hot. This cement will stop leaks in presses and casks which may 
have proved refactory to other means. Some hot paraffin wax run 
into the cracks also answers the purpose. 


418 


The cost of a No. 4 Mabille press as illustrated below, with a 
6ft. x 6ft. cage, was, before the war, £25, with another £15 added 
for packing, railway and shipping freight to Fremantle, duty, and 
other charges. 

Continuous presses with a strong compound screen are also 
made; they give a greater extraction of juice, and require motor 


power for working. 


3 


| 


tt 
E | ll nu 


FUR 
Tg ei = 


Screw Press. 


Hydraulic presses are also used in many wineries, and save 
labour. 
Wine FERMENTATION, 
Wine fermentation is the process during which grape must, 
which is the fresh juice of the grapes as it runs from the press, is 
transformed into wine. 


419 


This process is governed by many outside influences, which it 
behoves the wine maker to watch and direct. 

Grape must contains not only all the soluble parts of the grape, 
but, depending upon the amount of care exercised in its prepara- 
tion, it contains, as well, other substances which get into it by 
accident, such as the impurities adhering to the outside of the skin, 
some of the grape pulp, parts of the skins and seeds. 

It is well to know something about these component parts of 
grape must, and a look at the following section of a grape berry 
will convey some amount of information about its structure. 

The nourishing sap flows into the grape berry through the 
pedunele from the plant, and there, mainly owing to the influences 
of sun and light, these materials are gradually ‘transformed into 
various bodies. 

The vessels which convey these nourishing fluids converge at 
the pedunele, then diffuse through the body of the berry, leaving, 
wherever they reach, the requisite amount of material. From this 
other fibrous vessels branch out, which convey nourishment to the 
skin. 


\ 


Section of a Grape Berry. 


From the peduncle, two small threadlike vessels proceed to the 
seeds a (1 and 2), and, as the grape berry ripens, assume a rusty 
violet. colouration. 

Around the pips (a) is the zone (b), which contains very little 
sugar, and mostly viscous albuminous substances, free acids, and 
cream of tartar. 

The layer c contains mostly water, sugar, and small quantities 
of acids and albuminoid matters. 

Section d@ is richer in sugar and more fleshy, and contains 
gummy substances, which, during the process of maturation, are 


420 


transformed into sugar; a small amount of acids and albuminoid 
substances are also met with there. 


Layer e, which underlines the pellicle, contains the colouring 
matter, also tannie acid, and some aromatic substances which im- 
part a peculiar flavour to certain grapes, such as the Muscats, 
Riesling, Cabernet, Isabella, and other American grapes. These 
natural aromas are quite distinct from those ethers which consti- 
tute the bouquet of matured wines, and which are the result of 
chemical reactions between the acids and the alcohol in the wine. 
The colouring matter, or onocyanine, although generally lining the 
skin of grapes,.is occasionally found in the pulp of some varieties. 
There are two distinct sorts—a yellow and a blue one—--which, when 
in contact with the acids in the wine, turn red. 

As grapes ripen, there is a gradual migration of the sugar 
from the centre towards the circumference, where it accumulates 
under the skin. This explains why, when pressing grapes which 
are dead-ripe, the juices which run out first are not so sweet as 
those which flow when greater and more prolonged pressure has 
been applied. 

The following table gives the composition of fresh grape must 
and of the resulting fermented wine:— 


Must. Wine. 
% % 
Water vite es 73-86 Water 
Albuminoid matters oi Residues of albuminoid 
matters 

Glucose chiefly bees 

Alcohol ... oes 6-14 
Glucose (chiefly dextrose) 12-24 eee qo Goa ee 

Renee acid 

Ethers 
Gum Gum 
Vegetable mucus 
Colouring matters (traces Colouring matters 

only) 

Tannin (traces) Tannin 
Malice acid (in bad seasons) Malic acid in (bad seasons) 


Tartaric acid 


Potassium hydrogen tar- Potassium hydrogen tar- 


trate 


trate 
Calcium tartrate Calcium tartrate 
Other salts of organic Other salts of organic 
matters matters 
Mineral matters ... Mineral matters 
Sp. gr. oe ie ..- 1065-1107 | Sp. gr ints we *991--996 


Total dry residue ve, 14-27 Total. residue... one 1-3% 


421 


Components or Must. 

It is thus seen that grape must is a complex liquid. 

Water stands foremost at the head of the list as regards quan- 
tity. In must of average composition it enters for about three- 
quarters to eight-tenths of its weight. It acts as a vehicle of the 
other constituents, diluting them to the required degree, and bring- 
ing them all intimately together. 

Sugar, for instance, produces alcohol in fermenting, but in 
vrder to ferment it must be considerably diluted, as, if too much 
concentracted, it acts on the reverse as an anti-ferment, as is illus- 
trated in the case of fruits preserved in syrups. No liquid will 
ferment that contains more than half its weight of sugar. 

Sugar.—Nest to water, sugar is the ingredient found in largest 
proportions in the grape mash. It enters for about one-fifth to a 
quarter of its weight, and sometimes more, running up in dry 
seasons, and in over-ripe grapes, to nearly a third of the weight 
of the must. That sugar is of a peculiar kind called “glucose,” and 
consists of a mixture, in about equal proportions, of grape and 
fruit-sugar, known to chemists under the names of “dextrose” and 
“leevulose.” 

The chief characteristic of glucose, or unerystallisable sugar, 
compared with cane-sugar, or “saccharose,” is that the former can 
ferment, whereas cane-sugar, in order to ferment, has previously 
to be turned into glucose. 

Another charcateristic is that while cane-sugar can be turned 
into glucose, this latter form of sugar has never yet been changed 
into erystallisable sugar. The invention of a process that would 
achieve this would be worth more than all the mines of this country 
put together. 

During the process of fermentation, “dextrose” is the first to 
be acted upon by the yeast; and if the wine is badly fermented, 
and remains sweetish, it is “levulose,” which is found to have re- 
mained unchanged. 

During the process of fermentation the constituents of glucose, 
properly diluted, are split up into substances differing from it, 
both in their physical and in their chemical properties, the products 
of fermentation being carbonic acid gas and alcohol, besides other 
bodies such as glycerine and succinic acid, which occur in small 
quantities, and which vary in some measure with the vat tempera- 
ture during fermentation: the glycerine giving mellowness to the 
wine, while the s*ccinic acid gives it that peculiar taste known as 
“vinosity.” 

Acids Besides these two important ingredients, viz., water 
and sugar, the must of the grape contains small proportions of 
acids, such as tartaric acid, which oceurs to a large extent in the 
vegetable kingdom; malic acid, or the acid found in apples; and 
tannic acid or “tannin”: and cream of tartar, which is an acid salt. 


422 


The presence of these natural acids in must is most important. 
A due proportion ensures a sound fermentation, being beneficial to 
the healthy growth of the pure wine yeast, and injurious to that 
of germs of maladies. Good fermentation ensures good keeping 
qualities. Acids also fix the colour of wines, which otherwise would 
by degrees be cast in the lees. Too much acidity, however, makes 
the wine tart and raw; too little makes it mawkish, and causes it 
to get flat. 

The right amount of acidity in must varies according to the 
class of wine. Its measure is sometimes expressed as equal in 
strength to sulphuric acid, and sometimes to tartaric acid, and as 
authors seem to use these two standards indiscriminately, it is use- 
ful to bear the following rule in mind:— 

To convert sulphurie acid into tartaric acid, < 1.53. 
To convert tartaric acid into sulphurie acid, X< 0.65. 

Thus, must producing the best claret or light wine contains 
acids equivalent to 4 to 6 pro mille. of sulphuric acid, or 6 to 9 pro 
mille. of tartaric acid. 

Heavy sweet wines are made of grape must showing an acidity 
of 3 to 4 pro mille. expressed as sulphuric acid, or 4.6 to 6 as tar- 
tarie acid. 

Brandies of the best kind are generally made of wines rather 
bigh in natural acidity, and manufactured from must going 6 to 
9 pro mille. as sulphuric acid, or 9.2 to 13.8 as tartaric acid. 

Should the acidity fail to come up to the standard desirable 
for the class of wine to be manufactured, it is not only permissible 
but advisable to supplement the difference by— 

1st. An adequate addition of pure crystals of tartaric acid. 

For this purpose every 1 per mille. may be calculated as Ib. 
per 100 gallons of must. Thus, if a shiraz or a malbee shows 5 
per cent. of must acidity, caleulated as tartaric acid, it is desirable, 
to bring that must up to 7 per cent., to add 2lbs. of tartaric acid 
ervstals for every 100 gallons. 

For that purpose it is best to sprinkle the acid erystals over 
the grapes as they come out of the crusher. 

The tartaric acid then combines with the potash salts in the 
must, and, after it has directed its influence in a beneficial manner 
during the course of fermentation, it settles down as tartar. 

Some wine makers prefer, when. it is found necessary to raise 
the degree of acidity of a must, to use a mixture in equal parts of 
cream of tartar and of tartaric acid. The resulting wine is less 
astringent and raw. 

The belated addition of tartaric acid to made wine fails, it is 
obvious, to have a beneficial influence on the fermentation, and im- 
parts to the wine a raw and acerb taste. 


423 


Other means besides the use of tartaric acid are .vtlowed by 
some wine makers in order to bring their grape must up to the 
desired standard of acidity, and that is— 

2nd. By an admixture of second-crop grapes. 
3rd. By early picking. 

One more word on the question of acidity in relation to must 
and wine, and that is, that authors generally, when treating of the 
acidity in made wine, refer to it in terms of sulphuric acid. The 
rule given above will enable anyone to convert it to tartaric acid, 
if so desired. 

Without the acids, wine would be a mere mixture of spirits 
and water, of a dull leaden colour, without any flavour or bouquet, 
and almost tasteless to the palate. The presence of natural acids in 
wine gives it, on the other hand, a brilliant and sparkling appear- 
ance, owing to their action on the colouring matter in wine; be- 
sides, by combining with the alcohol, they create those penetrating 
and delicate ethers which have very appropriately been called the 
“bouquet” of the wine. 

Saline substances are also found in musts, as potassium salts, 
under various states of combinations, and chiefly among these is 
acid tartrate of potash. That salt, commonly known as “argol” or 
“tartar,” adds to the acidity of the must and of new wine. It is 
less soluble than tartaric acid in water, and its solubility decreases, 
while the percentage of aleohol goes on increasing. It precipi- 
tates in large quantities in the lees after fermentation, and after the 
first drawing off it deposits slowly, under the form of crystals, on 
the inside of the casks. 

It often happens that young wines, possessing a raw and un- 
pleasant acid taste, improve eonsideralily on maturing, and lose that 
excess of acidity which is due to the tartar. 

Although that salt precipitates gradually in a liquid which 
contains alcohol, that precipitation is further accelerated under the 
influence of cold; hence the practice of maturing wine completely 
fermented, especially light wines, with a low percentage of alcohol, 
and with a marked degree of natural acidity, in cool, underground 
cellars. The French have a characteristic word for depiciting that 
gradual process of precipitation of the tartar and the lees. They 
call it dépouiller, which means to eject, or excrete the dregs. 

Colouring matters and essential oils, such as produce the 
“aroma” in wines, are other ingredients of the must. Both are 
contained in cells which line the inner face of the skin, and their 
extraction is made more active and more complete under the in- 
fluence of warmth and the production of alcohol during the course 
of active fermentation. 

Temperature notably influences the solubility of the colouring 
matter; aleohol does so to a much lesser extent. This explains why 
those wines which have been subjected to a fairly high temperature 


424 


during the process of fermentation are deeper in colour than those 
fermented at a cooler temperature. If moderate temperature helps 
in dissolving the colouring matter of grapes, it causes it, if carried 
on to a higher degree, to undergo an alteration which brings about 
its precipitation. 

An instance of this is afforded by wines which, during the 
process of sterilisation by means of heat-process, known as pas- 
teurisation, has been over-heated. That point is reached at about 
70° C. (158° F.), and for that reason it is desirable not to go much 
above 65° C. (149° F.). 

Each variety of grape has a special pigment of its own, 
peculiar to itself. 

Albuminoids or nitrogenous substances, resembling the white of 
an egg, also occur in minute quantities, viz., .1 to .4 per ecent., and 
are important. To a certain extent, therefore, they are essential to 
fermentation, but when constituting a surplus their presence in 
wine is highly undesirable, and even dangerous, as they are very 
unstable bodies, easily decomposed, causing many of the accidents 
and diseases which occur in wines. 

Certain grapes, such as the Riesling, various white grapes, and 
also Muscats, often contain a surplus of these albuminoid bodies, 
and, especially so, grapes that mature very quickly, as in hot 
climates; and this is the case generally with grapes grown in 
Australia. 

Such surplus albuminoid substances should be removed by all 
possible means, in order to insure the safe keeping of wines; and 
in a subsequent paragraph I shall mention the object of aeration 
in this respect. 

Another means we have of ridding white wine must of any 
surplus albuminoid matters is to let it stand still for a day or two, 
and then draw the clear liquid from over the muddy and viscous 
deposit just as the first indications of fermentation become notice- 
able. In order to better effect this end in warm climates, where 
fermentation starts very shortly after the grapes are crushed, the 
liquid is treated with sulphurous acid fumes. Thus the must is 
impregnated with the fumes of burning sulphur, or liquid sulphur- 
ous acid in small quantities is poured into it, or such salts as sul- 
phite of potassium is added to it. The advantage of these last- 
named methods over the first consist in the greater precision which 
ean be obtained in the matter of the dose used, and in the greater 
convenience as well. 


Wuen to Pick GRAPES. 

In old-established districts experience has shown when it is best 
to pick the grapes; and at such places it is seldom that the date 
of vintage alters more than a week or so from the customary epoch 
for picking the different kinds of grapes grown. 


425 


In other parts the vine-growers will have to depend, to a greater 
extent, on other indications for determining the time when to begin 
picking. These indications, although empirical, are sufficiently re- 
liable. 

They are afforded by the appearance of the bunch itself. The 
stalk becomes woody, and loses its tender green look; the berry is 
sweeter when pulled off the bunch, and parts easily from the bunch 
or bundle of sap vessels which bring nourishment; and the skin be- 
comes leathery. 2 

More reliable ways, however, which any vine-grower can readily 
use, are obtained by physical or by chemical tests. 

The physical test is obtained by means of a light instrument 
capable of floating into the liquid, and called a “densimeter,” which 
gives, on a graduated spindle which projects out of it, specific 
gravity readings, or such readings which convey to the mind of 
those who use them the information they require. Thus, the instru- 
ment is called a “saccharometer,’ by wine-makers and sugar manu- 
facturers, “lactometers” by dairymen, “hydrometer” or ‘“alcoho- 
meter” by distillers, and so on. 

The principle on which saccharometers are constructed is that 
the smaller the proportion of sugar, the deeper the instrument will 
sink. This method is not always exact, for the reason that grape 
must is not only a simple solution of sugar and water, but contains 
minute quantities of other substances as well, which cause slight 
errors—errors, however, which in practice may well be overlooked. 

In Australia, confusion reigns supreme in the returns furnished 
by wine-makers as regards the strength of the must from grapes 
grown in different localities. Some will give the specific gravity; 
others, degrees Baumé; others, again, percentages of sugar; while 
scme will mention so many degrees according to Hicks’ hydrometer, 
Keene’s (also called Hunter River) saccharometer, and a few will 
quote the brewer’s saccharometer. 

It is easily understood that the work of collating returns re- 
corded according to so many different systems becomes very com- 
plicated, not to say impossible; and it would be highly desirable 
that all the Australian wine-growers should, as it is done in France, 
Italy, and the wine-producing countries of either Europe or 
America, settle on a definite scale for the purpose of expressing the 
richness of their must in sugar. For that purpose either the 
specific gravity of the liquid or the reading of the Baumé hydro- 
meter are used. 

These hydrometers are made either of metal or, preferably, of 
glass, and consist of a long, slender spindle, surmounting a larger 
tube of blown glass, to which is soldered at the lower end a glass 
bulb, containing, as ballast, either mercury or small shot, for the 
purpose of maintaining the instrument in an erect position in the 
liquid, page 428. The lighter the liquid, the deeper the instrument 


426 


sinks; and the heavier the liquid, the more of the spindle appears 
above the surface of the liquid. 

Within the glass spindle is a seale, which varies with the make 
of the instrument. Some are so graduated that the operator can 
read at a glance either the specific gravity, the percentage of sugar, 
degrees Baumé, degrees Brix, according to the special purpose for 
which the instrument has been constructed. 

I shall rapidly explain the three scales most in use for the deter- 
mination of saccharine liquids. 

Ist. The Specifie Gravity Scale—The best known is Gay 
Lussae’s centesimal densimeter, on which 1,000 represent the depth 
to which the instrument would sink in pure water at the temperature 
of 15 degrees C. (59 degrees F.). Aceording to the law formulated 
above, the divisions above 1,000 indicate densities lower than that 
of water, as, for instance, oil, spirits, ete.; while the divisions lower 
than the 1,000 of the scale represent the specific gravity of liquids 
heavier than water, and also the weight in grammes of one litre of 
the liquid tested: thus 1,080 means that the liquid is to pure water 
as 1,080 is to 1,000, or, in other words, that one litre of the liquid 
weighs 1,080 grammes, as compared with the same capacity of pure 
water, which weighs one kilogramme—in other words, 1,000 
grammes. 

In most saccharometers the 1,000 is placed at the top of the 
scale; as the liquids weighed get heavier than water, more of the 
spindle appears above the surface of the liquid. 


Sugar Test py SACCHAROMETER. 

If great accuracy is required, it is necessary to make a slight 
corection when the specific gravity is taken at temperatures below 
15 degrees C., or above that degree of temperature, thus:— 

If the temperature is— 


10 degrees C., take off 
11 os a9 
12 ’ » 
13 ” bed 
14 ” ” 
15 ” ‘> 
16 a add 


6 from the reading 
5 
4 
3 
2 
0 
‘l 
17 ” oy ERE 3 
5 
7 
9 
1 
2 
6 
8 


no 

o 
woth oe ae : 
mm OOo 


427 


The temperature of liquids influences their gravity. They 
expand by heat and contract by cold, and consequently their 
specific gravity are increased hy the latter and diminished by 
the former. ; 


Thus a grape must whose weight is taken at a temperature over 
15 degrees C. or 60 degrees F. appears lighter than it really is; 
therefore the reading should be forced. 


Spirit, on the other hand, at a temperature higher than normal 
appears lighter in weight; that is to say, higher in strength, and a 
deduction is made to correct the error. 


As grape must contains other substances beside sugar, the real 
sugar contents will be from .5 to 2.5 per cent. less than the indi- 
eated per cent. or degree on the saccharometer. As seen above the 
specific gravity of the juice also varies with the temperature; for 
this reason bring the temperature of the juice to the standard 60 
degrees F., or make the corrections of .1 per cent. for every 
3 degrees F. above or below standard by adding if the temperature 
is higher or by substracting if it is lower. 


2nd. The Baumé Scale, which is determined by marking as 
0 degree the point on the spindle of the hydrometer to which it 
sinks when floating in pure water, and as 15 degrees the point to 
which it sinks in a solution of 15 parts by weight of salt in 85 parts 
of water. The interval between these points is divided into 
15 equal parts, and the scale is continued to any number of 
degrees beyond. 


This scale is also very much is use in many branches of indus- 
try. It does not give the density by direct reading, but the density 
can be ascertained either by reference to tables, or by means of the 
following formula, in which mn represents the degrees Baumé 
aS toad on the scale, and D the specific gravity required: 

=144., Thus, 10 degrees Baumé equalsi#4-7,50r 1,075 specific 
eravity. The graduation of the Baumé hydrometer is somewhat 
arbitrary, and its use has only been maintained in practice by wine- 
makers owing to the fact that, by a curious coincidence, degrees 
Baumé, in an unfermented must, also approximately indicate—as 
may be ascertained by referring to the subjoined table—the per- 
centage of absolute alcohol by weight it will have after being sub- 
jected to a complete fermentation. Thus, page 430, a must measur- 
ing 11 degrees Baumé, will give a wine which will contain very 
nearly 11 degrees of absolute alcohol. 


When these instruments are constructed for testing the strength 
of saccharine liquids, the 0 degree is, for reasons previously given, 
placed at the top of the scale. 


428 


THE GuYOT GLUCOMETER 


> ev & 
shown in the drawing presents the advantage of en- S 2S y 
z 3 |QHISSfckd 
abling us to read under three different forms from | 9 |$</SJ 
one observation, giving the richness of sugar ex- | &/83 aN 
pressed per cent., the degree Baumé, also called |S|3°/8° 
liquor degree, and the quantity of alcohol resulting Lo |S8Js% 
after complete fermentation. In practice, however, E ie ee 
this quantity, which is calculated on the basis of the E'E ; 
theoretical chemical equation, is .8 per cent. or nearly = eS a 
1, too high. = f-1—-3 
8rd. The Scale of Brix, or Balling,as F°E,E* 
it is also called, is mostly used by sugar Ef ; 
makers. It gives the per cent. of sugar — FE. 
present in any given solution. For EF °FsE-. 
example, a solution marking 14 degrees a a 
Brix contains 14 per cent. of sugar FE F ; i 
with other extracts in solution, In E”’ = = 
grape juice 1 to 2.5 should be sub- Fel °Eu 
tracted for extractive matter. E : E-9 4 
The illustration of Keene’s (some- FE "Ew 
times called Hunter River saccharo- Fw Ene 
meter, from the locality it was mostly E Eu a 
used in Australia) is based on the ENE Ee 
pattern of Guyot’s glucometer. It Euf,E™ 
shows, on a tricolour scale, the specific F EF E-a 
gravity of the must, the percentage eee oe _ 
of sugar corresponding to that specific Fue a 
gravity, and the amount of alcohol £ By ou 
which would result if the liquid was ay My 
thoroughly fermented. FE? 3 
It consists of an ordinary hydro- — .—™ 2 
meter, about 12 inches long. The scale — F™Es 
is divided into three longitudinal Fee ei 
columns, giving—Ist, the specific E .EE-x. 
gravity; 2nd, the degrees Baumé, — —* = 
corresponding to the degree of density; j-#2&s 
and 3rd, the per cent. of sugar, Seaiese 


corresponding to each one of these ee 
degrees. The intervals between the 

divisions should be pretty wide, so that the wine- 
maker can see at a glance what is the specific gravity 
of the must, how much per cent. of sugar the 
must contains, and, by interpreting the degrees Baumé 
into the number of degrees of absolute alcohol, what 
will be the approximate strength of the wine whieh will 
be made from that must, after thorough fermentation. 


Saccharometer, 


429 


The reading of the tests taken during vintage, duly recorded 
in a register, will supply valuable information respecting the 
character of the must of grapes grown from different varieties on 
different soils in different districts, and will permit of interesting 
comparisons being drawn with the must of previous years. 


Chemical Test—As already seen, the empirical as well as the 
physical means we have of ascertaining the richness of grape must 
is in practice found sufficiently correct, although not absolutely 
so. It is to laboratory tests we must rely for an exact determina- 
tion of the contents of a must in either sugar or acids, and as these 
tests are not readily made by the majority of wine makers, I re- 
frain from referring to them at length. 


Acipiry in WINE. 


In hot countries particularly, ripe grapes very often lack some- 
what in acidity, and it is not unlawful but even advisable to bring 
this acidity up to what it should be by the addition of tartaric acid. 
This ensures a healthy fermentation when that other important 
question of temperature is carefully regulated. The more natural 
acidity in a grape must, the greater difficulty ferments other than 
alcoholic will find in developing. Experience shows that 7 to 10 
grammes of tartaric acid per litre (.7 to 1 per cent.) will aid in this 
respect. If it is considered necessary to add tartaric acid to a 
wine, it should be done, as already explained, before and not after 
fermentation, or else a harsh wine will result which will set the 
teeth on edge. For that purpose the quantity of crystals of tartaric 
acid to be added to a given vat is distributed by hand over the 
grapes in the crusher, or else it is put in a bucket of must, dis- 
solved, and added gradually to the vat in process of being filled 
with freshly crushed grapes. 


The measurement of the acidity of the must is expeditiously 
done by means of a cheap apparatus called “acidimeter” but, on 
account of the small quantities of liquid operated on, any error in 
measurement is greatly increased when caleulated to one vatting. 


In wine analysis the acidity is usually expressed in terms of 
sulphurie acid. This is a conventional arrangement, but when deal- 
ing with musts it is preferable to express the acidity as tartaric 
acid. To ealeulate the acidity as tartaric acid, the figures express- 
ing it as sulphuric acid must be multiplied by 1.53 (page 422). 


The acidification of the vintage is so rarely necessary in Aus- 
tralia that it is not practised. 


436 


Spxcrvic Gravity, Equivalents of the Brix and Baumé Scales, and Aleoholi¢ 
Strength after Fermentation. 


; Brix, or per cS ae Absolute Perasntave 
Specific Baumé. sen: af cent. by alcohol. per of proof 
Gravity. sugar in toht i cent. by ‘rit 

aut weight in voluine: spirit. 
wine. 

1-000 0-0 0- tk Fer an 
002 ee 5 ss ae aes 
004 a) l- ss oe side 
006 xem 1-5 ase a es 
008 1-0 2- Por = sie 
010 gs 2-5 — asi se 
012 es 3: wis sith aie 
014 2-0 3-5 sin = aie 
016 as 4- are sibs asi 
018 a 4:5 bas i oe 
020 = 5- is a8 ea 
022 3-0 5-5 as es one 
024 oye 6: — aes aa 
026 she 6-5 be ies oe 
028 4-0 ee ea ie 23s 
030 Bes 7-5 oes sie ts 
032 aes 8- sit a de 
034 2 8-5 asi =e oer 
036 5-0 9- ant ad 5a 
038 oe 9-5 ase jar aie 
040 ea 10- 4:5 is 10- 
042 or 10-5 4:8 vat 10-5 
044 6-0 LL: 5-1 as 11-1 
046 an 11-5 5-4 iG 11-9 
048 aah 12- 5-7 Te 12-5 
050 7:0 12-5 6-0 7-48 13-1 
053 diss 13- 6-5 8-10 14-2 
055 Hi 13-5 6-8 8-48 14-8 
057 sd 14: 7-2 8-96 15-7 
059 8-0 14-5 7:5 9-33 16-4 
061 vs 15- 7:8 9-70 17-0 
063 arr 15-5 8-1 10-00 VE #7 
066 9-0 16- 8-6 10-66 18-8 
068 san 16-5 8-9 11-00 19-4 
070 17- 9-2 11-40 20-0 
072 ate 17-5 9-5 11279 20-7 
074 10-0 18- 9-8 12-10 21-3 
076 az 18°5 10-1 12-50 21-9 
078 ans 19- 10-5 13-00 23-0 
081 soe 19-5 10-9 13-25 23-6 
082 11-0 20: L1e2 13-60 24-3 
085 a 20-5 11-5 13-95 24-9 
088 a 21- 12-0 14-84 26-0 
090 12-0 21-5 12-3 15-20 26-6 
092 ie 22° 12-6 15-44 27-3 
094 set 22:5 12-9 15-90 27-9 
097 one 23- 13-4 16-30 28-9 
099 13-0 23°5 13:8 16-85 29-8 


431 


Sproiric GRAvIty, ETC.—continued. 


e oe ‘Atélute 
es rix, or per | alcohol per i Percentage 
Specitio Baumé. | cent of se cent. By meahal Gs of ra 
Gravity. sj 8 mb OY cent. by P 
in must. weight in eoluine spirit. 
wine. 7 
101 aes : 24: : 14: 17-26 30-2 
103 sitet 24°5 14:3 17-47 31-0 
106 ss 25: 14:6 17-85 : aleF 
108 14:0 25:5 14:8 18-06 32-1 
110 ode 26° 15-2 18-60 32°6 
113 208 26:5 15-4 18-80 33-3 
115. 15-0 27° «15-6 19-05 33-8 
ey; ails ; 27°5 : 16-0 19-68 34-5 
120 Ses : ont ee a arg 
123 = 28-5 
125 > 160 , 29 
Wet es BOB 
130 os Opi Cae: 
132 Sess s 30-5 
1345 «17-0, BL 
a. en ne 
139 | 32-0 | 
Mo Be 
144 | 180 | 33: 
147 | gi : 33-5 
149 | rod | 34- | 
162 { 190 | 34-5 | 
154 | ae | 35-0 
157 | ox 35-5 | 
159 | we  S36E 
162 | 20-0 | 36-5 ; 
164 | we | 87 | 
UT iy ate area 
169 we 
172 2170 ij 38 - | 
174 | 89 | 
177 | a, SON os 
179: 22-0: 4 | 
182 | we | 405 
185 | +8 | 41- | 
187 | A 41-5 | 
190 : 23-0 42- 
192 | i 42-5 om 
195 | eae 43- a ' 
198 aes 43-5 bee 


200 240 44- 


N.B.—Must having a specific gravity under 1,100, or 13deg. Baumé, 
will ferment completely and produce a dry wine, unless the temperature 
in the vat has been allowed to rise too high, in which case the fermentation 
may get “stuck,” although there may be more sugar unfermented in the 
wine. 

Must, with a specific gravity ranging from 1,100 to 1,115 (13deg. to 15deg. 
Baumé), will have a greater difficulty te ferment dry, as the specific gravity 


432 


| 


runs higher; and the fermentation may stop before all the sugar has been 
converted into alcohol, if adverse agencies set to work in the course of ih 
mentation. : 


The best French wines, made from the choicest varieties of grapes, are 
produced from musts having a density ranging from 1,059 (8deg. B.), and 
1,115 (15deg. B.). Thus, musts producing the Médoc wines measure, on 
an average, 1,066, or 9deg. B.; musts, from the Rhine, about the same ; 
must, in the Champagne district, 1,074, or 10deg. B.; in Burgundy, 1,090, 
or 12deg. B.; and in the Roussillon district, in the South of France, 1,108, 
or l4deg. Baumé. ' 


Musts, with a specific gravity higher than 1,116 (15deg. B.), yield either 
wine suitable for blending with a lighter one—they have the disadvantage 
of introducing with them an excess of unfermented sugar, which often pro- 
duces troublesome secondary fermentations—or else they are only suited 
for producing liqueur wines. 


Proof Spirit 
is an empirical more than a scientific way of expressing the 
alcoholic strength of a spirituous liquid, but it is so extensively 
used in trade that the following remarks will be useful. 

It is defined by an Act of Geo. III. as weighing at 51° F. 
(10.5° C.) twelve-thirteenths of an equivalent volume of distilled 
water. This at 60° F. (15° C.) shows a specific gravity of .9198, 
and represents by weight 49.24 per cent. of absolute alcohol. This 
by Guy Lussaec’s tables shows 57 of absolute alcohol. Absolute 
alcohol is quite free from water, and has a sp. gr. of 0.793, and is 
75.25 O.P. To reduce proof degrees to pure alcohol it is near 
enough in practice to multiply by 4 and divide by 7, and vice versa 
from degrees of alcohol to proof. Thus 75 O.P.=175° proof 

4 700 
and 175 x-=——=100 Alcohol. 
7 47 


To bring an alcoholi¢ solution indicating O.P. or U.P. degrees 
to proof the following formula may be used:— 


100 Q’ 


10 +n x 


= degrees O.P. or U.P. indicated, which are hundredths of 


n 
of. 
Q@ = quantity of spirituous liquid of a given strength. 
x = quantity of proof spirit in the said spirit. 
Ex.: 40 gallons at 30° O.P. or U.P. to be expressed as 
proof spirit. 


100 40 

Ist — = —; x = 52 Proof gallons 
100 -+ 30 x 
100 40 

2nd —-——- = —; a = 28 Proof gallons 


100 — 30 x 


433 


Ratio between Absolute Alcohol and Proof Spirit. 

To express in terms of proof spirit a given percentage of 
absolute alcohol in volume, multiply that percentage by 1.7525, or 
1 of absolute aleohol = 1.75 = .57 absolute. Thus: 

100 vols. absolute aleohol = 175.25 proof spirit. 


1 vol. absolute aleohol = 1.7525 proof spirit. 


Ex.: A wine contains 13 per cent. absolute alcohol; 
find strength in proof spirit. 


175-25 
= 1-75 Proof sp. = 1 vol. absolute alcohol 
100 
175-25 
x 18° = 22-78 Proof spirit 
100 
Coversely : 


A wine contains 25 per cent. of proof spirit; bow much abso- 
lute alcohol? 


1:1:75::a2: 25 = 14-25 per cent. 
or: 
175 Proof spirit = 100 vols. absolute alcohol. 
100 Proof spirit = 100 + 100 
——————— = 57:02 absolute alcohol. 
175 


1 Proof spirit = 57 


100 


25 Proof spirit = 57 
— xX 25 = 14-25 absolute alcohol. 
100 


Formula for fortifying Wine. 

To find the number of liquid gallons of spirit required to zaise 

the given strength of a wine to any required strength :— 
Multiply the difference between the given alcoholic strength 
and the required strength by the number of gallons to be fortified. 
Divide the product by the difference between the required 

strength and the strength of spirit to be used. 

Ex.: Given spirit at 60° O.P., how much is required to raise 
the strength of 100 gallons of a wine at 24° O.T. to 


32° O.P.? 
(82 — 24) x 100 800 
——-—— = — = 6-25 Liquid gallons. 
160 — 32 128 


If required to raise to 35° O.P., 8.8 liquid gallons would be 
required. A wine containing 34 per cent. proof spirit is safe against 
lactic acid fermentation. 


434 


Alcoholic and Sugar Contents of Sweet Wines. 


Distil the sweet wine to find the alcoholic strength, using for 
the purpose a given volume of the wine. Bring the distillate up | 
to the original volume of the wine tested, bring it to 60° F., and, 
dip the hydrometer and refer to special tables for strength of the 
wine. Special hydrometers, called “aleohometers,” are made giving on 
the stem spirit reading, and without bringing the distillate to 60° F. 
refer to the tables sold with the instrument, which gives the strength 
for any ordinary temperature shown by a thermometer which is 
used conjointly with the aleohometer. ‘ 


For the sugar contents of the wine use the residue of the dis- 
tillation in the still after the aleohol has been driven out by boiling, 
or take any quantity of the wine, boil to drive out the alcohol, bring 
the liquid to the original quantity used by adding distilled or rain 
water, dip the densimeter,~which will give the contents of sugar 
together with the small percentage of non-volatile extracts natural 
to the wine. 

Pasteur’s experiments show that during the process of a healthy 
fermentation 17 grammes of grape sugar per litre of must produce 
1° in volume of alcohol, or, in other words, 1 kilo 700 grammes of 


sugar produces by fermentation 1° alcohol in 100 litres or 1 hecto- 
litre of must. 


WINE, PER TON OF GRAPES. 


The amount of wine yielded by a ton of grapes varies accord- 
ing to a number of circumstances, chiefly the kind of grapes, the 
kind of season, the locality, the climatie conditions, and also the 
time of gathering. 

Grapes, according to kinds, will yield more juice, and “conse- 
quently more wine, at the beginning of vintage than in the middle 
or towards the end of the picking season when, although the sugar 
strength is greater, the quantity of juice is reduced. On the coastal 
and more humid districts the liquid contents is also, with us, greater 
than in the warmer and drier inland districts, and for that reason 
it is not an easy matter to give the quantity of must or of newly 
made wine one should get from any particular kind of grape. 

If a broad average be taken, several of the grapes more ex- 
tensively grown will yield, with us, as follows :— 


Cabernet ... et sec ia . 100 to 115 gallons 
Morastel ... ae meh 7 .. 110 ,, 120 25 
Shiraz 48 oat se — waar D209 GBD: wi 
Mataro.... ee <a ae 180! 4 150 3 
Doradillo ... ie ahs ave .. 140 .. 160 ‘ 


In France an average of about 70 per cent. is obtained, 
whereas in Australia, which, on the whole, is warmer and drier, 


435 


the same grapes yield 60 to 65 per cent. of wine; or, in other words, 
100lbs. of crushed grapes yield about six to six and a-half gallons 
of wine, or 135 to 145 gallons of new wine to the ton. 

The average yield of wine per acre for Australia is about 200 
gallons per acre of wine grapes. 


SHOULD Grapes BE STEMMED oR STALKED. 

Experience with us, as well as wherever wine is made from the 
choicer varieties of grapes, distinctly gives an affirmative answer. 
A chemical examination of the stalk shows that there is little or 
nothing in it which enters into the composition of wine. The only 
soluble substances it possesses—viz., tannin, albuminoid substances, 
organic acid, and salts—already occur in abundance in the grape 
must. Wines fermented with husks and stalks added are harsher 
than wines fermented without stalks; they also often show an 
earthy taste, and are not so clean to the palate. These disadvantages 
are serious enough in themselves, but there are other reasons why 
wines—red wines are here inferred—should not be fermented on 
their stalks, such as the economy of space in fermenting, stalked 
grapes occupying one-third less space inside the vats; the greater 
similarity between wine running freely from the vats and press 
wine, which when stalks are present are invariably much harsher; 
another reason is that wine from stalked grapes mature quicker 
and can be marketed sooner than would otherwise be the ease. 

Stalking, moreover, is effected by a mechanical tearing and 
tossing about of the grape, which results in a thorough aeration of 
the must, an operation which ensures a more active and healthy 
fermentation, and reacts favourably on the quality of the wine. 

In the. manufacture of white wine the same objections dis- 
appear, as white wines are not fermented on either skins or stalks. 

For the easier pressing of the sweet juice out of the glutinous 
pulp, however, the admixture of stalks are of great assistance, as 
they prevent the solidification of the soft pulp. 

In that case, the stalking part of the machine should be thrown 
out of gear and the whole bunch, stalk and all, mangled between the 
rollers of the grape mill. If the type of machine does not permit 
of that, the pulp and the stalks should either be mixed together in 
the cage of the press, or else they should be superposed in alternate 
layers, as the stalks will prevent the solidification of the glutinous 
mass and keep it porous and open, thereby favouring the eseape 
of the juice when the pressure is applied. 

White wines fermented apart from skins and stalks are lighter 
in colour; it is true that the wine is at times slow in clearing, on 
account of a deficiency of tannin which the pips and the stalks 
failed to impart to it. By pressing the stalks with the pulp this 
deficiency is in some measure corrected. 


436 


AERATION, 

The operation of running the grapes through the stemmer ana 
cru: her, it has been noticed, results in a better aeration of the must, 
as the bunches of grapes are vigorously tossed about during that 
process, with the result that the skins burst, and, after passing 
through the rollers, the berries are reduced to a state of pulp. 


Pasteur demonstrated that one of the main factors in the 
mataring of the wine is the oxygen, which is readily taken up by 
its constituents and by them held in a state of loose chemical com- 
bination, from which it is readily given up as required. A 
phenomenon of a similar nature occurs in the case of the grape 
juice; under the influence of warmth and the oxygen absorbed by 
the liquid, the process of maturation of the grape is consummated 
inside the vat, and the must is thereby enriched by the full amount 
of fermentable grape sugar it is capable of acquiring. 


Although the must absorbs much air during the operation of 
cru hing, it is often considered advisable to further aerate it prior 
to setting it to ferment. 


The influence of aeration in quickening the starting of fermen- 
taticn is now well understood by the wine makers of the old world, 
and various designs, as well as special appliances, are employed in 
cariying out that process, both in the making of red and of white 
wines. 

Among the advantages which result from the aeration of the 
must, or mash of grapes, before it is turned into wine, the following 
may be mentioned :— : 

(1.) The cooling down of hot must obtained from grapes 

picked during the hottest hours of the day. 

(2.) A greater regularity in the progress of fermentation. 

(3.) Its earlier completion, hence less exposure to the air, and 
therefore less risk of contamination by injurious 
microbes which float in the air. 

(4.) The quicker clearing of the young wine. Aeration or 
oxidation causing the precipitation into the lees of some 
of those rapidly-deeomposing white-of-egg-like or albu- 
minoid matters in the must, which afford a favourite 
food for dangerous microbes. 


As an instance of this, I may just mention that in the Depart- 
ment of Meurthe, in the North-West of France, where the grapes 
con’ain much albuminoid matter, aeration is carried on systemati- 
eall,, as one of the processes of wine-making. For this purpose the 
must is thoroughly stirred by means of shovels, till the air is well 
mec rporated through its mass, and such wine, which is known as 
vin de pelle (shovel-made wine), by reason of its superior quality, 


437 


sells for 20 per cent. more money than wines made from similar 
must, but according to the ordinary methods of vinification. The 
cost of this very simple but laborious operation is reckoned at 
barely 1d. more per gallon. With the modern mechanical appliances, 
this cost is reduced, whilst the resulting advantages are decidedly 
important. Of late years a machine constructed on the principle 
of a cream-sepurator, and known as the ero-crushing grape mill, has 
been introduced, which effects this work with great thoroughness. 
Such a machine, I have no doubt, should prove a great success in 
hot countries, where the grapes mature very quickly, and more 
especially on rich alluvial land, the percentage of these nitrogenous 
matters increase very much, and it is of great importance that any 
of the surplus of it, beyond what is necessary for the use of the 
yeast fungi, should be removed. Some grapes are exceeding rich 
in these bodies, notably the riesling and the muscats. 

Aeration is more especially beneficial to white wine. One of its 
actions on must is to bring about the precipitation of the colouring 
matter. A ready method of securing it is by means of a pump, 
through which a current of air is injected into the liquid. A rose 
is attached at the end of the delivery pipe. This is done for 10 to 
12 minutes, but must not be overdone, so as not to impart to the 
wine a yellowish colour. With a little practice, the exact time when 
aeration should cease is soon known. If every five minutes a little 
must is run through some filter paper, the pumping is stopped 
directly the liquid ceases to show a rosy tint. A brownish-looking 
precipitate is collected on the filter. Subsidising is necessary after 
aeration. One disadvantage of aeration is that it promotes the 
trouble called casse, or causes the colour of the wine to “break” 
Two casses are known, the “brown” and the “blue.” Sulphur fumes 
are used as a preventative or a colour restorer. Used as a preven- 
tive, it gives better results. Six grammes of sulphur per 100 gal- 
lons, nearly %40z., after aeration and before fermentation, six 
grammes when first drawing off, and six grammes when racking for 
the first time, will prove efficacious against this trouble. Potassium 
metabisulphite may be substituted for sulphur, and in that case 
double the quantity of that substance is used—two grammes of 
bisulphate of potash produce one gramme of sulphurous acid. If 
sulphur is used, it may be burned under a cask with one head re- 
moved and the fumes are sucked from the bung hole and pumped 
into the must. 


VATTING 


is the name given to that period during which the must is in con- 
tact with the husks. As a rule, short fermentations result in a more 
delicate wine, with good keeping qualities; long fermentations pro- 
ducing harsh wines, heavy in colour, and not so easy to keep. 


438 


Whenever possible the vatting of the grape pulp should be 
done by gravitation; time and labour is saved, and the work is done 
with greater cleanliness. 


The filling of the vat should be done during the day, and not 
spread over two or three days. 


It is immaterial whether only one or several kinds of grapes 
are mixed together in the vat, provided that they be all of one type 
and are meant for making one class of wine. Each sort is, however, 
generally fermented apart from the other, and the resulting wine is 
blended afterwards if required. 


The vats should not be filled to more than four-fifths of their 
capacity, as much swelling of the mass occurs during fermentation, 
and if the rise of the liquid occurred during night time loss of wine 
would result. By keeping the level of the fermenting must below 
the edge of the vat, excess of air is to a great extent screened off 
by a layer of carbonic acid gas; which being about three times as 
heavy as air, covers the fermenting liquid and prevents oxidation 
and acetification of the cap or floating husks. 


Questions are often asked: Should the fermentation be con- 
ducted in open or in closed vessels? Should the skins or caps be 
kept immersed or left to float during fermentation? In both cases, 
more especially im hot countries, both theory and practice strongly 
favour open vats and submerged heads. There takes place during 
fermentation a chemical reaction which results in the splitting up 
of grape sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid. This reaction, which 
is set up by living organisms or yeast, is accompanied by much 
evolutions of heat, and the richer the liquid is in sugar, the hotter 
the temperature, within limits, which we will consider presently, 
the greater that evolution of heat becomes. 


Unless some means offer of dissipating that heat generated 
during fermentation, its accumulation might reach a point which 
would soon endanger the life of the acive agent of fermentation. 
Fortunately, two natural outlets exist for the dissemination of that 
generated heat: Ist, radiation from the surface and through the 
sides of the fermenting vessels; 2nd, the free escape of the car- 
bonie acid gas. which rises to the surface in warm bubbles which 
burst and allow it to escape. 


Closed vats, such as are used in the Medoe and other districts 
where the must is lighter, the temperature cooler, and the wine- 
makers most conservative in their methods, would in hotter 
climates, where the grapes are richer in sugar, prove an element of 
danger, for the reason that the confined heated carbonie acid gas, 
prevented from escaping freely from the fermenting mass, tends to 
raise its temperature beyond the limits desirable. 


439 


The following method of handling the crushed grapes ready 
for fermentation into wine I have seen attended with the best 
results and commend to the attention of wine-growers:— 

The grape pulp is 
conveyed in the ordi- 
nary way provided in 
each individual cellar, 
from the grape mill 
to the fermenting vat, 
which can well be an 
open one and should 
not be too deep, but 
rather shallow, and in 
this hot climate, not 
too  capacious,  viz., 


Ul cl preferably from 500 to 
-CmTTTTTTTTT|— 7° gallons. 
Grape Vat. During this opera- 


tion of filling up, a 
straight tap about one inch diameter, driven in the plug-hole at the 
base of the vat, is left open so that as fast as the liquid must and 
pulp fall from the grape crusher the liquid portion drains into tubs 
provided under the tap. Reference to the above illustration will 
show a simple and an effective method of allowing the liquid to 
drain through the solid pulp. It consists of an inverted gutter with 
a V-shape section, made of two lengths of six-inch boards, a little 
shorter than the diameter of the base of the vat. This gutter, with 
the edge uppermost, is made fast by driving a wedge between the 
end further from the tap and the side of the vat; it is notched 
at the bottom so as to let the liquid run freely. 

When the vat is about half filled with freshly-crushed grapes, a 
light and movable false head or grating is made secure above them. 
The liquid must collected in the tubs is then restored to the vat, 
and allowed to rise some six to nine inches above the perforated 
false head. 

Being left to itself, the fresh must undergoes in a short time a 
remarkable change. Originally clear, it soon shows signs of cloud- 
ing up; small gas bubbles begin to form and ascend, ard finally 
cause a decided foaming. The grape must ferments. 

This stage can with advantage be quickened by adding a 
“starter” to the crushed grape, prior to covering it up with the 
false head. This consists in a few buckets of foaming and ferment- 
ing must from an adjoining vat. Under. the combined influence of 
the congenial temperature of the fermenting house and of this 
freshly-crushed, well-aerated mass, the newly added ferments soon 
take hold of the contents of the vat, and within a few hours fer- 
mentation is in full swing. 


440 


Where cement vats are used the same method may be employed. 
By referring to the figure on page 412, an open down-pipe or a 
wooden box drain is seen placed into the fermenting mass; into this 
a syphon is placed and the liquid may be syphoned out and pumped 
back again over the top of the vat, spreading it over the head; it 
is thus cooled and aerated and helps to check a rise in the tempera- 
ture to a degree above the danger point, viz., 92deg. F. or 33deg. 
C. The temperature most favourable for a healthy fermentation 
is about 86deg. F. or 30deg. C. 


SrPaRATING Must FROM THE SKIN. 


The above methods answer when red wine is concerned; white 
wine is made differently. 

The mashed grapes are thrown into a vat provided with a drain 
at the bottom. The tap on the vat is left open and the liquid grape 
must runs freely into receiving tub. As it drains through the 
crushed mass it runs clear and it may be fermented straight away. 
Even red grapes, with the exception of a few coloured juice kinds, 
thus yield a must which can be turned into a white wine. 


SULPHITING AND CLEARING OF FRESH-pRAWN Must. 


The liquid collected either straight from the vat or from the 
press having been pumped into a vat, may be allowed to settle for 
24 hours to get rid of much of the solid matters in suspension. If 
desired it may be aerated, as previously explained, or it may be 
treated with sulphur fumes; the use of the one does not preclude 
that of the other treatment. Unless the liquid was subjected to the 
influence of sulphur fumes it would not rest and fermentation would 
soon set in. 

One easy method of sulphiting this must consists in burning 
under a barrel with the head taken off 5 grammes (75 grains) of 
sulphur for every 22 gallons (25 grammes, or 140z., per 100 gallons) 
of must treated. 

That inverted barrel is slightly raised by means of a wedge, to 
admit air sufficient for the combustion of sulphur. The suction 
hose of a pump is fastened to the bung-hole, and when the large 
vat is about one-third full of fresh white must, the pump is brought 
into play and sulphurous fumes injected by means of the delivery 
hose of the pump. This checks fermentation. 

It is known that the sulphiting is being satis!actorily done 
when, whilst the pump is at work, there is no smell of sulphur fumes 
perceptible when standing close to the cask. Another simple con- 
trivance for effecting this purpose is illustrated in Paul’s Muteuse. 
The must to be treated enters at the top and falls on oblique alter- 
nate shelves coming in contact with ascending sulphurous acid 
fumes generated in a stove. 


441 


Fighteen to twenty-four hours after sulphiting, which, if well 
carried out, checks fermentation from setting in early, the clear 
must is drawn and transferred to the fermenting vats or casks, and 
the viseous produet which has subsided during the period of rest of 
the must is sent to the still-house, where it ferments. 

By this method most of the injurious microbes present in grape 
must are carried down in the sediment and removed from the clear 
liquid, in which remain a number of yeast germs, which are more 
resistant to the action of sulphur fumes, and soon take charge of 
the fermentation, which then proceeds slowly and evenly, and without 
further trouble. 


Paul’s Muteuse (L. Roos). 


Instead of sulphur fumes which are not easy to dose with any 
degree of exactness, a chemical salt, Potassium Metabisulphite, is 
frequently used. It holds sulphur dioxide in a loose state of com- 
bination and readily parts with it. 

One ounce of sulphur by burning produces 2 oz. of sulphur di- 
oxide or sulphurous acid. 


442 


Half an ounce of this gas will delay fermentation in 100 gallons 
of grape juice 10 to 12 hours. 

One ounce Metabisulphite ot Potassium yields oz. of sul- 
phurous acid fumes. When used for checking too rapid a fermen- 
tation and the invasion of injurious moulds and bacteria into 
a fermenting wine a fairly heavy dose is used, as a good deal of the 
sulphur fumes become non-effective and are driven out during the 
tumultuous fermentation. : 

To control and check rapid fermentation, 80z. of Potassium 
Metabisulphite may be used per ton of grapes. Divide into four 
packets of 20z. each. Dissolve in a bucket with hot water; mix the 
first dose with the bulk of the pulp or of juice. Take the tempera- 
ture; when it rises fairly high add the second packet; then the 
third packet. The temperature is taken every few hours. The fer- 
mentation may be longer, but accidents will be averted. Even if 
sulphiting does not prevent hot fermentations it generally averts 
some of the worst consequences of hot fermentations by discourag- 
ing the growth of injurious moulds and of bacteria. 


FERMENTATION. 


Is the process of biological transformation of substances in 
solution in a liquid into products chemically different. This trans- 
formation is generally accompanied by movements similar to boil- 
ing (L. fervere, to boil). In the case of vinous or of alcoholic fer- 
mentation, there is production of bubbles of gas and also of alcohol 
and of other products. 


The active agents of fermentation are micro-organisms which 
float inside the liquid which affords them food; they are capable 
of transforming considerable quantities of material into other 
products. 


Although wine is the result of the fermentation of the juice of 
the grape, it is only when acted upon by microscopic living organ- 
isms which have received the name of “yeasts,” that the transforma- 
tion of the sweet juice of the fruit into wine is accomplished. 

On every sweet fruit, nature has placed some kind of ferment 
capable of converting its juice into a fermented liquor. In grapes 
these ferments, known in France as “levures,” in England as 
“Yeast,” are known to botanists all the world over—for yeast is a 
plant—by the name of Saccharomyces. 

Thus, of the ferment of beer, known as 9. cerevisiae, there are 
several sub-varieties, some of which, like the ferments of “low fer- 
mentation,” are bred by the brewers of lager beer and maintained 
at a low temperature of 45 to 54deg. F. (7-12° C.), and others, the 
ferments of “high fermentation,” are to be Found in those brew- 
eries where the type is more that of Bass’s beer or Guinness’s stout. 


443 


These thrive best at temperatures ranging from 65 to SSdeg. F. 
(18-30° C.). 

They consist of a series of cells, more or less oval in shape, the 
long diameter of which is about .001 min. (1 metre = 1,000 min. 
which approximately equals 1 yard, so that 1 min. = 1/1000 yard). 


Saccharomyces cerevisie, or yeast of beer (highly magnified). 


Each cell is composed of a fragment of protoplasma, sur- 
rounded by an envelope of cellulose. These cells multiply very 
rapidly in several ways. Ist. By sprouting or budding; new cells 
showing like dots on the margin of older ones and growing gradu- 
ally until they constitute fresh cells, 2nd. By fissure, when the con- 
ditions are not so favourable. If a drop of fermenting beer is 
watched under the miscroscope, small granular bodies or nuclei are 
seen inside the veast cell; by degrees this pinches in and splits up 
into two to four cells. Within these mother cells are the spores or 
their kernels, which are endowed with greater resisting power. 

The ferments of wine proper, S. ellipsoideus, also comprise 
several families. Their optima temperature, i.e., that at which they 
are in the full possession of a’i their energy, ranges also from 70 to 
90deg. F. (22-32° C.) Below that temprature they are sluggish 
and languid, above the higher one they are, after having passed 
through a feverish period, left sickly and weakened. They are 
elliptical or rather lenticular in shape, and reproduce by sprouting. 


444 


When young and active they are seen, under the microscope, to be 
full of refractive liquid; when old or living in an unfavourable 
liquid, they are shrivelled and more or less opaque. 


CS 


Sacch. ellipsoideus, yeast of wine (highly magnified.) 


Although the principal agent of vinous fermentation, the 
elliptical yeast is not exclusively so. When the conditions which 


Saccharomyces pastorianus, ferment of secondary fermentation of wine (greatly magnified). 


445 


surround it are favourable, viz., a slightly acid saccharine solution 
and a temperature of 28 to 32deg. C. (83-90° F.), it has a gveat 
eapacity for work and can live in an alcoholic liquid containing up 
to 16 per cent. (by volume) of alcohol (28 per cent. of proof 
spirit), but in unsterilised must it rarely starts working, and gen- 
erally follows the lead of apiculate yeast. 

There is also to be found in wine the S. pastorianus, more in- 
jurious than useful to wine, and until the fermenting wine reaches 
75° F. (24° C.) there is always the danger of the elliptical yeast 
not being able to overcome that particular wild yeast. 

In the spring when sweetish wines begin to work, it is this 
yeast which is found mostly in the wine; it likes a cool tempcra- 
ture, but the quality of the spirit it turns out cannot be compared 
with that elaborated by the elliptical yeast. 


S. or Carpozyma apiculatum. 


There are other kinds of yeast, such as S. apiculatus or 
Carpozyma apiculatum; which is neither good nor bad. This par- 
ticular one is met with on tart and unripe fruit; it has no great 
capacity for work. Although it generally starts fermentation it is 
of a very tender nature; and the apiculate yeast gives way to the 
elliptical yeast when there is 3 to 4 per cent. of alcohol in the wine, 
or when the temperature rises above 75deg. F. (24deg. C.) It con- 
sists of pear-shaped cells. In injured grapes, delayed in crushing 
S. apiculatus multiply very rapidly. In fact the first part of the 
spontaneous fermentation of grapes is generally due to this par- 
ticular yeast, and unless measures are taken to prevent it, t.¢., sul- 
phiting, using 8 to 10 ozs. per ton of potassium metabisulphite, 
much of the persistent cloudiness and the delay in the. finish of fer- 


446 


mentation, even of otherwse good wine, is due to this cause. At the 
beginning of vintage and before the crusher, vats, and other sur- 
faces have had time to get inoculated and to breed true wine yeast, 
the apiculatus yeast predominates. A spontaneous fermentation is 
therefore a defective method, and the use of a healthy “starter” is 
desirable. 


Amongst the other ferments which can be found in greater or 
in lesser quantity floating in new wine, the quality of which they 
tend to depreciate, are two kinds of micro-organisms, one the 
Mycoderma vini, or “wine flowers,” which, feeding on alcohol, robs 
the wine of its strength, and the second and more dangerous Myco- 
derma aceti, which is the bacterium of vinegar. Both of these thrive 
at a fairly high temperature ranging from 80 to 109 deg. 


Besides these, again, there are the bacteria of lactic or of mau- 
nitic fermentation, which are excited into life when the temperature 
in the vat or in the wine reaches 100deg. F. and over. There are 
also pseudo yeasts (torulae) and moulds, which not only waste 
sugar in the must and thus lower the strength of wine, but, what is 
much more serious, leave in the wine products they have eliminated 
which greatly lower its quality. Sulphiting of the must checks 
these robber organisms. 


J 


STaRTING FERMENTATION. 


Now that we are acquainted with alcoholic ferments and the con- 
ditions which are favourable or injurious to them, it will be readily 
understood that it is an advantage to start the fermentation as soon 
as ever the grapes are crushed and vatted, as the less the wine is 
exposed to the air the better are its chances of escaping contamina- 
tion by the injurious bacteria of diseases which are always lurking 
in the cellar a chance to invade the wine and taint it. For that 
veason it is a good practice to start, a few days before vintage 
proper, a small fermentation under the most favourable conditions 
possible. For that purpose some sound and ripe grapes are picked 
whilst eool—in the morning—cerushed, and set: fermenting in a clean 
tub, in which a temperature ranging between 75° and 90° is care- 
fully maintained. 

This first fermentation will take longer to start than will other- 
wise be the case, as the appliances for wine making have not then 
been leavened, and the spores or germs of the yeast, which during 
vintage float about in abundance in the atmosphere of the cellar, 
are still scarce at this early stage of wine making. 


When the fermentation has well set in, vintage is begun, and as 
the first vat is being filled a bucketful or two of that controlled 
ferment is thrown into it, with the result that a fermentation of the 
right sort speedily sets in. 


447 


The subsequent vattings are also leavened from those already in 
full fermentation, and thus the process is continued all through the 
vintage. This must be done at the right moment, as reference tw 
the paragraphs dealing with the various kinds of ferments show 
that at the start the “apiculate” yeasts predominate, and at the end 
the Mycoderma vini, or “flower of wine,’ and the bacteria of acetic 
acid and of lactic fermentations, and also other undesirable micro- 
organisms are not uncommon. During the height of the fermenta- 
tion, on the other hand, the “elliptical” yeast, or true wine yeast, 
has a good hold of the fermenting mass, and is then in a healthy 
and thriving condition. 

In the course of his researches on beer, Pasteur demonstrated 
that several kinds of fermentation cannot proceed simultaneously 
and with equal intensity in a suitable liquid, and that the most 
energetic always masters and overpowers the others. The point 
to bear in mind is, therefore, to surround the particular kind of 
fermentation one strives to achieve with the conditions most favour- 
able to its proper completion. 


INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE DURING FERMENTATION. 


Fermentation is the result of combustion. That combustion, as 
we have seen, is initiated whenever the yeast fungi have access to 
the sweet juice of the grape. 

According to the researches of scientists, and in the first in- 
stance to Berthelot, 180 grammes of grape sugar, in being trans- 
formed into aleohol and carbonic acid gas, generate 71 calories, or 
enough heat to raise the temperature of a must containing 20 per 
cent. sugar and fermenting completely to 128° F., provided all the 
heat were accummulated in the fermenting vessel without loss, 

This fact, demonstrated by theory, does not, however, oceur in 
practice. Several sources of leakage tend to reduce that tempera- 
ture, such as the radiation of heat through the staves or sides of 
the vat, the evaporation which takes place from the surface of the 
liquid, the bursting on the surface of the hot bubbles of the carbonic 
acid gas, which escapes through the air. Were it not for these 
sources of diffusion of generated heat, the yeast would soon be 
paralysed or killed, and the vat would get “stuck.” 

What that amount of heat is, at any given moment, within 
the mass in fermentation, can thus be expressed in the terms of a 
mathematical equation :— 

The temperature of the fermenting mass is equal to that of the 
grapes at the time of crushing, plus that due to the heat evolved 
during the fermentation, less that lost by radiation and evaporation. 

Tt is a matter of common observation that, unless checked, the 
temperature of a 600 or 700-gallon vat in Australia rises from 20° 
to 25° F. during fermentation. In other words, grapes crushed at 


448 


65° I*. will rise in the vat, if the temperature be unchecked, to 80° 
or &)° F., whereas the same grapes vatted at a temperature of 
75° F, will rise to about 95° or 100° F. As that temperature is 
decidedly injurious to the yeast of wine fermentation (Saccharo- 
myccs ellipsoideus), and on the other hand is favourable to bacterial 
life, or the life of those microbes which are the cause of disease in 
wine, it is obvious that, where no artificial means are at hand to 
contiol the excess of temperature, the grapes should be vatted only 
when cool. 

Jt is therefore essential, whilst the grapes are fermenting, to 
ascertain, by means of frequent testings with the thermometer, what 
the temperature is inside the vat. 

The elliptic yeast does its best work between the temperatures 
of 75° and 90° F. Below 75° the S. pastorianus or the S. apiculatus, 
which, at best, are but very poor kinds of ferments, thrive best; 
above 95° the ferments of acetic acid and of lactic acid play an 
active part, the conversion of sugar into alcohol ceases through the 
death of the yeast of wine fermentation, and the vat gets “stuck,” 
with a proportion of unfermented grape sugar still left in it. Dur- 
ing the course of a sickly fermentation, not only does the work done 
by sickly yeast plants fall short, both as regards quality and quan- 
tity, compared with what healthy yeast plants would do, but the 
same circumstances which have brought about that unsatisfactory 
state of things, i.e., excess of heat, being favourable to bacterial 
life, it follows that the wine suffers in bouquet and aroma as well 
as in delicacy and purity. Besides, it becomes tainted by the dele- 
terious products of undesirable and injurious bacteria, turning fiery 
and | eady, and suffering greatly in character. 

These injurious bacteria, feeding on what sugar is left unfer- 
mented, and also on the spirit or on the tartar of the wine, cause 
lactic or mannitie, acetic, tartaric, and butyric fermentations, which 
form products giving sweet-sour or milk-sour acid and mousy tastes, 
all defects aggravated by keeping, causing the wine to become flat, 
turbil, and difficult to clear. 


. 


ReEvIvAL OF FERMENTATION. 


It some times happens that, in spite of all care and precaution, 
some vats get “stuck” before fermentation is completed. In such 
cases the remedy must be applied at once, and the wine-maker has 
the choice between several means of attaining that end. 

One of the simplest is to draw the wine from the hot vat and 
fill smaller casks or vessels in which it will soon cool, with the result 
that the ferments will revive and show a tendency to accomplish 
their work. When this is noticed, the wine is restored to the vat, 
and a small addition of must in full fermentation added at the same 
time will soon help to restore matters. 


449 


The surest way of restoring fermentation in a “stuck” vat, or 
of preventing the temperature rising too high, is, however, to use 
a refrigerator or wine-cooler, 


Full-bodied wine of high gravity may remain sweetish owing to 
exhaustion of yeast-food, which consists of oxygen, nitrogen, phos- 
phorie acid, and potash. Of these, potash is present in ample quan- 
tities in the shape of cream of tartar. Phosphoric acid appears to 
be seldom deficient. Oxygen is easily supplied by aeration. Nitro- 
gen in a form acceptable to the yeast plant is not always abundant 
enough. “Ammonia” is the form most readily absorbed by yeast, 
while “nitrates” appear to be useless. A yeast stimulant in the 
shape of ammonia salts may be usef'ul at the close of a sluggish 
fermentation of such high gravity, full-bodied wines, the dose not 
to exceed loz. per 100 gallons of ammonium phosphate. If used in 
excess, it acts as food for bacteria as well as for yeast. Of am- 
monium phosphate there are two forms, viz., the mono-ammonia or 
acid phosphate, and the bi-ammonia or crystallised form. The first 
is preferable. 


“Sweetish wine” from “stuck” vats is very dangerous to hold, 
as secondary fermentation sets in when the summer comes round. 
If not fortified at once, and it is desired to make it ferment out, 
good, healthy “levure” or yeast should be added, and in addition a 
little phosphate of ammonia, if procurable, of the dose indicated. 


REFRIGERATORS, also called ‘“‘attemperators,” are mechanical 
devices for the purpose of cooling liquids, whether it be milk, as in 
a dairy, mash in a brewery, or must in a winery. 


Several types are in use for that purpose, those which have 
met with greater favour being :— 


Metal spiral coils, plunged in the fermenting must, and through 
which cold water is passed, have hitherto been much used in brewer- 
ies as well as wineries. In consists of a horizontal cireular coil to suit 
the shape of the vat, and made of tinned copper pipes one-sixteentu 
of an inch thick and one inch to one and a-quarter inch outside 
diameter, with supporting stays and suspending rods, by which it 
may be hung in the vat at any desired depth. The pipes are fitted 
with unions for connecting india-rubber hose for the supply of 
cooling water. When required to be removed, after fermentation, 
for cleaning purposes, it is readily hoisted by pulley blocks out of 
the vat. The pipes are set at a distance of about four inches apart, 
so as to allow of rapid and thorough cleaning. 


Amongst other advantages, this attemperator is easy to con- 
struct, fairly cheap, and can be fitted up anywhere, being simply 
hung on a beam over the top of any vat. It is, by means of the 
pulley blocks and a counterpoise hitched on at the other end of the 
chain, set at any depth in the fermenting wine. A good depth, I 


450 


have found, is about six inches below the surface, as it is well known 
that fermentation, and hence development of heat, is more active at 
the top of a vat than at the bottom. The liquid on being cooled 
has, besides, a tendency to sink, and thus maintains amongst the 
lower layers of the fermenting must a moderate degree of tem- 
perature. 


Tubular Atemperator. 


In order to ensure an even penetration of the cooler tempera- 
ture through the mass of the fermenting grapes, it is advisable to 
draw the liquid into a tub from the bottom of the vat and pump it 
back on the top, spreading it over the surface by means of a rose 
attachment. 

For the purpose of working the attemperator, an abundant 
supply of cool water is necessary, and this can be pumped to a 
tank placed at a higher level than the attemerator itself from a well, 


451 


an underground tank, or even a cool stream. By means of a tap 
fitted on the supplying overhead tank the flow of the cooling water 
can be regulated so as to maintain the suitable degree of tempera- 
ture in the vat. 


This metallic spiral coil is only used in reducing the tempera- 
ture in white wine vats, where the juice has been pressed from 
the skins; or in red wine vats provided with a false head for the 
purpose of submerging the cap. 

The consumption of water, which varies with the degree of tem- 
perature of the must, that of the water itself, and the volume of 
must to be cooled with this appartus, amounts to about an equivalent 
volume of wine to be cooled. Under unfavourable conditions this 
amount would be greatly exceeded. 


Muntz and Rousseaux tubular refrigerator —This cooling ap- 
paratus, which is constructed by the well-known firm of still manu- 
facturers, Deroy fils ainé, of Paris, is, as it stands, one of the most 
improved wine-coolers constructed. It has been used with much 
success in the large wineries of Algeria and the south of France; 
but its disadvantage, from the Australian wine-grower’s point of 
view, is its cost. 

In the matter of wine refrigeration several factors influence 
the cost of the operations, viz., the cost of labour for pumping the 
wine and the water, the interest, and wear and tear of the apparatus. 
While the first item does not fluctuate very much, the second de- 
creases as the volume of wine handled increases, and an apparatus, 
by means of which large volumes of wine could be treated at a 
nominal cost in a large winery, would prove a burden where smaller 
vintages are handled. 


Refrigeration by Ice—The use of attemperators or heat coolers 
have, under many hot climates, been used with most satisfactory 
results. Several designs have been contrived for that purpose, but 
they all entail a high initial cost, as well also as the necessity for a 
large supply of cool water, which has, in the first instance, to be 
secured and subsequently has to be pumped up before it can be 
utilised. 

Where ice can be procured readily and at a reasonable cost, it 
affords a convenient means of regulating the temperature inside 
the fermenting vats. Where supplies are uncertain a quantity may - 
be stored in a suitably constructed ice-chest, large enough for cur- 
rent requirements. 


Wine-making and Temperature control—The following fer- 
menting chart illustrates the progress of fermentation under cir- 
cumstances which I shall briefly explain. It illustrates graphically 
the progress of wine-making experiments I made during the vintage 
1900 with ice as the temperature controlling agent :— 


452 


In order to further assist the yeast germs, the grape must, 
subjected to the cooling effect of the ice, receive an addition of 
2ozs. to 3ozs. of tartarie acid for very 100 gallons. No. 1 diagram 


Muntz: and Rousseaux tubular refrigerator. 


illustrates the course of fermentation in a vatting of Malbec pre- 
vious to the date when ice was used at all. Such defective fermenta- 
tions are more the rule than the exception at many of our vine- 
yards. The temperature in three days rose up to 97 degrees, a 
degree of heat which is prejudicial to a healthy fermentation. Con- 
currently with this rapid rise of the temperature, the attenuation of 
the must, or, in other words, the conversion of the grape sugar into 
alcohol, was speedily completed, although the must originally con- 
tained as much as 23.5 per cent. of sugar. It was sheer luck that 


Such wine, although 
h of its delicacy and 


453 
getting “stuck” before 
ch produce the much-prized “bouquet.” 


keeping sound, must have been robbed of mue 


fermentation was completed without the vat 
of those wine ethers whi 


all the sugar had been converted into alcohol. 


a notable quantity of alcohol 


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LMOEY ) UONEIUAMIAY 


Because of the high elevation of: temperature the. strength of 


the resulting wine also suffered, 


454 


having been carried away mechanically in the gases produced dur- 
ing fermentation. 


No. 3 represents a fermentation of two tons five ewt. of Shiraz 
grapes. The timely use of ice here averted a disastrous fermenta- 
tion. In two and a-half days the temperature jumped from 7/deg. 
F. to 99deg. F., when 85lbs. of ice were placed in the coolers on 
the 17th of February in the morning, and the temperature was in a 
few hours brought down to 88deg. F. As explained on page 447, the 
optimum, or the most suitable degree of temperature for the yeast 
germs of vinous fermentation, ranges between S0deg. to 90deg. F. 
Below 80deg. fermentation is sluggish, and the yeast zerms work 
slowly; above 90deg. F. fermentation becomes for a time tumult- 
uous, until as the heat increases and gets nearer 100deg., when the 
yeast germs by degrees become paralysed and soon die, unless 
prompt relief is brought to them and the degree of, heat reduced. 
When that higher temperature is reached, latent germs of Jiseases, 
such as the mannitic ferment, which produces sowr—-sweet wine, as 
well as other germs of maladies of wine, take possession of the fer- 
menting mass, and in a short period spoil the wine. 


In the instance under review the dangerous zone of tempera- 
ture was soon reached and as quickly reduced, and a'though the fer- 
menting mass was only subjected for a very few hours to a tem- 
perature ranging over 95 deg., the cvil effect sooa became apparent, 
and had not ice been timely applied, over 300 gallons of wine would 
have been irremediably lost. On the fifth day, the new wine was 
drawn into clean, cool casks, and still contained as much as 3.5 per 
cent. of grape sugar. Owing to the timely application of the ice, 
fermentation shortly afterwards started again, and the wine is now 
dry and sound. 


No. 2 chart illustrates a healthy fermentation, and with proper 
eare, the resulting wine should exhibit all the qualities which are 
prized in good wines. 


The grapes are the choicest sorts used in wine-making, and 
are such as produce the celebrated Medoc and Hermitage wines of 
France. They were picked before they became over-ripe. A small 
quantity of tartaric acid was added to the must to further help the 
yeast plants in converting the grape sugar in the must into whole- 
some alcohol in the wine. 


The fermentation lasted six days, and the temperature was 
maintained below 90 degrees F. The cap, made of skins and seeds, 
was kept submerged in the vat by means of a false head, and was 
not, as is often done, plunged three or four times a day into the 
liquid below. The result was a wine completely fermented; that 
is to say, a wine which does not contain any appreciable amount 
of grape sugar left. It was, moreover, lighter in colour than wines 


455 


fermented at a high temperature, and which had a floating cap re- 
peatedly pushed down into it. It was not so harsh to the palate, and 
did not contain any excessive proportion of extracted matters. It 
cleared in the cask, and looked less turbid and more forward than 
wine from other vattings fermented at a higher temperature and 
without the cooling assistance of ice. 


The ice used cost 5s. the 2ewt. block; with railway freight 
added, it cost about 3s. a ewt. The amount of ice used varied from 
50lbs. to 85lbs. per vatting of 200 to 350 gallons of must in fer- 
mentation. The ice was sawn into blocks which would fit into empty 
kerosene tins. The tins were provided with a wire handle, for 
convenience of handling, and weighted with bricks on top of the 
ice, so that they sink to two-thirds of their height into the ferment- 
ing mass, and rest over the perforated false head which keeps the 
cap down. 


The ice melted more or less quickly, according to the degree of 
heat in the must, and as the upper layer of the liquid in the vat 
cooled, the hotter layer underneath was run into a tub by opening 
the cock at the botiom of the vat, and pumped and spread over the 
top of the fermenting liquid. This equalises the temperature all 
through the mass, and allows fermentation to proceed without hind- 
rance. 


WHEN TO COMMENCE COOLING is a question of great moment. 
The fermenting must should never be allowed to reach 100deg. F., 
as in that case the yeast suffers such harm that it does not always 
recover, and, in spite of all the maker’s efforts, the wine may be- 
come permanently injured. If in a small vat, the heat is not likely 
to rise to danger point, but in a large vat it is advisable, if the must 
is still rich in sugar, to commence cooling when the thermometer 
marks 3ldee. to 32deg. C., t.e., 88deg. to 90deg. F., below that it 
would be waste of energy, and above it might prove sailing rather 
closely to danger point. The wine is left with a proportion of 
alterable substances and suffers a diminution in the alcohol and also 
the glycerine, both of which are necessary preservative substances. 


456 


CONVERSION OF THERMOMETER SCALES. 


The following diagram and formule show at a glance or 
enables one to connect the reading of any degree of. temperature 


I 


TOO ee TT TTT 


jiiit 


CO That ih I aoe a 


4 


oe 


Conversion of 
Thermometer 
Scales, 


in the three scales used into any one or other 
of these scales. The wine maker is often em- 
barrassed when reading reports on wine making 
to translate degree (‘entigrade into the more 
familiar Fahrenheit scale or vice versa. 


32dee. F. = Odeg. C. 
212dee. F. = 100deg. C. 


To convert F. into C. degrees :— 


F — 32 
K5=C. 
9 
To convert C. into F. degrees :— 
cx 9 
4+ 92 = F. 
5 


Wuen to Draw THE Wine.—The initial fer- 
mentation when vintage begins is generally more 
protracted than the subsequent ones, for reasons 
that have already been referred to, the appli- 
ances for wine making having not yet been en- 
leavened by the yeast of wine fermentation. 
After this first fermentation, however, under 
conditions prevailing at vintage time in the 
Australian climate, the march of fermentation is 
greatly accelerated, and in about three to six 
days the wine is fit to draw off the vat. 


Sometimes fermentation runs wildly for two 
or three days and then stops short. In that case 
there is often sugar left unfermented in the must, 
and the cause as well as the remedy have been 
indicated in this chapter. After three or four 
days, under favourable conditions, the wine is 
pretty well ready to draw off; this is indicated 
by the saccharometer, which sinks to zero or 
thereabouts; better guides still are the taste and 
the eye. The wine should be fairly dry to the 
taste, i.¢., should have lost most or all its sugar. 
Tt should be somewhat rough to the tongue, 
indicating that it has extracted from the pips, 
as well as from the skins, a sufficient amount of 
tannin to ensure its sounder keeping and its 


457 


easier clearing. To the eye it should, if a red wine, be of a dark 
ruby or of a somewhat deep colour. If ‘a white wine, it should have 
as little colour as possible beyond that which may be imparted to 
it by the debris of yeast cells and other impurities, which, after 
settling to the bottom of the cask, will soon leave it clear and 
transparent above. 


Liquorous WINEs. 


The methods already touched upon apply to white wines and 
to red wines which are fermented dry, .e., in which all the sugar is 
allowed to be transformed into spirit and carbonic acid. 


Liquorous wines, of which Port wine, Madeira, Sauterne, and 
Sweet Muscats are tyes well known in commerce, are made some- 
what differently. Some of their natural sugar is preserved in the 
wine, and fermentation is checked before it is complete 1. 


To effect this, several methods are used. One of the most 
common is to allow the grapes to hang on the vines until they are 
dead ripe. The higher the state of maturity of grapes, the richer 
they are in sugar, whilst the acidity is neutralised by the migration 
of alkaline sap from the wood and leaves into the fruit. Also 
ethers are formed, which impart to the various sorts of grapes an 
aroma peculiar to themselves. This explains why sweet wines made 
from grapes which have been allowed to become dead ripe have 
more individual character than sweet wines made from the same 
grapes at an earlier period of maturity. In some localities, viz., 
Tokav and Sauterne, which produce the most delicate sweet wines, 
the berries are allowed to even partially rot. A fungus known as 
gray mould, Botrytis cinerea, develops on the skin of the berries, 
and so modifies the juice as to give it a very delicate flavour. As a 
saprophyte it attacks the skin of ‘the grape, facilitating evaporation 
of water and a resulting concentration of the juice. It then pene- 
trates the pulp and feeds on both sugar and acid, principally the 
latter. No mouldy flavour is produced. It is known as the ‘noble 
mould” in the Sauterne district of France. 


Whether white or red sweet wine is made, it is allowed to 
ferment for 24 hours in a large vat, and is then run out into well 
sulphured smaller casks, and the skins are pressed. As much sugar 
is still left in these, they are either put into another red wine vat to 
ferment, or a little water is added, and the resulting fermented 
mash is distilled. In the smaller casks, if necessary, a sufficient 
quantity of well rectified spirit of wine is added, to raise the 
alcoholic strength of the wine to 15 or 16 per cent. of absolute 
aleohol by weight, which is equivalent to 18 to 20 by volume, or to 
32 to 34 proof spirit. It is better not to add this spirit all at once, 
but to bring the wine up to its full strength when the saccharometer 


458 


marks, according to the lesser or greater degree of sweetness it is 
desired to give to the wine, 2deg. to 4deg. Baumé, which would 
leave in the wine 34% to 7 per cent. of unfermented sugar. 

The formula for fortifying wine is given on page 433. 


Rearing oF Youna WINES. 

After three to five days the fermenting wine, having been drawn 
from over the skins, is pumped into another receiver vat or cask 
to complete its fermentation. 

A crackling sound, caused by a slow fermentation, keeps on for 
some little time, and as carbonic acid gas is given off, the casks 
should not be plugged tightly, lest they should burst. A good plan 
is to place over the bung-hole a small flat sand-bag, a few inches 
square, which, while not interfering with the escaping of the gas, 
keeps dust, germs, and the troublesome minute fermentation flies 
dropping into the cask. 

To the same effect, specially constructed bungs are sometimes 
used. 

The carbonic acid gas under tension from inside the cask forges 
its way out through the perforated plug which fits tightly into the 
bung-hole, and,, overcoming the pressure of small layers of water, 
into which an inverted glass bell stands, escapes outside, whereas 


Showing Hydraulic]Plug for wine casks. 


the external air and all the impurities it carries in suspension, 
cannot get access to the wine in the eask. 

Such plugs, although useful, are not indispensable to the safe 
keeping of well fermented voung wines. 

After a rest of two or three weeks it loses its turbid look and 
casts the dead yeast cells and other impurities which collect as lees 


459 


at the bottom of the receiver. It should then receive the first rack- 
ing, and it is drawn from over these lees into clean casks in which 
sulphur fumes have been generated by burning a piece of sulphur 
tape. 

The wine must be made to absorb the sulphur, either by 
spreading it by means of a rose or by pumping the sulphur fumes 
into it. 

A few days after this racking the wine clears readily, and it is 
left for two or three months in well-filled and closed casks. 

The filling of what is called the “ullage” should be done at least 
every fortnight, preferably every week, so as to absolutely exclude 
the air from the cask. Neglect of this precaution will cause the 
wine to become tainted with the moulds of flowers of wine and of 
acetic acid. 

Towards the end of winter the young wine is again racked 
(2nd racking) in a similar way. 

Again, a 3rd racking as spring comes round. 

Racking is best done wl.en the weather is clear and the 
barometer high, which with us in Western Australia generally occurs 
when the cool breezes are from the South-West. 

If the white wine does not clear readily after the first racking, 
1% to 34 oz. of tannin per 100 gallons are added; if it still remains 
cloudy and turbid a light fining with 6 to 8 grammes of isinglass, or 
some other good fining, per 100 gallons will clear it. 

A 4th racking should take place before the subsequent vintage. 
At that time this young wine will have lost most of the carbonic 
acid it held in solution; it will be bright and clear and will rid 
itself of the harsh and raw taste of new wine. 

After keeping for another year or two in clean casks, kept well 
filled and racked twice the second year, and once the third year, it 
will be ready for bottling after a fining or filtering or both, if 
necessary. 


How to Rack Wine. 


This operation, which has for its object the removal of the 
clearer wine from over its sediment at the bottom of the cask and 
its transference to clean casks provided for its reception, 1s accom- 
plished in a variety of ways, governed by local practice and by the 
nature of the appliances at hand. 

The more generally used methods are :-— 

(1.) The drawing of the wine direct from one cask to an- 
other by means of a hose or syphon. 

(2.) The transferring from one cask to another by means of 
pails or buckets. 

(3.) The drawing by means of a pump. 


460 


The first of these methods is largely practised in the Bordeaux 
district and in Burgundy, and answers very well for transferring 
the more delicate wines quickly from one hogshead to another with- 
out exposing them too much to the action of the air. It must be 
remembered that these hogsheads are piled up in two or three tiers 
one above the other. A hose connects the tap-hole of one hogshead 
to the other, and the wine from the full cask passes on to the empty 
one, if they are at the same height, till the level in each hogshead 
balances. By means of a pump fixed to the bung-hole of the first 
hogshead air is then forced into the cask, and extra pressure causing 
the wine to rise into the second cask until the contents of one have 
been transferred to the other. When the hogsheads of the second 
tier are decanted into the hogsheads of a lower one no air-pump 
is required, and the wine flows down by gravitation. The whistling 
sound of air getting into the hose tells that one of the hogsheads is 
almost empty; the hose is then disconnected, the cask gently tilted, 
and what clear wine remains in it is collected into a wooden pail, 
frequent samples being taken in a glass to show exactly the moment 
the slightest cloudiness is detected, when the racking must be 
stopped. 

The second method of transferring from one cask to another 
by means of pails and other small vessels is still much used in some 
districts and notably at M&con, in France, and in small private 
cellars. This method, however, is not advisable, except for young 
and full-bodied and heavy wines, as it favours too much exposure 
to air. 

The method of racking by means of a pump is much prefer- 
able, bemg the more rapid and involving the employment of less 
hand labour. It is much used, especially in the more modern and 
best equipped cellars of the South of France, where wine is gen- 
erally, like in Australia, stored in large-sized casks. 

When pumping new wine it is advisable to first draw it into a 
tub, whence it is pumped wherever required. By this means the 
wine becomes aerated and receives the ripening and mellowing action 
of the air. 

Various methods are employed to effect the racking, but it is 
essential that pipes, hose, and pumps should be kept thoroughly 
clean and sweet by running water through them after they have 
been used. The suction hose should be steel-ribbed to prevent it 
from collapsing under the foree of the suction. As to pumps, some 
very good models are now in use, the best being made of gun metal 
or of copper, and although they cost a little more in the first in- 
stance, they last much longer, and are not susceptible of being at- 
tacked by the acids in the wine. 

A syphon is also much used in the process of decanting clear 
wine from one cask into another. A little practice will make any- 
one skilful m using it. One essential is, that the receiving vessel 


461. 


should be on a lower level than the filled vessel in order to get the 
syphon to work at all, and this, it is found, is not in every case 
possible. 


After a blend between two or more wines has been made, it 
often turns cloudy for a while ere the constituents of each sample 
incorporate thoroughly with one another, and it is advisable to pro- 
ceed soon after to fresh racking. 


ysl | CU mm 


Sy 


SS) TTT Ss TTT itu A Z 


bs = 
» 


SS 
L939 
SQ 


Wine Pump. 


Oceasionally a sort of mishap occurs to wine after the racking, 
and this is known as cassage des vins, or in other words the colour 
is said to “break.” Thus, red wines are noticed to turn violet and 
assume a leaden colour, although the taste is not modified. White 
wines are affected as well, and assume a bluish or a blackish tinge 
of colour, This phenomenon is simply due to the oxidation of cer- 
tain matlers, in some wine produced from imperfectly matured 
grapes, which are affected by the air. After a little while that 
cloudiness disappears, and the healthy colour of the wine is restored 
back to it. Sulphur, as has been previously mentioned on page 440, 
offers an easy means of preventing the accident. In some cases, 
however, this discolouration persists, unless a small dose of tartaric 


462 


acid or one-third its weight of citric acid is added. The acid, act- 
ing on the colouring matter, keeps it in solution; the dose used 
varies generally about one gramme per litre, or about 60 grains per 
gallon. Pasteurisation at 65deg. C. (150deg. F.) will cure this as 
well as any other disease. 

Of pumps, the simplest are the best. In any case the valves 
should be easily accessible to free them, whenever required, of any 
obstruction to their proper working. Danks’ ordinary, power- 
driven, double-action gun-metal pump are very good, and used at 
many of the Victorian wineries. 


ParaFrIn For Pumps, PIPING, VaTs, AND CaSKS. 

Paraffin wax provides a servicable and cheap way of getling 
wo.n ont rotary pumps to work and protecting black iron pipes, 
scwctimes used for racking wine from large vats or casks; they are 
better than galvanised pipes which have a zine coating and they are 
also cheaper. Mr. F. de Castella states that he used them exten- 
sively at Dookie, where pipes were fixed everywhere permanently 
with a good fall and a plug for clearing after use, at the lowest 
points. For that purpose the pipes or pumps are made hot, the 
paraffin wax is melted and poured into them, and they are tipped 
every way and finally the surplus paraffin is poured out. At some 
wineries the pipes are re-paraffined every year, while at others it is 
found that one good application lasts several years. 

Vats and tanks may be similarly treated, the melted paraffin 
being put on with a brush and spread evenly over the surface by 
means of the blow-lamp. 


ULLAGE IN CaSKS. 

It is essential when the wine has fermented out to exclude fur- 
ther access of air which may carry injurious germs or bring into 
action others which may be in the wine. When the wine is young 
it is charged with carbonic acid gas with which it parts gradually, 
and a noticeable shrinkage of volume results. That ullage must be 
filled every week or two at first, then every month. This shrinkage 
and evaporation are influenced by the season, the volume of the 
wine vessel, the age of the wine, more in summer, less in winter; 
it is greater in wooden casks, especially new, than in cement vats 
where it is very small. 

It is a good plan to place round the bungs or plugs a cement 
made of mutton fat and resin in the proportion of 3 to 1; some 
prefer a ring of liquid ordinary lime and sand mortar round the 
plug. This cement soon cakes dry and is easily removed. 

If the wine is not clear and bright at the time of the third or 
spring racking, there is generally something amiss, and it should 
receive attention and be fined or even pasteurised unless it is pre- 
ferred to fortify and blend it with sweet wine. 


463 


FINING AND FILTERING. 


Young wine, even when sound, generally lacks that clearness 
and brightness which characterises a well made and matured wine. 


Condition is the name given to the state of clearness of wine. 
It means the degree of limpidity or the amount and character of 
suspended solid matter it contains. 


Ist. Immediately after fermentation a wine is said to be 
“murky” or “muddy.” 


2nd. After most of the yeast and other sediment have settled 
it is said to be “cloudy.” 


3rd. When sufficiently freed from floating matter to be 
transparent it should be “clear.” When properly fermented tiis 
appears within three or four weeks in the case of a white wine. 


4th. The final stage is reached when no floating particles are 
visible; the wine is then “bright.” 


It is important to bring about a good condition in the young 
wine before the advent of hot weather revives the injurious germs 
which might still be present, and this purpose may be attained by 
by fining, by filtering, and by Pasteurising. 

These methods may be used either singly or conjointly. The 
first two will be referred to briefly now, the latter in a subsequent 
chapter. 


“ining” 1s brought about by the use of albuminoid substances, 
which are reduced to a solution and, mixing with the wine, are 
coagulated by the spirit and the tannin into insoluble floc went 
mesh-like film, of a density slightly greater than the wine, which, 
on settling, gradually drags down the solid particles in suspensina, 
leaving the wine above clear. 


If fining fails to act, it may be due to several causes, viz.: 
Ist, deficiency of tannin, particularly in white wines fermented 
apart from the skins; in this case it is essential to add tannic acid 
a day or so before fining. 2nd, The young wine is still charged 
with carbonic acid gas which, gradually disengaging, forms little 
bubbles which prevent the fining from settling down; racking in the 
presence of air will remedy this. 3rd, The wine may contain active 
germs of disease which, being at work, create a movement in the 
wine and produce gases which also prevent the settling of the fining. 
When this is the case, sulphiting by means of sulphur fumes, or the 
application of meta-bisulphate of potash, will paralyse the germs 
and permit the fining to act. Subsequent rackings will free the 
wine of these sulphur fumes. A surer method is pasteurising, i.e., 
bringing the wine rapidly to a temperature of 150° to 170° F., and 
cooling it also rapidly. This operation is conducted out of contact 
with air by means of a specially constructed machine. 


464 


The fining material used, as already mentioned, consist | of 
albumenous clarifiers, viz., several albumens, white of egg, blood, 
milk (casein), gelatine, isinglass. 

The patent finings offered by commerce consist of one of these 
substances with tannin and potassium sulphite added; they are 
good, but their price is often unreasonably high. 

Fish Isinglass, called by the French Ichthyocol, is very gool 
for white wines; one quarter to half an ounce per 100 gallons for 
white wines. It is split in thin sections or, better, rasped, covered 
with cold water for 10 or 12 hours, during which it swells, then 
boiling water is added, beating it meanwhile. Another way is to 
dissolve one-tenth its weight of tartaric acid, plunge the isinglass 
into the acidulated water, but without heating it, and avoid beating 
it at this stage. In about an hour it is reduced to a clear, trans- 
parent jelly; then stir and reduce to the consistency of thin cream 
and stir it into the wine. When ready for use some wine is well 
mixed with it and it is poured into the cask, which is stirred ener- 
‘getically with a plunger. A quantity may be used for subsequent 
use, and 1 per cent. of bisulphite of potash added to preserve it. 

Gelatine——One to one and a-half ounces jer 100 gallons of 
either white or red wine; the amount depends much on the degree 
of cloudiness. It is sold in the shape of yellowish to transparent 
cakes. It swells without dissolving in cold water, but dissolves very 
readily in warm water. In the proportion of 5 per cent. the dis- 
dissolved gelatine remains liquid at ordinary temperatures; if more 
concentrated it jellifies on cooling. Dissolve the quantity required, 
dilute with wine and stir into the cask. The tannin and acid of the 
wine cause a gradual coagulation, the particles settling and carrying 
down the solid matter floating in the wine. The coagulum consists 
of a combination of the gelatine and the tannin. With astringent 
red wine this may be an improvement. 

White of eggs are used without preparation other than beating 
up with water. The white of 10 eggs may be used for 100 gallons 
of wine. 

Fresh blood serum, i.e., the clear amber-coloured liquid which 
separates after coagulation, is used without any further prepara- 
tion; half a pint to 100 gallons, with a quarter of a pound of 
common salt added. The desiccated forms of eges and blood albu- 
men found in commerce are expensive, and lose the simplicity of 
their manipwation when liquid. 

Natural milk is only used for the clarification of vinegar. 
Gelatine requires about equal quantity -of tannin to precipitate. 
Isinglass, properly prepared about half that amount. Eggs re- 
quire only minute quantities. ; 

When the wine has cleared, after three to ten davs, it is drawn 
by racking from over the lees. 


465 


FILTERING 


is a convenient and expeditious way of bringing to a bright condi- 
tion wines which are not quite clear, provided that this defect is 
caused by inert solid or viscous matters in suspension in the wine 
or by yeast cells, but not by the presence of active microbes of 
disease. These must be paralysed or destroyed by sulphiting or, 
better still, by heat in properly constructed pasteurisers. 


Dondey and Testro’s Filter. 


Wine filters consist of bag strainers coated with cellulose and 
asbestos, or specially prepared paper paste, or a mixture of 
cellulose and infusorial earth, or else they are made of porous and 
hollow pipeclay bougies. It is an advantage to condact the filtra- 
tion out of contact with air, to guard against the loss of aleohol 
and of the volatile bouquet of the wine. The Simoneton filter, 
made in France, is a candle filter, and much used. 


466 


Another efficient filter, made by Dondey and Testro, copper- 
smiths and stillmakers, in Melbourne, is here illustrated. The 
filtering paste is placed inside the filter and the wine is forced 
through under the force of gravitation or of a small pump attached 
to the filter. Other models are also found which are quite efficacious. 


If the wine does not run clear at first it is passed through again, 
and the machine can be worked until the run becomes too small and 
the filtering material becomes clogged, when the filter is opened, 
washed, refilled with new filtering material, or with the same after 
scouring it and squeezing out the water. 


When it is suspected that the filtered wine is not sound, the 
cellulose packing, bags, and filter itself should be disinfected and 
treated with hot steam or boiling water. 


It is an advantage to fine the wine prior to filtration; better 
result is thus achieved. When infusorial earth is used it is recom- 
mended to add some gelatine as a support. 


Filtering is more generally used by merchants than by wine- 
makers, who generally use a fining material for conditioning their 
wine. 


Lees AND TARTAR. 


After racking there is left in the bilge a varying quantity of 
muddy lees and of wine, containing as much as 70 per cent. of wine 
and 30 per cent. of dry sediments. That wine, after fining, filtering, 
and sulphuring, can be put on the market or put through the still. 
As for the solid residuum it can be stored and sold for extracting 
tartaric acid and cream of tartar. According to analysis, air-dried 
lees obtained from claret wines contain on an averago— 


Bitartrate of Potash ... att ... 18 per cent. 
Tartrate of Lime fae se Seen, uk. ogy 
25 


In addition there is sulphate of lime 15 per cent., organic mat- 
ter 33 per cent., containing nitrogen 4 per cent. Fifty gallons of 
wine will deposit at least one gallon of lees, four-fifths of which will 
be wine, one-fifth solid sediment. consisting of bitartrate of potash 
and tartrate of lime, and of debris of dead yeast, ete., representing 
about 4 per cent. of nitrogen of value as manure. 


The separation of lees is very simple. The muddy wine is 
either poured into a eanvas filter previously steeped for a few days 
in soda or potash lve, and afterwards into lees with tartaric acid 
added, and then washed. This will rid it of its peculiar taste. The 
liquid wine collected is placed into a well-sulphured cask, or again 


467 


the thick lees are poured into casks—one for red and one for white 
lees. After a few days subsidence, the liquid wine on top is 
syphoned off, and the residuum placed into canvas bags and allowed 
to drain. That residuum is then dried in the sun or in a kiln, and 
presents the ajpearance of minute crystals, which can be kept 
until such time as it is sold, or when a sufficient quantity has accu- 
mulated and is available for treatment. The market value is directed 
by the percentage of the bitartrate, from which tartaric acid and 
cream of tartar are extracted. 

The tartar obtained from the erust deposited in the casks is 
not treated and may be sold as such. 

In the larger wineries it is of advantage to extract crude bitar- 
trate or cream of tartar from the dried lees, as the value of the 
tartar per unit is always less in the lees than in cream of tartar, 
which goes up to 80 per cent. strength, while the residue can be 
restored to the vineyard as manure. 

These extraction of tartar from the lees can be readily effected 
and requires a large boiler and casks. To economise fuel the hot 
water running from the cooler when the still is at work may be used 
in the boiler. The strength of the lees being ascertained by a rough 
test; it is boiled with rain water, the quantity of lees used repre- 
senting about 7 per cent. of pure tartar in the quantity of water 
used, 

In the case of lees generally going 25 per cent. of tartar, 
100 x 7 

= 28lbs. will be boiled in 28 gallons of water. The quan- 

25 tity need not be quite accurate. After quarter of an 
hour’s boiling, during which the mass is stirred, it is allowed to 
settle for a few minutes and the clear liquid, now containing nearly 
all the tartar in solution, is poured into open casks or vats to cool, 
the residue still containing the nitrogenous matter may be thrown 
over the manure heap or straight on to the land. On eooling the 
boiled liquid casts as crystals almost the whole of the tartar in solu- 
tion, the water is allowed to run and the cream of tartar collected. 

The rough test for ascertaining the quantity of tartar in dried 
lees is based on the same modus operandi. An even sample of the 
lees having been obtained, 50 grammes is carefully weighed, pul- 
verised in a mortar and placed in an enamelled pan of about 1144 
quart capacity. One quart of rain water is added and brought to 
the boil for about 10 minutes, stirring all the while. The tartrate 
dissolves, while the impurities settle at the bottom. The liquid is 
strained over a silk sieve and the liquid, which is collected in an 
enamelled pan, is allowed to cool for 12 hours. <A crystalline crust 
forms over the mother liquid; it is broken and carefully collected 
from the bottom of the enamelled pan after the liquid has been 
poured off. The crystals are placed in the open oven to dry at a 
mild temperature and they are finally weighed, multiplied by 2 to 


468 


bring the weight to per cent. To the product, 10 is added as repre- 
senting the coefficient of loss, and the percentage of the tartar is 
thus roughly ascertained.” That loss is represented in the tartar 
still in solution in the mother liquid and need not be repeated if 
the same water is used in the subsequent boiling. Thus if 23 
grammes of crystals have been collected and weighed we have 
(23 2) + 10 = 56 per cent. or the degree of tartar in the lees. 


DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS OF WINE. 


Wine is the product of the normal alcoholic fermentation of 
the juice of sound, ripe grapes, and contains not less than 7 nor 
more than 16 per cent. of aleohol by volume (12.5 to 28° proof 
spirit). 

Red Wine is wine containing the red colouring matter of the 
skin of grapes, such wine contains more tannin and more extract 
than a white wine fermented without the skins. 

White Wine is wine made from white grapes or the pressed 
juice of other grapes. 

Dry Wine is wine in which the fermentation of the sugar is 
practically complete and from which sweetness to the taste has been 
eliminated. 

Sweet Wine is wine in which the alcoholic fermentation has 
been arrested, and one in which sufficient sugar remains after fer- 
mentation to give a noticeable sweet taste. 

Fortified Dry Wine is dry wine to which brandy has been 
added. 

Fortified Sweet \Vine is sweet wine to which wine spirits have 
been intentionally added to prevent the further fermentation of a 
portion of the sugar, which may range from 2 or 3 per cent, to 10 
per cent. or more. A few wines of this class are made without for- 
tification by the use of very sweet grapes. 

Sparkling Wine is wine in which the after part of the fer- 
mentation is completed in the bottle, the sediment being disgorged 
and its place supplied by wine or sugar liquor. The wine is made 
by practically the same process as dry wine and the sparkling 
quality given later by supplementary fermentation in the bottle. 
Champagne, the typical sparkling wine, contains sufficient dissolved 
carbonic acid gas to cause a pressure of five to six atmospheres in 
the bottle. 

Raisin Wine is the product of the 2!roholic fermentation of 
dried grapes. 

A wine to be legal must conform to these standards and to other 
regulations of pure food laws. 


Names drawn from particular vineyards or from localities or 
regions are proprietary and should not be used elsewhere, such as 


469 


Chateau Lafitte, Clos Vougeot, Burgundy, Medoc, Hermitage, 
Champagne. 

Port has become a well known trade name, the use of which 
elsewhere than at Oporto is debatable. Provided the wine is made 
of suitable grapes in the recognised way and is of the type of the 
sweet fortified red wine exported from the banks of the Douro, it 
has been suggested that the name of the region where such wine is 
made should be prefixed with the regional name, in fairness to the 
consumer and to the country which gives the name to the wine of 
Oporto. 

Sherry is a corruption of the older spelling Xerez, i.e., Jerez 
de la Frontera, the initial X being pronounced almost like “ch” in 
Southern Spain. 


“Claret” was originally applied to the red, dry, light wines of 
the Medoc, a term not now used in the modern French language. 
The old French “clairet” is from the low Latin claretum, and signi- 
fied a wine “cleared” with white of egg, etc. Old French remained 
the language of the English court and law courts till the reign of 
Edward III., and the word “claret” has been retained in England 
long after its disuse by Frenchmen. 


Brandy is the distillate of wine, properly aged by storage in 
wood. It is a term unknown in France, where this spirit is called 
“eau-de-vie.” Brandy, formerly called “brand-wine” and brandy 
wine, is from the Dutch brandewijn, literally burnt or distilled wine. 


How ro Taste WINE. 


Before venturing to give an opinion, the experienced taster 
looks at and thoroughly examines the wine, making note of its con- 
dition or degree of brightness. If bright and brilliant the wine has 
been well clarified and rid of the germs which might impair its 
quality. If cloudy and dull it is a sign that it has not been com- 
pletely purged of its impurities, and unless carefully handled might 
generate symptoms of diseases. 

He then considers the colour, the foam; if sparkling wine, the 
degree of effervescence. The colour should be a natural one, and 
not one of those composite shades made up of the blending of two 
or more natural colours. If red the colour should be ruby or 
garnet; yellowish red, rusty or opalescent wines designate a de- 
crepit wine, or one in a more or less advanced stage of disease. 

Having satisfied the eye he proceeds to investigate the nature 
and degree of the aroma and bouquet. This he gets by gently 
agitating the half-filled glass, or twirling it and smelling the wine 
carefully, sometimes by placing the hands round the glass so as to 
warm it gently; the more delicate and volatile odours of the wine 
are given off and detected, 


470 


Then comes the crucial part of the examination—that of tasting 
proper. 

As expressed by Dr. Guyot, epicure and high authority on wine 
as well, the mouth, which is the seat of tasting, is capable of detect- 
ing impressions of complex kinds. In this it is assisted by the 
tongue, the gums, the palate and the inner part of the cheeks; the 
flavours, moreover, detected by the tip are of a different nature from 
those which affect the base of the tongue. In order 
to differentiate between these different savours, the 
taster takes into his-mouth a sip of the wine, and 
keeps it for a moment in the anterior part of his 
mouth, where the sense of taste receives its first im- 
pression. Then, with the tip of the tongue, he spreads 
the wine out into a sort of film against the roof of 
the anterior part of the palate, subdivides and breaks 
it up, as it were, in order to increase the surface of 
contact with the delicate nervous expansion that lines 
the membrane of that part of the mouth. There 
sweet, saltish, acid and astringent impressions are re- 
ceived, and he percieves whether the wine is dry or 
sweet, acid and tart to exeess or satisfaction, too 
stvptie or poor in tannin. The sensation registered in 
that part of the mouth also indicates whether these 
three elements are harmoniously blended, or whether 
there is excess or deficiency of either one or two of 
them. 


This having been done, the wine is allowed, by 
slowly raising the head, to pass to the posterior part 
Velinche, of the mouth, and a little inhalation of air is at the 
same time taken in. This may cause the tyro to 

choke, by diverting some of the wine into the wind passage, 
but he will soon get over this difficulty. By the time it reaches that 
part of the mouth, the wine has been gently warmed and mixed 
with air, it gives off savours different to those perceived in the 
anterior part of the mouth. Here the strength or the weakness of 
the wine in spirit or its vinosity will be noticed; also any specially 
pleasant or unpleasant characteristics of the wine as the earthy 
taste, bitterness, mawkish, mouldy, woody, or corky tastes. The 
taster, having satisfied himself as to the presence or absence of these 
tastes, may, if he chooses to further carry on the degustation, then 
let a few drops of wine pass down his throat, when he will detect 
the séve, which is distinct from the “flavour,” in this much, that it 
is affected by both the taste and the sense of smell, in passing down 
the base of the tongue and the posterior part of the palate, and in 
coming into contact with the mucous membrane that lines the 
pharynx, a distinct ethereal savour ascends to the palate as well as 


471 


to the internal nasal ducts. This sensation, according to the wine, 
is more or less short and evanescent. 


Besides these sensorial impressions made by the wine on the 
organ of light, smell, and taste, there is a physiological one as well, 
quite independent of these, and which affect the digestive organs, 
the locomotary muscles, the heart and the head, and we often hear 
the uninitiated declare that they know little or nothing about wine, 
but they can tell next morning whether it is good or not. The 
sensation is too well known to be described in these notes, but never- 
theless the physiological after effects is certainly of value in discrim- 
inating between good and bad wine. 


The wine taster can’t afford to indulge in luxuries of all sorts 
before proceeding to taste wine. The best time to pass judgment 
on wine is in the cool of the morning, when the body has been 
freshened up by the night’s rest. Salt meat, pickles and condiments 
should be sparingly used by wine tasters, and they should above 
all things refrain from indulging in strong spirituous liquors. 
Some pretend they can taste better just after smoking, but the 
experience of most tasters is that tobacco just before sampling wine 
impairs the senses of smell and taste. 


A taster can’t do more than a limited number of samplings 
in the forenoon’s work, and whenever his palate is clogged, a dry, 
small piece of unsweetened biscuit and mild cheese are good to clear 
the palate. Sometimes an olive, when not cured in strong brine, 
may be chewed and rejected, but a mouthful of cool, clear water 
is above all things the best for cleansing the mouth should the 
palate become clogged during tasting. 


Some TecHnicaL TERMS IN WINE-TASTING. 


There exists amongst wine-growers, merchants, tasters, and 
connoisseurs, like in every art and science, a language of their own, 
which serves to express the qualities or the defects of wines, and 
which is composed of terms somewhat technical, some of which will 
be better understood when explained. 


QUALITIES AND DEFECTS WHICH AFFECT THE SIGHT. 


First, says Profesor G. Grazzi-Soncini, notice the Foam which 
forms on the surface of the glass, small beads which burst more or 
less rapidly. 

Foam.—An agglomeration of gaseous bubbles which float 
and move about on the surface of freshly poured-out 
wine, and adheres in a ring round the edge of the glass 
or floats in patches in the centre of the glass, 


472, 


Persistent Foam is the reverse of evanescent foam, and is 
the characteristic of a wine of low alcoholic strength, kept 
at a low temperature; it may also be a sign that the wine 
wants racking, or it may be due to the fact that there is 
a secondary fermentation either of a healthy or an un- 
healthy nature that is taking place. It may, when it forms 
a finger nail on the surface of the wine be a symptom of 
what the French call the Maladie de la Tourne. 

Sharp Pungent Foam.—It may go on briskly, and in that 
ease when drunk has a smarting or prickling effect on the 
palate. 

Frothy—¥Formed by an accumulation of gas bubbles which 
forms on the surface, especially wine bottled too young, or 
in which there was a small amount of sugar left. 

Sparkling is an evanescent foam, the bubbles of which burst 
and are as quickly renewed, forming sort of pearls on the 
surface, as oceurs in champagne. 

White Foam.—Generally associated with matured or old red 
wine, but in some localities occurs in young wine. 

Rose Foam.—Accompanies matured wine, but occasionally 
pale young wines. 

Red Ruby Foam indicates full-bodied young wines deep in 
colour. 


Bluish—In wines poor in acid, as in some blending wines, 
containing only 3 to 4 p. 1,000 of acidity. 


The Limpipity of the wine is next observed :— 


Clear—A transparent wine, without cloudiness. There are 
in clearness, degrees of comparison which can be noted. 


Bright, Brilliant—as when the degree of clearness is such as 
to be perfect. This may be the result of fining, filtering 
or standing still for a long time in a cool and an even tem- 
perature. 


Cloudy, Dull—The reverse of clear. Wlnes freshly racked 
often turn a little cloudy for a while, owing to the oxida- 
tion of some of the albuminoid matters they contain, more 
especially wine from fleshy grapes grown on rich flats, also 
in wines poor in acid, and which have not completely fer- 
mented. 


Turbid, Thick—When the particles:in suspension are so 
numerous and big as to be easily seen and make the wine 
opaque. Either a perfectly new wine or wine bottled too 
soon, and that has left a muddy deposit on the side of the 
bottle—sometimes the restilt of putrid fermentation. In 
the case of an old wine bottled too soon, raise the bottles 


473 


varefully and in the same position they have been lying; 
remove the cork without any jerk, preferably with a screw 
corkserew, and draw the clear wine carefully into a de- 
canter or a clear bottle, or else, with a small glass syphon, 
made for the purpose, separate the clear from the murky 
wine. Unless the precautions are taken ,the wine will, 
after two or three glasses have been poured out, be quite 
turbid and very unprepossessing in appearance. 

Opalescent, Iridescent—Is generally an indication of un- 
soundness, and not infrequently due to the disease called 
in France la pousse, in which a tartaric fermentation 
takes place, the colour is precipitated, and a floceulent 
growth of microscopic, rod-like baccili float about the mass . 
of the wine, which assumes a sickly brick colour, and breaks 
up the rays of light as they penetrate the wine, causing 
that iridescence. 


As regards CoLour, a wine is either :— 

Colourless, discolourised.—When it has almost the appear- 
ance of pure water. This is obtained by very carefully 
handling white grapes, or sometimes by running the new 
wine over animal charcoal, although this is very seldom 
done except for special purposes. 


Straw-coloured.—A very common and pleasant colour. 


Yellow.—Often the sign of a wine poor in alcohol, tartar, 
and may be tannin or acid: in that case the iron com- 
pounds in the wine are, when acted upon by the oxygen 
of the air, turned into yellowish -browh compounds. In 
the case of disease it can be prevented by the addition of 
alcohol and tartaric acid. 


Golden Yellow.—Very often observed. 
Greenish—Characteristic of certain varieties of grapes. 


Pinkish Yellow or Russetty Yellow—Often due to imperfectly 
cleansed wine-casks and vessels. 


Rose-coloured—White wines made from red grapes, without 
much eare, or stored in red casks improperly decolourised. 


Brown-yellow, which the French call oeil de perdrix (part- 
ridge-eye), is a sickly, dull, dark-yellow. Hither due to 
a malady of the wine caused by a mycoderm—in that case 
raise the alcoholic strength, add ten or twelve grammes 
of tannin to the hogshead of wine, let it rest for a day or 
two and fine with isinglass—or sometimes caused by the 
presence of an excess of iron in the white wines, or found 
in wine made from grapes poor in tartaric and other nat- 
ural acids, or from partially decayed grapes. 


474 


Diriy-dull—aA_ diseased, badly made, or badly kept wine. 


Light-red—The French clairet, has been either made from 
unsuitable grapes or often is the result of the addition of 
water. 


Ruby—As represented in the well-known Bordeaux or claret 
wines. 


Purple is a ruby wine with a tint of violet in it. 


Garnet-red.—Represented in the fuller bodied wines as in 
Burgundies. These wines are long-keeping, and show a 
tendency to acquire an orange tint. 


Orange, Yelowish-red, Rusty—Generally denotes a decrepit 
wine. 


Dark Coloured wines have an excess of colouring matter; 
generally harsh and indigestible. 


SMELL AND Taste combined detect :— 

Aroma is due to the essential oils which are contained in 
small glands that line the inner surface of the berries. 
They are common to both the grapes and the wine, and 
may be of a pleasant or an unpleasant nature, viz., Muscat, 
Riesling, or the foxy flavour and smell of the Isabella and 
other American grapes. 


Bouquet is due to the reaction of the acids in the wine on the 
alcohol, and the production of volatile ethers which are 
better noticed in the older wines, especially those bottled 
for some time. 


Séve or Fragrance is neither Bouquet nor Aroma, and is pre- 
sent in the finer wines; it is experienced and can hardly 
be described, and consists in a fragrant savour which rises 
to the nasal ducts during the act of swallowing a good wine. 
Aroma and Bouquet are detected before tasting, whereas 
séve is noticed after drinking the wine. 


The sense of Taste proper, and more especially the tongue, 

distinguish :— 

* Flavour.—Unlike the Aroma, the Bouquet, or the séve or 
fragrance, the flavours are detected without the assistance 
of the sense of small. They are either pleasant or un- 
pleasant, according to the nature of the flavours and their 
degree of intensity. 


Neutral Flavour is characterised by neither aroma nor any 
special taste, and such wines, which aie generally the pro- 
duce of heavy bearing vines, are mostly suitable for blend- 
ing purposes. 


475 


Insipid, Flat—A wine without vinosity and liveliness. Wine 
left long in open bottles and decanters, or a wine that has 
been too energetically fined, often turns flat. They are 
in that state more subject to contract diséase. 


Vinous, Vinosity, is that sensation of warmth characteristic 
of the alcoholic flavour. 


Weak wine is not a light wine. It is a wine of low alcoholic 
strength, or when its alcoholic contents are not in pro- 
portion to its other chief constituents. Such wine is more 
or less insipid, and its taste is short and of no long dura- 
tion in the mouth. It is generally of difficult keeping 
unless fortified. 


Light wine is often a dry wine of good quality, with its 
various components well balanced and harmonious, but 
lacking in quantity. It is as a rule somewhat deficient 
in colour, body, alcohol, acids, and bouquet. 


Soft, Mild, is a wine that does not affect the palate by its 
harshness and astringency. It is characteristic of a wine 
that is neither sweet nor dry nor too alcoholic. 


Alcoholic—A wine with a high proportion of spirits to its 
other constituents, such as a fortified wine, or a wine made 
with over-ripe grapes; compared with the flavour detected 
by the mouth, the aftertaste is of short duration. 


Genercus.—A wine with a good proportion of aleohol as well 
as of its other constituents, which imparts a fveling of 
warmth and strength-giving—a good tonic wine. 

Lively—Which makes a quick impression on the palate, 


generally a wine with an adequate proportion of acids and 
alcohol. 


Full-Round.—What the French call Etoffé. A robust, har- 
monious wine, which gives the impression of solidity and 
good constitution—a tonic wine—a quality possessed by 
Australian wines made from good sorts of grapes and well 
fermented. 


Body.—A wine of good vinosity and rich in extractive matter. 
Generally sticks to the glass like beads. 


Heady.—Generally a young wine still saturated with car- 
bonie acid, and having a good proportion of newly- 
fermented raw and somewhat fiery alcohol, which has not 
yet had time to refine. Should be drunk of with modera- 
tion. 


Heavy.—A wine surcharged with extractive matter and low in 
alcohol, and which is hard to digest. 


476 


Clean.—A sound wine, which has no earthy, mouldy, or casky 
taste, or any taste foreign to the wine itself. 


Harmonious—A quality of wine whose constituent elements 
are well balanced and blended together. 


Delicate—A soft, pleasant, harmonious wine, generally deli- 
cate. 


Mute—A partially fermented wine, with a sweet and muci- 
laginous taste, which has been stilled by means of concen- 
tration or by means of alcohol, or of sulphur fumes, or 
other chemicals. Too much sulphur sometimes generates 
hydrogen sulphide, which reminds one of rotten eggs, or 
leads to the formation of sulphates, which impart to the 
wine bad flavours. 


Fruity—A wine which still retains a proportion of grape 
sugar. 


Sweet.—Of which there are several degrees, extending from 
“fruity” to “sickly sweet.” 


Sweetish.—Wines, in which the fermentation has suddenly 
got “stuck” before being completed, turn sweetish. This 
is due to the formation of manna sugar, resulting from 
the decomposition of the mucilaginous or albuminoid mat- 
ters in the wine by alcohol, owing to the agency of a 
bacillus, and under the influence of a high temperature. 
The trouble is known as that of “mannitic” disease. 


New or young Wine-—A wine freshly made; generally trom 
one to twelve months old; a wine that is still rough and 
has not been purged of its impurities, and has not yet 
developed those finer qualities that will distinguish it as 
a mature wine. 


Mature Wine.—A wine which has undergone the refining 
changes due to oxidisation and warmth, and has cleared 
itself of its lees, and is ready to be drunk or to be bottled. 


Decrepit Wine—An aged wine that is losing some of its 
qualities through long keeping, or rapid and_ excessive 
changes of the temperature. 


Tart.—Due to the presence of an excess of tartaric acid. 
Age modifies this defect. 


Dry—Not sweet, i.e., containing no grape sugar, slightly 
astringent. 


Astringent—Where the tannin predominates. 


Rough, harsh.—A wine astringent to excess; diminishes with 
time, 


477 


Bitterish—. densely coloured wine, rich in tannin, like the 
malbee wine. (tenerally disappears after the first rackings 
and a fining. 


Earthy Taste is detected in the posterior part of the tongue; 
it is either due to the soil, the manures used, or the weeds 
infesting the vineyard, and is located chiefly in the skins. 
Prolonged maceration of the skins in the fermenting must 
develops it. Prompt fermentation and separation of the 
skins from the wine, rackings and maturing reduce it. 


Cooked Taste, as of caramel. Due either to the boiling down 
of the must, or by an over-ripening of the grapes in very 
hot weather. 


Mousey Taste—A disagreeable odour and flavour suggestive 
of mice; generally due to unclean and mouldy casks. 
Beating with pure olive oil and pasteurisation will party 
correct it and stop its progress. 


Sulphur Smell—Due to excess of sulphurous acid used, turn- 
ing sometimes into hydrogen sulphide, and smells of rotten 
eggs. Racking at frequent intervals will reduce the taint. 
When used excessively, sulphur fumes destroy the colour 
and impart to the wine a displeasing taste. In time sul- 
phurous acid changes to sulphuric and then into sul- 
phate of potassium. 


Artificial Odours.—Added to the wine to impart to it a cer- 
tain fictitious bouquet, generally not successfully. Have 
not the fragrance of true bouquet and sére. 


Wood or Cork Taste-—Given to wine by new, ullaged, or by 
mouldy casks. Olive oil, lemons, or refermentation with 
a small quantity of fresh grapes will sometimes reduce it. 


Taste of the Stems or Stalks—Due to prolonged maceration 
of the stems or stalks in the wine. Generally a harsh, 
bitterish wine. 


Taste of Lees-—-Want of racking by allowing the wine to 
stand long on the lees, produces a bitterish taste of decay. 
Commen defect of many otherwise very good Australian 
wines. 

Mouldy Taste—Caused by bad casks or mouldy grapes; beat 
with olive oil and rack in clean, sound casks. 


Sharp, Sour, Pricked—A wine with an undue proportion of 
acetic acid. Generally retains its colour and limpidity. Char- 
acterised -by the odour and taste of acetie acid, which is 
chiefly perceived at the base of the tongue. It is easy to 
prevent the development of the micro-organism which 


478 


causes it, by due attention in the vat and the cask; but once 
a wine is pricked it should, says Dr. Guyot, “be sent to the 
vinegar factory, and never attempt to use it as wine.” 
The remedies proposed are only palliatives, but are not 
radical cures. Pasteurisation will stop it, but won’t re- 
move the acetic acid in the wine. “Even after its neutrali- 
sation by means of alkaline substances the wine will still 
have an odour of acetic acid, accompanied besides by a 
bitter taste which lingers in the throat.” 


Jlilk-sour, Lactic Acid—A sickly rancid, sour-sweet taste, 
caused by lactic fermentation, which takes place in wine 
that has fermented at too high a temperature. A milk- 
sour wine loses some of its fluidity, and its colour becomes 
dull. Pasteurising will check the disease, but it is almost. 
impossible to take away the defect of milk-sourness. 


GEROPIGA. 

During vintage a stock of grape syrup is sometimes laid by for 
the purpose of sweetening any port wine lacking in fruitiness. For 
that purpose, erush dead-ripe grapes and press out the juice, evapo- 
rate on a slow fire in a copper or an iron boiler, heating to a simmer 
to prevent the formation of caramel and keeping the surface well 
skimmed. When the bulk is reduced to half its volume, add more 
grape juice, and continue simmering until syrupy, with a specific 
eravity of 25deg. B, then foctify to 32deg. proof. 

By carrying the concentration to 32deg. Baumé, the grape 
syrup will keep. This preparation is known as arropa in Spain, 
and is used in the manufacture of Malaga wine. In Italy, under 
the name of sapa, it is used for a similar purpose. 


PIQUETTE FOR DISTILLATION. 

The pressed mare or cake made up of the skins from the fer- 
menting vates still contain a notable quantity of wine which cannot 
be extracted by the press but which ean profitably be made avail- 
able for the still without impairing the value of the residue for the 
feeding of stock or as a manure. One ton or 2,240 lbs. of fresh 
grapes will yield about 1,300 lbs. of wine and 700lbs. of mare or 
skins and pips. From this mare another 20 to 30 gallons of wine 
can be utilised for the spirit it contains. Two methods are employed 
for that purpose :—l. Driving the alcohol direct from the mare by 
means of steam and condensing the spirit. 2. Washing out by a 
process of lixiviation or of diffusion. 

The first method is, of course, carried out in closed retorts. 

The second consists of a battery of four or five vats, either 
wooden or made of reinforced concrete and built on the same level 
They communicate with one another by means of pipes. The vats 


479 


are filled with pressed skins, and a small stream of water is run 
over the top of the first one. When full the liquid running at the 
bottom riges and is conducted by the pipe to the top of the second 
vat, the small stream of water running all the while on the top of 
the first vat. In time the second vat is filled with the liquid which 
had been in contact with the mare in No, 1, and in turn it rises from 
the bottom of No. 2 to the top of No. 3 by means of the connecting 
pipe; the same thing happens in No. 3, the liquid gaining strength 
by virtue of being for the third time in contact with fresh skins, 
whereas the liquid in No. 1 and in No. 2 become gradually weaker 
and weaker. This goes on until all the vats are full, the overflow 
from the last one consisting of a mixture of wine and water of a 
strength almost as great as that of the wine held by the fresh 
pressed mare. It is ready for the still. 

No. 1 vat having become exhausted of wine, the liquid consist- 
ing mostly of water, it is disconnected, emptied, and refilled again 
with fresh mare and becomes the recipient of the next stronger solu- 
tion which, in turn, is collected and distilled. 

No. 2 vat having become No. 1, therein 1s run the water, which 
automatically drives before it the contents of the vats following; 
when it also becomes exhausted it is emptied and refilled again with 
mare. The process goes on uninterruptedly while there is fresh 
mare to treat. 

A very satisfactory plan and section of such a diffusion hkat- 
tery, for the exhaustion of grape marc, designed by Professor L. 
Roos, Director of the Oenological Station, Montpellier, is given 
below. 


2 Z = van}| 


e. a ¢ @ oF 


GRAPE SKINS INTO MANURE, 
Professor Roos, of Montpellier, reeommends the following com- 
post as a complete manure, assimilable in every soil, as it brings 
with it the alkalinity suitable for nitrification. 


480 


If skins have been used for making piquette or have been ex- 
hausted of spirits by the diffusion method, cart away and let drain 
for a couple of days. Spread over the ground a layer one foot 
deep. Broadcast over this 4 per cent. basie slag or basic super- 
phosphate (super with 7 to 8 per cent. of slaked lime mixed) and 
2 per cent. sulphate of potash. 


In an open barrel prepare an artificial lye as follows :— 


Water za oe ae .. 25 gallons 
Quceklime oe sah ee 22 bss 
Sulphate of ammonia .. .. 5 Ibs. 


Slake the quicklime with a little water and make gradually into 
a lime milk and add the sulphate of ammonia and rouse with a stick 
till dissolved—about quarter of an hour—and the lye is ready. 


Water copiously with this lye the first layer of skins and build 
up another layer, to which apply the same treatment; the topmost 
layer cover with a few inches of earth. After a little time the tem- 
perature rises and fermentation sets in. After three weeks cut the 
heap across to build it up again alongside. This mixes up the stuff 
and fermentation starts again, though not so active, and the mare 
becomes more friable. Fifteen pounds per vine planted 8ft. apart 
constitutes a complete measure. 


Amateur WINE Borruina. 


Bottled and cased wine is often costly, the consumer having 
to pay for bottles, corks, capsules, labels, and cases, and also the 
cost of the labour entailed by these operations. Wine bought in 
wood, on the other hand, particularly light wines such as claret and 
light white wines, often proves more costly still to those who, 
through want of experience and neglect, fail to observe ordinary pre- 
caution for its safe-keeping. 

Wine in bulk and bought in cask is also cheaper than smaller 
quantities sold by the case. The wine-maker or the wine merchant 
generally allows the full amount for casks returned in good order, 
so that by buying in bulk and seeing to the bottling himself, the 
consumer ean stock his cellar with good sound wine at a reasonable 
cost. Instead of paying 2s. 6d. and more a bottle, he can lay down 
a stock of wine at half the cost. 

A few notes on the question of the home-bottling of wine will 
enable many to procure sound wine at a small cost and bottle and 
keep it until required for use. Instead of deteriorating, such wine 
keeps on improving when thus put away. 

Having procured the particular Kind of wine desired— 

Be ready for bottling—The cask having reached the cellar, 


place it on a small stand at a height of 15 to 18 inches from the 
ground. Collect bottles or buy them. For home use, it is immaterial 


481 


what shape or colour the bottles are. French claret bottles are 
expensive, but brandy or whisky bottles answer just as well, or 
even beer bottles. The bottles are easily cleaned. It often happens 
that they have a cork inside; this is easily removed by using a 
special cork drawer made of wires armed with a spike or hook at 
the end, and costing 1s. or thereabouts. The bottles are placed in 
soak in water containing a small handful of washing soda for each 
gallon; they are then cleaned of stains and crust by using small 
shot or coarse sand and water. It is important that no shot be left 
in the bottle, as the action of the acid in wine on the shot would 
result in the wine containing in solution salts of lead, which are 
highly poisonous. When cleaned, the bottles are rinsed in fresh 
water and placed in cases, in baskets, or on crates to drain. 


Corks are also required; these vary in texture and in shape. 
If a powerful corking machine is available, a larger cork is prefer- 
able; if not, tapered corks should be procured; they cost from 3s. 
to 4s. per gross. Beer corks, which are cheaper, are unsuitable; 
they are too porous, and nof lasting enough. 

A Syphon is 
much more pref- 
erable than taps 
for drawing the 
wine from the 
eask’ and = run- 
ning it into the 
bottles. The best 
syphon is a flex- 
ible piece of in- 
dia-rubber tubing 
about #in. inside 
diameter. Gas 
piping answers 
the purpose very 
well; two yards, 
costing Is. 6d. 
a yara, are 
sufficient. 

A Corking Machine is very convenient. A good substitute 
is a hand-corking tube, made of boxwood, and costing only 2s. 6d., 
and a cork-driver, made of a piece of board cut into shape as shown 
in the illustration. 

Modus Operandi—tlt is supposed that the wine is bright and 
in good condition for bottling. If it is turbid and dull looking, 
write for information, or seek the advice of someone who knows 
how to handle wine. The cask has been allowed to rest on the 
stand, bung on top, for a week or so, and any sediment that. may 


Bottling by Syphon. 


482 


have been in it has settled into the bilge of the cask. Remove the 
wooden shive by hitting the top stave, in which the bunghole is 
bored, on each side, alternately. This will start the shive, which 
will then be easily removed. Better still, bore a hole in the middle 
of the shive, closing the bunghole, insert some kind of iron or steel 


Cork-driver. Hand-corking Tube. 


lever—a chisel will do—and prise up what is left of the shive. In 
doing so the circular bunghole must not be damaged by the chisel, 
as this will make it difficult to bung it down again when used another 
time. 


The clean bottles having all been arranged around the cask, the 
operator, after having run water in the india-rubber tubing to 
cleanse it, places one piece into the cask through the bunghole, as 
shown in the illustration, until he feels that the syphon touches the 
bottom of the cask. He then stands alongside the cask, holds the 
tube between the thumb and the forefinger, about the same height 
as the top of the cask, sucks only once, and promptly lowers his end 
of the tube. If the suction has been properly applied no wine will 
be spilled, and it will run out at once. Half a glassful is collected, 
and if not clear and bright it is run into a jug until the clear wine 
comes out. 


The thumb and forefinger compress the end of the tube, which 
is now placed just inside the neck of the bottle; the pressure is 
relaxed, and when the wine rises to the middle of the neck of the 
bottle the rubber tube is pressed again, another bottle is filled, and 
so on until all the bottles are filled. 


Six bottles will be necessary Tor every gallon of wine in the 
cask. If the syphoning has been well done there will not be more 


483 


than a quart of wine left in the cask. Do not use a tap; wine is 
almost sure to be spilled unless it is carefully fixed on, and it, more- 
over, dumages the head of the cask, and the cost of coopering will 
be charged to the consumer. 


Method of Bottling. 


Corking—Put the corks in a bucket of warm water; this will 
soften them and make it easier to drivé them. If tapered corks are 
used they are simply fitted in the neck of the filled bottles and they 
are then driven in with the driver. If the corks are not tapered 
each one in turn is put in the chamber of the hand-corking tube, 
which is then placed on the neck of the bottle, and the pusher is 
then driven down by means of the driver or a wooden mallet. 


It is advisable that the bottles be well filled, but sufficient room 
should be left for the cork, or else the bottle might burst. 


484 


Derrects anp DISEASES oF WINE. 


Wine, like milk, is susceptible of attack and deterioration from 
a number of causes. It may be defective or it may be diseased, or, 
as it often happens, it is both defective and diseased at the same 
time. The defects are either natural or acquired. 


Natural defects are those inherent to the commoner and inferior 
kinds of grapes; to the soil itself, the manures used, to insufficient 
ripeness, or to the bad manipulation during the process of making. 


Acquired defects or diseases result from carelessness and tainted 
casks and vessels. These defects only manifest themselves after 
fermentation. They constitute the diseases of wines as is generally 
understood, and each individual one is produced by the presence 
and the work within the wine of numberless microbes, each kind 
easily identified from the other by its shape and other characteristics 
which accompany its growth. 


I will rapidly review the more common defects and diseases 
met with in wines. 


Earthy taste——Often inherent to the soil where the grapes were 
grown. Clayey soils are in this respect more susceptible of impart- 
ing an earthy taste to wines than do light loams, which produce 
wines said to be “clean” to the taste. This defect can be aggravated 
by long fermentation, especially when the stalks have not been suffi- 
ciently separated. Long intervals between rackings also add to it, 
and for that reason it is advisable to draw the clear wine from over 
its lees more frequently than would otherwise be done. Occasional 
light fixings after racking, followed up by another racking, will be 
found helpful. 


Greenness.—This defect is caused by an undue proportion of 
tartarie acid and malice acid in wet seasons, when the grapes have 
not matured properly. A strong attack of a fungoid disease, 
bringing about a loss of the leaves of vines, will favour the same 
defect. Blending in the vat with a proportion of dead ripe and 
healthy grapes is the best means of correcting this defect. 


Harshness, caused by excess of tannin. This constituent of 
wine, which is essential to its good keeping, is generally more per- 
ceptible in young wines. Time mellows it down, and it is gradually 
transformed into gallic acid. Beware of iron coming into contact 
with such wine, as the chemical reaction which follows would pro- 
duce ink. If the harshness is excessive, heavy finings by means of 
gelatine, 3 to 3% ounces per 100 gallons, will precipitate and remove 
a portion of the tannin. As such a fining would also remove some 
of the colouring matter, wines already light in colour should be 
treated in some other way; for such wine, blending with light, 
mellow wines, low in tannin, will correct the defect. 


485 


Stalky taste and bitterness.—This defect is due to another 
cause altogether to that which produces the disease of “bitterness,” 
described further on. Some grapes, like malbee, yield a wine show- 
ing this defect in a more pronounced manner than others. These 
grapes treat as indicated under the heading “Earthy taste.” 

Heated taste is noticeable in wines which have been fermented 
at too high a temperature. 

Low alcoholic strength, the produce of grapes having a must 
of very low specific gravity and poor in sugar. Blending with a 
stronger wine or light fortification will correct this defect, 


Deficient colour can be remedied by blending with a dark- 
coloured wine. 


Dull-coloured Wines——Wines thus affected have a kind of 
leaden colour, and, in the case of red wine, may even appear black. 
Several causes bring about this trouble, viz.: aeration of wine con- 
taining iron; low acidity or excess of tannin of such wines; the 
action on wine of new casks improperly seasoned ; the fermenting 
of grapes rotting from exposure to wet weather; the fermenting of 
overripe grapes grown in particularly rich ground; the action of 
cold on wines. Such wines require energetic treatment to bring 
back their brilliancy and their normal colour. 

The following treatment has been found satisfactory: add to 
the wine quarter of a pound of common salt per 100 gallons; fine 
with fresh blood, with clots removed, half-pint to every 100 gallons; 
this blood mix with a little wine and pour into the wine. By means 
of the pump, blow air into the cask by contniuous pumping for an 
hour or two; this will cause all the particles of substance in the 
wine likely to blacken to do so. After this, with the fining rod, 
stir the wine up thoroughly, so as to cause the blood to thoroughly 
mix with the wine, then let it rest; the fining will coagulate and 
settle down into the cask, drawing along in its meshes every particle 
of impurity which caused the dull colour. Rack after a few days. 
It is sometimes desirable to run the wine through a filter, not ex- 
posed to the action of the air. An addition of two or three ounces 
of citric acid per 100 gallons of the wine is advisable. 


Putrid Decomposition.—This defect is rare in Western Aus- 
tralia, where the wines are rich in spirit and in tannin, two elements 
which impart to the wine vigour and tone. Blending, fortification, 
and a small addition of tannin remedy this defect to a certain 
extent. 

Casky Taste—Wine run in old casks, left unused for a long 
time, sometimes contracts an unpleasant, casky taste, which often 
spoils their sale. The use of pure olive oil, well beaten into the 
wine, and allowed to float over through the bunghole, has long been 
recommended. Some have also advised the use of powdered mus- 


486 


tard, in doses of 4 to 6 ounces per 100 gallons, to be thoroughly 
stirred into the wine, which is then allowed to rest for 24 hours; 
the mustard is first lixiviated with boiling water to guard against 
the production of essence of mustard when in contact with the wine. 
Others have had good results from spent coffee (1%lb.), Florence 
oris powder (loz. per 100 gallons), to be well stirred into the wine, 
which rack after four or five days. 


DiseASE OF WINES. 


The defects enumerated above, unlike the diseases mentioned 
here, are amenable to treatment which does not aim at destroying 
the injurious micro-organisms, which are the primary cause of 
the diseases in wines. 

Our knowledge of these micro-organisms we owe in the first 
instance to Pasteur, who at the same time suggested the remedy best 
calculated to protect the wine against their destructive action. That 
remedy, in honour of its discoverer, has been called Pasteurisation, 
and it is carried out in apparatus called Pasteuriser, of which two 
illustrations are given below. 


21 


| 
| 
| 
| 


Perrier-Deroy’s Pasteuriser. 


‘ 


The appartus is made of tinned copper. The heat generator 
is composed of (1) a tubular boiler with a firegrate inside, heating 
the water jacket; (2) a worm tube immersed in the water, passing 


487 


into the central collecting cylinder, surrounded by warm water; 
(3) a fire grate surmounted by straight tubes communicating with 
the funnel. 

The cooler consists of a cylindrical tank containing the worm, 
one end of which communicates with the heat generator, the other 
end serving for the exit of the wine. 

The cold wine enters the machine by the tube (7), and, passing 
through a delivery controlling tap, reaches the bottom of the re- 
frigerator, fills the annulary space, forming a kind of worm parallel 
to the first worm. It then reaches the heat generator (calefactor) 
through the horizontal tube (13), then descends into the worm of 
the calefactor, rises through the collecting cylinder (9), intermixing 
thoroughly, and from there reaches the worm of the refrigerator 
through the tube (10), where it becomes cooled by contact with the 
cool wine surrounding the tube. 

Thermometers (6) and (11) record the temperature of the 
water jacket, and that of the wine coming out of the calefactor and 
out of the refrigerator. 


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Perrier-Deroy’s Pasteuriser. 


Before starting, the steam generator is filled with water 
through the plug (2). When the level of the water reaches the 
overflow tap (3), the plug (2) is closed and the fire lighted. 


\ 


488 


Directly the thermometer (6) records 80° C. (176° F.) the top 
is opened to allow air to escape, and the wine is introduced through 
the delivery controlling tap (7). When the wine has filled the worm 
collector and steam generator, it reaches the top, which is closed, 
and the flow of the liquid, as well as the fire, are regulated in such 
a way that the thermometer continuously records the required tem- 
perature for pasteurisation. 

When the operation is finished the fire is put out, and all the 
parts of the machine are emptied by taps fixed for that purpose. 

This apparatus is very simply worked, and can be entrusted 
to the hands of anyone. Heating takes place rapidly and regularly 
without alcoholic loss, and with a notable economy of fuel. The 
various parts of the apparatus may be disconnected when not 
working. 

The second illustration shows another type of the same pas- 
teuriser, constructed by the same makers. 

An apparatus designed by Mr. L. Buring and made by an en- 
gineering firm in Sydney is said to fulfil all that is required in an 
efficient pasteuriser; it requires little’ attention, and the large-size 
machine will pasteurise about 450 gallons per hour; the smaller, 
200 gallons. 

It consists in destroying by heat the micro-organisms in the 
liquid. These micro-organisms, like those we have already considered 
when dealing with ferments, are made of living albumen (proto- 
plasma), encased in a covering of cellulose. Like the yeast of fer- 
mentation, they are provided with spores, which are germs of re- 
production more resistant than the protoplasma itself. Heat, when 
raised to 75° C. (167° F.), coagulates the living albumen, and if 
that temperature be maintained for a longer period, kills the spores 
as well. 

The acidity, strength, or alkalinity of the liquid these germs 
are immersed in also influence the degree of heat required to de- 
stroy these living germs. Thus, in fresh grape must before fer- 
mentation a temperature of 75° to 85° C. or 167° to 185° F. ap- 
plied for a minute or two destroys all the germs present. 

In the resulting wine, after fermentation, however, a tempera- 
ture of 60° C. (141° F.) applied for a few minutes will achieve the 
same result; here the action of heat being strengthened by the pre- 
sence in the wine of both the acids and alcohol. In practice it is 
found that injurious germs have not the same degree of resistance 
to heat in sweet, dry red, or dry white wines, and that it is safer 


Another method, efficacious and easier of application, is sulphur fumes treatment. 
Instead of sulphur fumes, some chemical substances, such as sulphite, holding 
sulphur in a loose state of combination, may be substituted with advantage, For 
instance, sulphite of soda or bisulphite of potash, at the rate of one to two ounces 
per 100 gallons, simply dropped into the wine, which after a day or so may be stirred 
a bit and allowed to rest, generally remove in four or five days the objectionable casky 
taste, whilst neither the colour, the taste, nor the smell remain affected either by|the 
defect or the remedy employed. 


489 


to subject the latter to a slightly higher temperature, viz., 66° to 
70° C. (151° to 160° F.) for two or three minutes. The tempera- 
ture at which these micro-organisms perish is called the “death 
point” of these microbes. 

The micro-organisms causing diseases of wines are more micro- 
scopic than the yeast plant, and can only be seen under a magnify- 
ing power of 600 to 900 diameters. Each kind presents under the 
microscope well-defined appearance, and each one affects the wine 
in a different manner. It is not the microbe itself that imparts to 
the affected wine the defects which shows it to be diseased, but 
rather the products consequent on its work in the medium in which 
the microbe lives. It is therefore important that either as a pre- 
ventive measure or as a curative treatment, if the disease is not too 
far advanced, timely measures be taken for removing the cause of 
the trouble. As demonstrated by Pasteur, heat under proper con- 
trol does this without impairing the quality of the wine. 

In a substance like milk, on the other hand, which is at the same 
time alkaline and fatty, the temperature has to be raised to about 
110° C. or ever higher to sterilise the liquid, which has to be brought 
to the boil. 

When Pasteur was carrying out his experiments on the heating 
of wines, a commission was appointed to taste the wines so treated, 
and the members reported as follows :— 

“Tt is impossible to deny that the result of heating the wines 
examined shows a decided advantage over the unpasteurised wines. 
Its effect is preventive of disease, it destroys the germs; the pre- 
sence of which is the cause of the various sickness in wine— 
without hindering the development of their quality. All the pas- 
teurised wines are good; they have not changed in taste or colour; 
their condition is perfect. We have come to the conclusion that 
the process is of practical value, and especially when applied to 
large quantities of wine.” 

When pasteurising wine, or for the matter of that, any kind 
of liquid, it is essential that everything which comes in contact with 
it must be sterilised, otherwise infection may again take place, and 
the whole work is in vain. 

Unless sufficient tannin is present, it may assume a light bluish 
tint after heating, and if it is intended to blend two or more wines, 
it is advisable to pasteurise before than after the blending. It is 
needless to say that an unpasteurised wine should not be used for 
filling up casks of pasteurised wines. 


DiseasE GERMS. 
The micro-organisms, which are the active agents of diseases 
of wine, have been divided by Pasteur in two classes :— 
(1) Those which take the oxygen they need for their respir- 
ation from the air itself, called “aerobic” ferments. 


490 


(2) Those which take their oxygen from substances rich in 
oxygen, and not from the air itself— “anaerobic” 
ferments. 

To the first group belong the diseases which cause Acetic fer- 
mentation, Flowers of wine, and the disease the French call Casse, 
or the breaking of the wine. 

To the second belong Mannitic or Lactie fermentation, Bitter, 
Grease, and Pousse, or Tourne. 

The yeast germs are “anaerobic,” in so far as they obtain their 
oxygen from the sugar they feed upon, although an occasional in- 
‘fusion of oxygen from outside, as occurs when the must is aerated, 
adds fresh life to them. In this much they behave like “anaerobic” 
ferments. 

The above classification, although not absolutely correct, is 
however accepted by scientists as being in the main correct. 

Flowers of Wine are not in themselves very injurious to wines. 
They are often seen like a white greasy film floating on the sur- 
face in casks containing light wines and which have not been kept 
scrupulously clean, 

They are when thus seen, an agglomeration of microscopic 
fungi, very pretty when seen under the microscope, known by botan- 
ists as Saccharomyces 
or Mycoderma vini The 
cells are elliptic in 
shape, and multiply by 
germination or  bud- 
ding. They are always 
found on the surface, 
as they require air for 
their existence, whilst 
they consume the aleo- 
hol of the wine, turning 
it into carbonie acid 
gas and water. They 
also destroy the alde- 
hydes and ethers of the 
wine which contribute 
to form the bouquet. 

By weakening the 

Flowers of Wine (Mycoderma vini), ss wine of its spirit, they 

1 pave the way to the 

invasion of that other 

more dangerous mycoderm which causes acetification. Unlike 

the latter, they never sink into the wine. When the flowers of 

wine are allowed to thrive unchecked they impart to the wine an 
unpleasant mouldy taste. 


491 


They are easy to keep out if casks are continuously maintained 
full, in order to exglude air. Where a thin light veil caused by ° 
this fungus occurs, a good plan for getting rid of it is to insert into 
the bunghole to a depth of a few inches a tin tube, the upper end of 
which closes with the thumb; that tube will penetrate the floating 
layer without carrying any of it downwards and without disturbing 
the wine. Fit a funnel at the upper end of the tube and pour 
sufficient strong wine into the cask to fill the ullage. The veil of 
microbes will float to the surface, and by pouring more wine will 
run out through the bunghole. The ullage should be frequently 
filled. 

If the wine has 
already contracted a 
mouldy taste, it 
should be racked 
into a sulphured cask 
after the fungus has 
been removed as ex- 
plained. Add a gal- 
lon of strong spirit 
or a few gallons of 
a stronger wine, 
per 100 ~ gallons, 
fine and rack again. 

Aceétification is one 
of the most common 
diseases of wine 
and also one of the 
most _ troublesome. 

700 Like the flowers of 

Mycoderma or Diplococeus accti a wine, it consumes 

the alcohol of wine, 

when exposed to air. Under these circumstances it transforms the 

aleohol into acetic acid and water, and is shown by the following 
chemical equation :— 


Alcohol. Oxygen. Acetic Acid. Water. 
ass a 
C,H,O + O02 = C.H,O, + 4H,0 


The disease generally only attacks wine that has been neglected 
and left in ullaged casks. It shows as a film, wrinkled and velvety - 
on the surface. After a time masses of viscous matter in the wine 
surround that film and cause some portion of it to sink. When 
looked at under a high-power microscope the germs show as oblong 
cells disposed rod fashion. These cells multiply very rapidly by a 
process of segmentation, or pinching in the centre. The disease is 
easier to guard against than to counteract As the alteration starts 
from the surface it is sometimes possible when the trouble has just 


492 


started to draw off the lower portion of the wine still sound in the 
cask, and separate it from the altered wine at.the top. 


If the wine is only slightly pricked it may to some extent be 
corrected by using per quarter-cask: 


1° carbonate of lime (powdered marble), or preferably, carbonate of 
magnesia, 2 to 4 oz. 

Neutral tartrate of potash (1 gramme) 15 grains. 

Spirit of wine, 1 quart. 


Shake and stir well, and after a couple of days fine with 
gelatine or isinglass, and if necessary add a little tannin to assist 
the fining. When clear, rack in heavily-sulphured and clean cask, 
which must always be kept quite full. 


Another method consists in mixing per 100 gals. of the slightly 
pricked wine, 2 to 4 oz. of neutral tartrate of potash, which is 
dissolved in a little warm water, then stirred into the cask, which is 
next fined and racked. 


Other methods are used for correcting sour wines, but as they 
result in leaving into it substances which would injuriously affect 
the consumer, they are rightly considered illegitimate, and are not 
used in respectable cellars. Sour wine can more profitaby be 
turned into vingar and sold as such than faked up into unwhole- 
some drugs. 


When the wine is lightly pricked, however, it may, with ad- 


vantage, be pasteurised, and then blended with a heavy wine low 
in acids. 


Casse.—This disease has been referred to when treating of the 
manufacture of white wine (p. 461). Of casse or break there are 
two kinds, the “blue’ and the “brown.” The “blue” casse is 
characterised by the separation of the blue colouring matter of the 
grape juice, of which two others exist, viz., the red and the yellow 
This particular kind of “break” can be stopped, or, better, pre- 
vented by the addition of tartaric acid to the must in doses at the 
rate of 80z. to 14%lbs. per 100 gallons. The “brown” break is 
caused by an oxidising diastase, which produces a kind of black 
matter called “oxydase” through feeding on the albuminoid matters 
in the wine. ' 


As this trouble is caused by an organised ferment, nothing 
short of its suppression will bring about a cure. This is effected by 
means of pasteurisation or sterilisation by heat or by the use of 
sulphurous acid, 


Red wines thus affected appear sound whilst in the casks, 
when air does not get at it, but without warning and almost sud- 
denly, when drawn or bottled, they turn black and show a brownish 
deposit. 


493 


The taste and chemical constituents of the wine are not very 
perceptibly altered, but the wines become unsightly. When looked 
at through clear glass, either the white or red wine shows a seud, 
and from brilliant and limped when fresh drawn from the cask it 
becomes dull, shows an irridescence on the surface, and the colour- 
ing matter gradually oxidising throws a brown-coloured sediment. 
The wine sometimes has a leathery smell, and has a slightly acidu- 
late and bitterish taste. 


The oxidising diastase feeding on the albuminoid substances in 
the wine is more commonly met with in wines produced from grapes 
grown on rich alluvial soils. Tannin, which coagulates albumen, is 
generally deficient in such wines, and a slight addition of this sub- 
stance is often attended with good results. Sulphur, however, is in 
every case beneficial, and may be used at the rate of 6 to 30 
grammes of sulphurous acid per 100 gallons, or its equivalent, three 
to 15 grammes, of sulphur (Yoz. to Yoz.) or 12 to 60 grammes 
(4402. to 2ozs.) of bisulphite of potash. 


Amongst the diseases caused by anaerobic microbes— 


Mannitic Fermentation is one of the most troublesome in hot 
climates. The disease is caused by short, motionless, rod-like 
microbes, which congregate in groups and are often found asso- 
ciated with germs of other diseases. Two requirements are neces- 
sary for their development—the presence of unfermented sugar in 
the wine, and a higher temperature than is suitable for the yeast 
ferment, viz., 35°-40° C. (95°-104° F.). The disease generally starts 
in the fermenting vat whenever the temperature is allowed to go 
up too high. 


As a result of the presence of this microbe in large numbers, 
the unfermented sugar is transformed into another kind of sugar, 
called mannite, and into lactic acid, the result being a sour-sweet 
wine. 


The remedies are low temperature fermentation, or early for- 
tification with spirits of wine, or pasteurisation. 


The cream of tartar is not decomposed in mannitic wine, as is 
the ease in wines affected with the tourne disease. 


Tourne (Turning) and “Pousse” (Pushing) Diseases.—These 
diseases attack any kind of wine of low alcoholic strength. In 
appearance they are very much alike, and show like very minute 
filaments, grouped together in mucous bundles. 


The pousse microbes attack the tartaric acid of the wine, which 
it transforms into acetic and propionic acids, whilst in the Tourne 
the tartaric acid is turned into carbonic and lactic acids. The 
diseased wine tastes flat, its colour is precipitated. In the Pousse 
gases are generated, which, should the cask be tightly bunged, may 


494 


cause the head to bulge out. The carbonic acid bubbles appear on 
the surface as fine persistent bubbles. Under the microscope the 
ferment of the Tourne 
shows in the form of 
long batonnets' or 
rods, without move- 
ment. The remedy 
prescribed is to add 
cream of tartar to 
the wine and pas- 
teurise it or fortify it 
up to 14 or 15 per 
cent. of alcohol (30- 
32 per cent, proof). 


Ropiness, also called 
“grease disease,” is 
peculiar to white 
wines, deficient in 
tannin. Such wines 
are turbid in _ look, The Pousse Ferment, 100 
flat, and viscous in t 


appearance. The ac- 
tive agent ofi the disease 
is a microbe which, at 
first sight, is not unlike 
the micoderma aceti. It 
is, however, encased in a 
sheath of viscous mat- 
ter which gives to wine 
an oily appearance. 
White wines light in 
aleohol—under 12 per 
cent. or 26 per cent. 
proof —and_ produced 
from grapes grown on 
rich alluvial flats, or 
more or less decom- 
posed and rich in albu- 
minoid matters, are 
more susceptible to the 
disease. The remedy is 
the elimination of these 
albuminoid matters, which can be effected by an addition of tannin 
varying from one-eighth to one-sixth ounce per 100 gallons; aeration 
and stirring violently to break up the viscosity of the microbes, 
slight fortification to bring the strength of the wine to 12 per cent. 


700 
GreaseYor Ropy Ferment, —— 
al 


495 


o * i e . a ° 
or more, Pasteurisation will cure the disease in one act. In either 
case fining and racking are indicated. 


Bitterness is caused by a small, threadlike microbe which, when 
dying, is encased in the colouring matter of red wines at the be- 
ginning of the sick- 
ness. The wine de- 
velops a peculiar dis- 
agreeable smell, at the 
same time loses the 
freshness of its colour 
and appears more 
brown. The taste also 
becomes uneven, flat, 
sweetish, and is trans- 
formed into a bitter 
taste by degrees. Fol- 
lowing the progress of 
the sickness the col- 
ouring matter is en- 
tirely lost, and the 
wine in the end be- 
comes undrinkable. 

Not only in the eask, 
but in the bottle, may 
the wine become bitter. 


Bitterness Ferment, 


Several means have been suggested as a cure:— 


(1.) A new fermentation with fresh must; this means only 
spoiling good must. 

(2.) Racking in strongly sulphured casks only checks the pro- 
gress of the disease. 

(3.) Pasteurising checks it, but, unless carefully done, often 
spoils the original taste of the wine. 

(4.) Fortifying up to 12 per cent. (26 per cent. proof), and a 
little addition of tartaric acid, will hide the bitter taste. 
If the disease has gone too far, it is impossible to over- 
come the bitter taste. 


When slightly attacked the use of oxidising substances, such as 
permanganate of potash, in very slight doses, after previous forti- 
fication up to about 14 per cent., gives very rapid result. Aeration 
is also good. After this, blending with wines of deep colour, and 
rich in tannin, will restore to the affected wine its desired equili- 
brium. If such a wine is not at hand, add 1 to 2 oz. of tannic acid 
per 100 gallons of the liquid. Tannin is soluble in the must, but it 
is preferable to dissolve it in a little alcohol before using; say Lb. 
of tannic acid in one gallon of spirit of wine. One pint of this 


496 


solution will contain 2ozs. of tannia. Mix first with about 10 gal- 
lons of must or of wine, and add these 10 gallons to the other 90 
and whisk briskly. 


UNFERMENTED GRAPE-JUICE. 


Inquiries are often made concerning the proper method of 
making “unfermented wine.” Such an article is, it appears, in 
demand for sacramental purposes, and a ready sale also exists for 
using it as a cooling drink. 


“Unfermented wine” is, it is only fair to state at the outset, 
only a snare and a delusion. The word “wine” implies alcoholic 
fermentation, and so soon as any kind of fruit juice has its sugar 
transformed into alcohol, through the agency of the living agents 
of fermentation, it becomes a “wine.” 


A glance at an analysis of freshly-pressed grape-must will 
satisfy anyone that no spirit nor glycerine—both residues of alco- 
holie fermentation—are present. The analysis will also indicate 
the presence of nourishing and wholesome constituents, which are 
combined and grouped in a form which is at the same time palatable 
and wholesome. ; 


The following table shows the several components of fresh 
grape-juice prior to fermentation :— 


Water Sis is 6 ae .. 80 to 85 parts 
Grape sugar (dextrose and levulose).. 15 ,, 28  ,, 
Free acids (tartaric, tannic) .. ae OAD al Gy 
Salts of organic acids (tartrates,, malates, 

citrates of potassium, calcium, etc.).. 0.4,, 08  ,, 


Salts of mineral acids, sulphates, nitrates, 

phosphates, silicates of potassium, cal- 

cium, magnesium, iron a .. 03,05  ,, 
Albuminoid matters x = we O35 1 5 


Any unfermented wine, therefore, showing substances not men- 
tioned in this analysis must have been tampered with and ceases to 
be pure grape-juice. 


Wy Graps-Juice FEerMents. 


Side by side with the grape-juice, nature has placed active 
living agents which, when they gain access to that juice, break up 
and disorganise its several compounds into substances widely 
different in nature, composition, and properties. These living agents 
are of microscopic size, and although more numerous on the waxy 
bloom which covers the skin of the fruit, they also float about in 
the air we breathe, and are present on the surface of all manner 


497 


of vessels and appliances which may be used during the handling 
of the grape or other juices. These micro-organisms belong to 
numerous species, and are classified as moulds, yeasts, and bacteria. 
They differ as regards their shape, their habits, and the resulting 
produce of their activities. Besides these living agents of decom- 
position of the juices of fruit, there are present viscous, albuminoid 
substances which cause a certain amount of turbidity in the liquid 
and make it unattractive to the sight. 


Those two factors, viz., micro-organisms and viscous albuminoid 
substances, are the two elements which the unfermented grape-juice 
preserver has to contend with, and in order to purge the liquid of 
them, two ways present themselves—one chemical and one physical. 
The chemical methods consist in paralysing the microscopic cells of 
the agents of fermentation by means of antiseptic substances. This 
method is prohibited wherever a Pure Food Act is enforced, and 
moreover, on hygienic grounds it is strongly to be deprecated, for 
the reason that such toxic substances which silence and paralyse 
the living cells of organisms in the sweet juice, on the other hand 
also happen to injuriously affect those other micro-organisms which 
accompany and foster digestion. Their use is to be deprecated, 
and should be prohibited by law. 

The physical methods are, on the other hand, safe, and yield 
results which are quite satisfactory. These are purely mechanical, 
such as filtering, or both mechanical and biological, such as those 
methods in which heat, cold, or electricity play the leading part. 
Of these, heat is, up to the present, both the cheapest and the most 
reliable. 

The germs figured in the chapter on “Ferments and on Diseases 
of Wine” consist of translucent gelatinous cells which at even a 
moderate temperature coagulate and perish. The temperature at 
which these micro-organisms perish is called “the death point” of 
these microbes. This point is several degrees lower in slightly acid 
liquids, such as grape or other fruit-juice, than it is in neutral 
liquids. Time is also a factor which in a measure influences this 
death point. For instance,-a micro-organism which would only 
perish if heated for half an hour at, say, 60deg. C. (140deg. F.) 
would probably survive the treatment if the period of heating was 
only a quarter of an hour. Then again, micro-organisms occur in 
two states: an active or growing state, consisting of a fragment of 
protoplasma, encased in a cellulose covering, and a resting or spore 
state, the spores being minute nuclei embedded into the body of the 
micro-organism and endowed with greater resistant properties. This 
being so, a degree of heat which would coagulate and kill the micro- 
organism in its gellified or growing state would probably only cause 
passing discomfort to the more hardened resting spores. As a rule, 
it requires about 5deg. C. (9deg. F.) additional above the death 


498 


point of the growing micro-organism to kill the same organism 
in its resting state. In practice it is found that grape-must is steri- 
lised by heating up to 65deg. to 75deg. C. (149deg. to 167deg. F.). 
It is essential not to raise the temperature too high, so as not to 
affect the delicacy of taste or colour of the liquid operated upon, 
and for that purpose it is essential not to exceed 85deg. C. 
(185deg. F.). 


Whilst it is known that germs of fermentation and of other 
decomposition are destroyed at a comparatively low temperature 
when immersed in an organic liquid, these same germs, when 
desiceated, can tolerate a much higher temperature with impunity. 
It is important to bear in mind this fact when bottling the sterilised 
liquid, as any germs which may be resting on the dry neck of the 
bottle or on the cork would escape destruction, and would later on 
start a fresh growth and spoil the liquid. In order to guard 
against this, both bottles and corks must be boiled just before 
using. This is done for at least half an hour, and when handling 
care should be taken not to touch the bottles with the hands high 
up the neck lest some germs present on the fingers should be con- 
veyed to the mouth of the bottles and thence into the liquid. 


Puant REQUIRED. 


On a fairly large scale a plant proportionate with the output of 
unfermented juice would be required. Such a plant would include 
a steam boiler, a steriliser, or Pasteuriser, to sterilise the juice; a 
filter press, to separate the clear juice from the viscous pulpy tissue 
floating in it; a hot-water dip, such as are used at canning works, 
for sterilising the bottles. On a smaller scale a less elaborate plant 
can be made to answer. An open copper for heating the must 
and boiling both bottles and corks, a filter, and a bottle steriliser 
may be made to answer the desired purpose. 


Mopus OPERANDI. 


The grapes having been crushed, the juice is run into a vat, 
where it is allowed to deposit its slime. In hot weather, ice or an 
attemperator may be used to cool it down and prevent it fermenting 
for a few hours. From this settling vat the partly clarified must 
is taken to the open copper (a double boiler or steam jacketed 
boiler is the best) and heated up to 85deg. C. (185deg. F.) for 
half an hour, and skimmed and then run through a cooler into fresh 
settling receptacles, properly sterilised. That temperature will 
coagulate the albumen and other flocculent matters, and for that 
purpose the temperature should never exceed 190deg. F., at which 
some of the albumen will re-dissolve, nor less than 175deg. F., at 
which it will not coagulate. A thermometer should be used, if not, 


499 


heat the juice till it steams, but it must not boil. Steamed casks, 
closed by means of sterilised bungs, will do. Here much of the 
albuminoid and viscous matters in the must, which will have been 
coagulated during the first heating process, are deposited; it will 


Gasquet’s Bottle Pasteuriser. 


take 24 hours to clear. This renders the operation of filtering much 
easier. After this the must may be filtered through a conical flannel 
bag or any suitable filter and run into sterilised bottles, which are 
then securely corked with well-sterilised corks, The corking is 


500 


sometimes done after the final heating and whilst the bottles are 
still hot. These bottles are set to stand in a hot water trough, and 
over a thin board if the fire is direct, and the temperature gradually 
brought up to 80deg. C. (175deg. F.), at which temperature they 
are maintained for quarter of an hour. A thermometer placed in 
one of the bottles indicates the exact degree of heat. It is essential, 
in order to sterilise the must, that that temperature be reached but 
not exceeded, as a higher degree of heat at the final heating would 
coagulate a fresh lot of albuminoid matter, which would cause their 
precipitation and make the liquid turbid. 


It is advisable to secure the corks by means of strings during 
this second sterilisation, in order to prevent them being blown up. 
When this is done the contents of the bottles will keep for almost 
an indefinite period, unless some threads of moulds penetrate the 
corks and contaminate the liquid. To guard against this, it is a 
good practice to dip the neck of the filled bottles into a 2 per cent. 
solution of sulphate of copper (30zs. to 4ozs, blue stone in 1 gal. 
water), and when dry either cover with bottling wax or a capsule. 
Should signs of turbidity show after a few days, repeat the sterilis- 
ing process a third time. 


Grape-juice thus prepared will, with the exception of a few 
tinted juice grapes, be white or amber colour, and be possessed with 
the particular aroma of the grape used in its manufacture. 

When filled, lay the bottles in rows on the side, and note any 
which may be leaking at the cork. These put by for more im- 
mediate use; the others are slightly dipped at the neck in bottling 
wax, which may be bought at cork merchants or at wholesale drug- 
gists for a few pence per lb. Different colours, such as red, green, 
blue or white may be used for different wines. Care should be used, 
in melting, to keep the wax continually stirred, to prevent it burn- 
ing and assuming the appearance of a gritty deposit. 

Grape juice thus bottled may be kept sound for years. It will 
greatly improve by keeping a few months before it is used. 


VINEGAR FROM WINE AND FROM CIDER. 


When sweet fruit juice is pressed and left exposed to the air 
a change rapidly takes place, first into alcoholic, subsequently into 
acetic fermentation, and finally into putrid fermentation, which 
would, of course, spoil the liquor for any purpose. 

The art of wine and cider making is directed to the prevention 
of acetic fermentation; that of the vinegar manufacturer aims at 
converting into a marketable commodity the product of grapes un- 
suitable for wine making, and of apples for which no market offers. 

All methods of vinegar making are based on the oxidation of 
the spirit of alcoholic liquids in the presence of air. This kind of 


501 


slow combustion takes away hydrogen from the alcohol to form 
water, and oxidises the compound. The aim of the vinegar manu- 
facturer should therefore be to obtain this oxidation under the most 
advantageous conditions of rapidity, economy, and quality. 

In previous chapters place has been given to the consideration 
of the manufacture of sound wine; a few notes on the conversion 
of apples and pears, not intended for stock feed, into cider and 
perry will explain the transformation of otherwise sound fruit 
into a wholesome beverage or ultimately into vinegar largely used 
as a condiment or for pickling purposes. 


CIDER AND PERRY. 

The best cider is made from three sorts of apples: the “sweet,” 
the “sweet-bitter,” and the “sharp” varieties. The first is rich in 
sugar and will give alcoholic strength; the second has an excess of 
tannin, which helps the cider to clarify, without it it will be thick 
and ropy and won’t keep; the third class, containing a larger amount 
of malic and of tartaric acids, will assist the alcoholic ferment and 
check the invasion of dangerous germs during the process of fer- 
mentation; moreover, by its action on the alcohol produced, ethers 
will be formed which impart to the cider a characteristic taste and 
smell known as “bouquet.” Few apples contain these three essen- 
tial constituents in well balanced proportions, hence the mixing of 
several varieties of apples by the Devonshire and by the Normandy 
cider makers. ) 

The varieties of cider apples grown where cider is extensively 
made belong to the same species as those cultivated for dessert or 
for cooking, the only difference being the smaller size of the fruits 
and the special characteristics referred to. 

To grow apples for the sole purpose of conversion into cider 
has not yet been successfully attempted in Australia. A few firms 
are putting on the market a very commendable article, but the bulk 
of the cider manufactured by individual growers is of such a class 
that it is unmarketable as a beverage but is capable of being trans- 
formed into a first class vinegar. 

For this purpose, windfalls and rejects, which unfortunately 
represent an important proportion of the apple crop, would find a 
ready sale at distilleries and vinegar factories. 


Yield of Cider per ton of Apples——Theoretically, apples con- 
tain 50 to 75 per cent. of juice, or an average of 70 per cent., but 
ordinary methods of pressing does not account for more than about 
50 per cent., as after a certain point has been reached the cost of 
extraction appears to be greater than the value of the juice ob- 
tained. In practice, it takes 20 to 25 lbs. of apples to make one 
gallon of cider; in other words, one ton of apples yields about 
100 gallons of cider, which allows for a loss during fermentation at 
the rate of 10 per cent., the balance being left unpressed in the 


502 


pressed pulp. By adopting the diffusion process of extraction a 
greater percentage should be obtained. 

The average specific gravity of the juice of sound, ripe apples 
is 1.060 (8.2 Baumé) or 15 per cent. sugar with extracts added. 
This on complete fermentation gives about 9 per cent. aleohol by 
volume (16.75 proof spirit). In culls the specific gravity would be 
lower and the resulting cider shows about 6 per cent. absolute 
alcohol by volume (13° proof). 


Manufacture of Cider and Perry. 


The apples or pears to be crushed must be sound. If they are 
not clean, the hose may be put on them, provided the water is 
allowed to drain quickly; if this can be avoided so much the better, 
as water washes off the bloom which carries the yeast. Decayed 


i i | 


4 iit 


m Te 
a 


\" i 


Improved Apple Mill and Grater. 


apples will cause the cider to be flat, of bad flavour, and of bad 
keeping. Then reduce them to a pulp. For this purpose a mill, 
something like a turnip pulper, in which the fruit after being broken 
up by toothed rollers is passed through fluted rollers, is very con- 
venient. 


503 


For convenient pressing this pulp or pomace which would 
squeeze out between the battens of the press, is generally packed in 
flat bags made of tough fibrous material like grass, horsehair, ete. 
For a small orchard it might be packed in some flat bags made of 
coarse hessian, like the stuff used for onion bags, and these should 
be boiled and rinsed in clean water to remove any unpleasant taste. 
Fold the open end back and pile these half-filled bags one on top of 
the other on the tray of the press. If bags are used it is not neces- 


Cider Press. 


sary to have the battened cage around. When the juice has all been 
pressed it is run into clean and sound casks or a small vat—casks 
with heads taken off would do. : 

‘When table kinds are used, they are often deficient in tannin 
and in fruit acids; this deficiency is made up by addition to the 
juice: tannin, 4 to loz.; and tartaric acid, 2 to 4ozs. per 100 gal- 
lons. 

The juice is allowed to rest in the open vat for a few hours, 
when slimes will settle to the bottom and a light cap of scum will 


504 


rise and float. The liquid between is then more or less clear and can 
be syphoned into clean and sulphured casks filled up to within a 
few inches of the bunghole. 


Here the gradual conversion of the sugar contents into alcohol 
proceeds. If it is intended to distil the product of fermentation or 
turn it into vinegar, the juice should be allowed to ferment out 
completely, as the presence of sugar means loss of alcohol, and it 
should be avoided if it is intended to convert it into apple-brandy 
or into vinegar. 


This stage having been reached, experienced cider makers are 
able to regulate the fermentation and check it at the right stage by 
attention to temperature, by frequent racking, filtering, and by sul- 
phuring the casks, or by pasteurisation. All these processes have 
been dealt with in connection with wine making. For making into 
vinegar, sulphuring should be lightly used, as it is detrimental to 
the growth of the acetifying mycoderm germ. As soon as it is fairly 
clear it is racked into fresh casks to draw it from over the lees of 
fermentation. 


If intended for use as cider, some prefer a sweet and sparkling 
cider to a dry and as is sometimes called a “hard” cider, which is to 
the cider drinker what claret is to the wine drinker. 


Bottling Cider. 


The best time for bottling is when fermentation is neither too 
active nor too feeble, so that the cider will clear and sparkle, and 
at the same time will not leave a thick deposit in the bottle. This is 
when the specific gravity comes down to about 1015 or 2° Baumé, 
indicating the presence of 314 to 4 per cent. sugar still left in the 
liquid. If the specific gravity is below 1010 (114° Baume, 24% per 
cent. sugar) add 20lbs. sugar to 100 gallons of the cider and bottle. 


For sparkling cider strong champagne bottles should: be used, 
and the corks tied with iron wire. The bottles should not be filled 
completely, but a space left between the liquid and the cork, and 
placed upright in a cool cellar. It is not necessary to lay the bottles 
flat immediately after they have been filled, as that would tend to 
break them by the pressure of the gas; they should not be laid until 
a few weeks later, and then upon wooden laths or in dry sand. If 
they are left upright too long, some of the carbonic acid escapes and 
the cider not so sparkling. For cider less foamy than the former, 
bottling must be delayed until the fermentation is more advanced, 
when the cider is less sweet. The cider, which is still relatively sweet, 
then contains enough sugar to give an agreeable sparkling and long- 
keeping drink. The black mineral water bottles and beer bottles are 
quite strong enough, and the corks should be tide with twine, the 
bottles being left upright a few days. For still and dry cider any 


505 


bottles can be used, because there is less carbonic acid than in the 
two former cases. They should be laid flat when filled, in order to 
retain the carbonic acid. 


Acetification of Cider. 


The apple or the pear juice having been transformed into cider 
or into perry it can be used as such, or a step further may be gone 
and it may be manufactured into vinegar. It is essential for this 

“purpose that the liquid becomes clear and free of the carbonie acid 
gas with which it was charged at the close of its alcoholic fermenta- 
tion, as these conditions would interfere with the spread over the 
surface of the mycodermic veil which forms during the process of 
acetification. 


VINEGAR. 


The name is given to alcoholic liquids which have undergone 
acetific fermentation—wine, lees, “cider, perry, beer, in fact any 
weak alcoholic solution may be transformed into vinegar by the 
action of the Mycoderma aceti organism. Wood vinegar is an ex- 
ception, being the product of the distillation of wood when sub- 
jected to a high temperature. 

The floating veil of Mycoderma aceti works normally in liquids 
which already contain acetic acid, otherwise under the influence of 
air and a suitable temperature it. is replaced or interfered with by 
another form, viz., Mycoderma vini, illustrated on page 490, under, 
the name of “Flowers of Wine,” and which weakens the alcoholic 
mixture by the direct transformation of alcohol into water and car- 
bonie acid gas, a process which accounts for a weaker vinegar being 
produced. For this reason, wine or cider used in the manufacture 
of vinegar should receive as a starter a certain quantity of that 
product. 

As a condiment wine or cider vinegar, in addition to acetic 
acid contain organic and inorganic salts, ethers which give the 
bouquet, glycerine, in reality, all the elements which constitute the 
-original liquid. Cheaper grades of vinegar are also made with 
diluted cheap spirits; these possess none of the hygienic constituents 
of the first-named kinds and are more or less injurious to weak 
digestions. 

Pasteur discovered that under the action of Mycoderma aceti, 
which is classed among the group of aerobian ferments, i.e., requir- 
ing the oxygen of the air to exist, alcohol is oxidised and acetie acid 
and water results. A certain amount of heat is generated during 
that transformation. The micro-organism (mother of vinegar) 
forms the veil floating on the surface and does its best work at tem- 
peratures ranging between 67deg. and 87deg. F. (20-31deg. C.), 
outside these limits the ferments suffer and eventually cease to 
work. 


506 


In order to guard against the invasion of other germs, it is 
desirable to sow the right kind, and unless good vinegar is at hand 
a culture must be made. For that purpose take a saucer or a 
shallow vessel, in which place a weak wine a little acetified with 
good vinegar and place in a warm place where it is not disturbed; 
when a veil appears place on the surface of the wine in an ullaged 
cask. 

This is the old “Orleans” method. The only drawback is that 
it is slow, taking about two months before good vinegar is made. 
For household use, when consumption is moderate, it does not mat- 
ter. Take a cask, or if a quantity is to be handled several casks, 
bore a hole 84 up the heads and opposite, cover these holes with 
mosquito netting or with cheese cloth, to keep out vinegar flies and 
insects. The hoops must be painted to prevent the vapours of acetic 
acid attacking them. In front, between the wooden tap and the air 
hole, a bent glass tube is tightly fixed in a cork to show the level of 
the liquid. ; 


\Diagram of a Vinegar mother cask (Orleans method), 


The cask must be securely fixed to prevent shaking, which 
would break the veil and interfere with the growth of the ferment. 

For the same reason a glass tube is put into the cask, through 
the bung-hole, through which the wine is periodically poured to 
keep up the same level. To start operations, reduce the strength of 
the wine to about 10deg. to 12deg. proof, add one-third good vine- 
gar, bringing the level up to half an inch of each air hole. At the 
end of four to six weeks, vinegar may be drawn and an equivalent 
quantity of weak wine added. 

During the process of acetification there is an evaporation of 
about 10 per cent. 

The German Method is quicker than the Orleans method and is 
continuous. The loss by evaporation of the aleoholie liquid during 
the process of acetification is greater than in the case of the Orleans 
method and the ethers which give the bouquet which are developed 
in the course of the first method are less noticeable in this method. 

The apparatus consists of an elongated cylindrical wooden cask 
or generator. The top head consists of a lid provided with a large 
hole through which the liquid is fed, and another one with a piece 


507 


of piping for the escape of air. Six inches below that lid is a false 
head bored with a number of conical holes through which are passed 
Pieces of string 6 inches long, with knots which keep them hanging, 
and at the same time stop the holes incompletely. At the bottom is 
a wooden tap or one well made of tinned metal. Twelve inches 
above is a false bottom. Round the base of the cask, between two 
bottoms are vent holes bored slanting from outside downwards. 
The space between the false 
bottom and the false head is 
filled with. beechwood shavings 
to the level of the lower ends 
of the strings. They will last 
for a great number of years. 
These shavings are soaked in 
vinegar, which helps the trans- 
formation of alcohol into acetic 
acid. 

The operation is simply con- 
ducted: the alcoholic liquid to 
be treated is pumped into a re- 
ceiver at a higher level than the 
top of the vinegar generator. 
The liquid is allowed to run 
as a fine stream which trickles 
down slowly over the germ- 
laden: beechwood shavings which 
offer a very large surface to 
the oxidising action of air. It 
acetifies whilst it trickles down 
slowly through these shavings 
and falls into the bottom part 
of the cask whence it is drawn 
StokcheremeanTs gees and casked, or if not com- 
generator (German method). pletely acetified, it is run 
through again. The air travels 
in an opposite direction, entering at the holes at the bottom, it 
escapes by the tube fixed on the top falsehead. The temperature 
should register 67 to 87 deg. F. as in the Orleans process. 

The small destructive animal, called the vinegar eel, which 
sometimes infect the mother casks in the Orleans method, do not 
gain a footing here. 

Commercial vinegar contains from 4 to 6 per cent. of acetic 
acid: 

Ex.: Given vinegar at 5.90 acetic acid, how much water to add 
to break down to 5 per cent? 

100 x 5-90 590 


eho 


Vinegar 


= 118 or 18 parts of water. 
5 


508 


If vinegar keeps dull after it is made and shows signs of 
malady, which destroy the inherent acetic acid and the bouquet, pas- 
teurising will remove the trouble. The apparatus should be well 
tinned to guard against corrosion. 


INFERTILE GRAPE VINES. 


When the vines have set their fruit, any that are sterile or 
fail to carry a crop commensur- 
ate with their vigour more forci- 
bly attract attention. 

By setting of the fruit is un- 
derstood the proper fertilisation 
of the ovary. This occurs in the 
spring of the year, and wherever 
grape vines are grown under ar- 
tificial conditions of shelter, ete., 
it proves an anxious time to all 
cultivators of the vine. 

In Western Australia, where the 
open air climatic conditions in 
the spring are in every respect 
favourable to the proper fertili- 
sation of the ovaries, grapes set 
without trouble and with great 
perfection. Yet individual ex- 
ceptions are occasionally met with, 
which are subject to the following 


conditions :— 
g I. Climatic conditions which 
Fie, ee grapes st noaeeInE. . 
showing complete non- II. Structural or constitutional 
setting. defects. 


In the first instance it is important to understand how the 
grape vine blossoms set. 


Fia, 2.—Normal buds Fia. 3.—Normal flowers 
before fertilisation. after fertilisation. 


509 


Reference to the figs. some of which are taken from A. Bon- 
net’s “Selection as applied to the Vine” illustrate the different pos- 
sible occurrences. 

Figs. 4, 5, and 6 illustrate, on a magnified scale, the structure 
of a normal grape vine flower and show the bud, then the peculiar 


Fie. 4.—A grape vine floral bud. 


Fie. 5.—Same showing the petals of the corolla detached from the base and united 
above, pressing the anthers against the pistil. 


Fia. arse ce the corolla removed, and showing the anthers ready for excision.— 
OEX. 


way the petals unfold from the base of the calyx. This dislodg- 
ment of the cap causes a jerk which scatters the pollen in the anther 
sacs on the stamens (Fig. 6). This pollen comes into contact with 
the stigma of the pistil which carries it to the ovary. 

Free setting varieties have the stamens erect, forming a cluster 
round the inflated tip or stigma, a position which is found advan- 
tageous to the proper fertilisation of the ovary. These vines, which 
constitute the majority, are perfect hermaphrodites. 

Climatic conditions, it must be evident to all who have any 
experience of Western Australian climate, are here in every way 
favourable to the free setting of the grape vine blossoms. Even 
the museat of Alexandria, that queen of all grapes, which is dis- 
carded in the Eastern States on account of its defective setting, 
fruits here to perfection. In the coastal districts, especially from 
the Murray Estuary as a Southern limit to the Murchison at the 
North, a badly set bunch is more the exception than the rule. The 
climatie conditions which are unfavourable to the free setting of 
grapes are in the main sudden and excessive changes in the tem- 
perature; persistent rain or drying land winds at the period the 
blossoms are opening. 

When vines fail to set properly on that account, either pinching 
back of the fruitful shoots or cincturing under the joint from which 
issues the bunch will, if practised a few days before blossoming, 
cause it to set better. (See figures 7 and 74.) 

Zante currants especially are made more fruitful by means of 
cincturing, as already mentioned on page 262. This is best done at 
blossoming time (end of October or early in November on the 
Swan). Double-bladed knives or scraping knives like those used 


510 


for searring rubber trees in the tropics are used. It is not essential 
that the bark be removed. If made too wide, waxed calico wrapped 
over the cincture causes the healing callus gum to form readily. 

If pinching is practised only the shoots issuing from long, 
or bearing rods should be so treated and not those from short or 
wood spurs, as pinching favours the growth of laterals and inter- 


Fic. 7.—Annular incision at A. Fie. 74.—Vine shoot 
pinched back. 


feres with the spur and rod system of pruning. New shoots are 
undesirable where vines have been sprayed to guard against fun- 
goid diseases. In large vineyards it is not easy to discriminate 
between shoots growing from rods or those from spurs, and for that 
reason cincturing on the stem at blossoming time is preferred. 

Constitutional defects very often cause bad setting. 

A seedless grape is a defective grape. The ‘‘seedless muscats,”’ 
for instance, are grapes which have been imperfectly fertilised, and 
in some seasons they are more or less noticeable. These “shot 
grapes” occur at times with nearly all varieties. Raisin des Dames, 
Grand Centennial, Madeleine Anjevine are particularly affected 
with us, 

The following figs. show at a glance in what respect some 
flowers show malformation :— 


Fie. 8.—(a.) Perfect flower. 
(b.) Reflexed stamens. 
(c.) Staminate flower. 


511 


Whenever the stamens fall away from the pistil and are de- 
flexed the act of pollination cannot very well take place and the 


bunch sets badly. 


Fias. 9 and 10.—Sterile flowers opening rose-like, 


It sometimes happens that the pistil is altogether absent, and 
as this organ contains at its base the ovaries or germ of the future 
fruit, that absence means permanent sterility. 


¥ia. 11.—Double flowers. 


Other flowers are sterile ow- 
ing to the peculiar way they ex- 
pand. Instead of the petals un- 
folding from the base as shown 
in Fig. 5, they open rose-like from 
the top, and when they thus open, 
there is no jerk and no seat- 
tering of pollen, and consequently 
bad setting; or it happens that 
the stamens remain stuck to the 
petals and are shorter than the 
pistil, and are not able to reach 
up to the gummy secretion on the 
stigma. 

The various floral organs, more- 
over, undergo at times modifica- 
tions which prove obstacles to 
their fertilisation. Thus whole 
bunches are seen to turn into 
tendrils; or, owing to a thickening 
of any one of the floral organs, 
the flower assumes the appear- 
ance of being double. Such 
flowers are always sterile. 

All these structural defects 
are hereditary and liable to be 
transmitted through cuttings, 
hence the importance of eliminat- 
ing such vines from a vineyard by 
grafting on them scions from fer- 


512 


tile vines, and also the advisability of rejecting any cutting from 
them for the purpose of planting. Other constitutional causes as 
well influence the bearing of vines and lead to imperfect setting. 


The bunches are loose and contain berries of various sizes, 
with numerous blanks between. A lowering of the vitality of the 
plant consequent upon attacks of oidium, or other fungous diseases, 
predisposes vines to this form of bad setting. | 


This accident may also be caused by a sudden drop 
in the temperature, by continuous rain at blossoming time, 
or by hot blasts of drying wind. Although a few ber- 
ries which set properly grow to their full size, numerous 
small ones never grow very large, and are devoid of seeds. They 
ripen and are as sweet as the others. The Black Morocco grape is 
particularly subject to this form of bad setting or shanking. The 
explanation given of this peculiarity is that for one or other of 
the causes mentioned above, a few flowers only set and the others 
are blighted. A number of the more backward blossoms, which 
generally fail to set when the first blossoms have turned into fruit, 
then open and form fruit. These, however, located on the same 
bunch alongside others which are grow- 
ing rapidly, are checked, remain small 
and seedless. 

Amongst the remedies suggested to 
counteract the effect of bad setting 
are:—Selection of cuttings from fertile 
vines, pinching back of shoots, ring- 
barking, sulphuring at blossoming time, 
and grafting on the sterile plants. 

The shape of the leaves often fur- 
nish an indication regarding the fruit- 
fulness of vines. In every vineyard 
may be noticed plants, often very 
vigorous, growing leaves which are 
comparatively more deeply indented 
than others on vines of the same 
variety. These plants are generally 
less fruitful than the others; they 
carry smaller and fewer bunches, or are 
not fruitful at all. They are known as 
“wild” vines by the growers. Being 
particularly luxuriant, cuttings are at 
times selected from these plants which, 
however, almost invariably transmit 
to the vines issuing from them the same Fra. 12.—Bunch badly 
characteristics of sterility and of exces- i 
sively vigorous growth which were exhibited in the parent. 


FN 


Fig, 13.—Leaf of Aramon from fruitful arm. 


The same characteristics are often seen on leaves growing on a 
sterile water shoot or sucker issuing from a vine stump. 


Fia, 14,—Aramon leaf from a sterile sucker on the same vine. 


514 


From what we know, therefore, of the fertility of particular 
vines, or particular parts of grape vines, it is evident that selection 
enables us to eliminate from a vineyard all unproductive stock by 
means of grafting, or avoid reproducing undesirable features shown 
in the parent vine. 


INSECT AND FUNGOID PESTS. 
TREATMENT AND REMEDIES. 


Until of late years little or no attention was paid to the damage 
caused by insect and fungoid pests to cultivated crops. 

In the old days of farming and fruitgrowing pests were re- 
garded in the light of an unavoidable calamity, and a visitation of 
Providence; their nature was shrouded in mystery, or they were 
either entirely unknown in some parts of the world, or else were 
often met with, under a mild form, in certain localities; a great 
many, by transplantation to surroundings somewhat dissimilar to 
those by which they were influenced in their original habitat, have 
subsequently developed more pronounced and distinct characteristics, 
and have consequently forced themselves to the notice of cultivators. 

These so-called new pests, either insects or fungi, are as ancient 
as the world, and although they are greatly influenced by their im- 
mediate suroundings, by the food at their disposal, the climate in 
which they live, by the enemies they have to contend with, and by 
many other circumstances of various nature, they nevertheless spring 
from parent individuals in every respect like themselves. 

Every season, almost, we hear of the appearance of new pests, 
and it is more than likely that, for a great number of years to come, 
the list, already formidable, of the sorts of insects and fungi that 
invade and prey on our crops will gradually be made longer still, 
by the addidtion of more unwelcome enemies. 

Various factors combine to bring about this undesirable state 
of things. 

In the first instance, we have seen that new conditions of life 
may develop propensities of a distinctive nature; or, again, the 
partial extermination of some parasites of these pests, either owing 
to unfavourable surroundings or the use of insecticides, by break- 
ire the balance of nature, may insure the preponderance, to an 
alarming degree, of certain species of pests. By the constant and 
more rapid interchange, on the other hand, of plants, fruits, seeds, 
and cuttings of all sorts of ornamental, economic, or useful plants, 
from all parts of the world, many of the parasites of plants have 
been widely disseminated, without, in a great many instances, their 
own particular parasites having been brought with them; and thus 
the appearance of hitherto unknown pests is accounted for in 
countries until then free from them. 


515 


For, as it is so concisely expressed in Dean Swift’s oft quoted 
couplet— 
The little fleas that do us tease 
Have other fleas that bite ’em; 
And these, in turn, have other fleas, 
And so on ad infinitum. 

To ward against the importation of noxious pests, the Govern- 
ment of Western Australia, profiting by the errors and the ex- 
perience of older fruit-growing countries, have passed a Fruit Pest 
Act, which provides for the disinfection, on landing, of plants and 
fruits, for the purpose of checking any possible importation from 
abroad of pests inimical to fruit trees and vines. 


These pests are of two classes:—the first of these are noxious 
insects; the second, parasitic fungi. 


Insects vary greatly in their shape, size, and colour, but on 
broad lines they all possess, when seen in their full-grown stage, 
certain features which differentiate them from other animals. They 
possess three pairs of legs, attached to a body divided into three 
definite portions—a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. 


Some of them—indeed, the majority—undergo during their 
development well-marked transformation or stages: Ist, the egg; 
2nd, the larva or caterpillar; 3rd, the pupa or chrysalis; 4th, the 
adult or imago stage. Moths and butterflies, amongst others, be- 
long to this class. In two or, may be, three periods of their trans- 
formation they take no food, and are fixtures; during these periods 
they do no actual harm. Thus, butterflies and moths are inert in 
the egg as well as the pupa stages; and some of them, such as 
the codlin moth for instance, do not feed. Yet it is during these 
periods of rest and transformation that it is often easier to attack 
them. These insects undergo what is called complete transfor- 
mation, in contradistinection of others which undergo incomplete 
transformation. This second class, such as grasshoppers and locusts, 
have eggs which, in hatching, give forth young insects which only 
differ from the full-grown ones in size and in possessing no wings. 
Instead of changing from larva to pupa, they proceed, by a series 
of moulting or casting off their skin, to the mature stage, and be- 
come imago. During these successive moultings they are known as 


“nymphs.” 

Again, some insects lay eggs, and are “oviparous”; while others 
bring forth their young alive, and are “viviparous.” The majority 
of them, however, proceed from the egg, whether that egy is de- 
posited and cemented to the plant by means of a viscous secretion 
or whether they give birth to young ones. In the latter case the 
female insect generally carries the egg internally until the hatching 
period arrives. 

So much for the life history of insects, considered broadly. A 
number of varieties depart from the pattern laid down in several 


516 


minor details which cannot be touched upon in this paper, although 
a clear understanding of these particularities is of great assistance 
in combating pests. They often constitute the weak point of the 
armour it is meant to penetrate, and serves as a guide in directing 
the attack against them. 


Almost as important as an undertaking of the life history of 
pests is a knowledge of the manner they attack plants when taking 
their food. 


In that respect noxious pests may be considered, irrespective of 
their classification, names, shape, or colour, into two general types: 
biting or chewing insécts and sap-sucking insects. The former are 
often leaf-eaters or bark-nibblers, or, again, wood and fruit borers. 
They are provided with jaws by which they can gnaw the surface 
of the food-plant, and chew it. 


The latter feed on the juices of the inner tissues of the host- 
plant. They are armed with a pointed tube-point beak, which they 
thrust into the tissues of their host-plant, and suck out the sap. 


Of the biting or food-chewing insects, some are :— 


(1) Root-eaters; such as the white worm of the cockchafer; 
the larve of the cicade. 

(2) Others, bark-nibblers; as certain kind of beetles and of 
weevils. 

(3) Some are leaf-eaters; as slugs, caterpillars, saw-flies’ 
larve, the carpenter bee. 

(4) Others injure the bud, the blossom, or the fruit; -as the 
strawberry weevil, the codlin moth. 


Of the sucking insects, in a like manner, some are :— 

(1) Root-sucking insects; as the woolly aphis and phylloxera 
of the vine. 

(2) Others, ordinary bark-sucking insects; as the mealy 
bugs. 

(3) Some leaf and bud or fruit-sucking insects; as the 
rose and the orange aphis, the red and other seales, 
and plant bugs. 


When fighting biting insects, their food plant is best coated 
with substances which will act as internal poisons; whereas, when 
directing the attack against sap-sucking insects, the treatment must 
be such as hurts and kills by direct contact; they are external irri- 
tants, acting from the outside, either closing the breathing pores 
or killing by irritation of the skin. 


Arsenate of Lead is in many respects the most satisfactory 
form of arsenical poison used for combating the first class of in- 
sects named. Take loz. of dry arsenate of lead powder, mix to 
a paste and add to three gallons of water, stirring thoroughly. The 


517 


commercial paste form is more convenient, the quantities used de- 
pending on the particular brand, as these contain more or less 
moisture. Of Swift’s brand, which is generally stocked, 2lbs. are 
mixed to each 50 gallons of water. 


Paris Green is another arsenical poison much used. It is a 
chemical combination of arsenic and copper. When unadulterated 
it contains 55 to 60 per cent. of arsenic. It is almost insoluble in 
water. It is applied either—Ist, dry in a state of impalpable 
powder, mixed in the proportion of loz. of Paris green with 2lbs. 
tlour, slaked lime, road-dust, or ashes; 2nd, or in ‘a liquid mixture 
in the proportion of loz. in 10 gallons of water. It should not be 
used in conjunction with any acid substance which would dissolve 
the arsenic it contains and make it caustic, but, on the contrary, 
it is always a good plan to add to it a handfal at lime, which has 
the property of turning insoluble any trace of caustic arsenic it 
contains. Being a heavy substance, it quickly settles to the bot- 
tom of the pumping tackle, and requires agitating. A little glue or 
flour paste may be added, to cause it to adhere better, especially 
to plants with glossy leaves. 


Hellebore, unlike the arsenites, which are mineral poisons, is 
a vegetable poison, and is less dangerous. It is a powder made of 
the roots of the white hellebore, and kills both by contact and by 
being eaten. Very effective when fresh, it loses its strength by 
standing. In doses loz. to three gallons of water it is much used 
against the pear slug and leaf-eating worms. 


Pyrethrum, or Insectibane, is also a poison, and is effective 
when fresh, but loses strength when exposed to the air. It is made 
from the powdered flowers of plants of the genus Pyrethrum. That 
light-brown powder is dusted over the plants or sprayed, in the pro- 
portion of Pyrethrum one tablespoonful, boiling water two gallons. 
It kills by contact, and should be applied as long as the insects 
persist. Burnt over hot coals in the conservatories and greenhouses, 
it rids plants of aphis and other insect pests. Pyrethum are easily 
cultivated, make pretty borders, and a supply of fresh flowers could, 
without trouble, be raised in every garden. 


Kerosene, in the form of an emulsion with soapsuds, or 
mechanically mixed with water in the form of a misty spray, in the 
proportion of one of kerosene and four of water, will kill nearly all 
insects, and not injure the foliage. 

Resin Compound is known to be very effective against scale 
insects. One of the best formulas is: caustic soda, one pound: 
resin, five pounds; water, 25 gallons. Two ounces of Paris green 
may be added to this when used. 

Sal Ammomac (chloride of ammonia) at the rate of 34 to loz. 
per gallon of water, is a cheap and efficacious spray against red 
seale, 


518 


Sunlight Soap, manufactured by Lever out of coconut oil is 
also a very useful spray for aphides, etc. Dissolve a cake of Sunlight 
soap in 2 gallons of hot water, and spray warm. It can be used 
at any time, even when the blossoms are out. 


Tobacco is one of the safest and most valuable insecticides, 
and may be applied in several ways; either as a tobacco dust against 
slugs and aphis, or as a decoction of three to four gallons of water 
to one pound of tobacco; or in fumes, when burnt in the greenhouse. 


Highly concentrated nicotine extracts are obtainable and are 
convenient, mixing readily with cold water and being easily ap- 
plied. Black Leaf 40 is one of these preparations. Where tobacco 
waste can be obtained cheaply, small quantities of the wash may 
thus be made: tobacco waste, 1lb.; washing soda, 4oz.; water, 3 
gallons; pour the water boiling over the tobacco waste, and let draw 
for twenty-four hours. Soapsuds, if added, sometimes curdles and 
chokes the spray pump valves. 


Carbolic Acid, especially in its crude state, is a valuable 
insecticide as an emulsion made by mixing one quart soft soap, or 
about one pound of hard soap dissolved in two gallons of boiling 
water, and then adding one pound crude ecarbolic acid; and, applied 
with a cloth or a brush, it is efficacious in preventing the attack of 
tree borers. It must not, in that state, be applied to the foliage. 


Bi-Sulphide of Carbon, a very volatile fiuid, the fumes of 
which are destructive to all animal life, is used for killing insects 
underground; this is done when the plant is dormant, by boring a 
hole into the ground and pouring a little carbon bi-sulphide and 
kerosene mixed. It is highly inflammable. 


Coal Tar is excellent to drive insects away, or entrap them. 


Hot Water at a-temperature of about 125 deg. F., is very 
efficacious for killing plant lice. Amongst other substances which 
are used against insects must also be mentioned lime and gas lime, 
quassia chips, kainit, fir-tree oil, sulphate of copper. 


Natural Checks Although economic entomologists have already 
tested many valuable insecticides, and so compounded them that 
they kill insects but leave plants uninjured, yet there is, in keep- 
ing noxious insects in check, even more efficacious allies than the 
spray pump and the insecticidal mixtures. 


Western Australia is particularly indebted to Mr. Geo. Com- 
pere, one time entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, for 
his whole-hearted work in introducing many valuable insect pest 
parasites, collected in the course of missions of discovery in many 
parts of the old and of the new world. Among such introductions 
are ichneumon wasps parasitic of scale pests, viz., Black, Brown, 
Red, Cymbiform, San Jose; internal parasites of the cabbage moth 
and cabbage aphis; several aphis and scale-eating ladybirds, ete. 


519 


All insects, injurious or beneficial, have many natural enemies 
of their own to contend with. Some are of a higher order in the 
scale of animal classification, such as lizards, frogs, and other rep- 


tiles; birds, moles, ete. Others, more numerous, belong to the insect 
world itself. 


Amongst these, some attack noxious insect pests from the out- 
side, and either devour them or suck their vital juices; they are 
called predaceous insects, e.g., ladybirds, spiders, soldier bug, black 
ground beetle. 


Others, called parasitic insects, differ from the predaceous ones, 
in so far as they live inside the bodies of their victims, and ulti- 
mately kill them. Amongst these parasitic insects the more numer- 
ous are ichneumon wasps, which entomologists classify amongst 
the hymenopterous, or four-wing flies. Another class of flies, with 
only two wings, and for that reason known as dipterous insects, 
contribute largely to the ranks of insect parasites. 


But even these parasites are frequently subject to the attack of 
still smaller parasites, which prove as fatal to them as they did to 
their insect hosts. The first of these parasites are, for that reason, 
known as “primary parasites,” to differentiate them from the second, 
called “secondary parasites.” When introducing parasites into an 
orchard or a garden, therefore, it is of the greatest importance that 
we should have a clear idea whether we are introducing an ally 
which will prove beneficial, or whether we will add to the list of 
our pest enemies another insect which will prove mischievous. Such 
a work is better left in the hands of experienced people, and may 
prove a dangerous tool in those of the tyro gardener. 


Besides insect parasites, injurious insects are also attacked by 
even more minuscule foes. These are germs of contagious diseases, 
which at times stop an insect plague with remarkable suddenness. 


These germs are of two orders: some bacterial and inward, 
e.g., green potato and tomato caterpillars; others, superticial, cover 
their victims with silklike threads, and belong to the mould family, 
e.g., the African locust fungus—the housefly fungus. 


GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROPS—THEIR PESTS AND 
REMEDIES. 


In a tabular form, I have grouped those insect and fungoid 
pests which attack our orchard and garden crops. A few words 
concerning the more prominent amongst these pests will follow. 


520 


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525 


REMEDIES FOR GARDEN AND ORCHARD CROP 
PESTS. 


No. 1.—Borpzavux Mrxrure (Full Strength for Winter Spraying). 


Sulphate of Copper (bluestone) ... .. 6lbs. 
Quicklime (freely slaked) ... ais «  4lbs. 
Water tate ‘it site 22gals. 


(a.) Dissolve the bluestone in 10 gallons of water by placing 
it in a sack suspended in the water and moving the sack about, 
when the sulphate will quickly dissolve. (b.) Make a whitewash 
with the lime, strain to separate the grit, and bring the milk of lime 
to 10 gallons. Mix a and b. and make up to 22 gallons. Use only 
wooden or earthenware vessels, When the foliage is out, use the 
half-strength mixture by diluting in double the volume of water. 
To determine if the mixture is safe to use on tender foliage, insert 
a new nail or the blade of a penknife for at least half a minute ; if 
copper is deposited on the steel, lime must be added. 


Another test is the Ferrocyanide Test :—Add a few drops of 
a strong solution of yellow prussiate of Potash. If lime is lacking, 
and if there is an excess of sulphate of copper the mixture will turn 
black, but it will show no cuange of colour if the quantity of lime 
is sufficient. 


Sulphate of Copper dissolving 
in a tub of water. 


No. 2. 


The same with a small quantity of molasses added. 


No. 3. 


The same as Nos. ! or 2, with 44 gallons water. Half strength 
for tender foliage. 


526 


No. 4.—BureGunpy MIxTuRE. 


Sulphate of Copper .. 4Ibs. 
Carbonate of Soda (Washing Soda) ..  5lbs. 
Water 6s .. 22gals. 


(a.) Dissolve Bieene. as in Ramdcanse Mixture. 

(b.) Dissolve the carbonate of soda ; mixing the two solutions 
gradually, stirring the while. Make up the quantity with water. 
A gelatinous hydrocarbonate of copper is formed. In W.A. it is 
easier prepared than Bordeaux Mixture, good lime free of grit 
being scarce. Adheres better to foliage than does Bordeaux 
mixture, its only drawback is being a little more expensive. The 
precipitate, which is bluish green, remains longer in suspension in 
the liquid than does Bordeaux Mixture. Molasses, $lb. to the quan- 
tity above added a few hours before using, makes it more adhesive ; 
sucrate as well as hydrocarbonate of copper being formed which 
is dark red, very light and very adhesive. For summer formula 
use 4: 5:44. Do not add Paris Green to this as the soda dissolves 
the arsenate and would cause leaf burn. 

The addition of Paris Green or of arsenate of lead 2o0zs. to 
every 22 gallons of the spray will get at nibbling insects as well. 

These two sprays should only be mixed together when ready 
for use, as they deteriorate in keeping and become less adhesive. 


No. 5.—SvuLpHATE or Tron Swas. 


Sulphate of Iron (Copperas) soe ... 25lbs. 
Sulphuric Acid Sas adr isis .. Tbs. 
Warm Water oa ti ah -» 10gal. 


Pour the sulphuric acid over the copperas, and then add the 
water. No metallic vessel should be used ; an open barrel treated 
inside and out with paraffin wax or tar is the best. Apply with a 
swab made of binder twine or of woollen rag, no metal to be used. 
After pruning, just before the buds open, the copperas is not in- 
dispensable. A 10 to 12 per cent. solution of sulphuric acid (six 
to seven quarts of acid in 25 gallons water) is at times used as a 
substitute. The acid solution may also be applied as a spray from 
a pump fixed on a barrel drawn on a sledge or on a spring cart. 
The pump and nozzle should be thoroughly washed, every day, im- 
mediately the spraying is stopped. It is a good plan to have the 
pump annealed with lead or lead galvanised. 


No, 6.—Lime, SunpHUR, AND Sat. 
(A winter spray for deciduous trees only.) 


Quicklime ... sig ae sine .. 30Ibs. 
Sulphur aes gg sae tae «. 20Ibs. 
Salt were ate sae ans .. 10lbs. 

Water sin <a ... 60gals. 


Reduce the sulphur to a ee or —e add } the quick-lime and 
boil in five gallons of water, then add } lime ; again boil, and so on, 


527 


till the sulphur is quite dissolved. The boiling will take an hour 
or so and the liquid will turn amber colour. Then add the salt 
' previously dissolved in } the water and boil half an hour longer. 
Add enough water to make 60 gallons, stirring all the time, Strain 
through a cheese-cloth sack. Use coarse nozzle, and be careful of 
hands. An iron tank is used, and not a copper boiler. A steam 


jet can be used instead of boiling over fire, and in that case a wooden 
tub will do. " 


This formula gives good results against San Jose scale, 
Excess of lime is advisable, as otherwise, although equal proportions 
of lime and of sulphur combine entirely, the liquid is very soluble 
and is readily washed by drenching rain. Besides, a lime crust 
helps in preventing young scales escaping. 


No. 7.—Topacco DEcoction. 


Home Grown Tobacco, ose and Stem or 


Tobacco Waste Ub. 
Water ee lus so ue .. 38 to 4 gals. 
Soft Soap... ee nit ots we Fb. 


The tobacco is placed in a bag, and placed under boiling water 
with the soap added and boiled for an hour or soaked for several 
days. Lift the sack, drain. If large quantities are made, add 
sufficient water to the strong decoction. Pack the residual tobacco 
round the base of the tree to destroy any aphides on the roots. 


Concentrated nicotine solutions are sold in commerce under 
the name Black Leaf No. 40, to which cold water is added as 
directed. 


Tobacco Dust and Lime is very useful against slugs and snails, 
cabbage moth, etc. Mix in the proportion of 1 to 4 and dust the 
mixture over the plants early in the morning when the dew is on 
the leaves. One kerosene tin full of the mixture will do 400 cabbage 
plants. 


No. 8.—Evucatyrtus Drcocrtion. 


Some people object to poisonous mineral solutions to trees 
or vines. 


Decoctions of Eucalyptus, Blue Gum leaves bruised when 
freshly gathered, are soaked in tepid water, llb. to 1 gallon, then 
sprayed on the tree, vine or vegetable that bugs have taken pos- 
session of. The vine hopper, the stink-bvg on pumpkin and melon 
vines, the spotted diabrotica, the cut worm and all that tribe and 
ilk will abandon any foliage where the spray is used ; it is sticky 
stuff, and adheres quickly. 


528 


No. 9.—SunpHuR AND Lime Paint. 


Boil for half an hour— 


Sulphur a ie a bee ves IDs 
Quicklime ... aid si ais wae, “2b, 
Water - see a6 3 ss .. gals. 


and thicken to consistency of paint, with fine clay or with flour, 
and brush over stems and limbs after pruning, will keep rabbits and 
other rodents away. 


No. 10.—IXEROSENE EnruLstIon. 


Kerosene... 2g si de .. 2gals. 
Soap ... es ae eet ae w. $b. 


Boil the soap in one gallon of water. When boiling, remove 
to another vessel, add the kerosene and churn violently for 10 
minutes, or pour with a fall from one bucket into another until the 
whole forms a creamy mass which thickens on cooling. Will keep. 
When used, to one part of the emulsion add eight to ten parts of 
water, according to season. The time required to effect a complete 
emulsion will depend on the violence of the churning and the tem- 
perature of the mixture. 

The addition of a little naphthaline dissolved in the kerosene 
is also recommended. 

N.B.—Paris Green or arsenate of lead loz. to every 12 to 15 
gallons of the emulsion will make this spray effective against suck- 
ing as well as against nibbling insect pests. 


No. 1].—Sunnicutr Soar. 


One cake of Sunlight Soap dissolved in 1 to 2 gallons of 
boiling water. Use hot—will destroy aphides and such like 
insects. Add Paris Green or arsenate of lead loz. to every 10 
gallons if nibbling insects also are present. 


No. 12.—ReEp Or Emutsion. 


Follow directions printed on tin, viz., 1 in 40 to 1 in 50. Add 
a little arsenical compound if necessary to get at nibbling insects, 


No. 13.—ARSENICAL SPRAYS. 


Paris Green ... fas stad we vs 402. 
Water “8 eg Bee —_ .. 50gals, 


or loz. to 12 gallons, The addition of a little lime will neutralise 
the caustic property of the arsenic. A little glue or flour will en- 
sure its adhesion to the leaves. To mix well, first make into a thin 
paste with a little water. Apply with a fine nozzle. 


529 


Arsenate of Lead is used as a substitute. For first spraying 
for codlin moth larvae and leaf-eating insects 24lb. of arsenate of 
lead to 50 gallons of water; for subsequent sprayings, 14lbs. 
arsenate of lead to 50 gallons of water. 


No. 14.—Resin anp Sopa Wasu 


Resin (pounded) ... aise iol ..  5lbs. 

Caustic Soda (‘10 per cent.) ats wos, ‘TIDs 
or, 

Washing Soda sa a6 se ... 3ibs. 

Fish Oil... et bi ‘ine swe. pt. 

Water, to make... ae mee -. 25gals. 


Boil ingredients, with enough water to cover, for 1 to 2 hours, 
adding water slowly if there is a tendency to boil over. The com- 
pound will assume the colour of black coffee. Ascertain that 
mixture will assimilate with water by occasionally pouring a small 
quantity of mixture into water. If not boiled sufficiently will 
form a ropy mass in bottom of vessel. Dilute with warm water, 
stirring all the time to one-third, the first bulk (8 gallons), making 
a stock mixture to be diluted to the full amount when used. This 
mixture can be used twice or three times as strong on deciduous 
trees when dormant. 


No. 15.--Inon SuLpuipe Spray. 


(For Powdery Mildew of Apple Trees.) 


Place 25 gallons of cold water in a barrel and immerse in this 
6lbs. of sulphate of iron. When this has completely dissolved, 
add gradually, stirring all the time, 12 pints of commercial lime- 
sulphur, 32° Baume. 

The addition of the lime-sulphur will produce a bulky black 
precipitate which, in a few minutes, will begin to settle. To ascer- 
tain if sufficient lime-sulphur has been added, carefully dip out 
with a clean glass a little of the top liquid after settling has been 
taking place for 5 to 10 minutes. If this liquid is clear, showing 
no yellow colour, add a little more lime-sulphur to the stock in 
the barrel, stir well, and after a few minutes settling, again test 
as before by removing some for examination in a clean glass. This 
operation must be repeated until the liquid dipped off with the 
glass shows a pale yellowish tint. When this occurs, no more 
lime-sulphur is to be added, and the mixture in the barrel must 
be allowed to stand until the iron sulphide has completely settled, 
which will take about eight hours. Then the liquid, on top of the 
black precipitate at the bottom of the barrel, must be syphoned 
off and thrown away, for it is useless, and sufficient water added 
to bring the mixture in the barrel to 25 gallons. 


530 


The above is a stock solution and must be broken down to 1 
in 10 before using. 

The first application should be made when the blossom buds 
are showing pink, but while the petals are still folded quite tightly, 
and a second application after the blossoms have fallen and the 
fruit has formed. 


No. 16.—Batr. 


Bran ... wae oe ade ies .. 0lbs. 
Paris Green ... ‘iat ae tee .. 402. 
Molasses... sine oe aa .. lbs. 


Worked with water to the consistency of stiff dough into balls, 
and laid at the foot of the plants for cut worms, grasshoppers, 
snails and slugs. 


Fresh leaves of vegetables, sprinkled with Paris Green and 
water, laid about, also make a good bait. 


No. 17.—CarsBon BI-SULPHIDE. 


Apply with Vermorel’s Injector ; dose, 10 to 20 grammes to 
the square yard, or close up to where white ants or phylloxera are. 


Bi-sulphide of Carbon ui zed «. 1 part. 
Kerosene is si . 1 to 2 parts. 
No. 18.—Hypro-cyanic Gas. 


For every 100 cubic feet of space to be fumigated— 


Potassium Cyanide, 98 per cent. we Lhoz. 
Sulphuric Acid dae ose ie «+ 24ozs. 
Water wl re bs es -. Boz. 


To generate the gas pour the acid slowly into the water in a 
deep cup or earthenware vessel, add the cyanide to it, and retire 
quickly, taking care not to inhale the fumes, which are highly 
poisonous. Fumigate 45 minutes to onehour. This is the stronger 
winter treatment for deciduous trees when the leaves are off. For 
summer treatment and for evergreens use half the quantity of 
chemicals. Cyanide of Potassium is a deadly poison. 


No. 19.—Tar Water. 


Boiling Water oo a fe .. 2gals. 
Coal Tar... oa ae oe s» Lb. 


Add tar, drop by drop, to boiling water, and stir violently. 
If the tar is added in bulk it will not mix. When dissolved, make up 
to 100 gallons with water. Spray under as well as upper surface 
of leaves. 


531 


No. 20.—WHaLE Orn Soap. 


One pound to two to four gallons water for scale insects ; lb. 
to four to six gallons for mealy bugs, aphides, red spider, etc. 
Good’s No. 3 potash soap, one of the best, made of fish oil, and not 
more than 25 to 28 per cent. water. 


No. 21.—Poxuuarp Barr. 


(Against Fruit Fly.) 


Pollard a sie das es ee Ibs 
Molasses wiv ae say wee os loz 
Arsenate of Lead ... aaa ane «. lhoz. 
Powdered Borax... or ee ... 20Z8. 
Water tae sed nee aa ... gall. 


Mix and stir thoroughly and place in shallow tins or saucers 
hung on the trees. The borax checks the rapid fermentation of 
the paste when it becomes useless and must be renewed. Pollard, 
Mr. J. L. Newman has found attracts the fruit fly. 


No. 22.—Mo.assEs Bart. 
(Against Fruit Fly.) 


Also found very efficaceous by Mr. J. L. Newman, Entomologist 
of the Agricultural Department. 


Arsenate of Lead ... ae a6 --. 5028. 
Molasses... aos ans sie . 4Ibs, 
Fruit Syrup ae de ee .. gall. 
Water i aa ee aa .» 8galls. 


For making the fruit syrup, about 4lbs. of ripe fruit, peaches 
or oranges preferable—windfalls or reject fruit will do—are crushed, 
boiled for one hour in one gallon of water. Strain, add the Molasses 
dissolved in one gallon of warm water ; reduce to 5o0z. of powdered 
arsenate of lead or its equivalent: 4lb. of the paste to the con- 
sistency of milk, mix the ingredients and bring up the volume of 
the bait to four gallons. Stir when using as a spray on a few 
branches, preferably on the sunny side of the tree. Start the 
spraying five or six weeks before the fruit ripens and renew the 
application every week. Avoid spraying too often in one place— 
sugar instead of molasses attracts bees. Mix this bait fresh, or 
it will ferment. 


SPRAYING Pumps. 


Until the mildew appeared in the European vineyards, the 
only spraying pumps known were somewhat after the fashion of 
those toy scent-atomizers used by hairdressers, and were almost 
entirely used in conservatories, for spraying rare and exotic plants. 


532 


Since then, however, the necessity of dressing vines with mixtures 
containing copper salts, and other insecticides, has led to the more 
general use of specially designed pumps that distribute the liquid 
with greater rapidity and under the form of minute globules in a 
fine spray. 


oSaSm: 


(EE. 


Barrow Spray Pump. 


Pumps should be chosen with reference to the amount of work 
to be done. Syringes are hardly suited for extensive out-of-door 
spraying. Bucket Pumps are very serviceable in small gardens. 
Knapsack Pumps are suitable for orchards of young trees, and for 
vineyards set too close to admit of the use of wheeled machines. 
Barrel Pumps on a sledge or a cart in large gardens and com- 
mercial orchards and vineyards. Power Pumps worked by petrol 
engines and carried on wheels offer the advantage of rapidity of 
work, higher pressure and more thorough spraying with multiple 
delivery hose and nozzles. Price and weight must be considered. 


Garden Syringe—the simplest Spray Pump. 


A cheap pump, that will distribute clogging and _ corrosive 
mixtures all tie time, and be simple enough to stand the rough 
using of farm and orchard hands, who know little more about 
spraying than to work the pump handle, is not very easy to get. 
All parts of component spray pumps must be of the very best and 
suitable description—hose, nozzle, means of controlling the liquid 
supply from pumps, elevating the nozzle, ete. 


533 


Iron is unfit material for spraying pumps, sulphate of copper 
destroying the nice adjustment of the working parts. So far, brass 
has given most satisfaction, and all working parts and all valves in 
contact with the spraying material should be of that or other non- 
corrosive material. Soft brass, composed of copper and zinc, 
should be avoided, as it is corroded by ammonia. Leather valves 
soon become hard and unyielding. All parts should be strong and 
easily reached for repairs, replacement, or cleaning. 

As nearly as possible, all power expended should be applied 
in forcing the material, in hand work especially. Some pumps, 
intended to be mounted on a barrel, are so constructed as to make 
the whole apparatus top-heavy and liable to accidents. It often 
happens that too much suction is also required to bring the liquid 
into the cylinder, whereas nearly all the work of the piston ought 
to be expended in forcing it. The cylinder is best at the bottom of 


Nixon’s Climax Pump on Barrel and on Tripod. 


the barrel, immersed in the liquid, where there is little or no suction 
until the barrel is nearly empty, the liquid itself doing the office of 
packing, instead of rubber, candle-wicking, leather, etc. 

The automatic stirring apparatus should be so perfect that the 
last spray that leaves the nozzle is as strong and no stronger than 
the first. Paddles worked by means of the handles, causmg up 
and down currents, involves less loss of power than when a portion 
of the liquid returns from the pump to the barrel. 

Keep trash, leaves, and sticks out of the barrel by means of a 
ud, The supply pipe leading from the pump should be provided 
vith a quick-acting valve, so as not to cause loss of spray when 


534 


not in use, and for facilitating the removal of any clogging of 
nozzles set without loss of time, waste of material, and deluging the 
workmen, 

The hose should be strong, }-inch inside, three or four ply and 
of good quality. A smaller diameter would cause too much friction 
a larger one would make the hose very heavy when full of material. 
With Power sprayers have plenty of length of hose, about 30 feet. 
The hose should be well washed, especially after using oil sprays. 
It is a source of annoyance that universal gauge threads for the 
interchanze of fittings are not used by all makers, as in the case 
of microscopes. 


Power Sprayer. 


The selection of Nozzles depend on the pressure exerted by the 
pump. The Vermorel type of nozzle used in connection with the 
knapsack which displays a pressure of 50 to 75lbs. to the square 

_inch, is very satisfactory. They deliver the spray in the form of a 
cone and give a fine spray even with a low pressure. 

In general the higher the pressure the more efficient the spray- 
ing that may be done with any form of nozzle. 

The Bordeaux type of nozzJes which give a fan-shaped spray, 
are better suited for Power Pumps working under a pressure of 
100lbs. to the square inch and over. 

Dusr SPRAYERS. 

Mechanical ingenuity has devised appliances for the even 
distribution of impalpable powders as well as for the spraying of 
liquids ; amongst these is the machine here illustrated. 


535 


A strong blast of air is created by moving the lever which 
carries the powder through a piece of indiarubber piping, termin- 
ated by a tin tube, 3ft. in length or more, and having at its end a 
flattened circular piece 
of tin. The blast, after 
impact on the piece of 
tin, spreads out in a 
fan-like shape, and dis- 
tributes the sulphur or 
powder evenly in the 
form of a cloud. The 
machine, which once 
cost 30 francs in France, 
is easily kept in working 
order, all that is re- 
quired is, besides 
emptying the reservoir 
after using, an occa- 
sional oiling of such , 
parts of the lever where 
friction occurs. 

This sulphurer dis- 


i 
f 


| 2 
hh i 


(ee Mh 


as 


| 


tributes fungicide or ae 
insecticide powders i i E ‘| \ 
more evenly and in a me sn Ne 


finer state than the The ‘ Coronette”’ 


portable Sprayer. 
ordinary bellows. 


To produce a similar effect, less powder is distributed over a 
given area, thus effecting a great economy. 


Sulphur Bellows, 


536 


The powder is applied with more force, and has a better chance 
of adhering to all the leaves, while the working is easier than in 


the case of ordinary bellows. 


Simpler and cheaper powder casters are also illustrated, and 
consist in the old fashioned but efficacious sulphur bellows, the 
construction of which is shown in the foregoing diagrams. 

Vermorel’s Injector for Carbon Bi-sulphide.—Among the numer- 
ous insecticides proposed and experimented upon for destroying 


Vermoral’s Injector. 


the phylloxera and other ground 
pests, carbon bi-sulphide has been 
found one of the most reliable as 
well as efficacious. It is a colour- 
less liquid, heavier than water 
(1-271 to 15 deg. C.), very volatile 
(boils at 48 deg. C = 102 deg. F.). 
and catches fire very rapidly. 
Workmen using it should, for this 
reason, carefully refrain from smok- 
ing, and avoid carrying matches. 

Considerable difficulty was ex- 
perienced at the beginning in the 
application of the insecticide round 
the roots, and in properly regu- 
lating its dose, until specially 
designed forcing pumps came into 
use, one of the best of which is here 
shown. 

The forcing-pump considered, 
so far, the best for the purpose of 
injecting the insecticide liquid into 
the soil is the one here described. 
and is manufactured by Vermorel. 
Its price in France was about 55 
franes. 

It consists of a copper reser- 
voir, R, holding about a quart of the 
liquid, which is introduced through 
the opening, F, closed by means of a 
screw plug. The piston Y Y, sur- 
mounted by the knob, N, works in 
the pump, A, and is fitted at its 
extremity with a cup-shaped leather 
cap, B. A spring, M, drives the 
piston upwards each time it has 
been pressed down in injecting the 
liquid. Underneath the piston, two 


small openings, D, place the reservoir in communication with 
the chamber, T, On pressing the piston down, the bi-sulphide 


537 


of carbon is driven into the tube, E, and by pushing a plug, 
J, fills up the chamber, G, whence it is forced out of the steel 
needle, I, through the opening K, into the soil. 

In order to regulate the dose of bi-sulphide of carbon at each 
injection, one or more washers, Z, are strung on the piston rod. 
The pump is so graduated, that each time the pis on is pressed 
down, a dose of 10 grammes (154 grains or 40z.) is injected into 
the ground. In other words, supposing one injection is made in * 
every square yard: 4,840 square yards multiplied by 10 grammes 
equals 48-4 kilogrammes, or 95-5lbs., are injected per acre. With 
one washer or ring added, 9 grammes are injected, or jy less ; 
with two rings 8 grammes only are injected ; and so on, each ad- 
ditional ring added decreasing the dose by 75. 

The apparatus having received a charge of bi-sulphide of 
carbon, is easily thrust into the ground, unless it gets too dry, 
by pressing on the handles, 8, and on the spur P. The knob, N, 
is then pressed down, and a dose of the liquid injected into 
the ground. On removing the needle the operator stops the hole 
left in the soil with his heel, and the volatile insecticide, being 
thus imprisoned in the soil, diffuses through it, penetrates every 
cleft and rent, and reaches the enemy, which it soon suffocates 
The eggs, however, are not destroyed, and a fresh application 
after hatching, and within a fortnight, has to be made to entire y 
rid the ground of the pest. 


According to the degree of intensity of the invasion, one ‘or 
two injections per square yard are made, or, in other words, the 
knob of the piston is pressed down two or three times. 

Between the lines the steel needle is thrust in full length into 
the ground, viz., 8 to 10 inches, but nearer to the stocks half that 
depth is sufficient. 

Bi-sulphide of carbon is used with best advantage in porous 
soils, whilst on heavy clays, or in shallow soils with a clay subsoil, 
at a depth of 10 or 12 inches, its application is not attended with 
the best results, as the insecticide cannot permeate through the 
mass of the ground, and by being brought into direct contact with 
the roots proves injurious to the plant. 


How AND WHEN TO SprRAY. 


Credit is given for much of the information contained in this 
chapter to the contributions of Dr. N. A. Cobb, once Pathologist of 
the Department of Agriculture, Sydney, and published in the 
Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 

Mature plants wear an armour of dead cells. Those repre- 
sent the outside skin or cuticle which lines the upper and under 
surface of the leaves, and afford protection to the more tender cells 
which underlie them. 


538 


When observed under a microscope they are not unlike a thin 
parchment or small scales of bark. Owing to their presence, 
wind, rain, sun, or dust have no action on the more delicate In- 
ternal living cells, which would soon be destroyed by handling 
or exposure were it not for this natural jacket which covers them. 

This jacket or covering is not, however, absolutely continuous, 
and small microscopic breathing-pores or stomata occur at inter- 
vals on the surface. 

Let us suppose such a leaf to be attacked by a fungus para- 
site. If thin shavings of such a diseased leaf were cut by means 
of a specially made microscopic razor called a “‘ microtome,” and 
one of these thin slices was put under a microscope, we would see 
a section of the leaf showing on the outer edges one row of scales 
of the cuticle, disposed somewhat like bricks or tiles, and in the 
centre a mass of more tender living tissues, disposed somewhat like 
a close-grained sponge, and through which the sap circulates. 

Now in the case of a diseased leaf, we see permeating the 
living tissue of meshwork of filaments which are the roots of the 
fungus, and are called mycelial threads, then, emerging through 
the breathing pores of the plant, slender thread-like stems showing 
on the surface of the leaf, and on each of these thread-like stems 
little branches carrying small sacks full of spores or of seeds of the 
fungus. 

Thus we see that a parasitic fungus robs the plant, throu): 
its mycelial threads, of the sap and the food which is pumped up 
by the plant from its roots to the extremity of its branches for the 
nourishment of its foliage and its fruit. In order to understand 
the usefulness of spraying with fungicides, we must not lose sight 
of these facts. The internal cells of the leaf are so delicate that 
the application to them of a poisonous substance, even though in a 
very diluted form, would prove injurious. But those internal cells 
are covered over and protected by the outside layer of thick-walled 
impermeable cells just mentioned, which would be able to bear the 
effect of the poison in a stronger form. Of course, it will be under- 
stood that a very strong poison would affect these outside cells 
also, but there is a certain strength of the poison, slightly stronger 
than would be injurious to delicate cells, than can be applied to 
them with impunity. It so happens that the cells of fungi are as a 
rule very delicate, and highly susceptible to the destructive in- 
fluence of poisons in, solution ; and, often, such solution as would 
not be injurious to the outside thick-walled cells of leaves are quite 
fatal to fungus cells. 

Tender leaves are, as a rule, for reasons detailed in the fore- 
going paragraph, less resistant than older leaves of the same plants ; 
and, again, some sort of trees, such as the peach or the nectarine, 
having a thinner and more delicate cuticle titan the apple or the 
pear, are sometimes injured by the application of poiscnous liquids 
that would not hurt the more resistant plants. 


539 


Again, the facts brought to light here explain why, in a great 
many cases, several sprayings are necessary for eradicating disease. 
The application of a remedy will often only destroy that part of the 
fungus parasite which shows outside, but fresh shoots will soon be 
pushed out by the mycelial threads which permeate the more 
delicate internal tissues of the leaf, and soon carry a fresh crop of 
spores or fungus seeds, unless by timely treatment the parasite is 
again destroyed. 


Many fruit-growers and farmer3, however, who have no con- 
ception of these facts, are not satisfied unless a remedy costing 
next to nothing is offered to them, which will in one application 
destroy the enemy for ever. The mode of attack of the parasite, 
explained above, will explain how unreasonable such an expecta- 
tion is ; as a remedy that would effect this end at one stroke would 
probably, at the same time, destroy the tissues of the leaves. 


“The application of fungicides does not effect a cure,” says 
Dr. Cobb, “it only prevents the fungus from fruiting and germin- 
ating. That part of the fungus inside the leaf can be killed only 
by killing the leaf itself.” Hence the advisability of repeated 
sprayings which weaken the fungus and also protect the plant 
for a time and until a change in the climatic conditions make a 
fresh outbreak of the fungus pest less likely. 


Many fungicides and insecticides either consist of particles of 
solid matter in the form of powder as sulphur, or in suspension in 
water as Paris green, or partly in suspension and partly in solu- 
tion as carbonate of copper in Bordeaux mixture. After a plant 
has been sprayed with one of these substances, therefore, it may be 
considered as being covered with an armour of solid poisonous sub- 
stance, which will destroy by contact any fungus shoot that shows 
on the leaf, or prevents its germination. 


All armours, however, have their weak points, and the armour 
in which we thus dress our plants is no exception. Let us examine, 
says Dr. Cobb, into the weak points of our system of spraying, and 
see whether they are capable of being remedied. It requires no very 
lengthened experience in spraying to learn that different crops 
receive a spray in very different ways. The leaves of some crops 
may wet easily, but to one crop of this sort there are many that do 
not do so. Often the spray will be seen to collect immediately in 
drops, in spite of its fineness when applied. This is due to the 
waxy covering with which many kinds of leaves and fruits are 
furnished. When the microscopic liquid particles, of which the 
fungicide is composed, come into contact with the bloom of the 
leaf, they refuse to adhere if the spraying is carried on too long, 
or they adhere so slightly that the attraction which adjacent par- 
ticles have for each other comes into play, and causes them to 
roll up into drops of visible size (Fig. B,) 


f 


540 


The illustration shows two patches of wheat-leaves sprayed 
with the fungicide known as ammonia-carbonate of copper—that 
is, carbonate of copper dissolved in dilute ammonia. Afer a plant- 
has been sprayed with this solution, the diluted ammonia evapor 
ates and leaves the carbonate of copper in the shape of an exceed- 
ingly fine powder. Consequently, when we examine the surface 
of the sprayed plant with the microscope, we instantly notice this 
deposit distributed in patches, as shown in the adjacent illustration, 
Each patch of deposit is a dried-up droplet of the spray ; about 
twenty such patches are shown in one illustration. Between the 
patches is seen that part of the wheat-leaf which was not hit by 
the spray. As long as the patches of poison remain they consti- 
tute a protection against the infection by means of spores, which 
may fall upon a sprayed leaf. A spore falling upon the poison will 
be killed as soon as it attempts to germinate. Even should it fall 
upon a portion of the leaf where there is no poison, growth may 
yet be prevented, as will be readily understood by examining the 
illustration, where the germination of spores c, d, e, and / has been 
checked, because their sprouts have run against the poison 


In the above ilustration a careful drawing is given of two 
different sprayings. In one case the leaf was sprayed for nine 
consecutive seconds ; in the other case, also for nine seconds, but at 
three different times of three seconds each, the leaf having dried 
between times. The results are very different. Where the spray 
was applied nine seconds continuously the drops have melted into 
one another, and left wide unprotected blanks amongst them (B). 
It is evident therefore, that Fig. A represents a more efficient method 
of spraying than B, not because more poison has been applied, 
but because it is in a finer state of sub-division. It will be seen at 
once that if the spores a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h had fallen on A instead 
of B their chance of growing would have been much diminished. 


541 


As it was, all but two spores were killed. These two (a and b), 
having alighted in the midst of large areas free from poison, were 
able. to grow to their full extent. 


Facts WORTH KNOWING. 


The moral of this teaching, is therefore, never spray until the 
drops of the poisonous liquid drip down frcm the foliage; but 
spray rapidly, coming back on your steps spraying again rapidly, 
and again once more, allowing time for the liquid to evaporate in 
the interval. No more liquid will be used in spraying the area of 
ground to be protected by this method, whilst the time employed in 
spraying will be practica‘ly the same in each case, while the result 
will be widely different. 

Two or three sprayings, at a fortnight’s interval, are better than 
only one, and one spraying better than none. Spraying early in the 
season is much more efficacious than later. 

Trees will sometimes be injured by being sprayed on a very 
hot and windy day ; the best time to spray is either on a dull day, 
early in the morning, or, better still, towards the evening. If 
necessary, spray at any time except at blossoming time, and within 
three or four weeks of the fruit being sufficiently ripe for gathering. 

Arsenical and copper mixtures are poisonous, and operators 
should therefore be particularly careful that the spray does not 
accidentally get carried over to themselves or their assistants. 
Other sprays are not poisonous, but offensive ; and those using them 
will instinctively keep clear of them. 

Whenever the spray pump has been used, and before it is put 
away for use next day or on a future occasion, it should be emptied, 
and scrupulously cleaned by running fresh water through it. The 
suction and delivery hose are unscrewed and drained. After dry- 
ing the pump as far'as possible, it should be carefully oiled, with 
neatsfoot oil preferably ; kerosene oil is not so good ; while vegetable 
oil is least to be recommended. A spray pump or a sulphurer well 
looked after will last for many years, and do the work most effi- 
ciently. 

Never keep copper mixtures and solution standing in iron tanks, 
as it corrodes the iron, but use copper or wooden vessels. 

Kerosene, carbon bi-sulphide, and mineral oils will perish india- 
rubber. 

Keep the Paris green locked up, as it is poisonous ; the same 
caution will apply to the other chemicals, generally speaking. 

Be ready and begin early. 


PLANT FUMIGATION. 


The fumigation of trees by means of hydrocyanic acid gas was 
more popular a few years ago. Its operation requires some skill 
and experience as the gas is one of a highly dangerous character. 
Tts destroys friends and foes alike, and on that score does as much 


542 


harm as good—unless periodically repeated. Fumigation by 
means of hydrocyanic acid gas was much boomed in America some 
years ago but is now less frequently resorted to. 


Sketches of Bell Tents. 


The success of the operation and its safety to the operators 
depend on the methods in which this fumigation is carried out. 


543 


As very little is known about these methods by fruit growers, a few 
directions will prove useful, together with more detailed information 


regarding the process of fumigation and the making and handling 
of the gas-tight tents. 


WHAT AND WHEN TO FUMIGATE. 


Fumigation by means of hydrocyanic or prussic acid gas is 
successfully used in the treatment of insect pests ; it has little or no 
effect on blights of fungoid origin. Insects which can be more 
readily attacked are scales, red spider, miles, and aplides. Trees 
and plants can be fumigated at any season of the year. In the 
winter time deciduous trees can, without injury, be fumigated 
at any time of the day ; they can also, when dormant, stand heavier 
doses of gas, as well as a longer period under the tent. Citrus trees 
require more careful treatment, and should only be fumigated on 
dull mornings or afternoons, or in the evening by moonlight. 

In the summer, when the trees are of active growth, they should 
only be fumigated late in the afternoon or at night. 

The above sketches of bell tents Nos. 0, 1, 2, and 3, show dimen- 
sions for cutting widths and tops. One inch is the width allowed 
for allseams. All measurements are given in feet and inches. No. 
0 covers trees 44 feet diameter by 5 feet high ; No. 1 covers trees 
63 feet diameter by 7 feet high ; No. 2 covers trees 8 feet diameter 
by 11 feet high ; No. 3 covers trees 10} feet diameter by 12 feet 
high. This diagram is taken from Mr. A. Benson’s paper in the 
Queensland Agricultural Journal. 


CAUTION TO OPERATORS. 


Those using the process of fumigation for the treatment of scaly 
trees should bear in mind that they are handling, probably, the most 
insiduous and deadly of poisons. 

The gas inhaled in a close chamber produces sudden death ; 
when largely diluted with air it is harmless. Thousands of thou- 
sands of trees are now-a-days fumigated every year, and accidents 
are rare. With proper precautions there is no danger whatever. 

Unless handling small tents covering trees 5ft. or 6ft. high, 
not less than two men should operate. 

Not only is the hydrocyanic acid gas highly poisonous, but the 
ingredients or chemicals used in its production are also dangerous 
poisons. These ingredients are: 1° potassium-cyanide, of which a 
piece of the size of a grain of wheat would prove fatal to an adult 
or an animal ; 2° sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol, which is eminently 
corrosive, and every precaution should be taken to guard against 
its spurting on the face, hands, or clothes. 

When operating, hold your breath when dropping the cyanide 
into the acid, and also when removing the tent and uncovering the 
tree. See that the tents are always gas tight. Should the acid 
accidentally spurt on your hands or face, wash at once in water. 


544 


Do not handle a clean tree after having examined a diseased 
one, without previously washing your hands, as the eggs and larve 
of some of the scales are so small that they are easily carried from 
one tree to another by the growers themselves, or their men. Ihave 
“often seen people crush scale insects on branches of trees, between 
their fingers, and then go to the adjoining tree and carelessly handle 
it and examine it for scale. Trees infested with the San Jose and 
the more dangerous sorts of scales should not be handled unless it 
is found necessary to do so. 


FuMIGATING OUTFIT 


consists of gas-tight tents made of light, strong canvas, cut and 
sewn together in a bell shape, and painted with raw linseed oil, 
A little turpentine added to the oil will cause it to dry quicker. 
When painting, spread the tent well by hanging it to the rafters of 
a shed or the branches of a tree, and leave it to dry thus spread out, 
lest the tissue of the canvas should heat and rot. Calico is rather 
a light material for the manufacture of tents ; it wears badly, and 
requires constant patching up. Eight-ounce duck or ordinary blue 
or brown drilling, sewed carefully, are good materials. It is ad- 
visable to have rings at the sides and top of the tent, to ease it over 
trees by means of a light pole with a fork at the end. A light $-inch 
gas piping hoop, rung through rings at the base of the bell-shaped 
tent, is found convenient for covering and uncovering trees, and for 
keeping the tent stretched out. At the base of the tent, and below 
the ring, a gas-tight flange or canvas collar, about a foot wide, is 
provided, and rests on the ground. After the tent has been charged 
this canvas collar is slightly banked up all round with earth, to 
prevent the gas escaping. 


Before fumigating, inspect the tents. No hole, however small, 
should be allowed to go unpatched. 


Trees too large to be covered with a tent may be fumigated 
under a large gas-tight canvas sheet. 


Also provide yourself with : 


Ist. A common earthenware basin, 6 to 9 inches wide, accord- 
ing to size of tent or tree. 2nd. Scales for weighing 
the cyanide of potassium. 3rd. A graduated glass 
for measuring the fluid ounces of sulphuric acid and 
of water. 4th. If a gas-piping ring is not provided 
to keep the tent spread out at the base, have an 18ft. 
light pole, with rope and pulley, to hoist the larger 
tents over the trees. 5th. Sufficient number of loz. 
packets of cyanide of potassium, 98 per cent. purity, 
which must be kept in an air-tight jar. 6th. Sul- 
phuric acid in a bottle with « glass stopper. 7th. 
Water. 


545 


How To REcKON CuBIC Capacity. 


Consider the covered tree as a cylinder. To calculate its 
volume, multiply half the width by itself, then by the height ; 
then multiply by 3, or, to be more accurate, by 33. This is ex- 
pressed by the formula V = 7 R?H, 7 = 3:14; R is the radius of 
the circumference ; H the height. Thus a tree eight feet wide by 
eight high would be 4 x 4 x 8x3 = 384 cubic feet, or say 400 
cubic feet. Cyanide of potassium, 1}0z. per 100 cubic feet, would 
be 6ozs., half as much again, or 9Yozs. of sulphuric acid, with half 
as much again of water as acid, or 13}0zs., making a total of 
28}0zs., or TJozs. of the combined chemicals for every 100 
cubic feet. 


DosEes AND TIME. 


Cyanide of potassium, 98 per cent. purity, loz. per 100 cubic 
feet. 

Sulphuric acid of commerce, 1} fluid oz. per 100 cubic feet. 

Water, 2} fluid oz. per 100 cubic feet. 


Norzt.—If fumigating in the winter for the more resistant 
scales, and particularly San Jose scale, the doses might be increased 
to : Cyanide of potassium, 1} oz. ; sulphuric acid, 2} fluid oz. ; and 
water, 3} fluid oz. per 100 cubic feet. 

The tree having been covered, one operator lifts the bottom of 
the tent : the other, after having poured in the earthenware bowl the 
quantity of water and acid (N.B.—Pour the acid slowly into the 
water to prevent spurting), crawls underneath and places that bowl 
under the tent close to the trunk of the tree, but not touching it. 
Then at arm’s length he breaks the paper cover of the cyanide of 
potassium and drops the number of packets required into the bowl 
holding his breath meanwhile and crawling back ; the tent is then 
let down, earth heaped up on the circular canvas collar, and the tent 
allowed to remain on the tree 45 to 60 minutes. Much of the poor 
work sometimes done is to be attributed to insufficient time. 

N.B.—The mere fact of covering a tree in full growth by means 
of an air-tight tent, for an hour or two, while the sun is up and the 
plant breathing, is enough to choke it and cause it to drop its 
foliage ; therefore, be careful to only fumigate, if in the growing 
months, in the cool of the evening or early in the morning. If the 
tree is dripping wet or is covered with beads of dew injury to the 
foliage might result. 

When the time is over, the operator and his assistant uncover 
the tree by lifting the tent up, holding their breath while so doing, 
when another tree can be covered and treated without pausing: 

Should a battery of half a dozen tents be in use, a considerable 
number of trees can be fumigated at once and without waste of 

e. 
ig Bury the residue left in the bowl after fumigation. 


546 


Nursery Stock anp FUMIGATION. 


Every nurseryman now finds a fumigatorium as necessary a 
part of his equipment as seeds, buds, and grafts. 


The young trees should be subjected to fumigation before being 
distributed far and wide, as hydrocyanic gas is the only satisfactory 
and inexpensive method known at present for the destruction of 
such persistent pests as the San Jose scale, while, when properly 


Fumigation Chamber for Imported Nursery Stock and Fruit—Fremantle. 


547 


handled, it has no injurious effect on the stock. The fumigating 
chambers may be made of any convenient size or material, the 
essential point being that it shall be capable of being closed abso- 
lutely air tight, and provided with a flue-pipe in the roof, which 
can be opened or closed to allow of the escape of the gas after 
fumigation. The flue should be provided with a box containing 
caustic potash or soda to destroy the gas. The door of the chamber 
is provided with a shutter or sliding panel at the lower portion. 

The trees having been placed on the floor of the fumigatorium, 
the cyanide of potassium, water, and sulphuric acid are brought 
together as explained above. At the end of an hour the shutters 
in the flue and in the'door are opened, and the draught produced 
causes the gas to escape. After 10 to 15 minutes the door may be 
opened, but no one should be allowed into the chamber for another 
space of 10 minutes. 

With ordinary care, no accident need be apprehended, 


FUMIGATING GRANARIES, 


The same method of ridding granaries, flour mills, and barns 
of weevils, moths, and other troublesome insect pests, without re- 
moving the grain stored in the buildings, can be carried out wher- 
ever the building can be made gas-tight. If the fumigation is 
done under the conditions already detailed, the seeds will retain 
their vitality almost unimpaired, if dry when subjected to the 
fumes. 


FUNGUS DISEASES. 


APPLES, PEARS, AND QUINCES. 


Brrrer Pir.—Apples apparently sound soon develop, on keep- 
ing, unsightly spots, which make them unmarketable. This is, next 
to black spot or apple scab, the worst 
fungus disease of the apple. 

The disease shows sunken brown 
spots, as if the fruit had been trodden on 
with nailed boots. When the apple is 
cut there are, below the spots, pieces ofe 
brown spongy tissue, bitterish to the 
taste, sometimes extending to the core. 
Dr. Cobb, D. McAlpine, Masset, the 
mycologist at the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
and other vegetable pathologists, have 
seen no evidence that would prove the Bitter Pit. 
disease to be caused by afungus. Some 
authorities say it is probably caused by a micrococcus, but the 
disease is not contagious. There is no effective remedy, except to 
avoid soils liable to this disease in localities where it is trouble- 
some. Nurserymen should be very careful against using scions 
from diseased trees. Cleopatra, Rymer, Esopus, Spitzenberg, and 


548 


Scarlet Nonpariel, amongst the better sorts, are most liable to this 
disease, Among the less affected commercial kinds are Jonathan 
and Yates. McAlpine expresses the opinion that it is caused by 
defective nutrition, and that nitrogenous manures aggravate it, and 
suggests correcting this tendency by a more liberal use of potash 
and of lime, especially gypsum. In Western Australia as well as 
other countries where bitter pit is troublesome, trees badly affected 
in damp localities on the plains hardly ever show the disease on 
well drained soils and on the gravelly slopes of the Darling Ranges. 
Pick and burn all diseased fruit. 

Birrer Rot or Rive Rot (Gleosporium versicolor, Berk).— 
Attacks ripe apples, pears, grapes, tomatoes, and peaches. Appears 
about the time the fruit begins to ripen ; the first symptoms are 
small circular brown spots, which rapidly enlarge and assume 
various shades of brown, in concentric rings. After four or five 
days small postules appear on the brown spots. These burst when 
the spot has become a little larger, and give exit to a light salmon- 
coloured mass composed of the spores of the disease. This goes 
on the diseased spots, throwing up ring after ring of postules until 
the whole apple, within a fortnight, becomes rotten. 

The disease is often noticed in the storeroom ; it does not 
attack all varieties of apples with equal virulence; many of the 
culls in packed fruit are due to this fungus. 

Remedies.—Carefully pick up and destroy every rotten fruit 
in the orchard ; do not throw diseased fruit into the pig-sty, but 
burn it. Prevention is the only practical way of combating this 
disease ; drain the land if necessary, spray in winter with strong 
winter spray. Spray the fruit until late in the season with am- 
monical carbonate of copper, or with potassium sulphide (40z. to 
gallon of water). 

LACK SPOT or Soas (Fusicladium 
dendriticum, Eckl.). 


APPLE OR PEAR BuieHT oR ScaB 
(Fusicladium dendriticum, Eckl.).—A 
common disease in moist climates. 
. “The losses sustained from its attacks 
(says Dr. Cobb) vary from 10 to 90 
per cent. of the crop.”’ For about a 
month after the fruit sets, the scab 
plays great havoc in orchards where 
it is abundant. It is easily recognised, 
Dark velvety green patches turning to 
brown or blackish scab-like spots ap- 
pear on the leaves and fruit, arresting 
growth and causing the parts to be- 
come distorted. The outlines of the 
; spots are rounded at first and become 

Pear Seab (F. pyrinum). more angular as they increase. 


549 


Closely allied to the fungus which causes pear-scab. 
(F. pyrinum),. i 

Some affected trees blossom most profusely, and hardly ever 
set their, fruit, or else, if these set and grow they often split 
and crack. 


Apple Scab (Fusicladium dendriticum, Eckl.) 


Remedies.—Preventive remedies are the best. Destroy affected 
leaves and worthless fruit by fire or otherwise. The disease winters 
partly in fallen diseased leaves where the spores or conidia develop 
into a higher or more complex form of fruit in which the sporidia 
or reproductive bodies are produced within asci and in the spring 
germinate and infect new leaves. Spray affected trees with Bor- 


550 


deaux or Burgundy mixture late in the winter, after pruning. Again, 
at half-strength, while the leaves are appearing and as the blossoms 
bezin to unfold from the buds, and again as the blossoms fall, and 
fourthly, when the fruit is the size of marbles. At that time loz. 
of Paris green in 12 gallons of the Bordeaux mixture will hold the 
codlin moth in check where this troublesome insect has established 
itself. It is important that the early spraying should be made as 
directed. In bad cases an extra spraying is given a few weeks after 
the one given whilst the blossoms are falling. Do not neglect the 
trees during an ‘“‘off’”? year because there is little fruit, the spores 
living and thriving on branches and leaves as well, will cause great 
loss the following season. 


The following illustration tells graphically the result of spray 
ing pear trees to pretect them from scab disease :— 


f 
F 


Pear Trees affected with Scab, Sprayed and Unsprayed (U.S.A. Peur Book). 


551 


Bark Brownina.—G. Massee describes on young apples, 
plums, peaches, and other species of rosaceous plants a bark trouble 
caused by a fungus Hutypella prunastri. The first outward indi- 
cation is a slight browning of the stem bark which soon becomes 
hard, dry, and inseparable from the wood. As time goes the my- 
celium continues to grow inward, killing the cambium or growing 
wood, thus preventing the upward flow of sap. The second season 
the leaf buds either do not expand at all or imperfectly and during 
the summer the branches die through a lack of food. Minute trans- 
verse cracks are then seen on the dead bark ; these contain small 
clusters of the fruiting organs of the fungus ; there is no other out- 
ward appearance and the tree is often believed to have been killed 
by drought or some attack on the roots. 

Infection takes place through punctures caused by insects, 
and through the cut ends of twigs. The spores mature in the 
Spring and it is recommended not to prune during that time. In 
the case of infected trees the wounds made by pruning should be 
coated with tar or some other substance. Insects, especially 
aphides should be held in check. See “‘Canker’’ below—a some- 
what similar trouble. 


Brown Ror or Fruit (Monilia fructigena, Pers.).—Attacks 
apples, plums, cherries, peaches, almonds, and other kinds of 
orchard fruit. It is caused by a fungus which produces its spores 
in chains, and hence called Monilia fructigena. 

Although more frequently observed on the fruit. it occurs also 
on the young shoots, leaves, and even the flowers. 

On the leaves in the spring, it shows as thin, velvety, olive- 
brown patches, consisting of barrel-shaped spores, originating from 
mycelium present in the tissues of the leaf. 

At maturity the spores are carried by rain, wind, insects, birds, 
and on the surface of healthy fruit. Of these the disease first 
shows as brownish scattered patches on the skin. The fruit attacked 
does not readily rot, but dries up and remains in a mummified con- 
dition through the winter, either on the ground or on the tree. 
From these, innumerable blackish sclerotie, or storage organs, 
bearing in the spring a crop of spores, renew the infection. 

This disease is, in places, the worst the plum-growers have to 
deal with. 

The remedy consists in picking, removing, and burning all 
these mummified fruit. Snray thoroughly before the buds burst. 
Suppress bark and skin-nibbling insects in the spring. Spray with 
Bordeaux mixture when the fruit is forming. 


CaNKeER is first cansed bv a bruise or a laceration of the bark 
of the branch, and the invasion of the wonnd bv a funeus (Nectria 
and other funci), which prevents a healthy healine up of the dam- 
azed tissues, The claws of climbing animals, the bite of gnawing 
insects, and other causes bring about this trouble, 


552 


Remedies.—Remove the cause of canker. If the bark is never 
wounded, canker will never appear. Prune the diseased branches 
and burn the cankered parts. Lime, sulphur, and salt wash. 

Canker can also be cured by paring off the bruised, ulcerated 
wounds, and then covering the diseased parts with a paste made of 
clay mixed with hydrochloric acid. Painting the affected part with 
the acid used by tinsmiths under the name of “spirits of salts” 
is also a simple and efficaceous remedy, the acid destroying the 
fungus of the canker without damaging the tree. Handle the acid 
carefully, as, if splashed on the clothes, it will burn holes in them. 


Moss on Licnens.—Any of the winter sprays will clean 
affected stems and branches. 


Movipy Corr.—A diseased condition brought about by the 
presence of common mould in the core of certain varieties of apples, 
generally by the fungus of brown rot, the infection starting from 
the centre instead of from the circumference. Outwardly such 
apples appear quite sound, but on cutting them in halves the core 
is found to be in a mouldy or half-rotten state. Sooner or later the 
whole apple becomes rotten, the rot working from the centre out- 
ward. The mould gains entrance to the core of the apple through 
the eye; those varieties with an open blossom end being more 
subject to the disease. Those varieties of apples with large open 
pip-holes (concludes Dr. Cobb) are not likely to prove good keepers. 


CRINKLE, OR Pia Face.—An obscure disease of the apple. 
Mr. McAlpine says of this disease :—‘“‘ Besides the recognised Bitter 
Pit, which causes small brown depressions on the surface, another 
appearance was noticed, particularly in Rome Beauty and Five 
Crown Pippin. The skin is apparently quite sound, but a little 
darker towards the eye end, and, if cut across, brown, dead tissue 
is found immediately beneath the skin, or between the skin and the 
core. There may be actual cavities in the decaying flesh ; and the 
diseased patches do not taste bitter. Although many varieties not 
subject to Bitter Pit, exhibit the Crinkle disease, it is probably 
likewise due to disordered nutrition. The upper end of the apple 
ripens first, and if, from any cause, a proper supply of nourishment 
fails to reach it, there would be decay, and ultimate death of the 
cells. I have given the common name of “Crinkle’’ to this dis- 
order, because the upper surface of the fruit is thrown into rough 
folds, giving it usually, an uneven and crinkled appearance.” 

Treatment of the soil reduces the trouble as is the case with 
Bitter Pit ; applications of lime, especially in the form of Thomas’ 
Phosphate or of gas lime has proved satisfactory, particularly with 
Potash and Phosphates added. Nitrogenous manures seem to 
aggravate the disease. 


Twice Biicut.—Small, stunted rosettes of leaves grow in the 
spring on the previous year’s wood, and fail to grow into healthy 
shoots. Later, in the early summer, strong shoots spring up from 


\ 


the base of the limbs instead of from the extremity. No pustules 
are noticeable on the leaves, which have an unhealthy appearance. 
This serious trouble which is still under observation, has been found 
associated with two causes, either independently or concurrently. 


Powdery Mildew of the Apple. 


The one a bacterium 
(Bacillus amylovorus, Burr). 
which, in the old cases of 
blight, winters over in the 
blighted parts. From these 
diseased parts a watery exu- 
dation at times takes place 
in the spring which is visit- 
ed by insects, and by them 
transmitted to the opening 
blossoms or to the sap vessels 
of the tree. Once within 
the tissues of the host, the 
microbe may spread’ indefi- 
nitely. 

Another cause produc- 
ing a similar appearance, has 
been traced to the presence 
in the ground of a mould 
which grows on the surface 
roots and spreads over them 
web fashion, thwarting their 
growth, with the results de- 
scribed. 


In the first instance, 
spraying early to keep off 
inoculating insects, confines 
the trouble to a few trees 
only, and may also disinfect 
the infested exudation. All 
blighted parts should be 
carefully cut off below the 
lowest manifestation, and 
burnt each autumn. A 
good precaution is to disin- 
fect the knife, after cutting 
through a diseased spot by 
dipping in carbolic acid. 


Cultivate thoroughly 
and fertilise liberally, to 
help the trees to throw off 
the disease. Drain where 
required. 


554 


In the second instance, the ground should be deeply ploughed, 
thorouthly drained, and liberally limed and manured, so as to 
eicyira se the growth of the roots in healthy surroundings. (See 
Pear Blizht.) 

In every case examine the subsoil. In many cases the ground 
is unsuited for the healthy growth of fruit trees and is not such as 
will carry a commercial orchard. <A hard pan of impervious clay 
or of cement ground would prevent the roots dipping down in search 
of nourishment and would become water logged and stop root 
development. In other cases a layer of coarse sand or gravel 
underneath is interposed between the dry surface and the moister 
subsoil, and prevents the rise of the moisture from below ; in other 
cases again, the rise of the bottom water impregnated with saline 
matters check root growth and starves the tree. 


Water Core.—Easily known by the watery or waxy appear- 
ance of either the whole or part of an apple. The apple is quite 
sound to outward appearance. More prevalent in moist seasons, 
especially in early sorts. Wiaiter varieties are comparatively free 
from it. Stone Pippin and Five Crown Pippin are somewhat 
subject to it, also seen in Rokewood. 

It is also noticed in dry districts, but to a lesser degree. The 
glassy palites are due to the exclusion of air amongst the cells of 
fruit and its replacement by sap. If the soil and the subsoil are 
guarded against extremes of dry or wet by drainage, irrigation or 
cultivation, the trouble is readily kept down. 


PowpERy MILDEW oF THE APPLE, PEAR, AND QUINCE (Podo- 
sphera Kunzet, Lev.), sometimes called ‘“‘fire blight.” Very de- 
structive to nursery stock. Attacks the apple, peach, quince, 
cherry, and other plants belonging to the Rosacew. It attacks 
mostly the young leaves, spreading over both surfaces, and showing 
like white felt. Spray with Bordeaux mixture or with Iron sul- 
phide spray (V. No. 15). In summer time, sulphur the trees. 
Cleopatra and Stone Pippin appear to be especially liable. 


Pear Buiaut, on Fire Buicut (see Twig Blight, p. 552).—A 
bacterial disease which attacks apples, pears, quinces, loquats, and 
other trees. It works in the tissues between the bark and the 
growing wood, only during the growing season. 

Some varieties of pears, like the Duchess and Kieffer’s Hybrid, 
resist the disease better than others, such as Bartlett and Clapp’s 
Favourite. 

The blight microbe Bacillus amylovorus, is greatly influenced 
by climatic conditions ; warm and moist weather, with frequent 
showers, favouring it. These conditions are prevalent in the month 
or two following bossoming time. Dry, cool, and senny weather 
hinders it, while very dry weather checks it ; and it remains dor- 
mant during the winter. The line of demarkation between healthy 
and diseased wood is then often quite marked. 


555 


In the spring, when sap pressure run through the tree, the 
blighted parts are recognised by the mcist and fresh appearance of 
the bark, as contrasted with the old and dry Laik of the mevicrs 
summer. The gum exvdes frcm varicvs pcints, and rine dcwn the 
tree in long lines, when Lees and ctl.er ireecte vh ch are attrected 
by it carry the microbes to tl.e blosscms, where they gain an easy 
entrance into the healthy tissues under the bark. These blcssoms 
soon wither and die. Tender twigs are often inoculated bv nibbling 
insects, and show signs of the blight. An observer in California 
relates a successful check consisting in the ease of infected trees 
of slitting the bark clear round the tree once, a day or two before 
blossoming—a wide girdle might injure the tree. This stops the 
flow of sap for a day or two and causes the blossoms to wither and 
fall off, thus the bees are unable to carry the infection from those 
blossoms. Infested branches are also cut and burnt. This de- 
stroys the fruit crop for a vear or if rerewcd for two, krt after a 
few years the disease runs its course, looses its virulence and dies 
out and the trees recover. 


Some observers contend that because the microbe flourishes 
best in tender tissues; anvthing which tends to luxuriant growth of 
the tree, such as pruning, manuring, cultivating, are to be depre- 
cated ; and thev advise leaving it to the trees to fight their own 
pattles. If this be the correct treatment, it is time, labour, and 
monev wasted to grow apples, pears, and ovinces in those places 
where the disease is prevalent, as stunted, hungry trees are even 
less profitable than blighted ones. 


Little is known as vet concerning the kest means of combating 
this bacterial disease. Until the results of well planned out ex- 
periments have proved the contrary, I would recommend deep and 
good cultivation, and fertilising with gypsvm, potassic and phos- 
phatic fertilisers. efficient deep drainace, carefully evtting cff all 
diseased branches and twigs, and burning them in the winter, care 
being taken to cut into healthy wocd and to disinfect the secretion 
on the knife after going over a diseased tree. Lastly—and I be- 
lieve that much good can then be done in checking the spread of 
the fire blivht—spraving the diseased trees at frecrent intervals 
with an antiseptic solution in the spring, during that period when 
the infected sap oozes through the bark, and is taken up and carried 
about by foraging insects. 


Amongst the sprays which are likely to be attended with good 
results, I would recommend a two per thousand solution of cor- 
rosive sublimate, or a weak carbclic acid solution. 


As a vehicle for these powerful disinfectants, a decoction of 
eucalyptus (blue gum leaves) would prokably be found helpful. 
The leaves should be bruised when freshly gathered, and soaked in 
tepid water—llb. of leaves to one gallon of water—then, with the 
addition of the substances mentioned above, the decoction should 


556 


be sprayed on the trees.. It is sticky, and adheres quickly. Al 
insects will abandon any foliage where this spray is used. 


Loquat. 


Buack Spot (Fusicladium eriobotrye.)—To commercial inter- 
change with the Eastern States we owe another disease of our 
orchard trees, The loquat, until lately, was, almost without ex- 
ception, raised from seeds from locally-grown fruit, and the plants 
were healthy. Whether the disease was introduced by im- 
ported fruit or on nursery stock, it is not easy to determine. 
This blight is caused by a fungus closely allied to that which 
produces the scab diseases of apples and pears, and its botanical 
name is Fusicladium eriobotrye. Diseased loquats were first sub- 
mitted for identification to this Department in 1898. It has 
since been spreading, and some years it is reported to do seriou 
damage to the loquat crop in a number of gardens. 

The fruit is attacked when half grown, by brownish black 
spots, which soon extend, stop the further development of the 
fruit, and disfigure its appearance. Before attacking the fruit, 
brown spots show on the leaves and assume a darker colour. The 
fleshy part of the fruit becomes desiccated, and the skin seems to 
cling to the stones. A large proportion of the crop may, in a short 
space of time, be rendered absolutely unsaleable. 


Remedy.—That treatment must be protective, and cannot be 
curative, as the fruit once spotted can never be freed of the blemish. 

Spraying with Bordeaux mixture soon after blossoming, when 
the petals have fallen, and the fruit has just formed, should be 
found an effective protection. This treatment should be renewed 
when the fruit is half grown, in the winter, when the weather is 
likely to remain fine for some time. If necessary, a third spraying, 
a fortnight after, would copperplate the tree against an sbtael of 
the fungus. 

Collect and burn all diseased fruit, and sweep and hari the 
leaves as they fall from the tree. 

The loquat also suffers from a bacterial disease somewhat 
similar if not identical to that which causes Pear Blight. Infection 
first takes place through the blossoms. These wilt very quickly 
after inoculation and are easily detected. Snap off with the hand 
the entire twig and if signs of disease still show, break further back. 
If pruning shears are used they must be disinfected after each cut. 
If the disease reaches the trunk, death of the tree results. 


Stone Fruit. 


Almonds, apricots, peaches, and nectarines as well as plums 
and cherries, are attacked by fungus diseases which, if not in every 
instance identical are sufficiently closely related to be described 
under one heading, and are amenable to similar treatment. 


557 


Curt Lear (Exoaseus deformans, Eckl.).—Sometimes simply 
called the ‘curl’? owing to the leaves becoming distorted and 
crumpled, early in the season. After a time a delicate whitish 
bloom, caused by the spores of the fungus, show on the surface. 
The young shoots are also at times swollen and distorted by the 
fungus. 

Spring infections of peach leaves are due to spores of the fungus 
and not to perennial mycelium as formerly held, hence the efficacy 
of sprays. Treatment one season will not prevent the disease the 
following year. Orchards in damp situations are more subject to 
curl leaf than those in dry regions or elevated situations. 

When the attack is bad, the trees at times lose their leaves 
before midsummer, and later on a fresh lot of healthy leaves grow ; 
but in the meanwhile much damage has been done to the trees. 

A single winter spray with Bordeaux or with Burgundy mixture 
will prevent the disease upon even the most susceptible tree. 

Some varieties, such as Flat China, Lovell, Elberta, Royal 
George peaches are more subject to this disease ; few are wholly 
free. In the treatment from 95 to 98 per cent. of the spring foliage 
may be saved by spraying. 

An allied disease of the plum, called ‘“‘ Pocket Plums” or 
‘*Bladder Plums,” is caused by the fungus Hxoaseus pruni, Eckl., 
and should be treated in a like manner. 

Brown Rot.—This disease is described above. It is caused 
by a mould or fungus, called Monilia fructigena, which attacks 
various parts of the plant, leaves, blossoms, twigs, and fruit. 


CHtorosIs is due to the inability of the plant to take up suffi- 
cient amount of iron necessary for the production of chlorophyle. 
Impaired vitality is the cause and may be brought about by fungoid 
diseases of the roots or by bad soil conditions leading to an accumu- 
lation of deleterious substances such as: too large a proportion of 
magnesia relatively to lime; excessive marliness or defective 
aeration of the soil which may be stiff and clayey, or water logged 
about the roots, in fact all the conditions found associated with 
Die Back and the Twig Blight. 

Sulphate of iron mixed with the soil, and good manuring have 
done much good, but the cause must be removed and amended. 


Die Back is often connected with parasitism from the Armil- 
laria fungus on the roots which also causes Pourridie on the vines 
(vide page 565). On several occasions I have had good results 
from a liberal dressing of sulphate of iron in the winter, followed 
by liberal stable manuring with superphosphate added in the 
spring and good cultivation in the summer months. Die Back is 
seldom seen on deep loamy soil well provided with humus. See 
notes in Twig Blight, Fire Blight, and Chlorosis. 


Gumuine, Sour Sap, on Diz Back.—There are many diseases 
characterised by a gummy outflow from the diseased parts or from 


558 


their neighbourhood. Amongst plants exhibiting this are trees 
like the mulberry, olive, vine, fig, and vegetables like potatoes, 
turnips, beetroot, and many others. As yet, however, investiga- 
tions giving satisfactory explanations of their occurrence are in- 
conclusive. It is, however probable (says Tubeuf) that they are 
primarily due to errors in cultivation, while the bacteria which are 
always found associated with them are of secondary importance 
as disease-producers. 

Gumosis or Sour Sap, which are results rather than causes, 
may probably be traced to an abnormal condition of the soil. Sour 
Sap when the roots die first, may be due to too much water ; and 
when the tops die first, to the sudden lowering of the temperature. 
A checked sap circulation from the stock to the scion may also 
bring about the trouble. Improperly fed trees, or trees supplied 
with indigestible (unassimilable) food, are less apt to withstand 
the attack, and succumb. 

The trouble shows in a variety of ways. The young spring 
shoots suddenly collapse and wither. In that case, cut hard back 
before the poisonous sap can travel back to the healthy parts. In 
other instances, the foliage and twigs seem all right, but the fruits, 
when the size of a wallnut, stop growing, turn brown, and show a 
gummy exudation on dark-coloured patches. A microscopic ex- 
amination discloses the presence of numerous fungi, often of the 
Macrosporium tribe. A liberal dressing of 5lbs. to 10lbs. of super- 
phosphate of lime in the win'er, with lime added. often saves trees 
predisposed to gumming. McAlpine attributes the cause in some 
instances to a fungus: Clasterosporium carpophilum. Bordeaux 
mixture has been found an efficacious treatment when applied in 
the autumn or early winter, even before pruning ; every bud must 
be soaked. 


A somewhat similar disease, supposed, however, to be of bac- 
terial origin, at times attacks young apricot trees, when two to 
four years old. It is recognised by the leaves or part of the tree 
turning yellow and falling off. The limbs from which the leaves 
fall, when cut through, show a black heart. 


Prune these limbs back as far as they show the black heart, 
and also shorten the limbs that are not diseased. Disinfect the 
knife after it has come into contact with the diseased sap. (See 
above.) 


Lear Rust (Uromyces Amygdale, Cook, and Puccinia pruni 
spinose, Pers.).—Very prevalent in demp Iccalities (late in the 
summer) on peach trees, and also the almcnd, nectazine, spricct, 
and plum. 

The leaves are picked with yellow spots on the vpper svrfece 
of the leaf ; these yellow spots are often surrovnded with a purplish 
ring, and they have on the other side of the leaf brown spots of 
fungoid growth. The leaf tissue attacked by these spots becomes 


559 


eaten away into holes, and the leaf falls, bezinning from the butt 
end of the branches, and the wood does not ripen as it should do, 
thereby enfeebling the tree. 

Remedies.—Collect and burn all affected leaves and destroy the 
summer spores, which remain inert during the winter only to infect 
the next year’s growth. Spray early in the season with Copper 
Mixture, half strength, or other fungicides. 

Lear Soap (Entomosporium maculatum, Lev.) attacks the 
leaves of avples, pears, quinces, peaches, cherries, etc. (says Massee). 
Tiese fall early in the season, and in bad attacks leave the trees 
defoliated. A second growth of leaves follows, and at times these 
suffer in the same way. As a consequence, the trees are much 
weakened. 

Small red spots appear on the upper surface of leaves when 
still young ; these increase in size and become brown, having one or 
more minute black spots slightly above the general surface. If the 
spots are numerous, the leaves become brown, shrivel, and fall off. 
If the leaf is older, with rigid tissues, it retains its shape, but falls 
to the ground. 

On the branches the spots are at first reddish, becoming slightly 
sunken with a central elevation and blackish in colour which 
coalesce, sometimes encircling the branch, in which case, the portion 
above the diseased area dies. 

The fruit of pears is sometimes spotted by the disease. 

Bordeaux Mixture keeps the blight in check. 


Scab and Peach Freckle. 


Scas. 


Preach FRECKLE causes dark spots on the skin of maturing 
fruit, which present a freckled look. These spots are the result of 


560 


the attack of fungi, and amongst them the Cladosporium carpop- 
hilum. Its filments do not enter the peach, but draw their nourish- 
ment through the skin. It is said that the disease hastens decay, 
and that affected fruit will not stand long keeping. An early appli- 
cation of Bordeaux Mixture stops its progress. Potassium sulphide 
half ounce to the gallon, is also recommended. 


Root Kwor often shows on peaches, plums, etc. It is caused 
by a bacterial organism very prevalent in some nurseries to the one 
which causes the finger and toe disease of beetroot, carrots, etc. 


Pare out the excrescences and wash with an antiseptic swab 
If it is a young tree and is badly affected, replace by a healthy one. 


Suot Hore DisEase (Phyllosticta circumcissa) attacks the 
leaves of apricots, almond, peach, nectarine, and other stone fruit 
trees, Appears as spots upon the leaves in summer, and these 
spots assume definite outlines, and often fall out, leaving holes like 
shot-holes. The leaves fall early, preventing the fruit from matur- 
ing. These are also attacked, and at times disfigured. 


The accompanying figure illustrates the effect produced by the 
treatment. 


Shot Hole on Apricot. The healthy growth took place since spraying. 


561 


Remedies.—Burn leaves as soon as they fall. Bordeaux Mix- 
ture, half strength, applied several times during the season, 
beginning as soon as the leaves appear. 


Cirrus TREES. 


Trees of this species are subject to a number of diseases, the 
most serious of which are— 


GumMine, CottarR Rot, Mat pr Goma.—A serious contagious 
disease of stone fruit and citrus trees. (pp. under twig blight 
and gumming of stone fruit.) It seems to be a cracking in 
the bark and an exudation of the gum, which runs down the tree 
and affects the bark underneath. Abrasion of the bark with the 
hoe, plough, and other field implements, deep planting, defective 
irrigation, and water standing round the trunk favour the disease ; 
also sun scorch and late cold weather, which hurts the shoots. 


The disease is an obscure and serious one, and has not yet 
been thoroughly investigated. Supposed to be produced by a 
microscopic fungus (the Corynewm Beijirincht) which develops in the 
vegetal cells and change into gum the cells which constitute the 
pith, as well as those of the medullary rays, and sometimes also the 
woody tissues. In mild cases, recovery has followed the cutting out 
of the bark and gouging out the dark decayed wood underneath 
with a half-moon chisel until the sound wood is reached, which is then 
coated over with shellac paint or some other protective cover, pre- 
ferably an antiseptic one, such as carbolic acid solution. Burn all 
diseased bark. Affected trees are profuse bearers for a season or 
‘two, and then generally die out. If a spot where the gum is oozing 
out is cut out in diseased trees, a dark channel is seen underneath, 
extending generally from the root to the top of the tree, following 
fibro vascular bundles of wood tissue; this wood is sometimes 
dry (and so hard that no sap could flow through its vessels) or 
rotten and decayed. In the majority of cases, the best plan is to 
root up and burn the tree. It is often propagated by secateurs. 
Sterilise the blade at frequent intervals in flame. 


MELANOSE must not be confused with the disease called Rust 
or Maori. The numerous small madder-brown spots characteristic 
of ths disease have (says Dr. Cobb) a tendency to group themselves 
in curved lines, which run together and form larger patches. Both 
Maori (caused by a mite) and Melanose at times occur together on 
the same orange. The leaves are attacked as well as the fruit. 


Remedies.—As soon as the new crop has set, begin spraying 
with Bordeaux Mixture of weak strength, and keep on spraying, if 
necessary, every fortnight until the fruit is half grown. The addi- 
tion of a little soap will cause the spray to wet the citrus leaves 
better. Paint the trunk and limbs with a thin whitewash, or with 
full strength Bordeaux Mixture. Apply to the ground under each 


562 


tree one pound of sulphate of iron in 25 gallons of water ; also give 
to the ground a dressing of three to four pounds of bonedust and 
one pound of sulphate of potash per tree, and avoid dry blood 
or orzanic nitrogen fertilisers. Make sure that drainage is good. 


Briack Spor or Crrraus Fruir (Phoma citricarpa, MeAlp.)— 
This disease, known also as anthracnose of citrus fruit, is on the 
list of prohibited diseases, and fruit showing signs of them are 
destroyed at the ports of entry. 


For the information of growers, and also of the officers in charge 
of the disinfection sheds at the ports of entry, I reproduce 
from Mr. D. McAlpine’s Monograph of Fungus Diseases of Citrus 
Trees in Australia, a summary of the description of the disease. 


The disease, it is stated, has not been met with in Victoria, 
but it is quite common on oranges, mandarines, and lemons sold in 
Melbourne and suburbs, and imported from Sydney. 


The fruit is affected by spots, round and sunken, and of a 
dark brown colour ; at first, whitish or greyish towards the centre, 
but ultimately becoming of one uniform tint. They are either 
isolated or run together in confluent brown patches. These are 
pustules which allow the escape of spores, which may be wafted 
by the wind, or carried by hands, clothing, insects, animals or empty 
cases. Thus is the disease rapidly and widely spread. It bears 
some resémblance to another black disease of citrus fruit called 
“*Melanose,”’ and also to a disease known in Italy as ‘‘ La Nebbia,”’ 
which is, however, caused by a different fungus. The effects of the 
disease on the fruit is that, besides being unsightly and rendered 
almost unsaleable, they soon become rotten and fall a ready prey 
to ‘‘ Blae Mould,” ete., so that all such should be rigidly excluded 
from shipments to distant markets. The fungus is found on still 
green fruit, and spreads most rapidly when the fruit ripens. 


Treatment.—The skins of diseased fruits should be burnt, in 
order to prevent the spores reaching fresh growing fruits. The 
cases containing diseased fruit should be disinfected by steaming 
or by dipping in boiling water for a few minutes. Spray the trees 
with Bordeaux Mixture as soon as the fruit sets, and again every 
few weeks up to within a month of the time of picking the fruit. 


Sooty Movuxtp or Brack Smut.—Fumagine follows the attacks 
of aphides and of scale insects, forming a sooty black membrane, 
which feeds on the sweet fluids (honeydew) secreted by these in- 
sects, and which falls on the leaves, branches, and fruits of the 
last plant they live upon. 


The growth of the trees affected is retarded in consequence of 
light and the respiration of the plant being interfered with. The 
insects further injure the plant by sucking the nutritious juices 
from the cells, and blooming and fruiting are, in consequence, 
checked or suppressed, and the market value of the fruit lowered. 


563 


Remedies.—Spray two or three times at intervals of one or two 
weeks in the winter, and after the fruit ercp has keen picked, with 
kerosene emu sion’ or resin ard scda wash or fumigate with hy dro- 
cyanic acid gas. 


Strawberry Leaf Blight (Spherella fragarie, Tul.). 


Better still, collect and procure parasites and predaceous insects 
on the aphis and the scales, which are the primary cause of the 
sooty mould. When parasites are present, spraying or fumigation 
will do more harm than good, and will tend, by destroying the 
beneficial insects, to intensify the trouble. 


564 


Rorrine oF Cirrus Frurr.—Considerable loss is at times ex- 
perienced during transportaticn or storage of citrus fruit. The 
cause is due to one of the blue moulds—Penicillium digitatum. 
This fungus grows on the fruit from a spore, which germinates 
and penetrates the tissues in the form of white threads, and feeds 
on the juices ; after a time they show outward as a white mould 
which, when it fructifies, appears like bluish-green dust. The 
disease occurs more in the fruit store than in the orchard. Sulphur 
fumigation minimises its spread. It mostly attacks bruised fruit. 


STRAWBERRY LEAF-BLicHT oR Sun Burn (Spherella fragarie, 
Tul.)—‘‘This is the only serious fungoid disease of the straw- 
berry plant now known in Australia,’ says Dr. Cobb. It is very 
widespread, and does a great deal of damage, causing a loss of 
from five to ninety per cent. of the crop. 


Small purple or red spots appearing on the leaves. They 
eventually become larger and browner, making the leaf appear 
blotched. The growth of the young berries is also cheeked, leaving 
them juiceless, shrivelled, and green, and not larger than peas. 


Remedies.—In mild cases, destroy all affected leaves ; this will 
prevent the disease spreading. In bad cases mow the bed close, 
rake up the leaves immediately and burn them ; or the bed may be 
covered with dry litter and then burn off. The strawberry plant 
will soon throw up clean leaves if the weather is propitious. Spray 
with Bordeaux mixture or ammoniacal carbonate of copper, at 
intervals of two or three weeks, beginning as soon as the fruit is 
picked, or preferably, early in the season and before blosscming. 
Maintain a vigorous and healthy growth by means of dressings of 
stable manure and of chemical fertilisers. 


GRAPE VINE. 


GRAPE ANTHRACNOSE OR Buack Spot (Sphaceloma ampelinum, 
De Barry—Gleosporium ampelinum, Sacc.)—Two distinct forms of 
Black Spot occur in Australia. Anthracnose, however, is the more 
common as well as the more troublesome of the two. It is 
easily recognised, when the spots reach a certain size, by the centre 
becoming white, owing to the fructification of the fungus which 
causes the disease. On account of its appearance, the disease has 
been known as “‘ bird’s-eye rot.”” The favourable conditions neces- 
sary to its spread are warmth and moisture, either in the form 
of damp weather or heavy dews, accompanied by skies so cloudy 
as to prevent quick evaporation in the mornings particularly in 
the spring and early summer. JHence it is preferable, in estab- 
lishing a vine-yard, to plant those varieties much affected by 
Anthracnose on slopes exposed to the morning sun. The winter 
germs of the disease are hidden in the stem and in the last year 
canes and develop on the new shoots and on the blossoms and 
grapes. 


565 


The winter treatment is by far the most efficacious in the case 
of Black Spot, and the varieties most subject to it should be par- 
ticularly attended to, viz., Carignane, Grenache, CHillade, Clair- 
ette (syn. Blanquette), Aramon, among wine grapes and Blue 
Portuguese, Black ae Wortley Hall, Flame Tokay, Red 
g Malaga, Sultana, among table and 

drying grapes, and several other 

white table-grapes ; the Muscats ; 
and amongst the American grapes, 

V. Rupestris and V. Riparia. 

The thread-like portions of 
the fungus: hyphe and mycelial 
threads penetrate and feed on the 
tissues of the vine, during the 
growing period. As the vine 
becomes dormant, these threads 
thicken and give rise to the winter- 
ing form, or sclerotie spores which 
lie at the base of the buds and in 
the cracks of the wood, hence the 
winter spray and swab. When 
growth is resumed in the spring 
these spores germinate on the 
young shoots, their hyphe or feed- 
Anthracnose or Black Spot. ing portions penetrate into the 

tissue and ‘‘black spot ”’ occurs. 
The treatment by the acid-iron swab chars them. The application 
will not hurt the eyes but will delay the budding a few days. Done 
too early it will not kill the winter germs ; if too late, it will injure 
the shoots. Later on in the summer the outward growth of the 
fungus may be attacked by means of copper sprays. 


Remedies.—Sulphate of iron wash after pruning. Burn the 
trimmings after pruning. After the leaves open, use sulphur, lime, 
and powdered green copperag Should the disease persist in spite 
of the winter treatment, it is recommended to dust the vines two or 
three times, at a week’s interval, with cement and sulphur mixed in 
equal proportions, or with superphosphate of lime or with lime and 
sulphur. To protect trellis wires against the corroding action of 
the sulphuric acid, run a brush dipped in tar along the wires. 


Movutpy Root (PourRIDIE).—This disease is named from the 
French word pourrir, to rot. It is caused, as in many cases of Die 
Back and Sour Sap, by the Armillaria fungus. It is difficult to 
eradicate. In this disease the roots are covered with a white mould 
which causes them to rot, the consequence being, first, a falling off 
in the yield per acre, and, finally, the death of the vine. The symp- 
toms of the disease are those of general weakness and debility. The 
canes grow thinner and thinner, the leaves, smaller and, after a 


566 


while the trunk assumes a “ cabbage-head”’ shape, and can be 
easily pulled out; the roots being rotten, brownish, and spongy. 
Tie roots of the vines affected by this parasite show, between the 


Cancerous Anthracnose of the Vine. Pourridie, or Mouldy Root of the Vine. 
bark and the wood, patches of felted mouldy threads. Around the 
trunk. in damp soil, a growth of white cottony threads is seen, 


which spreads turough the soil, following the roots and extending 
like a stain of oil. 


Remedies.—Modify the conditions of the sol by draining and 
liming, to sweeten it and make it more healthy. 


567 


When the disease is just showing, pulling out the attacled 
plants, collecting roots and all, and burnin’: them, to prevent the 
ditfusiun of t1e3e 3» res (sseds of mould) is ad visable. Manw ing 
ne vines to stimulate their growth helos them to get over the 
weakening effect of the mould. 


I have seen good results attend the application in winter- 
time, on the main roots and round tue stovk of the vine, laid bare 
for tie purpose, a svbition of sulphate of iron. Eeavy dessin of 
lime and sulpiur applied on the roots have kept duwn this and 
also siinilar funzus on roots of Peaches and other trees. 


Downy Mitprw (Peronospora viticolu, Le Barry, Svn., Plas- 
mopira viticola).—Appears in small frost-like patches on the under 
surface of the leaves, finally causing yellowish discolouraticn on the 
upper surface. Berries are also affected, remaining small and Lard 
and turning brown. 


Remedies.—Two or three applications of Bordeaux mixture. 


Tuis disease, which causes considerable damave in American 
and European vineyards has, of late years, appeared in tle vine- 
yards of Victoria, and caused material dama je o the grape crop 
in unprotected vineyards. 


Oidiim wiaters in the buds; Black Spot in the scars of the 
vines ; Downy Mildew in tne vround. For this reason winter treat- 
mont for Oidium or Doway Mildew is useless, while it is cood for 
Black Spot. For Downy Mildew spraying shou'd be started in 
October, and in the case of a severe attack, again two or hree 
weeks later to protect the freshly grown leaves. 


O1p1um (Powdery Mildew) Hrysiphe vitigera is the Australian 
form corresponding to the Ozdewm Tuckerit_ of England or the 


Vine Stems showing Stains of Oidium. 


Powdery Mildew, Unxcinula spiralis of the U.S.A.—One of the most 
prevalent diseases wherever the grape vine is extensively cultivated. 


Before a remedy for this disease had been found, it swept out 
of existence the vineyards of Madeira. Some thirty to forty years 


568 


ago a number of small vineyards in Western Australia were rootep 
out or abandoned on account of this disease, which, at the time, 
was little understood. 


In 1850 the presence of the oidium was first reported in France. 
In four years this fungus, which settles upon the grape and ruins 
it without materially arresting the growth of the vine, reduced the 
production of wine by 80 per cent. Although sulphur was proved 
to check the disease, vinegrowers, alarmed at their losses, sought 
from America new varieties of vines said to be more resistant than 
the European kinds. Unfortunately, from the United States they 
also introduced on the oidium resistant vines the phylloxera pest, 
which was first noticed in the South of France in 1863; the 
ravages of this deadly vine root aphis gradually destroying almost 
the whole of the vineyards of France and of Europe, until by 
dogged determination and patient researches the new pest was 
in turn conquered. 

Although one of the most troublesome of the grape vine 
diseases, oidium is at the same time one of the easiest to sub- 
due, provided that the treatment be carried out with care. 


Like all powdery mildews, the parts attacked are covered over 
by the web-like threads of the mildew fungus. It only attacks 
those organs when green. It at first appears as a dirty white 
powdery film, possessing a characterisite mouldy smell. It leaves 


Oidium of the Vine. 


stains on the wood. Should it appear early, the flowers will fail to 
set ; then the more tender leaves will be covered with patches of 
microscopic threads, which will stop their growth and cause them to 
shrivel up and dry. The berries are most severely attacked. The 
effect of the parasite on the skin is to tighten it and cause it to 
loose its elasticity, so that the berries either dry up or burst open. 


569 


The ripening does not progress satisfactorily, and when fermented, 
the juice produces a nasty wine with a mouldy taste or flavour, and 
one which does not keep well. 


Varieties most attacked by’ oidiwm, and cultivated in Australia, 
are :—Albilio, Carignane, the Cabernets, Chasselas, Black Ham- 
burgh, Gouais, the Muscats, Clillade, Pedro Ximenes, Riesling, 
Roussanne (White Hermitage), Shiraz (Black Hermitage), Tokay 


(Green Hungary), Trebbiano (Ugni Blanc), Verdeilho, and a great 
many table grapes. 


Varieties not much attacked.—Aramon, Dolcetto, Grenache 
(Roussillon), Mataro (Mourvédre), Marsanne (White Shiraz), Dora- 
dille, the Pinots (Burgundy), Sauvignon, Morrastel, Aspiran. 


Varieties.—Malbec, Beclan, Catawba, and Isabella, two varie- 
ties of an American vine (V. Labrusca), and, in fact, most American 
vines. 

Sulphur is the readiest cure for oidium. The finer the sulphur 
the better, and for that reason ‘“‘precipitated’’ sulphur is sup- 
posed to have greater virtues than either “‘ ground ”’ or ‘‘sublimed ” 
sulphur. 

Washing soda (carbonate of soda) is also said to give fair re- 
sults in 2 per cent. solution, ¢.¢., 2lbs. in 10 gallons on Powdery 
Mildew of the vine and also that of the rose bushes, peach tree, 
gooseberry, apple, cucumber, pears and strawberries. 

Moist, warm, and damp weather favours the growth of the 
fungus, and at the same time checks the formation of sulphur 
fumes. Great heat, such as occurs in the summer, kills the blight. 
It is best to sulphur in the morning, when the leaves are still 
damp with dew, and before the high winds begin to blow. The 
presence of dew, however, is not essential to a good dusting. Sun 
heat is essential ; if the weather is cooler than 70 degs. sulphur has 
not much effect, but it is not advisable to sulphur in too hot weather 
when the temperature is above 95 deg., as burning and scald stains 
are likely to result. The months of November and December 
are, with us, the most suitable for sulphuring, and in later districts 
it is even practised in January. 

Sulphuring, to be efficacious, must be used as a preventive 
remedy. If it is delayed until the formation of the fruits of the 
fungus (perithicia) it does not act so readily, as the seeds of the 
blight plant (ascospores) are then more resistant than are the grow- 
ing mycelial threads of the fungus. 

The sulphuring is best done with the aid of specially made 
sulphur bellows. Some simply put the crushed sulphur into a 
sugar bag and shake it over each vine, but this method is wasteful 
of the sulphur, and does not distribute it so effectively as do the 
bellows. 

In persitent cases, and in districts favourable for the growth 
of the fungus, as many as four sulphurings are given, but generally 


570 


two or three will be found sufficient. A notable saving of sulphur 
and in the cost of dusting is effected by mixing it in one of the 
summer sprays used for Black Spot or for Downy Mildew. 

The quantity of sulphur per acre vavies according to the state 
of fineness of the powder ; the sulphur distributor used ; the season, 
and the prevalence of the disease, from 15lbs. to 60lbs. of sulphur 
per acre. 

When oidium is severe, and in case of emergency, the following 
formula will be found to answer well :— 

Water fas sit oon ane -. 22 gall. 
Soft Soap... See oa ws ~« Hb, 
Liver of Sulphur... we oe wie Alby 

Reference is invited to the note regarding the wiialng of sulphur 

and hydrated lime under the heading ‘‘ The Red Mite.” 


This treatment is not meant to replace sulphur, but to check 
oidium on grapes. The liver of sulphur acts promptly by contact, 


Crown Gall or Broussin. 


whereas sulphur acts by emitting sulphur fumes, which may be 
checked by unfavourable weather. There are times when sulphur 


571 


does not act as it should, because it is washed away by showers of 
rain, or because the temperature is too low for a sufficient emission 
of sulphurous acid gas. In such cases try liver of sulphur. Do 
not increase the dose, as liver of sulphur is corrosive, and soft soap 
may impart a nasty taste to the grapes. 


Crown Gat of the grape (called “‘ Broussin ’’ in France) shows 
like large cancerous growths at the crown of the vine. A knock with 
the hoe or the plough, the bite of insects, sunscald, or a variety of 
causes will produce these unsizhtly growths. The treatment should 
be somewhat similar to that of cancer of the apple. 


Vines planted on land highly manured with stock manure are 
more liable to show these growths which are caused by a bacterial 
organism that attack a wide range of hosts. 


Remove the growth, trim the wound, and wash the wound with 
an antiseptic wash, or paint it with some agjd solution such as recom- 
mended for Black Spot on grapes. Knives or secatures must be 
washed in an antiseptic after using. 


Seurrt Berry (Phoma tuberculata, McAlp.).—This disease is 
at times troublesome, especially amongst the Muscats. The fruit. is 
the part attacked ; it is at first ashy grey or slaty blue in colour, 
dotted and speckled with numerous small pustules, for a long time 
covered by the outer 
skin or epidermis, When 
gently pressed between 
the fin:er and thumb 
the berry squirts out its 
contents. Towards the 
end of the season the 
berries dry partially, but 
are always pliable. 


No experiments re- 
lating to preventive 
means have been tried. 
I have noticed, however, 
that vines trained along- 
side a fowl] yard were 
much more severely at- 
tacked than others 
growing a short distance 
away. Manuring with 
potassic and phosphatic 
fertilisers as well as 


Black Rot Of the Eom ato (Maer osporium tomato.) The liming seems to lend to 
rot seen ata the blossom end. The lowest tomato vines | 
not yet attacked.—(Agricultural Gazette, New South the vine greater power 


Wales). of resistance. 


$72 


TomaTOES aNp POTATOES. 


Buossom Enp Rot (Macrosporium Tomato, Cooke).—The 
rotting of the nearly grown or ripe tomato. Dull dark green spots 
of a velvety appearance show at first. These slowly enlarge, and 
the tomato rots entirely. The fungus is a wound parasite, gaining 
entrance into the ripening fruit through minute cracks. It feeds 
on the tissues under the skin, thus causing a little sinking below 
the surface of the healthy part of the fruit. Green stable manure 
is said to favour the disease, causing the fruit to crack. Bordeaux 
Mixture keeps the disease in check. 


Rive Ror (Glaosporium fructigenum, Berk).—Commonly known 
as Ripe Rot, and often destructive to ripe apples, pears, peaches, 
and grapes. Concentric mark- 
ings with no velvety appear- 
ance, as in the case of Black 
Rot, distinguish this disease, 
the skin remaining for some 
time glossy, though discolour- 
ed ; the attacked area is flatten- 
ed. When the pustules break 
out the spores give to the sur- 
face a granular appearance. 


Preventive.—The small = 
cherry and plum tomato arenot Ripe Rot (Gleosporium fructigenum, Berk.) 
attacked. Trainingthevineon Agricultural Gazette, New South Wales. 
stakes or trellis, so as to give 
the fruit plenty of light and air, is usually useful, as the Black Rot 
is more active in a damp atmosphere and near the ground. Burn 
diseased fruit and vines. Drain if necessary. Never use seeds 
from diseased tomatoes. Alternate crops. 


Remedy.—Spray the young vines with Bordeaux Mixture or 
sulphide of potassium, and then periodically every few weeks— 
especially the young fruit. aA 

Lear Rust (Cladosporium fuluum, Cooke).—This~ disease 
spreads with great rapidity. It is caused by a fungus which forms 
rusty brown patches on the under-side of the leaves. These patches 
consist of closely packed clusters of coloured conidiophores. As 
these patches spread the leaf becomes yellow and wilted, the mar- 
gins curl, and the leaves shrivel and die. Bad drainage and moist 
situations favour the growth of the fungus, which requires plenty o} 
moisture. Trellising, by lifting up the plants into a drier atmos- 
phere, lessens the liability of attack. Spraying with Bordeaux 
mixture or with sulphide of potassium (liver of sulphur) will hold 
the disease in check. 


573 


Tomato Wi1T.—This trouble is caused by two different agents, 
viz., a fungus (Fusarium lycopersict, Sacc.) and a bacillus (Bacillus 
Solanacearum). The symptoms of both diseases are much alike. 
The first, which is known in the Channel Islands as the “ sleeping 
disease,’’ at times causes great damage. This disease is indicated 
by the drooping of the leaves, followed by that of the plant, hence 
the name given to it. If the plants are only attacked when the 
fruits are green, these ripen and there is nothing in their appearance 
to show that they are in any way infected. The fungus gains access 
to the plant through the rootlets and gradually extends to the tap 
root and lower portion of the stem. When it gets this far, a brown 
discolouration of the vascular bundles takes place, and the plant 
droops or “‘sleeps.”’ Shortly after this stage, says Prosser, the 
portion of the stem just above ground is more or less covered with a 
very delicate white mould which consists of fruiting branches or 
conidiophores, which bear conidia at the tips. These conidia fall to 
the ground and there germinate, producing a mycelium, which 
attacks the rootlets of tomatoes, potatoes, egg fruit, and plants of 
that family, owing to the mode of attack. Spraying with fungicides 
is of little use. Rotation of crops minimises the trouble, liming of 
the soil is recommended, and above all, seeds from fruit ripening on 
diseased plants should not be used. 

The ‘Bacterial’? disease of the Solanacez is very similar to 
the previous one. The foliage first wilts, then the plant collapses— 
wilts and dies without sign of disease upon it. As the germs are 
in the circulation and not outside, no external treatment is of any 
avail. A section of a diseased branch discloses a brown discolour- 
ation of the woody cylinder, and from the vessels ooze out yellowish 
drops carrying the bacteria. 

The disease is propogated by inoculation, dateuaie by nibbling 
insects, whereas in the previous disease the fungus cannot be inocu- 
lated on the stem or the leaves, and only enters the plant through 
the rootlets. In the case of the bacterial disease, spray with Paris 
green to check leaf eating and leaf-puncturing insects. Root up 
and burn all infected plants; do not plant solanaceous plants in 
quick rotation on the same ground. Destroy all Black Nightshade 
weeds on the ground intended for tomatoes or for potatoes as they 
are carriers of this fungus and bacterial diseases. 

Dr. Delacroix, Director of the Station of Vegetal Pathology, 
Paris, has described an organism connected with the disease in 
question, to which the name B. solannicola is given. The organism 
is believed to be present in the soil, from which it spreads to the 
plants and unfavourable meteorological conditions are said to 
aggravate the infection. Associated with it is a soil fungus, Rhizoc- 
tonia solani, whieh is an active parasite of the potato and the tomato 
plants. | Wherever soil disinfection is necessary against ‘‘blue 
mould ’’ which often proves disastrous to Tobacco seed-beds, the 
treatment suggested by Dr. Delacroix may reasonably prove satis- 


574 


factory. The treatment generally followed is the heaping up and 
burning of brush over the seed-bed which scorches the mould, but 
also burns the vegetable matter in the soil. 


Dr. Delacroix recommended for the Wilt-Disease which had 
broken out in cotton plantations in Egypt soil disinfection by in- 
jections of Formol of commerce (formalin) which is a solution of 
Formic aldehyde of 40 per cent. with an addition of a small quantity 
of methylated spirit which insures its keeping in that solution. 


Formic aldehyde has a higher antiseptic property than sublime 
corrosive (bichloride of mercury) which, for a long time, was con- 
sidered the most powerful antiseptic known. Moreover, it 1s 
superior to corrosive sublimate, cuprous mixtures, phenols and car- 
bolic acid, the great advantage being entirely volatile. It leaves 
in the soil no substance deleterious to vegetation like the substances 
named. It is not inflammable like carbon bisulphide which many 
shipping companies will not carry. 


Inject into the soil with the needle force pump (Pal Injector, 
page 536) like carbon bisulphide using at least 50 grammes 
(1Z0zs.) of the solution of formal per square yard, each stroke 
of the piston injecting 13 grammes of the liquid. 


INSECT PESTS. 
INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL. 


Of the insects attacking fruit trees and crops in Western Aus- 
tralia, the following are described in this chapter. 


For easier reference, they are given in the alphabetical order of 
their popular names. 


ANTS. 


Of these there are two main groups; the Red and the White 
Ants. The first belong to the formica family ; the second are not 
ants but are popularly ‘“ termites.”’ 


The first category of ants burrow in the ground forming “ ant- 
nests’ on lawns and paths. Ants are troublesome when the trees 
are in blossom when they climb up and bite off the stamens and 
also encourage scale insects and aphides, being very fond of the 
honey-dew they elaborate. A tablespoonful of bisulphide of car- 
bon injected into the ground, or mixed with kerosene and poured 
into holes six inches deep and a foot apart, and immediately filled 
up. Operate in the evening when all the ants are in. When the 
ants cannot be found, place a sponge soaked with sweetened water 
in their track and dip it every new 61d ef ein intc leit water. 
Another successful ant destroyer is a mixture of flour, sugar, and 
arsenic, made up to the consistency of putty with water. Pieces 


575 


of the mixture are placed about the nests of the ants. A great 
number of dead ants will be found in the vicinity of the poison, 
After a few days what is left of the ants generally move away to 
fresh quarters. 


Cooper’s sheep dip powder placed over the nests in the evening 
kills and drives them away. 


It is also recommended to dissolve Hyposulphite of soda 2lb. 
to 2 to 3 gallons and sprinkle hot or cold in any corners indoors 
frequented by ants; they will disappear at once ; even a plateful 
of the solution placed on the shelves of infested cupboards will 
banish them. Out of doors their heaps can be watered with large 
quantities of same, boiling if possible, at nightfall. This will de- 
stroy most of them. 


Chalk rubbed on the bark of infested trees prevents them from 
climbing. If they are above it, they fall the instant they set foot 
on the chalk when descending as they appear to lose their foothold. 


WHITE ANTS. 


Arenot “ants” and are not necessarily ‘‘ white ” ; they are 
“termites.” Superficially they are like ants, but they are waistless, 
whereas in ants a thin stalk attaches the abdomen to the trunk. 
Mr. Cl. Fuller, once Entomologist of the Department of Acri- 
culture in Western Australia,and now Government Entomologist, 
Natal, in an interesting monograph explains that:—Like ants, they 
live in colonies in subterranean nests provided with communication 
galleries ; further, at certain times swarms of winged creatures 
emerge which, as in the case of ants are males and females, after 
mating, their aerial life ceases. The bulk of the adult population 
of a nest consist of the “ worker,’’ and to a minor extent of the 
‘soldier’? castes. These are sexually imperfect, and may be either 
males or females, Except in the case of ‘‘ marching termites,” 
all soldiers and workers are blind ; they may travel over exposed 
surfaces under cover of earthen runways where they are protected 
from their arch enemies, the true ants. 


The viscid fluid emitted from the mouths of termites is cor- 
rosive. Wood and principally grass is the staple food. Inside the 
nests are sponge-like combs which are fungus gardens on which the 
eggs are transferred from the castle of the king and queen to hatch. 
The workers see to this and also collect and prepare food for the 
other members of the community which cannot forage for them- 
selves ; they glue and bind together the earth particles round the 
galleries, remove all refuse matter, dead insects and sick fellows 
which are devoured. 


Like earthworms, they ventilate the soil, bring up the subsoil 
and improve it for plant growth ; crushed white-ant nests is re- 


576 


garded as good growing soil. The interior galleries and chambers 
of the white ants nests may go far through the soil and sometimes 
they are driven to a great depth. 

Most white ants do not attack growing vegetation although 
they do eat the hardwood of living trees if they can get access to 
it without eating through the living wood. In the North, white 
ants are amongst the worst pests the cultivator has to contend 
with. There appear to be several kinds of these termites, some 
feeding on dead wood only, and others on dead and live wood 
alike. Moist land, rich in vegetable matter, is invaded in prefer- 
ence to undulating and hilly localities. They are not found on 
springy country and on saltish marly land. The mounds vary in 
shape and in size, from. one to twelve feet high. 

In South Australia it is noticed that the white ants are trouble- 
some in sandy and limestone soils, occasionally destroying vines 
and showing particular liking for the Sultana vine. Mr. F. A. 
Marlatt also records them as doing damage to potatoes growing in 
rich soil or where there is a considerable quantity of decaying 
vegetable matter. 

Peach trees are not destroyed, and oranges, mangoes, avo- 
cados, tamarinds and date palms are amongst fruit trees seldom 
attacked. At Port Darwin I was told that the Meso termis Darwini, 
attacks growing citrus trees but not the Lime, which resists best and 
bears well. The fact suggests the possibility of this tree being 
utilised as a ‘“‘stock ”’ if grafted some way above ground. In the 
South-West of Western Australia white ants are smaller and not 
so destructive as they are in the North-West and in the Kimberleys. 


Treatment.—Consists mostly in circumventing and preventing 
this attack. In tropical countries they do a lot of harm and in the 
Malay States and in Java I have found them very destructive on 
new plantations. As white ants become better known, more 
efficacious means of combating them will be employed. Well- 
directed attack and systematic and thorough cultivation will do a 
lot to check the pest. 

When driven to it by starvation, as on infested land that has 
been cleared of vegetation they more eagerly attack trees and plants 
which, under circumstances, they would not touch. 

After clearing the land for tree planting or for cropping, all 
stumps and roots which may harbour or attract the termites should 
of course be removed and a search made for their nests ; the same 
precautions is advisable when building a house. The practice of 
breaking down the mounds on new land and obliterating the seat 
of the nests makes it more difficult to locate them for subsequent 
treatment. : 

For that purpose, an apparatus used in South Africa and which 
I also found employed with marked success in the Malay States 
effects efficient clearing work. It is called ‘‘ The Universal White 
Ant Exterminator.” 


577 


The apparatus consists of a hand-pump connected with a 
fire-box in which a charcoal or dry cow dung fire burns. Over this 
a spoonful or two of a mixture consisting of three parts of arsenic 
and one part of flour-of-sulphur is spread ; the lid is closed and the 
pump worked, The fumes are conducted through a flexible iron 
hose with a nozzle that is placed in one of the galleries, After a 


few minutes, white fumes are seen to escape from unnoticed open- 
ings in the ground ; these openings are blocked with damp clay. 
The hot poisonous fumes kill the insects both by contact or by leaving 
along the galleries a film of poison which subsequently kills the 
pest and renders the nest unfit for a fresh invasion for some time 
after. The poisoned insects are also devoured by stragglers and 
thus the arsenic is transmitted right through the nest. 

Other fumigators, viz., the “Bosker” and the “ Snuff-out ” 
carbon fumigators, are now advertised for sale in Perth. They 
are primarily designed for rabbit-destruction in the warrens by 
carbon fumes, and are fitted with patent fire-grate for burning the 
fumigating mixture and with flexible steel tubing for conveying 
the gas from the fumigator to the underground gallery. The 
fumes are not dangerous in the open air. 

A number of other methods, more or less successful, have been 
found useful, and in view of the fact that the white ants are so bad 
in the North provinces, I will enumerate them as they appear 
in my notes. 

1. Watering, irrigation, and cultivation reduce the attacks. 
The majority of the species abhor disturbance. 


578 


2. Poisoned Baits—locust and cut-worm baits—Sawdust 
may be substituted for the pollard. In localities 
where they abound, it is advisable to kill them 
before planting trees, using arsenic in an insoluble 
form lest roots be poisoned, 7.e., Paris Green— 
arsenite of lead or arsenite of lime. The bait is 
placed in holes near the stems of attacked plants 
covered to exclude light. Damp bags sprinkled 
with poison bait and buried under new houses 
attract foraging parties. 

3. Cinders with ashes with a surface dressing of tar 
under houses is said in some cases to act as a re- 


pellant. 

5. In Jamaica the following paint is recommended :— 
White Lime ree Sas doll «. 6 qts. 
Kerosene... fen nes ww. & pt. 

Turpentine ... ae Pas bie .. 1 wine glass. 
Soft Soap ... ese Be i «. 5 Ibs. 
Cow-dung ... sea a eee .. «638 qts. 
Water xa 16 qts. 


Mix thoroughly and, soply freely with a paint or white- 
wash brush to trunks of trees or stems of plants 
requiring protection. The mixture adheres to the 
trunks and branches of the trees for a long time, 
but when it peels off the bark beneath is clean and 
free from pests. 

6. Carbon bisulphide poured in with a funnel into an 
augur hole towards the top of the nest or mound ; 
the heavy fumes sink into the ground. If smoking, 
beware of explosions. 

7. A plug of dynamite with a length of fuse attached— 
but no detonator—inserted into a gallery and then 
lighted. No explosion takes place but the dyna- 
mite burns away giving off a poisonous gas. 

8. Also kainit well dug into the soil, For garden plants 
watering frequently with a solution of bluestone 
z.e., lb. in 50 gallons water, does not appear to 
do the plant any harm. 


PLant APHIS AND Bark Lice. 


are among the most numerous, both as regards species and indi- 
viduals, of all known insects, and the destruction caused by them 
is commensurate with their numbers. There is scarcely a plant 
that is not attacked by them, and some like the grape, peach, 
apple, cherry, orange, and cabbage, etc., have aphis peculiar to 
them. 

They are all small, soft-bodied insects, with a body more or ess 
pear-shaped, the winged forms having two pairs of delicate trans- 


579 


parent wings. The majority of plant lice are aerial in their habits, 
but some varieties also assume a subterranean form, and these are 
among the most destructive and widespread, the phylloxera and 
woolly aphis being the best known. 

Their methods of reproduction are most unique and peculiar 
to themselves, and the different forms they assume—some winged 
and others wingless, some laying eggs, others bringing forth young 
alive and often without the intervention of the male, which in some 
forms has never been recognised, and make them at once interesting 
and puzzling to the naturalist and entomologist. 

In many varieties a sweet substance is produced, called “honey- 
dew,”’ which is exuded through two tubes situated on the back near 
the posterior part of the insect (see page 583), which can readily be 
seen with the naked eye. This is the substance, when produced 
in large quantities, that drips upon the leaves and branches of 
infected plants. This honeydew is devoured by bees, wasps, and 
ants, and supplies food to the black soot fungus or fumagine. It 
is commonly believed that ants destroy plant lice, but the contrary 
is the fact. Ants treat and regard plant lice as milch cows. Ants 
have been observed to approach a plant louse, place its antenne 
on its back, stroking it gently, when the louse will give forth its 
honeydew, which the ant will immediately drink up. The ants 
take good care of the lice, and will transport them to new pastures 
when old ones fail, thus aiding greatly in their distribution. 

Plant lice obtain their sustenance by sucking the juices of 
plants, by inserting their proboscis in woody plants, in the tender 
terminal growths, peduncles of roses, etc., and in the succulent parts 
of plants and roots. While the amount taken by an individual is 
almost infinitesimal, their immense numbers often cause most 
serious injury to the plant they infest, and sometimes its destruc- 
tion. 


Caspace ApHIs (Aphis brassice, Linn.). 


There are several modes of dealing with this pest, and among 
them the best is to spray with Nos. 7, 8, 10, 14, 15, 19, or 20. 
(See pp. 527-531). 


Aphis-feeding Ladybird (Coccinella sep- 
tempunctata), a adult beetle; 6, larva; 
c, pupa. All enlarged (after Berlese). 
Two species of ladybirds—Leis conformis and Coccinella septem- 
punctata—which prey upon this aphis have been introduced into 
the State, as well as two species of Ichneumon flies. 


580 


Wootty Apuis (Schizoneura lanigera). 


This species, in addition so secreting a honeydew, secretes a 
bluish white flocculent, cottony 
substance, which oftentimes almost 
completely conceals them, appearing 
to be tufts of cotton attached to 
leaves and twigs. This pest has been 
distributed to every apple-growing 
country, but its place of origin is 
not yet known. It is, however, one 
of the most annoying pests with 
which the apple-growers have to 
contend against. They have been 
seen infesting the branches and 
trunk of a tree, in which they form 
pits, the bark apparently ceasing 
to grow at the point attacked, 
swelling into a ridge about the 
cluster of aphides. Those that ap- 
pear above ground can be controlled 


lly Aphis, (Schizoneura lanigera) j 
ba tate yoots ; a louse (Marlatt). . Woolly Aphis on Apple Tree branch, 


581 


more or less, but the form which assemble on the roots and 
there produces gall-like swellings is much more difficult to 
extirpate. Every part of the tree which is not blight-proof is 
liable to be attacked, but the roots are now protected by grafting 
or a resistant stock of which the best is the Northern Spy. The 
injury to the tree is caused by the sucking of the sap, which de- 
prives it of nourishment, and by poisoning of the plants, shown by 
the galls on the roots. The damage is particularly serious in the 
case of young trees and nursery stock. The mature bark unless 
bruised or cut is less penetrable, but the bark on the tender growth 
is easily attacked, hence the blight being more particularly severe 
in young apple orchards. Some varieties are more liable to be 


attacked than others, viz., the Jonathan, Reinette du Canada, 
Cleopatra. 


Among the many remedies used for the destruction of the woolly 
aphis are Nos. 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, or 20, also kerosene (see p. 526). 
A fortnight after Nos. 10 or 14. The use of blight-proof stock, 
and No. 9 have been proved satisfactory. A jet of water ejected 
under pressure from a force pump or in suburban gardens from the 
water service pipe, when the pressure is good, is an efficacious way 
of dealing with the pest, provided the treatment be frequently 
applied, 7.e., every two or three weeks in the summer time. These 
jets of water under high pressure dislodge the woolly aphis, as well 
as other aphides, mites, red spiders, clean the tree without destroy- 
ing the friendly natural enemies of our orchard pests, and give the 
tree a refreshing spray, without 
having any of the injurious results 
of poisonous and caustic sprays. 


Natural Enemies.—The woolly 
aphis has very few known natural 
enemies. The larve of some species 
of lace-winged flies (Chrysopide) 
have often been noticed feeding 
upon this pest, and the ladybird 
(Leis conformis) and (Coccinella 
repanda) have been known to al- 
most rid whole orchards of it. 


Buack APHIS OF THE PEACH 
(Aphis persica niger). 
This aphis has proven very 
destructive to the peach trees of 
this State, and as it exists in two 


New ee ee with forms, aerial and subterranean, 


similar to the woolly aphis, its 
control is subject to all the perplexities of the latter aphis. It 
attacks the leaves when they are pushing in the spring, and it 


582 


multiplies so rapidly that it frequently kills young trees and 
seriously damages larger branches on older trees. 


When trees are badly attacked by this aphis the leaves are 
yellowish, more or less curled, and spotted with fungus. 


Remedies.—In winter, dress the soil around the stems of trees 
with gas lime, kainit, fresh manure, a bucketful of No. 7 or No. 15. 
In spring, spray with Nos. 7, 8, 14, 18, or 20 (see pp. 527-531). 


Natural Enemies.—The larve of several species of ladybirds 
feed upon the peach aphis, as do. also the larve of various species 
of Syrphus flies. True parasites of this aphis have as yet not 
been discovered, for the reason that the country to which the aphis 
is indigenous has never been found. 


PLuM AND CHERRY APHIS (Myzus cerasi). 


This aphis closely resembles the peach aphis in general colouring 
and shape. It appears as soon as the leaves of the trees on which 
it feeds expand and multiplies 
very rapidly, being hatched from 
eggs deposited on the branches 
during the previous fall. They 
are not so abundant in midsum- 
mer, but become numerous again 
in the autumn, when the sexes ap- 
pear and deposit their eggs at the 
base of the buds and cracks of the 
bark where they remain during 
the winter, and hatch the follow- 
ing spring. They secrete a large 
amount of honeydew, which at- 
tracts numerous flies and ants. 

Remedies.—Use Nos. 7, 8, 9, 
14, 15, 19, or 20 (see pp. 527-531). 


OrnancE Apuis (Stphonophora 
citrifollt, Ashm). 
This insect attacks the young 
wood of the orange in the spring, 
covering the trees so thickly that 


a Showing aphis on flower stem of cab- 


bage. b The winged louse (natural size). they appear quite black. Colour 
e The same enlarged; colours, greenish : : : 
yellow. d Wingless female. of insect, brownish to shiny 


black. 


Remedies.—Use Nos. 7, 8, 14, or 20. 


Natural Enemies.—This species, as well as the plum and cherry 
aphis, have many natural enemies, which aid greatly in keeping 


583 


them in check. In fact, were it not for these natural checks to aid 
man in preventing the destruction of his plants, all his efforts would 
prove unavailing. Among the most active in this warfare are the 
parasitic flies, which are mostly very small and with four trans- 
parent wings. They lay a single egg on a louse, which hatches 
and produces a maggot in the interior of the host, and which feeds 
on the juice of the louse until it changes to a pupa, from which it 
emerges through a small hole cut in the body of the louse. A close 
inspection of a family of plant lice will disclose many with this hole 
in them. A parasitised louse may be told, even before its death, 
by the swollen abdomen, which will distinguish it from its non- 
parasitised mates. 


One of the most numerous of the predaceous insects is the 
Syrphus or flower flies, which may b seen hovering around flowers 
remaining for a short time stationary in the air. They bear a 


Syrphus fly larve in the act of sucking out an aphis. 


resemblance to some species of wasps, with broad yellow band 
across the abdomen. The fly in its matured state is of no econo 
mic importance. The larve, 
however, are very destruc- 
tive to plant lice. The 
parent fly lays a single 
egg among a Cluster of lice, 


ss : 
this hatches in a few days, 
and immediately com- 
mences its work of destruc- 
Syrphus fly. Syrphus fly larve suck- 


ing out the vital fluids tion. It seizes a louse, and 

of an aphis. holding it aloft while it kicks 

and struggles, sucks the juice 

from its body, and then casts the empty skin away. These maggots 
are blind and have no distinct feet, but they have no trouble in 


584 


finding a louse by extending the segments of their body, which 
enables them to nearly double their length, and to strike here and 
there until they 
find their prey. 
Some species of 
ladybirds are also 
important factors 
in the destruction 
of plant lice, both 
as adults and 
larve ; but as Lace-winged fly. Laced-winged fly, eggs, 
they consume the and larve. 
entire louse, they 
cannot compare with the larve of the Syrphus flies in the speedy 
disposal of aphis. A Syrphus fly larve will dispose of five to 
seven lice while the ladybird larve is consuming one. 


CABBAGE MorTHs. 


The larve of two kinds of moths are, says Mr. Lea, late Ento- 
mologist to the Department of Agriculture, very destructive to 
the cabbage and turnip. These are the cabbage or diamond-back 
moth (Plutella cruciferarum) and the stinking-head moth (Hver- 
gestis rimosalis). Plutella 
Cruciferum (Zell), —- The 
larve of this little moth 
(which is common all over 
the world) are very destruc- 
tive to the cabbage, cauli- 
flower, and turnip. The 
leaves have small holes eaten 
in them, and these holes are 
frequently so numerous that 
more than half the leaf is 
devoured ; with cabbages the 
inner leaves are seldom at- 
tacked, though larva may 
occasionally be seen in the 

A heart itself, the damage is 

f usually to the outer leaves ; 

ee 8 4 si) with cauliflowers every leaf 
Gs? ee is attacked and the crown is 

OG: oC mes § Sime frequently covered with ex- 

: ; crement and web, becomes 
Cabbage es ae pupa, moth of a brown colour, and is 
totally unfit for market ; 

hundreds of larve and pups may be seen on one plant. The 
larve is pale green in colour, and, on being touched, jerks itself 


585 


about and drops down, usually by a fine silken thread ; when 
about to pupate it spins a loose silken cocoon generally close to 
the mid-rib, the cocoon is so slight that the pupa can always be 
seen through it. The moth is a small slaty-grey insect with 
diamond-shaped white marks along the middle of the folded 
wings ; it is readily attracted to light. All over Australia the 
larve are very severely parasitised by a small Ichneumon wasp, 
and so numerous are specimens of this insect that it is doubtful 
if 20 per cent. of Plutella larve ever becomes moths. The larva 
of the parasite is a small legless maggot which, when full-fed. 
constructs a small cocoon within that of the larva it has 
destroyed. The larve of Plutella have numerous other enemies, 
amongst which may be mentioned two species of Syrphus flies, two 
Chalcids, and several predaceous bugs. 


Some years ago two additional species of useful parasites have 
been introduced into this State. 


Remedy.—Spray with Nos. 11, 13, or 19, or sprinkle with Paris 
green, loz., in flour or lime, 5lbs. 


Another species of moth (Hvergestis rimosalis), the larve of 
which does much damage to cabbage and cauliflower and also 
turnips, is also found in this State. The moth is a pretty yellow, 
with the front wings irregularly spotted and striped with chocolate 
and pater yellow markings. No parasites have been bred from the 
larve. 


Remedy.—Spray with Paris green, loz. in flour or lime 5lbs.. or 
spray with Nos. 11, 13, or 19. 


CasE-Motus or Bac-Worms. 


Fruitgrowers are familiar with the little inverted cone-shaped 
cases which are to be found hanging to the branches and twigs of 
their trees. There are two kinds which attack apple and pear trees, 
and the cases should be pulled off and destroyed, as the caterpillars 
contained in them are responsible for many of the disfiguring marks 
to be found both on fruit and leaves. They are night workers, and 
remain suspended by a silken thread during the day. The cases 
are beautifully constructed out of the little bits of wood and leaves 
fastened together by a strongly woven silken material secreted by 
the insect. In some places they are most abundant. 


Remedy.—Hand pick and burn. 
A large number of larve of butterflies and of moths are de- 


stroyed by soldier bugs, which are beneficial Heminoptera insects. 
They pierce the bodies of the grubs with their beak and suck them 


dry. 


586 


A Destructive Cockcnarer (Anoplosthetus Opalinus, Brulle). 


Cockchafers are large beetles, belonging to a family known as 
Scarabaeidae or Lamellicornes. Mr. Lea, in writing on this insect, 
says :—‘Nearly all the members are destructive in their larval stages, 
when they feed upon roots, decaying wood, or actually bore through 


587 


solid timber; a number (to which belong the sacred beetles of 
Egypt) are useful from their habits of burying the excreta of 
animals, and so directly fertilising the soil. In England, I believe, 
it is only beetles belonging to the sub-families Melolonthides and 
Cetoniides that are known as cockchafers, but in Australia any large 
lamellicorn is spoken of as such: members of the sub-family 
Rutelides (to which Anoplostethus belongs) being commonly spoken 
of as cockchafers. In Europe and America a number of species 
have been recorded as extremely destructive during certain years. 
In France and elsewhere, large areas of grass and cereals have been 
entirely destroyed by having the roots eaten, the grass withering up 
and blowing away, so that fields were left entirely bare. When full 
grown, the cockchafers feed upon leaves and petals of flowers, and 
occasionally do serious harm from the great numbers in which they 
occur, and their occasionally migratory habits. The species now 
treated on is one which is found only in this State, and is ex- 
tremely common during late spring and summer, nevertheless, un- 
less specially looked for, it is seldom seen as it only flies at night, 
remaining concealed during the day underground or on the shady 
side of a leaf; on a sultry night a specimen may be sometimes taken 
at a lamp or other light. During November and December, at dusk, 
I have seen swarms of these insects flying around lemons, pear, 
peach, and other fruit trees; on examining these trees afterwards, 
large numbers of leaves were noticed to have been partly eaten. 


The larve feed upon the tender roots and the larger roots of 
fruit-trees, vines, buffalo, couch, Cape lilac, etc., and their presence 
is often unsuspected, the damage, if noticed, being put down to 
poorness of soil, want.of water, or other cause. They probably 
pass a couple of years underground before changing to pupa, 
which state must last for but a short period, but probably for several 
months. 


The beetle is about an inch in length and rather bulky, and it 
is of a beautiful opalescent green, rendered still more beautiful by 
placing the insect in water or spirits; its shape, as also that of the 
larva and pupa, has been well shown by Mr. Fuller in the accom- 
panying wood block. The larve has the usual shape of a lamelli- 
corn, and, with other species, may often be noticed whilst ploughing 
or digging is being carried on: numbers may often be noticed under 
logs in damp situations. The pupa is enclosed in a brittle, sandy 
cocoon, differing in this respect from that of the wood-eating 
species, which are usually hard and formed of triturated wood and 
excrement. 

The larve (at least so far as my observations extend) appear 
to be free from internal parasites; they are, however, attacked by a 
small semi-transparent mite, sometimes in considerable numbers. 
The winged beetles frequently contain the maggot of a fly belonging 
to the Tachinidae, which, when fully developed, is about the size of 


588 


the common blow-fly. At an early date it is intended to give an 
illustration of this species, as internal parasites of fully grown 
beetles are excessively rare, only two instances of such have ever 
come under my observation. On the under surface of the beetles 
small ticks belonging to the Ixodidae may occasionally be seen, and 
at the bases of the wings a few small red mites have been noticed. 
It is to birds that we are especially indebted for keeping this and 
similar insects in check. Our native insectivorous birds—notably 
the magpie—are well worthy of protection. Poultry are especially 
fond of them. 


Honry Beerne anp Sprinc BEETLE. 


These beetles appear in the spring sometimes in plague form. 
The first one, says Mr. L. J. Newman, Government Entomologist, is 
brown with black at tips of wings—DPhylloctocus ustulatus. 

The spring beetle—Colombyforma lineata—is smaller and 
greyish-green in colour. 

They breed through the South-West in grass and scrub land. 
The larve are root feeders, and go through that stage outside the 
orchard. The adult beetle ceases to be noticeable in the early sum- 
mer. 

Treatment: Spray the infected trees with llb. arsenate of lead, 
15]b. flour, 8 gallons water; or Ub. Sunlight soap, 5 gallons water. 


THE Coptin Morn. 


The first report of the Codlin moth in Western Australia was 
recorded in 1902, and was traced to some apples smuggled into the 
State despite the prohibition regulations. Following this several 
sporadic outbreaks came under notice in Chinese gardens at Perth, 
Albany, and on the Swan. Prompt and effective means were taken 
for quarantining the infested spots, and, at the time of writing, 
Western Australia may again be declared free from that pest. 


Description. 


The Codlin moth (Carpocapsa pomonella, Linn). It is so called 
because in Burope it mostly attacks the early culinary or ‘“cod- 
dling” varieties. 

The moth itself is about half an inch in length, when at rest, 
and measures about three-quarters of an inch across the expanded 
wings. The fore wings are grey, crossed with wavy brown lines, 
and are ornamented with patches of metallic bronze scales near the 
margin. The hind wings are light brown. The male is supplied 
with a dark narrow space on the lower surface of the front wings, 
and a narrower stripe on the upper surface of the hind wings. 
These dark spaces, says A. M. Lea, are due to hairs, and are absent 
in the females. 


589 


The egg is white, seale-like, and flat. Smaller than the head of 
a pin, it is not easily seen on the fruit until the young grub has 
left it, when it soon after falls or is blown off. 


The larva, or grub, on hatching, is one-sixteenth of an inch in 
length, and, when full grown, ten times as large, or five-eights of 
an inch. It is of a fleshy pink colour, and is covered with a few 
stiff hairs. The male, says A. M. Lea, can be distinguished from 


Apple attacked by the Codlin Moth. 


the female by the presence of a small dark space in the centre of 
the body, that can be seen through the skin. The grub of the light 
brown, or false codlin moth (Cacaecia), is chiefly differentiated by 
its dirty green colour, besides being considerably thinner. 


The pupa, or chrysalis, is brown, and about half an inch in 
length; when empty, it is a very pale brown. 

The cocoon is made of white silk, and is joined to, and more or 
less concealed by, the bark or bandage, wherever it is placed; it is 
never loosely placed, and frequently the grub eats a small hollow 
space for its reception. I have often seen these cocoons between 
the nailed end of the battens, and the end or centre board of fruit 
cases, in places where one could hardly insert the blade of a knife, 
the grub having practically eaten for itself a hollow chamber, where 
it spins its cocoon. . 


Introduction and Distribution. 


The codlin moth is as widely distributed as the apple itself. It 
is a native of Europe, where, owing to the fact that it is there kept 
in check by climatic conditions, or by natural enemies, it is not so 
mischievous as it has proved to be either in America or in Australia. 


590 


It was introduced into the United States, from Europe, soon after 
the first settlements were founded. In 1874 it appeared in Cali- 
fornia, and is supposed to have been brought in old fruit boxes. 
It appears to have been introduced into Australia from California, 
and was first recorded from Tasmania sixty years ago, in 161. 
During that time it has ruined many a fruit grower, and even now 
levies a heavy tax on most apple growers in the Eastern States 
of Australia, as well as New Zealand and Tasmania. 


This pest does not attack apples exclusively, but it is also 
found, although not so commonly, in pears and quinces. When 
driven to it, the moth also turns its attention to hard-flesh plums, 
peaches and apricots. It has been seen (but very rarely) on the 
cherry and walnut. Although reported in the tomato, the grubs 
have in every instance proved to be the well-known pests of that 
fruit, the Heliothis armigera, or Mamestra composita, whose grubs 
are much larger than that of the codlin moth. 


In Bulletin 142, Cornell University Experiment Station, on 
the Codlin Moth, 1898, by M. V. Slingerland, the following estima- 
tion of the amount of damage done by the moth occurs:—“Con- 
servative estimates put the annual loss from its ravages, in all 
countries where it is noticeably destructive and but little is done 
to check it, at from 25 to 75 per cent. of the crop of apples. 
Where modern methods of combating the insect are practised this 
percentage is often reduced one-half or more.” 


Lea, in 1900, estimated the loss annually caused in Tasmania 
by the codlin moth at £30,000, “this, however, is probably far below 
the mark.” 


“A loss in an orchard of 50 per cent. is by no means uncom- 
mon, and I have myself (says Lea) seen an orchard near Launces- 
ton every apple in which was struck, and many of which contained 
two, three, or four grubs. From an orchard near Hobart as many 
as 11,000 infested apples have been picked to the acre.” At five 
apples per pound this would give 2,200lbs., and at 40lbs. of apples 
to the case, 55 cases of grubby apples per acre. 


Western Australia, as already stated, is not yet known to be 
infested with the codlin moth; and this is entirely due to its com- 
parative isolation, and to the wise legislation introduced some thirty 
years ago, and prior to the introduction of Responsible Government. 
The measure, an Order-in-Council, under date 7th March, 1889, 
absolutely prohibited the importation of apples, pears, and quinces 
on any point of the West Australian coast south of Champion Bay 
and the port of Geraldton. The late Bureau of Agriculture has often 
been given credit, or has been abused, for this wise piece of legis- 
lation, but it is seen that the Order-in-Council was enacted some 
five years before the Bureau was constituted, 


591 


‘On the 5th July, 1901, another Order-in-Council revoked this 
order, and since then the prohibition of apples, pears, and quinces 
has been removed; but the importation is restricted to two ports 
of entry, where an efficient method of inspection and of fumigation 
has hitherto proved successful. 


‘ 
Life History in Australia. 


Apple trees blossom in Australia from the last week in Sep- 
tember to the end of October, and a week or two after the opening 
of the petals the first codlin moths issue from the pup@ or chrysalis, 
and the males and females mate. The proportion of these is fairly 
balanced. From observations made, the female lays 80 odd eggs. 
The mother moth flies about at dusk, or even earlier in the day if 
the weather is cloudy, and lays one egg on each apple (if more than 
one grub. is found in the fruit then the eggs have been laid by 
different moths); that egg is more frequently deposited about the 
eye, but it is sometimes seen on the stalk, or even on leaves. 


The eggs are sometimes infertile, especially in cool, foggy 
localities, where the parent moths either fail to mate, or on account 
of the egg not having sufficient warmth to hatch. The first theory 
is the more likley under Australian conditions. During the egg- 
depositing period the moths are said to fly long distances in search 
of a suitable place to lay their eggs, and are often carried in the 
direction of the prevailing wind. 


The eggs hatch in from seven to ten days, and the young grubs 
grope about nibbling at the fruit, generally about the eye, where 
they have their first few meals. Shortly after, they strike the apple 
and effect an entrance into the fruit, generally in the eye, but at 
times from the side or at the place where two apples touch, or where 
a leaf is resting on the fruit. Once this fruit is struck the young 
erub goes on tunnelling towards the core of the fruit, coming back 
to the entrance to void its castings, and afterwards leaving them in 
the tunnel. It soon reaches the pips, one or more of which it eats, 
and then, in about a month’s time, when full fed, it carves a tunnel 
out for itself, generally on the side of the fruit, but sometimes, 
although rarely, along the same channel it cut when entering into the 
apple. This channel is not always visible from outside, but when 
the apple is cut into often becomes noticeable. 


When full fed it either comes down with the fruit, which drops 
prematurely, or it lets itself down by means of a silky thread, and 
it then proceeds to seek shelter. This it finds, in most cases, under 
loose bark on the trunk or the main limbs of the tree itself or on 
adjoining trees, or on fencing posts, under heaps of rubbish, among 
empty cases, potato bags, or other packages, in the cracks of 
adjoining buildings, in piles of rubbish, or under dry clods; it has 
even been seen in the tails and manes of badly groomed horses 


592 


Once secreted, ‘it spins for itself a protecting cocoon, and after a 
time varying from a few days to as many weeks or even months, 
it metamorphoses itself into a pupa or chrysalis, when it remains in 
that state for 10 to 20 days, after which it emerges into a perfect 
insect. 

It is thus seen that when the cireumstances lend themselves to 
its uninterrupted evolution during the warmer months, the coclin 
moth takes 40 to 50 days to pass through its metamorphosis; it 
often takes much longer. Lea, and with him other eareful observers, 
state that the full-grown grub or larva is, on the other hand, often 
weeks operating its transformation. It often lies in a semi-comatose 
state, curled up within its web, all through the autumn and the 
winter, before it changes into a pupa or chrysalis. 

The theory of multiple broods through the summer months is 
now fading away under the light of modern observation. A certain 
proportion do metamorphose into moths again during the season, 
but the majority of grubs pass the winter without changing to 
pupa. Lea and others affirm that in most cases only one brood 
is hatched during the season. 

Just as the grub or larve do not pupate all at once, so dur- 
ing the apple season all the moths do not come out at the same 
time. Those in the gullies, says Lea, will come out later than those 
in the open, and those on the sunny side of a tree before those 
on the shaded side. 

This irregularity has led many people to think that the moth 
was double brooded in Tasmania and other Australian States. The 
test to complete absence of empty chrysalis cases (not cocoons) in 
the bandages during January and February is, in Lea’s opinion, 
conclusive evidence that in Tasmania there is but one brood to deal 
with. 


Outward signs of Wormy Fruit. 


1. A careful examination of a wormy apple often shows, in the 
locality of the calyx, or the eye, a minute puncture surroundel 
with the castings of the young grub, more or less entangled in silky 
web. In some apples this is more apparent than in others. 

2. Frequently, when the apples are growing, a brownish, 
gummy substance may be seen oozing from the eye; and this sub- 
stance invariably denotes the presence of a grub. 

3. When the hole is made in the side, this gummy substance 
is very seldom seen, and the hole is generally covered with web, to 
which small particles of excrement adhere. After the grub has left, 
the hole is generally left partly uncovered, and the excrement 
(which is frequently matted together with web) rapidly turns 
mouldy, but it appears never to turn mouldy when the grub itself 
is present. 

4 


593 


4. Wormy fruits often colour and show signs of ripening a 
fortnight or more before healthy ones, and they will frequently 
drop. Soon after they strike ground, and often within a day or so, 
the concussion will urge the grub to come out. 


5. When the grub has made its exit a noticeable hole is seen 
on the fruit. 


How to Fight the Codlin Moth. 


1. The first essential of a successful attack against the codlin 
moth—and, for the matter of that, against all manner of plagues, 
blights, and pests—is concerted action. 


2. Where an outbreak first takes place in a clean country or 


district, the readiest and most reliable way of stamping it out is the 
starving out method. This, when carried out in an energetic man- 
ner, is unquestionably the best means of coping with an outbreak. 


3. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Never 
use second-hand fruit cases. 


4, The life-history sketch of the moth indicates that each 
female moth is good for 80 eggs or more, half of which are females. 
It thus becomes apparent that every worm, or every moth, destroyed 
at the beginning of the season is worth a great number later. Every 
effort should, then, be directed towards their destruction in the 
early spring. With this end in view, all apple sheds or storerooms 
should be throughly disinfected by means of hydrocyanie acid gas, 
sulphur fumes, or hot steam. Every apple storeroom should be 
made secure against escape of the moth; for this purpose wire 
screenings should be placed over the inner doors and windows, 
which should fit well. 


5. The apple orchard should be free from rubbish heaps. 
Wire fences are less subject to harbouring the grubs than wooden 
ones. The ground should be kept well cultivated and clean, and the 
older trees should have the loose bark scraped. 


6. In badly infested districts in Tasmania, which, by the by, 
has grappled with the codlin moth question with more thoroughness 
than have yet the other Australian States, “it has been found 
necessary to so prune the trees as to allow the pickers to see into 
any part of them; also, to keep the trees low, as it is, of course, 
much more difficult to go over high than low trees.” 


7. All windfalls in infested localities should be gathered as 
fast as they come down, as unless this is done the wormy apples 
will, after the concussion they have received, be soon deserted by 
the grub. This should be more particularly attended to in January, 
February, and March. 


8. Night light traps, with a lantern hung over a tin tray con- 
taining some sticky substance have been recommended, but the 


594 


great majority of observes now admit that the codlin moth is not 
attracted by light, and that when a few odd ones are thus caught 
the event is more of the nature of an accident. 


9. Traps with fresh apple juice sweetened with sugar or honey 
have been tried in South Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania 
with more or less success. Lea used such traps in February and 
March, and, “so far as the codlin moth was concerned, they were 
total failures.” Possibly, says he, if used in December and January 
they would have been more successful. 


10. Arsenical sprayings is, of all the weapons used against 
this pest, one of the most deadly. It aims at depositing on the 
surface of the young apple, pear, or quince—and in such a position 
where it is likely to be picked up by the young grub soon after it 
hatches—a bait that will prove fatal, A better understanding of 
the habit of the codlin larve enables us to better encompass its 
destruction. 


The cost per acre of each spraying, according to the size of the 
trees, may be put down at six to twelve shillings. To ensure a clean 
crop three to five sprayings are necessary. 

Observation has taught that the mother moth lays one egg on 
each apple. Should the egg be a fertile one, and should it escape 
detection by natural enemies, it soon hatches; the young grub then 
instinctively crawls towards the calyx or eye of the fruit, and there 
has its first feed or two. It also nibbles here and there at the outer 
surface of the fruit, and after having had a few feeds proceeds to 
bore into it. It is whilst thus feeding that it picks up the poison. 
That poison, it is seen, must therefore lie where it is most accessible, 
and this is done in this way: After the petals drop, and as the 
fruit develops, the sepals which are disposed around the eye, and 
which, when accompanied by the corolla, are uniformly expanded 
and spreading, soon assume various shapes, covering more or less 
the tube which constitutes the calyx cavity. It is before these 
sepals close that cavity that the spraying should be done, and the 
most propitious time for this operation is about a week after the 
setting of the fruit. When this is done a certain amount of the 
poison is imprisoned within the calyx, where we know that most 
codlin grubs generally have their first meal. Should, however, the 
spraying be delayed, the poison will not be deposited within the 
calyx cavity with the same certainty, and fewer codlin grubs will 
have a chance of picking it up. Should rain supervene after the 
spraying, it is advisable to spray again in order to get at the later 
hatched grubs, as all moths do not emerge from their chrysalis 
stage all at once, but come out from October right on till the middle 
of summer. 

Slingerland, commenting on the results of spraying with arsen- 
ites, reports that at least 70 per cent. of the loss commonly suffered 
by the fruit-grower from the ravages of the codlin moth could be 


595 

prevented by thoroughly applying the arsenical spray once or twice 
in the spring, indeed, “thousands of practical fruit-growers, who 
have thoroughly tried it, are unanimous in their testimony that from 
50 to 90 per cent., in some cases, of the fruit that would other- 
wise be ruined by the insect, can be saved at a comparatively slight 
expense.” Any of the several arsenical poisons may be used, viz., 
Paris green, London purple, white arsenic, arsenite of lead, etc. 
‘Of these arsenate of lead and Paris green are the best, when un- 
adulterated, and in the hands of the average fruit-grower, that 
which are the safest to use. 

11. Bandages, when well applied and carefully attended to, 
are better than any of the patent traps yet tried. Next to spraying, 
the greatest number of grubs can be destroyed by its use, and from 
40 per cent. to 50 per cent. of codlin larve are said to have thus been 
entrapped. The bandages are made of wide bands of hessian, 
about 12 inches wide, and long enough to encirele the stem of the 
tree. The piece of stuff is folded in the middle and fastened tightly 
round the tree by means of twine. 

“According to the regulations at present in force in Tasmania, 
the bandages should be placed on the trees in November, and finally 
taken off not later than the following July.” They should be re- 
moved every eight or ten days and boiled—this boiling also de- 
stroys a great many eggs of red spiders—and then replaced. This 
is preferable and more reliable than an eye inspection of the bands, 
whereby a certain number of grubs are generally allowed to escape 
unnoticed. On going over the trees, when the bandages are re- 
moved, a pointed probe should be used to search out all grubs which 
may have secreted themselves under pieces of bark, or eaten for 
themselves a hiding-place into the bark, broken branches, forks of 
the limbs, or old sears—as they prefer such places to the bands. 
Two bands, one over the other, are sometimes used, as some of the 
grubs, at times, crawl over the first in search of a hiding-place more 
to their liking. 

Although bands answer a good purpose, they must be applied 
to other kinds of trees, and even to fencing posts around apple, 
pear, and quince trees, to do all the good which may be expected 
from them. 

Mr. George Compére, who has done valuable work in Australia 
and China for the State Board of Horticulture of California, and 
who is now attached to this Department, mentions another easy 
way of gathering and destroying the codlin grub in California. 
Long straw is lightly gathered about the trees in the summer, and 
then raked up into small heaps and set fire to. 


Natural Enemies and Parasites. 


12. Probably the greatest distributor of the codlin moth is the 
fruit-grower himself, and the compulsory spraying and bandaging 


596 


in force in Tasmania meet with many opponents, says Lea. 
“Firstly, from those people who object to being compelled to do 
anything; secondly, from those who think it useless; thirdly, from 
those who, on account of their orchard being lightly infested, think 
it is too expensive to bandage and spray hundreds, or perhaps 
thousands, of trees to catch a few grubs.” That class of people will 
always be found in any community, and therefore it is to natural 
enemies and to enternal parasites of the codlin grub that we must 
look to in order to minimise the tax it levies on infested orchards. 
It is a fact worth noticing that, in those countries where the apple 
tree found its birth place, there nature has widely provided natural 
enemies, whose functions in life is to keep in check those insects 
which prey on the fruit. In America, in Australia, and in South 
Africa, where apples, although introduced, flourish as well, if not 
better than on the continent of Europe, the codlin moth was also 
introduced, but many of its natural enemies and parasites must have 
accidentally been left behind. The balance of nature has in 
consequence been disturbed, and the moth has been having it 
pretty well all its own way. Artificial means, such as fumigation, 
spraying, bandages, and quarantine laws have, no doubt, done good 
work, but gradually and surely the pest is spreading, and is getting 
more troublesome. In Devonshire, in Herefordshire, in Normandy 
and other localities famed for their apples all the world over, no 
fumigating, no spraying, no bandaging are practised, and yet there 
apple-growing continues to be a remunerative and a national in- 
dustry. It is to these localities that the American, the South African, 
and the Australian apple-growers will have to look for help, in 
the shape of codlin parasites. 

The Americans are now well impressed with this fact, and they 
are already out in the field collecting these parasites and enlisting 
them in their warfare against the moth. 

What these natural enemies are is a question of considerable 
moment for the apple-growers, and a list is here given, many names 
of which are taken from Mr. A. M. Lea’s report. 


Birds.—Hens in an infested orchard pick up a great number 
of codlin grubs and tear them out of their cocoons; in fact they ean 
easily be trained to follow those engaged in lifting the bandages, 
and are found to be of great assistance. In America, woodpeckers 
and robins unceasingly seek after these worms during the winter 
months. In Tasmania, goldfinches, crows, starlings, and Sparrows 
eat enormous numbers of the grubs, the last two, however, in other 
ways prove themselves destructive birds. In Germany and other 
parts of Europe the tom-tits do good work. 


Mammals—Mice and rats and bats devour many of these in- 
sects. 


Insect enemies are numerous; of these the internal parasites 
are amongst the most useful, They include three from Europe, 


597 


Campoplex memorum, Pachymerus vulnerator, and Phygadenon 
brevis. 


When it was announced some time ago that a parasite of the 
codlin moth had been discovered by George Compére great interest 
was at once manifested by fruit-growers. The new parasite—or 
rather, two species of them—have been received by the State Horti- 
cultural Commissioner. At the request of “California Fruit Grower,” 
Mr. E. M. Ehrhorn makes a statement regarding these new para- 
site :— 


Parasite No. 1—The ecodlin moth parasite, which was discov- 
ered on the coast of Spain, by George Compére, an agent of the 
State Commission of Horticulture, has arrived. There are two 
species of the parasite. One is a very large one, preying on the 
larva or worm of the codlin moth. It is a wasp-like fly, with a very 
long ovipositor, so fitted that it can reach up under the loose bark 
and rout out the worms. It deposits its eggs on the worm of the 
moth, and then gives the worm several quick, fierce jabs with its 
spear-like ovipositor to kill it. The larva of the parasite then uses 
the carcass to feed upon. 


Parasite No. 2.—What parasite No. 1 misses the smaller one 
sent attacks, as the codlin moth has passed into the pupa form, and 
this small parasite lays its eggs in this form of the insect. As high 
as fifteen of these little parasites have been hatched from a single 
codlin moth. Both species have been received, and are now in the 
breeding cases. 


The Work in Spain.—In the section whence these parasites 
were sent the codlin moth is so scarce that it is hardly noticed, the 
per cent. of wormy apples being only from three to five per cent. 
Hundreds of old apple trees are hanging full of beautiful apples, 
and not a single codlin moth can be found, although nothing has 
been done to prevent the insects from spreading, and it has been 
known in that section for thirty years. 


Hair worms (Gordius) have been seen in grubs in the United 
States of America and Europe. From the United States a small 
wasp (Trichogramma pretiosa) is parasitic on the eggs. An 
Iechneumon (Macrocentrus delicatus), and a fly (Hypostena varia- 
bilis) are parasitic on the grubs when in the fruit; another Hymen- 
opterous insect (Goniozus) is an external parasite, an Ichneumon 
(Pimpla annulipes) destroys the pupe. In California, a wasp 
(Sphecius Nevadensis) “frequents pear trees, and is described as 
pulling the grubs out of the fruit with its fore foot,” says 
Slingerland. After the grubs have left the fruit more enemies be- 
set them. In America three soldier beetles (Chauliognatus Pennsyl- 
vanicus, C. marginata, and Telephorus bilineatus) feed on grubs and 
pupe as well also on a Neuropterous insect (Rhapidia), and other 
beetles destroy pups, viz., Trogosita laticollis and T. corticalis 


598 


In Tasmania and Australia two common soldier beetles (Telephorus 
pulchellus and T. ruficollis) eat grubs; the spotted ladybird (Leis 
conformis) devours young grubs and even pull these from the 
fruit when it is just starting boring; ground beetles, and 
among them (Q@nathaphanus pulchér), one which occurs on 
the mainland; bugs of the genera Reduvius and Pentatoma 
destroy grubs sometimes even before these have left the fruit; 
even the much despised earwigs eat numbers of the grubs, 
and then afterwards will turn their attention to their exerements, 
and to the apple itself; spiders and centipedes eats the grubs, and 
the former the moths as well. Although a long list is here given 
of natural enemies of the codlin moth, nevertheless the fact remains 
that many more must exist, and also that they have proved them- 
selves to be inadequate in their isolated efforts in appreciably 
keeping down the codlin moth. How far their introduction from 
distant parts and their concentration in codlin moth-infested 
localities will prove effectual in combating that dreaded pest is a 
problem which awaits solution at the haads of economic entomolo- 
gists.” The key to their successful introduction would be in guard- 
ing against the introduction as well of the secondary parasites. 


CURCULIO. 


A weevil pest, seen for the first time in Western Australia at 
Dalgarup Park, Mr. Godfrey Hester’s property. It started some 
eighteen years ago around one or two trees, spreading (1906) 
centrifugally. Other members of the family are:— 


Orthorrhinus Kluggi, Scb.—The vine ecurculio. French, Part 
TIL. page 58. 


Leptos Hopei—tThe Victorian apple root-borer. 
Desiantha Maculata——The strawberry curculio. 


Conotrachelus Nenuphar, Herbst—The plum cureulio of 
Europe and of America. 


Otiorhynchus sulcatus, Fab.—The bud cureulio, which is here 
mentioned. (According to Lea, it should be O. ecribricollis as O. 
sulcatus as a larger and darker species with distinct spots on the 
scale. It is almost omnivorous, and attacks the twigs and buds and 
also the leaves of a number of plants. Miss Ormerod says the full 
grown insect is five-sixteenths of an inch from tip of snout to the 
end of wing cases, and one-eighth of an inch wide. 


The eggs are laid a little below the surface of the soil; the mag- 
gots or larve are legless, whitish, somewhat hairy, and occur from 
about August to the following Spring at the roots of the food plants. 
The pupa is yellowish white, with brownish hairs, found about April, 
three or four inches below the surface of the ground, and remain 
thus a fortnight. The weevils are four or five lines in length, of a 


599 


dull black colour. The body between the head and the abdomen is 
granulated, and the wing cases are rough, with several raised ae 


and spotted with pale hairy tufts, and like other species of O., 
has no wings. 


In Australia, these beetles appear in the growing season, about 
November, and decrease about Christmas, and cease in March. The 
leaves are first serrated, then the bark is gnawed off in patches, and 
ultimately the branch may be defoliated. The beetles emerge from 
the ground at night and set to work. 

Mr. Geo. Wickens reported in 1906 that—“Fowls scratch most 
diligently around the trees infested by cureulios. The beetles re- 
main only an inch or two below the surface during the dav, can 
neither fly nor hop. When infesting an orchard they spread slowly 
from tree to tree; thus their habit render them an easy prey to 
poultry. 

The pest can only be checked by jarring the trees, and catching 
the beetles as they fall upon outspread canvas. Catching them 
over woolly bands immersed with a sticky substance on the outside. 
Dusting the trees while they are damp with Paris green and flour, 
arsenical sprays. 


Cur Worms. 


These, Agrotis munda and other species, are the larve or grubs 
of moths belonging to the family Noctuidae, and they are especi-' 
ally destructive during the night, in the day remaining concealed 
just under the surface of the ground, or under logs, rubbish, ete. 
There are numerous kinds in this State; some are peculiar 
to it, and others are almost world-wide in their distribution. The 


accompanying illustration (by Claude Fuller) shows one of the 
most common and destructive species, in its various stages. The 
larve, as evening approaches, remove themselves from the soil and 
crawl up the nearest plant or young vine, nibbling small pieces of 
bark as they proceed; they eat parts of the buds, and cause dis- 


600 


torted growth, or perhaps entirely destroy the young shoot; leaves 
are also attacked, but the grubs appear to prefer the soft young 
bark and buds. 


Besides the vine this insect attacks the apple, quince, peach, 
and many other fruit, grasses and wild plants; sometimes a plant 
is entirely denuded of its leaves, or left with a few stalks and frag- 
ments of leaves. A tree or vine is occasionally practically ring- 
barked from the numerous patches that have been eaten. They 
hibernate in the soil and come forth in the spring in search of food. 


The larva is thick and fleshy, and larger near the head than 
towards the tail. On being touched it curls itself up and feigns 
death; after a short period it straightens itself, and moves along by 
contracting the high segments and elongating the front ones, the 
motion being somewhat jerky. It is of a dirty sandy brown colour, 
with a feeble stripe running along the back, and two still more feeble 
ones at the sides; the head is shining, the under-surface is of a dirty 
grey colour, and paler than above. There are five pairs of prolegs 
placed on the apical segments; the breathing holes (or spiracles) at 
the sides are small, black and distinct. The body is almost without 
hairs, a few short ones being situate near the anus and on the sides. 
The exerement is black. In captivity the larve will frequently 
devour one another, even when supplied with an abundanee of food. 
The pupe are pale brown in colour, with a small spine at the end: 
they are usually to be found in the situation as the larve, and are 
usually (but not always) enclosed in a small silken cocoon, which 
is generally densely covered with sand and easily broken; around 
the wall of the residence on Rottnest Island I noticed, in the early 
summer, that cocoons of this species were clustered in lumps of 
from five to 20; they broke to pieces almost at a touch and the 
enclosed pupz fell out. The moth itself measures about an inch 
across the expanded wings, the front ones are pale brown in colour, 
and mottled with darker brown and grey, the hind wings are almost 
white, with brown shadings towards the edges, the ribs (or veins) 
are brown, and the outer fringe of hairs is white. The egg is small, 
clustered on the bark; somethimes they are laid in rows, or ocea- 
sionally scattered here and there. 


x 


There are several parasites that hunt and destroy the larve, 
the most plentiful being a moderately large Chaleid wasp: there 
are also two species of Ichneumon, and several flies. 


Remedies——Bait poison, No. 16. Caution: Great care must be 
taken that fowls and stock do not get at the bait. 


Hawk Motus (Chaerocampa celerio and others). 


The larve of several species of sphinx moths feed on the 
leaves of the grape vine. Some of these moths are very handsome, 
and with wings expanded will measure from two to four inches 


601 


across, aud are a brownish grey colour, with brown variegations, 
with brown and pink spots. The moths deposit their eggs on the 
under surface of the leaves; after hatching, the larve feeds on the 
leaves, and grow rapidly until they obtain their full growth, when 
those of some species will measure three of four inches in length. 
They vary in colour, generally green, with golden yellow or reddish 
spots and stripes, and usually with a horn on the hind end of the 


Ly 


a Sphinx moth with wings expanded. 6 Pupa or chrysalis. ¢ Young caterpillar. 
d Full-grown caterpillar in act of feeding. 


body. When fully grown they descend, some entering the earth, 
and some ereep beneath some leaves or other rubbish where they 
undergo their transformation. 

Remedy: Spray with No, 13, Hand picking is the-most success- 
ful. 


602 


Tue Lear Miner (Phytomyza sp.) 


A pest world-wide in its distribution. The eges are laid on 
the leaves, usually on the under surface. The maggot on hatching 
out drills its way between the two skins of the leaves, becomes full 
fed in less than a fortnight, then changes to the pupal form, and a 
few days later to a fly. There are many broods in a season. The 
tunnels made by the maggots show up white in the leaves and are 
often so numerous that more than half of a leaf is affected and 
a perfect network of tracks appear. On holding the leaf to the 
light, maggots are seen, very small and the pupe look like elon- 
gated seeds. he flies are very small, their bodies being hardly 
larger than the head of a pin. Attacks the milk thistle, marguerite, 
cineraria, sunflowers, geraniums, chrysanthemum, dahlia, leltuce, 
celery, parsnips, peas, tobacco, nasturtium, Cape weed, dandelion, 
sweet potatoes. I found sublimed sulphur of some use. A. M. 
Lea says no known spray is of any use, but pick out and burn the 
leaves. 


EELWoRMS OR GALLWORMS. 


A small nematode of the genus Tylenchus, sometimes confused 
with “scab.” Rounded swellings from the size of a pin to the size 
of a pea appear on the roots. The eggs, after the decay of potatoes, 
ete., can withstand long periods of dessication and, given suitable 
conditions, can resume normal activities even after three or more 
years. 

Other plants than potatoes, viz. bananas, onions, beetroot, 
clover, oats, wheat, ete., can be attacked, and all classes of soil can 
carry them—generally worse in fairly wet ground. 

The remedies consist in— 

Rotation. 

Destroy the refuse of affected crops. 

Clean seeds. 

Kainit and sulphate of potash retard eelworms. 

Sow a trap crop of beet which can be pulled up when 
attacked. 


Sr See 


Pear AND CHERRY SuuG (Selandria cerasi). 


This is a smal] black saw-fly, measuring about a third of an 
inch in length, with two pairs of transparent wings, short antennae, 
and short, thick-set body, which is furnished in the females with a 
fine saw-like appendage (from which this group of wasps take their 
popular name) with which it euts a slit in the leaf and deposits 
from a dozen to eighteen eggs beneath the epidermis. In a few 
days the small, legless, olive-green, slug-like grubs emerge, and 
commence to feed upon the upper surface of the leaf, which they 
soon destroy. When fully grown they measure half an inch in 


603 


length, and have a rounded oval head and thorax, with the body 
much more slender, and cover themselves with a dark olive secretion 
that gives them a very slimy slug-like appearance. 

They pupate in the soil beneath the tree when 
full grown, forming a stout chrysalid, the perfect 
saw-flies emerging in about six weeks’ time. 

This is a pest introduced from America, where 
it does a great deal of damage to pear, cherry, and 
other foliage in its larval state. It is also regarded: 
as a very serious pest in Victoria, but in this State 
does not do very much damage, and is easily de- 
stroyed, 

It is very partial to the hawthorn, and when haw- 
thorn hedges exist it spreads rapidly —(Agricul- 
tural Gazette of New South Wales: Froggatt.) ff 

Remedy.—Wait till slugs appear, and then use 
Nos. 11, 12, or 13 (see p. 528). 4 

Dusting the foliage with lime is one of the gypsy 
cheapest and best remedies, as the lime sticks to the (NWN 
slimy coat of the grubs and soon destroys them. XS 

Where they are found to be very destructive to 
the foliage it would be advisable to disturb the soil 
round the trunk of the trees, or treat them with lime, 
so as to destroy the cocoons in the ground. 


Pear Lear Buster Mire (Phytophus pyri, Scheuton). 


This remarkable little mite is hardly 
visible to the naked eye, but the galls it pro- 
duces on the under surface of the leaves are 
generally rounded, measuring under one- 
eighth of an inch in diameter, but where the 
foliage is badly infected, coalescing and 
forming a bigger blotch. These galls always 
have an opening about the centre on the 
under side, so that the mites can’escape on 
to the buds before the leaves fall. This is a 
very curious, elongated, cylindrical creature, 
with only two pairs of legs, head tapering in 
front, and transparent in colour. Opinions 
vary as to the amount of damage that this 
mite does to the trees they infest, but there 
is no doubt that they render the leaves very 
unsightly, and by causing them to fall before 
their time denude the tree so that the sun will 
affect it, and when the galls are abundant the 
crop of fruit will be reduced.—( Agricultural 


Pear Leaf Mite (under 
the microscope). Gazette of New South Wales; Froggatt.) 


604 


Remedy.—Clean cultivation. In winter, dress limbs with No. 6; 
later on, 15 (see pp. 527-529), or powdered sulphur. Two or three 
dressings during spring and early summer. 


Potato Mots (Lita Solanella, Boisd). 


A. M. Lea, writing of this pest in the Agricultural Journal, 
August, 1895, states that this is perhaps the worst insect pest the 
potato-growers have to contend against, and says, where in numbers, 
it will not infrequently destroy almost the entire crop, its tunnels 
filled with excrement going through the tubers in all directions and 
rendering them unfit for human consumption; it also attacks and 
does very considerable damage to the leaves of tobacco, and is ocea- 
sionally seen in tomatoes. 

Seed potatoes often suffer very severely, the larve bore their 
way into the eyes and entirely destroy their germinating power. It 
is not only that the tubers are attacked, the larve preferring the 
leaves to the tubers, as where tubers have been accidentally exposed 
they had been seldom found to be attacked, whilst the leaves were 
swarming with the larve. When the tops die off or are cut down 
by frosts, however, a change takes place, as the larve desert the 
leaves in large numbers and wander about the fields, entering any 
tubers they may come across, even entering frostbitten ones. In 
captivity they will attack fresh leaves in preference to the tubers. 
It is therefore manifest that the crop should be dug before the tops 
become so dry as to drive the potato-moth caterpillars down to the 
tubers. Bag the potatoes before night, the moth being nocturnal 
and laying her eggs when dusk comes. Do not place haulms or 
tops in the mouths of the bags as is often done. 


When depositing her eggs on growing plants the moth usually 
places them close together on the inner side of a leaf, close to the 
main or one of the smaller ribs; the larva on hatching immediately 
eats its way into the leaf, hollowing it out in patches, and leaving 
only the skins of the leaf, which then presents a patchy appearance; 
the larve will often leave one part of a leaf to go to another, and 
it is in eating their way in, that numbers may be poisoned. 


The larva is a small, pale, dirty-green caterpillar, with a brown 
head, and when full grown is about half an inch in length. The 
pupa or chrysalis is pale brown in colour, and is enclosed in a small 
silken cocoon, which is nearly always covered with dirt. The moth 
itself is a small grey insect (the front wings darker than the hind 
ones), a little more than half an inch across the expanded wings. 


Remedies——Sprinkle with No. 13. Store underground if pos- 
sible. Three ounces in 10 gallons of water. 

A parasitic ichneumon wasp is reported from the Cape by 
Loundsberry. 


605 


The most important are preventive measures in dealing with 
this potato pest. See that the seed is free from grub or eggs. 
Always destroy all grubs in infested potatoes, and burn all haulms 
as soon as possible after the crop is dug. Never leave “wormy 
potatoes” lying about. 


At the Hamel State Farm, Mr. F. Berthoud dusts his stored 


seed potatoes with sulphur, hydrated lime with a little Paris green 
added. 


L. J. Newman, Government Entomologist, recommends fumi- 
gating stored potatoes at once with carbon bisulphide, 2lbs. per 
1,000 cubie feet of space, for 48 hours, repeating the treatment 
again six to eight days later when the eggs have hatched. An air- 
tight fumigating tent made of a wooden fromwork 10ft. x 10ft. x 
10ft., or 1,000 eubie feet, will accommodate 120 to 150 bags of 
potatoes. Over this framework fasten tough canvas or hessian 
painted with a whitewash and covered with tarred paper or sized 
paper. Soil is thrown up around the base. A more permanent 
moth-proof room with fly-proof wire door and window may be put 
up where potato growing forms part of the farm operations. 


Tue Rep Mire (Bryobia pratensis, Garman). 


From April to early summer a reddish tint wil] be frequently 
noticed upon the bark of both apple and pear trees, but chiefly the 
latter; sometimes, when the trees are badly infested, even the stakes 
are thickly covered. Upon examination with a lens, it will be found 
that this is caused by countless numbers of tiny, round, crimson 
eggs, clustered together in every curve or irregularity in the bark. 


Later on, when the buds burst out into leaf, these little 
creatures hatch, leaving an empty white shell behind, attack the 
leaves from the underside, sucking up the juice of the tree, and 
causing them to become mottled and fall off prematurely. 


This mite is about twice the size of the “red spider,’ of a bright 
red colour, with four pairs of legs, the front pair much longer 
than the hind ones. 


Heavy rains seem to destroy great numbers, and though this 
pest is so comnion and numerous in many orchards in some parts of 
the State, it does not seem to make much headway or do much 
damage in this country, yet in some parts of America it is looked 
upon as very destructive to fruit trees. 


Remedy.—Clean cultivation. In winter, dress limbs with No. 
6; later on, 15 or powdered sulphur. Two or three dressings dur- 
ing spring and early summer. The sulphuring is best done early 
in the morning if applied dry, being then less inconvenient to the 


606 


men, and also because the powder adheres better on the leaves when 
the dew is on. 


Sulphur, although the essential ingredient for either oidium on 
the vines or for mites and red spider or thrips on orchard and 
garden plants is best mixed with hydrated lime, which occupies a 
position between air slaked and quicklime. “Hydrated lime” is 
prepared by adding water and quicklime in the proportion of 1 to 3 
and mixing thoroughly with a long hoe. When mixed with fine 
sulphur it acts as a diluent, a carrier, and an adhesive material. 
The dust blown into the tree or plant has more far-reaching effect 
than when the material is applied wet by meaus of the spray 


pump. 


Rep Spiper (Tetranychus telarius). 


It is a misnomer to call this insect a spider, as in reality it is a 
mite and possesses only six legs at first. The colour which it assumes 
seems to depend greatly on the sort of food it is living on. It has 
been called a spider simply from the webs 
which it spins over the trunks and branches 
and under the leaves, giving a glassy ap- 
pearance to the surface. These mites are 
able to move quickly over this web. Some 
times they are to be found ‘in masses, a 
quarter of an inch thick, on the underside 
of the leaves. They are almost omnivorous, 
and attack not merely hops, but apples, 
almonds, and vegetables of ali sorts. The 
eggs are attached to the webs, and can 
easily be detached by brushing with a hard 
brush. Let it be borne in mind that as the- 
mites congregate on the underside of the 
leaves, spraying is always difticult and 
more or less unsatisfactory; if, therefore, 
they can be attacked before the leaves burst, and while the eggs are 
clustered on the trunk and in the erevices of the bark, there will be 
a much better chance of destroying them. I find the red spider on 
apples, pears, plums, apricots, hops, beans of all sorts, roses, and 
some other garden flowers. The eggs are sometimes quite reddish, 
while at other times I have noticed that they were colourless. The 
so-called spiders are very small. not much bigger than a large full- 
stop. 

In some countries this so-called red spider does a great amount 
of damage to lemon and almond trees, but in this country it has 
seldom, if ever, caused any serious damage to fruit trees, it being 
destroyed by the little ladybird (Symnus vagans). 

Treatment.—The same as for red mite. 


Red Spider (Tetranychus oF 
telarius.) 


607 


RUTHERGLEN or Fauss Cxincu Bua (Nysius vinitor, Gergroth). 


Description and Life History. 


Mr. Froggatt, in writing on this pest in the New South Wales 
Agricultural Gazette, says:—“Small plant bugs, which every few 
seasons appear in great numbers among the weeds and rubbish in 

, the fields, and when fully developed attack 
the fruit, pricking it with their sharp tubular 
mouths, and causing the fruit to become 
spotted, and finally fall to the ground. These 
bugs are small gray creatures, ahout 1% 
lines in length when full grown, of a zeneral 
grayish brown colour; the eyes large and 
rounded; the forehead rather pointed; and 
the antenne long, composed of four joints, 
the basal one short and thick; the thorax is 
narrow behind the eyes, but broader at the 
base of the wings; the legs long and slender, 
with the tarsi rather black; the wings are 
semi-transparent, with a few dark lines 
showing when closed. 

“They are very active little creatures, running to shelter when 
disturbed on the ground, and if upon the tree, flying off as soon as 
it is touched, so that they are not easily destroyed. Very little is 
known about their earlier stages, but the eggs are said to be de- 
posited about the trunks of the trees, close to the ground. This bug 
is said, besides damaging this and other fruit, to do considerable 
damage to tomato and potato fields by destroying the foliage, but 
the entomologist could never find conclusive proof that this was the 
case. 


“Treatment.—In the Liverpool district several orchardists mini- 
mise this pest, to a great extent, by going round early in the morn- 
ing and shaking edch branch over a large shallow dish containing 
a little kerosene and water, into which they fall and are smothered. 
This, however, would not be practicable in a large orchard badly 
infested. 

“Spraying with tobacco wash (see p.-527) has also been found 
to be effective. 

“Remedy.—Spray with Quibbel’s liquid disinfectant—*%oz. in 
one gallon of water.” 


Rutherglen Bug (Nysius 
vinitor). 


ScaLe Insects. 


These belong to the family Coccidae, and include the mealy 
bugs. The scale bug or bark lice in this family include some of the 
most serious pests with which the horticulturist has to deal. Scarcely 
any kind of fruit is free from their attacks. The ease with which 


608 


these insects or their eggs can be transported long distances while 
yet alive, on fruit or living plants, has caused many species that 
infest cultivated plants to become world-wide in distribution, and 
some have found their way into this State, and it is only those that 
have that will be dealt with in this book. 

In general outward appearance the female insects present very 
variable forms. They may be either naked or covered over with 
some kind of a shield, which may be fibrous, or waxy, or cottony; 
or they may have simply a thin, powdery meal scattered over them. 
The covered insects are, of course, stationary, although in some 
eases, before reaching their full development, they move about, 
carrying their covers with them. The naked insect may be either 
stationary or active. . 

They attach themselves either to the bark or the stem of a 
plant or to the leaves. In the latter case they are seldom found on 
the upper side, but on turning the leaf over the under surface is 
frequently found covered thickly with them. 

In many cases they exude, in the form of minute globules, a 
whitish, thick, gummy secretion, answering probably to the 
“honeydew” of the Aphididae. This secretion drops from them to 
the plant, and from it grows a black fungus (Fumage salicina), 
which soon gives an unsightly appearance to the plant. This fungus 
or “smut” is an almost invariable indication that a plant is attacked 
by insects, and may, indeed, give a useful warning to growers. It 
is not, however, produced in appreciable quantities by all species. 

Some species lay eggs, while others bring forth their young 
alive. Some species are covered with a hard shell, and others with 
a soft. So that an intelligent appreciation of the life history and 
habits of these scale insects is necessary to enable any one to select 
and apply, with any probability of success, a remedy. 

Once scale insects have established themselves in an orchard 
it becomes most difficult to eradicate them. It is easy, however, to 
check their spread and to keep the trees in a clean and healthy con- 
dition. Our experience of introduced scale jrarasites has given the 
most satisfactory results in combating the pest. 


Brown Grape Scare (Lecanium ecymbiform, Sign.). 


This scale was first observed in this State about ten years ago, 
infesting the grape vines in the vicinity of Perth. The adult 
female, in colour, is light brownish, and not unlike Lecaninum hes- 
peridum in shape, but is very much larger. Like other species of 
Lecanium that produce only one generation a year, their develop- 
ment is slow. The larve, when first hatched, are a pale yellow in 
colour, and at once locate upon the leaves, their development being 
slow until they take up their position upon the young cane or stem 


609 


of the plant, where they remain throughout the winter, and in fact 
the balance of their lives; upon the ascent of the sap, in the spring, 
they grow rapidly. They appear to prefer the young canes, and are 


Grape Vine attacked in the Spring by the Grape Scale. 


often to be noticed clustering and incircling a cane for several feet. 
It has also been known to attack pear, peach, plum, and mulberry 
trees, but then only on trees that stood in close phoximity to in- 
fested grape vines. 


This seale, while new to this country, has been known to occur 
in Europe for more than a century, and was described by Signoret 
as occurring on grape vines in France. 


Remedies.—In winter, use No. 10, 14, or 19 (see pp. 528-530). 


Natural Enemies.—Soon after this scale had been identified in 
this State, steps were taken by the Department of Agriculture, 
through the agency of the travelling Entomologist, Mr. G. Compere, 
to seek for and introduce a parasite, a work which has been crowned 
with such satisfactory result that the scale, which threatened to 
become a troublesome one, has since made little or no progress. 


610 


Buack Scaute (Lecanium oleae, Bernard). 


A dark brown or blackish scale, which infests all varieties of 
citrus trees, and nearly all deciduous varieties, and many plants, 
shrubs, vines, ete., and is more generally found in the orchards and 
gardens of this State than any other species of Coccidae. The 
presence of this species can be readily detected by the appearance 
on the branches, foliage, and fruit of a black smut, known as 'umago 
salicina. This smut or fungus is caused by the honeydew exuded 
by the female scale. 


Black Scale (Lecanium oleae.) 


The best treatment for this seale is fumigation with No. 18. 
Spraying with No. 10, 14, or 19 is excellent to check their spread, 
and to keep plants in a clean, healthy condition. The application 
of these remedies should not be made, however, while the sca'e are 
in the adult stage, as it will have little or no effect upon them, but 
should be done while they are yet in their larval stage. 


Natural Enemies.—Some twelve years ago three species of para- 
sites were introduced successfully into this State, and have now be- 
come established: Dilophogaster californica, Hemencyotus crawii, 


G1] 


and Myiocneme Comperei. The first two mentioned are parasites 
upon the eggs, while the last-mentioned is upon the scale itself. 


Black Scale Parasite (Dilophogaster californica). 
Male and Female. Upper, male. 


Black Scale Parasite (Seutellista cyanea). 


The best and most 
effectual parasite of 
this pest has not as 
yet been established in 
this State, viz., Scute- 
lista cyanea, This has 
kept the black scale in 
subjection in Europe 
for more than a cen- 
tury past, and it is to 
be hoped that it will 
be established in this 
State also. 


Brown or Sorr Soare (Lecanium hesperidum), 


This seale differs from the black scale; it is much smaller, 
flatter, and has not the strong ribs so distinctive of that species. 


612 


Its food plants are about the same as those of the black, and the 
results of its attacks upon plants are similar to that of the black 
scale. It succumbs much more readily to treatment than does the 
black scale, its covering not being so hard, and it is besides 
“viviparous.” 

Remedies.—Nos. 18, 10, 14, or 19 (see pp. 528-530). Of these, 
resin and soda wash give very satisfactory results. 

Natural Enemies——Two species of parasites, yet unnamed, 
bave been successfully established in this State. 


San Joss Scate (Aspidiotus perniciosus). 


This is, no doubt, the most destructive scale insect which 
attacks deciduous trees; it appears to be most destructive to 


Fruit and branch infested with San Jose Scale ; and enlarged scale. (After Howard.) 


O13 


apple, pear, and peach. This scale is not striking in appearance, 
and would easily escape notice in an orchard. When once intro- 


Female of the San Jose Scale. 


duced into an orchard its spread is very rapid, and if not checked 
will soon cause the death of the plants attacked. It attacks stem, 


Young larva of the San Jose A The male scale. 
Seale. (Enlarged.) female scales. 3 In badly infested case 
D Showing peculiar red band which it 
produces on fruit and branches. (After 
Fuller), 


-c The half-grown 


614 


leaves, branches, and fruit; but only in severe cases is it to be 
noticed upon the leaves. A peculiar feature of this scale is the 
reddish discolouration around the margin of each female. This 
encircling ring of reddish discolouration is very noticeable on fruits, 
especially pears. Fruits severely attacked become distorted, rough, 
and pitted, sometimes cracking, and becoming unmarketable. The 
cambium layer of young twigs, where the scales are located, is 
usually stained deep red or purplish, and when the scale is only 
seatteringly present the distinctive purplish ring surrounding each 
seale is almost as noticeable on young twigs as on the fruit, and is 
of the greatest service in facilitating the inspection of trees which 
have been exposed to contagion. The young scale might easily 
elude the most careful inspection, but the striking reddish 
discolouration makes them comparatively conspicuous objects. 


This, like all the armoured Coccidae, pass their life under the 
protection of the waxy scale, except during a few hours while active 
in the larval stage, and an equally brief existence of the males in 
their winged stage. 


The long period during which the females are continually 
producing young, during the summer months, has an important 
bearing on the question of remedies employed in its destruction. 


Description—The seale of the female is circular, and in colour 
blackish gray, excepting the exuvie in the centre, which is of a 
deep straw colour; sometimes it has a reddish hue; it measures 
from one to one and a-quarter lines in diameter. The scale of the 


AS D7 Fae 


Aphelinus fucipennis—The Parasite which holds the san Jose Scale in check in Oalifornia. 


males is oval in outline, and nearly black with the exuviw between 
the centre and anterior margin of the scale, but is much darker in 
colour, and more obscure, than that of the females, 


G15 


Remedies——In winter, three applications at frequent intervals, 
if necessary, using Nos. 6, 10, 14, or 20 (see pp. 527-530); or the 
hydrocyanic gas treatment, No. 18. A spray of mustard water, llb. 


to 20 gallons of water, is reported to kill the San Jose scale in the 
foliage season. 


Natural Enemies.—In California this scale is now held in com- 
plete subjection by a small chaleid fly (:phelinus fuscipennis). 
At hortienItural conventions held in that State twenty odd years ago, 


Orange leaf infested with Red Scale (4 spidiotus aurantti). 


the question of dealing with the San Jose scale was one of their 
most serious problems, but now it is seldom if ever referred to at 
such conventions. : 


616 


Rep Scauz (Aspidiotus aurantii, Mask). 


This was, until some years ago, the most serious scale insect 
which the citrus fruitgrowers of this State had to contend against. 
It has a very wide range of food plants, and attacks all varieties of 
citrus fruits, and is often noticed attacking the quince, guava, pear, 
fig, loquat, mulberry, castor bean and rose as well as many other 
varden plants and shrubs. Leaves, fruits, and branches are attacked; 
and it occurs at times 
so thick upon the fruit 
of orange and lemon 
that its market value 
is destroyed. This 
seale belongs to the 
“armoured” ones. 

Description. — The 
colour of the female, 
when scale is formed, 
is light or primrose 
yellow, but as_ it 

Red Scale Parasite. (Enlarged.) reaches maturity it be- 

comes a brownish yel- 

low. The formation of the body is such that under the scale, when 

examined with a lens, its appearance is that of a broken ring, but 

when ovipositing, the posterior end of the abdomen extends beyond 

the circular line of the body. The colour of the natural insect is 

shown through the nearly transparent scale from which it derives 
its common name—Red Seale. 


Remedies—Use, during the summer months, Nos. 10, 14, 20, 
or fumigate with No. 18 (see pp. 528-531). The latter has given 
the best results. 


Natural Enemies—California made a long and continuous 
search for the parasite of this scale, but it was not discovered until 
1900, when it was found in China by Mr. Geo. Compére, and from 
there sent to California, where they were liberated in an orange 
grove well infested with red scale, and, notwithstanding that the 
owner of the grove promised the officers of the State Board of 
Horticulture that he would not spray or fumigate the trees in order 
to give the little parasite a chance to become established, this pro- 
mise, says Mr. Compére, the owner kept, so far as the spraying or 
fumigation, but turned to and cut out the trees and burned them, 
with no explanation to offer for his action, only that he had not 
promised not to burn the trees. 


During a subsequent visit of our entomologist to China in 1905, 
only a few seattered specimens of the red scale were to be found; 


617 


these were sent to this State and from them a few specimens of the 
parasite were bred and liberated. 


A parasite of the red scale—a tiny chalcid wasp—has now 
established itself strongly in Calfornia, and also in Western 
Australia, where it was concurrently introduced from the same 
source. In February and March, 1906, swarms were found in scale- 
infested gardens in West Perth, and also near Kalamunda at Mr. 


Greedy Scale. 


Aspidiotus rapak : a, female scale from above ; b, same from below ;_c, mass of scale as 
appearing on bark ; d, male scale ; e, male scale on twig ; 7, female scabs on twigs ; e and 
7, natural size; ¢, considerably enlarged ; a, b, d, greatly enlarged.— Year Book, U.S.A. 
Dep. of Agri., 1894. 


Palmeteer’s orchard, where a few specimens of the helpful parasite 
had been liberated. Since then they have been widely distributed 
by the Entomologist, Mr. J. L. Newman, and the Fruit Industries 
Branch of the Department of Agriculture, with most satisfactory 
results. Orange and lemon trees which some 10 to 15 years ago were 
fumigated every two or three years are now left severely alone, 
and are all the cleaner for not being interfered with, as it was 
found that fumigation was fairly efficacious but, when strong 
enough, destroyed along with the scale insects the young bud- 
carrying shoots, thereby throwing the trees back one season and 
causing the loss of one year’s crop. 


618 


GREEDY Scate (Aspidiotus rapax, Comstock). 


This scale is found to attack a large variety of fruit-trees, 
plants, and shrubs, and is often noticed infesting the pear, peach, 
plum, apple, and apricot trees. Notwithstanding that this scale is 
usually found thickly covering the whole stem or branches of its 
food plants, it seldom causes any serious damage. 


The scale of the female is nearly circular, or slightly oval, 
yellowish in colour when it covers a living, matured insect, but is 
generally a light grey. The full-grown specimens measure nearly 
one line in diameter, and its form is more convex than the other 
species of Aspidiotus referred to in these pages. 


Remedies—In winter, use Nos. 10, 14, 20, or fumigate with 
No. 18 (see p. 528). 

Natural Enemies—While yet no true parasite of the greedy 
scae has been discovered, yet there are a number of predaceous 
ladybirds in this State which feed upon it, and accomplish a great 
deal in reducing their numbers. 


Mussel Scale of the Apple (Afytilaspis pomor um, Bouche), 
Mytilaspis pomorum: a and b, females enlarged: ce, natural size; d, male 
enlarged; »#, natural size After Dr. L. O. Howard. 


619 


Mussz, ScaLe (Mytilaspis pomorum, Bouche). 


This scale insect is a serious pest of the apple trees in various 
parts of the world; it also infests the pear and other fruit-trees, 
but it displays a partiality for the apple. 


This species ean be readily distinguished from the other species 
of scale insects that infest apple trees, and mentioned elsewhere in 
these pages. The scale of the female is long and narrow, and more 
or less curved, and widened at the posterior end, and measures from 


Mytilaspis pomorum: a, adult male; 6, foot of same; ¢, young larva; 

d, antenna of same; ¢, adult female taken from scale; a, ¢, ¢, greatly en- 

darged + b, d, still more enlarged. (Year Book, U.8. Department of Agricul- 
ure 1894.) 


one to one and a quarter lines in length. Colour, dark yellowish- 
brown. The scale of the male is smaller than that of the female, 
and nearly straight. It is not so dark in colour, and has a mottled 
appearance. 

Remedies —In winter months use Nos, 6, 10, 14, 20, or fumigate 
with No. 18 (see pp. 528-530). 


Several parasitic fungi (Microcera, sp.) occur in Australia, 
and are reported to feed on the red scale of the orange (Aspidiotus 
coccineus); on an Aspidiotus of a eucalypt in Tasmania, and one 
(1. mytilaspis, McAlpine) feeds on a mussel seale of the eucalyptus. 


(20 


Aspidiotus Rossi, Maskell. 


This scale has no common name by which it is known, and very 
little attention is ever given to it, as it is seldom noticed upon any 
fruit-trees (olive excepted), but may be found in almost any garden 
or park in and around Perth, where it attacks many varieties of 
shrubs and other garden plants, and is very common on the oleander 
trees. Some writers claim that this is an indigenous species to Aus- 
tralia; but such is not the case. 


Remedies.—Use Nos. 10, 14, 20, or fumigate with No. 18 (see 
pp. 528-530). 


Parlatoria zizyphi, Lueas. 


There is no common name which this seale insect is known 
by, and it was twenty years ago discovered in this State; but 
the trees upon which it was found were at once destroyed by burning 
them, so it may be hoped that the State is again free from this scale. 
In Italy it is one of the most serious pests of the citrus trees, and 
causes a great amount of damage. It had also at one time been a 
serious pest of the citrus trees of the Hawaiian Islands, but on the 
introduction of the Australian ladybird (Orcus chalybeus) to those 
islands it soon became a harmless form, and is no longer noticed 
there. 


Remedy.—Fumigate with No. 18. Spraying aginst this scale 
has, been of no use in Italy. 


Rhizococeus araucariae, Maskell. 


This coceus is a very common pest of the Norfolk Island pine 
(Araucaria excelsior), and a few years ago some trees in one of the 
gardens in Perth were found very badly infested with it; but the 
introduction of the ladybird (Cryptoleamus montrouzieri) from the 
Eastern States has rid the trees of this scale. 


STRAWBERRY BEETLES, 


Between the rows sink, with the top flush with the ground, meat 
or jam tins half-filled with water sweetened with treacle or with 
honey. The beetles at night are attracted by the smell and tumble 
in; in the morning the tins are visited and the beetles taken out and 
destroyed. After a little while but few beetles are left. 


In the autumn mow the plants (not too close, as not to hurt 
the crowns), rake off and burn. By so doing the homes of many 
pests are destroyed, and at the same time the leaf blight is 
checked. 


} 


621 


Some pests from strawberry N 
gardens at Kalamunda were, in 
1904, reported by A. M. Lea to 
be— 


1. Desiantha maculata, a small 
beetle that attacks cultivated 
plants and many wild oats 
all over Tasmania. (A note 
with a rough sketch appeared 
in W.A. Journal of .\gricul- 
ture, Nov., 1897.) 


2. A plant bug of the family 
Lygaeidae, an allied species 
here shown, is common in 
Tasmania, and is destructive 
to strawberries and _ other 
plants. 


3. Larve of one of the chinch 
bugs — probably Nystus 
Vinitor. 


Wuite Corrony CUSHION SCALE 
(Icerya purchasi, Maskell). 


Scattered specimens of this 
seale insect are often met with 
in this State. It has a very wide 
range of food plants, and has been Strawberry Beetle. 


White Cottony Cushion Scale (cer ya purchasi, Maskell). 
Icerya pur chasi—a, scale enlarged, showing larva of Novius at 
work 3 b, pupa of Novius ; c, Novius ; d, scale natural size 
(After C. L. Marlatt.) 


622 


a very serious pest in other parts of the world. In Australia, it 
has never been known to do any damage, being held in complete 
subjection by the little ladybird (Novius cardinalis) and an internal 
parasite (Lestophonus iceryae). This scale is indigenous to Aus- 
tralia. 

Remedy.—The destruction of this scale should be left to its 
parasites, 


Meaty Bue (Dactylopius adonidum, Linnewus). 

Living upon various green-house plants, and often noticed on 
orange trees, it is very troublesom: at times to indoor plants. 
The female, a small seale-like insect, more or less covered with a 
whitish, mealy powder, measures from one line and a quarter to a 
line and a half in length; is of a whitish or yellowish colour, with 
a brown band on the middle of the back, and is covered with a 
mealy powder, which is exereted through the pores situated on the 
various parts of the body. In addition to this there is a woolly 
border around the edge of the body, which is longest at the hind 
end of the body. 

Remedy—See page 624. 


Destructive Meaty Bug (Dactylopius destructor, Comstock). 
This, like D. adonidum, is found infesting green-house plants. 
lt is a very destructive species to sugar-cane in some parts of the 
world, Scattered specimens are frequently met with in gardens in 


6. 

: Male of Dactylopius longifilis. 

a, With wings folded. b. One wing expanded, 
Greatly enlarged. (Berlese.) 


and around Perth. The female is a small yellowish bug, thinly 
covered with a mealy powder; nearly two lines in length. 
Reméedy.—See page 624. 


623 


Lone Tureap Meaty Bug (Dactylopius longifilis, Comstock). 
In general appearance the female of this species does not differ 
much for D. destructor, only a little longer, and has four long white 
threads at ihe posterior end of the body; is found on green-house 
and garden plants. 
Remedy.—See page 624. 


OrancE Meaty Bug (Dactylopius citri). 

The female of this species is not unlike that of D. adonidum in 
appearance, but has not the brown band on the middle of the back, 
: : but becomes completely en- 
veloped in a white mealy exu- 
dation. This, like the other 
species of mealy bugs, forms 
no external scale covering, the 
whitish mealy powder taking 

its place. 


This mealy bug, like most 
other species of mealy bugs, 
has a very wide range of food 
plants, and is a very serious 
pest of the lemon and orange 
trees, attacking both plant 
and fruit. In Italy, at the 
present time, it is one of the 
most serious pests with which 
Dactylopius citri, Female enlarged. (After the citrus fruit-growers have 

Berlese.) to contend, and causes a 
great amount of damage to the orange crop in some dis- 
tricts of that country. This pest has become well established in this 
State, but its spread has been arrested by the introduction of the 
ladybird (Cryptoleamus 
montrouziert) and  an- 
other unnamed form from 
Spain. 

From the fact that 
these mealy bugs have no 
external scale covering, 
and being soft bodied, 
would lead one to believe 
that they could be easily 
destroyed; but such is not 
the ease, as they have 
proven to successfully re- 
sist the deathly effects 


of the hydrocyanic gas Daetylopius citri. 
fumes. @ Front, b back view. (After Berlese.) 


fad 


624 


Remedies.—Spray with Nos. 7, 10, 14, or 15 (see page 528). 
In the open it is not likely that any spraying in the future will be 
necessary, but will in case of plants growing indoors, for when the 
ladybirds are liberated indoors they will at once fly to the light and 
try to make their escape. and are often exhausted and perish before 
they become reconciled to their confinement. 


Dactylopius cttri. 
«, an egg; b, larve; e, first, d, second stage of male; e, 
male; /, dosral view of female; all greatly enlarged. 
(After Berlese). 


SNAILS AND SLUGS. 


Dust the plants with air-slaked lime with some tobacco dust 
added. Where fowls or ducks are not kept, arsenical bait placed 
about the garden is readily eaten, and is an excellent measure. 
Dueks are excellent scavengers where they can do no harm. Traps, 
such as boards or bags, placed over the moist ground and inspected 
in the morning, when the slugs are collected and thrown in a bucket 
with salt water. 


THRIPS. 


The members of this order have four wings; these are similar 
in form, very small—one twentieth to one twenty-fifth of an inch— 
long, narrow, membranous, not folded, with but few or no veins, 
and only rarely with cross veins; they are fringed with lo hairs, 


625 


and are laid horizontally along the back when at rest. The meta- 
morphosis is incomplete. The mouth parts are probably used chiefly 
for sucking; they are intermediate in form between those of the 
sucking and those of the biting insects—i.e., they are fitted to pierce 
and to suck. 

There are various species in this State, and some are very de- 
structive to onion tops. Onions. attacked by thrips will soon have 
a whitish appearance, and the onions themselves will often become 
stunted in growth. They also attack orange and lemon trees, feed- 
ing on both the upper and lower surface of the leaves, and giving 


Cluster of oranges infested with Dactylopius citri. 


to them a very whitish appearance. Where they appear they do 
some damage if early rains fail, as then the leaves become less juicy 
and palatable for them and they betake themselves to the fruit. 
They are extremely lively, leaping or taking flight with great agility. 
Some species eat other inseets, but the most live upon vegetation. 


626 


Rain is the most formidable enemy of the thrips, so they are 
more in evidence in dry seasons. Spraying, especially with sul- 
phides or with tobacco decoction, or, again, resin and soda wash will 
also act both mechanically in washing them off the plants by the 
million and killing them on account of the poisonous sulphur fumes. 

Remedy.—Clean cultivation. For onions spray with No. 15, 
and destroy all tops as soon as crop is harvested. On fruit-trees 
spray with Nos. 10 or 14 (see p. 528). In the case of onions 
there are two obstacles to overcome; the very young thrips work very 
largely down about the base of the leaves. Owing to the peculiar 
growth of the plant, it is very difficult to reach them. One pound 
of whale oil soap, dissolved in 12 gallons of water, is also very 
effectual in destroying thrips. While in Spain the writer noticed 
the larve of a Syrphus fly feeding upon thirps infesting pear trees. 


Wire Worms. 

There are many species that feed upon the roots of various 
plants, and at times do considerable damage. These so-called worms 
are slim, and brown in colour. They are the larve of what are 
known as click beetles. 


Remedy.—Use No. 16 bait (p. 530). 


Fruir Fry (Ceratitis capitata). 

This is beyond question one of the most serious orchard pests 
which has yet found it way into this State. Other pests with which 
we have to deal can, to a certain extent, be destroyed by the use of 
artificial remedies. It is different with the fruit fly. This is owing 
to the nature of its attacking the fruit. Depositing their eggs, as 
they do, beneath the surface of the fruit, places them at once beyond 
the reach of sprays and fumes, and leaves only one course by which 
they can be checked, and this consists of carefully picking all fruit 
suspected of containing the maggots and destroying it by boiling or 
burning the fruit. There is scarcely any variety of fruit which this 
fly does not attack. 

Life History—tThe female fly lays her eggs in the fruit after 
piercing the fruit with her ovipositor; the eggs soon hatch, and 
the maggots grow very rapidly, eating their way to the core of the 
fruit, and when they have attained their full growth they leave the 
fruit and enter the soil to pupate. In warm weather they only 
remain in the pupa stage for about ten days, coming out as flies 
and immediately begin the work of destruction again. Its chief 
aim in life seems to be the destruction of every fruit that it meets 
with. 

Natural Enemies ——Up to the present time the home of this fly 
has not been discovered, consequentially its true parasite is not 
known. 


627 


Some years ago our travelling entomologist, Mr. Geo. Compére, 
set out to investigate this important point, but the matter was not 
followed up. Since then his successor, Mr. L. J. Newman, has done 
good work in perfecting the fruit fly baits, which for a number of 
years had been used with indifferent success (vide Nos. 21 and 22, 
page 531). 


Fruit Fly (Ceratitis eapitata). 


a, maggot ; b, holes where maggots have escaped ; Fig. 1, male fly ; 4, same (natural 
size), viewed from above ; Fig. 2, female fly, viewed frum side ; B, same, natural 
size ; Fig. 3, wing of fly ; 4, antenna ; 5, clubbed appendage frcm head of male; 
6 terminal segments of female’s abdomen, showing the ovipositor; 7, halter; 
8, pups, or chrysalis ; e, same, natural size ; 9, larva, or maggot; d, same, natural 

eq size ; 10 and 11, hooked mandibles of larve. (After Fuller). 


Fruit Fiy or tHe Tomatoes (Louchoea splendida). 


A dipterous insect, one and three-quarters lines long, of brilliant 
bronze-green colour, of stout guild, plump and stout. Froggart 
reports rearing it from tree-tomatoes, ege fruit (Brinjal); and 
potatoes as well. ‘ 


628 


PuLAGuge Locusts. 


Plague Locusts——Every rural resident is, perhaps, familiar 
with the appearance of grasshoppers. But there are many kinds 
of these insects, representing at least two distinct families. The 
family Acrididae, or Locust, include those grasshoppers in which 
the antenne are shorter than the body, and in which the ovipositor 
of the female is short, and made up of four separate plates. It is 
to these insects that the term locust is properly applied. The 
locusts of which we read in the Bible, and in other books published 
in olden times in Europe, are members of this family. It is un- 
fortunate that there are some writers who apply the term locust to 
the cicada, an insect which belongs to another order, and not to the 
locust. 


The term ‘plague locust”? has been applied to many species of 
locust, both in this and other countries. This would lead some to 
believe that there is only one species which becomes a plague, where, 
as a matter of fact, there has from time to time, both in Australia 
and other countries, been many species which have become so 
numerous that they are plagues of the worst type, from a farmer’s 
standpoint. 

In this State 
there are several 
species of locusts 
which cause some 
_ damage to both 
~ erops and pas- 
ture, but the 
one which the 
term “plague” has 
~ been applied to 
is Pachytilis Aus- 
tralis, Br. 

However, it 
makes very little 
difference io the 

Female Locust in the act of laying eggs. (After Riley.) average farmer 

what species it is 
that damages his erops; what the farmer wants to know is how 
best to handle them and prevent the destruction of his crop. To 
accomplish this, many experiments have been carried out in various 
countries. 


Locusts Jay their eggs in oval masses, and cover them with a 
tough substance. Some species lay their eggs in the ground, gen- 
erally a bare spot. The female makes a hole in the ground with 
her ovipositor; and the operation is a very interesting one to watch. 
The female will press the tip of her abdomen into the soil, and at 


629 


the same time working the plates at the apex in such a manner that 
she will gradually bore a cireular hole from one to one and a half 
inches in depth, according to species, and about a quarter of an inch 
in diameter. Some species will lay their eggs in old logs or stumps; 
then, after the eggs are laid (in clusters), the hole is covered up 
with a plug of gummy substance. There is but one generation a 
year, and in most cases the winter is passed in the egg state. 


The most damage is caused by the grasshoppers while yet in 
the hopper stage, before maturity or winged stage. 


The question of dealing with the locust swarms is a very per- 
plexing one. Whenever locust swarms make their appearance it is 
generally found that they will extend over many thousand square 
miles of country at the same time; and all methods employed in 
their destruction up to the present time have only been partially 
successful. A few years ago it was expected that the application of 
the African locust fungus would successfully destroy these locust 
swarms, but this, too, has proved a failure. In the United States of 
America there are some sections where they use what are termed 
hopperdozers in locus-infested districts. These are made of iron 
or tin, in the form of flat trays, containing kerosene or tar, and are 
either pulled or pushed along against the wind, and the hoppers, 
in trying to get out of the way, will jump in or are blown in and 
killed, and millions are thus destroyed in a very short time. The 
poisoned bran mash has also proved a very successful remedy in 
reducing the number of hoppers. This consists in mixing 1lb. of 
arsenic, 2lbs. of sugar, 20lbs. of bran, llb. saltpetre, water added 
to make a mash. Mix the dry bran and arsenic in a tub; dissolve 
the sugar in sufficient water to make the mixture into a mash. A 
teaspoonful of the bait will kill locusts eating it a week after it has 
been laid out, but though its action is slow it is sure, and kills them 
in a few hours. The sugar is added to make the arsenic adhere to 
the flakes of bran. 


A cheaper mixture or bait, called in Manitoba “Criddle mixture,” 
after the name of its user, consists of 40 parts horse-dung; 2 parts 
salt, and l1lb. Paris green, and sufficient water to moisten it. 
Scattered over the infested places it is said to attract the insects for 
some distance, and is as efficacious several weeks after as it is when 
fresh. It offers this advantage besides that of cheapness, that farm 
stock won’t pick it up as they would poisoned bran. 


Natural Enemies—lIt was expected some years ago to secure 
from New South Wales some of the tachina fly parasites which are 
to be found in that State; but owing to the dry condition of the 
country at the time no locusts were to be found. This parasite is 
itself, in turn, heavily parasitised by an ichneumon fly. There ean 
be no doubt but that if we could introduce the tachina fly into this 


630 


State, and leave the ichneumon or secondary one behind, they would 
do more to check the locust swarms than all the artificial methods 
which we could apply, While in China, Geo. Compére found that 


a 
3 ‘ Antenne of Masieera 
Tachina Fly (Masicera pachytyli, 3K.). pachytylt. 
4, Parasite of Plague Locust in New South Wales. (Greatly 
enlarged.) Al, Same, naturai size. 


Parasite Maggot escaping from a Magnified and Life-sized 3 
Locust. Maggot of Locust Parasite. 


there is a parasite in that country which destroys the eggs of the 
locust; and it is the egg parasite that will accomplish the most in 
holding these hoppers in subjection, as they destroy the locust before 
they have reproduced themselves. 


Orcus Australasia, Boisd. Chilomenes quadripustulatus, Mule. 


USEFUL PreDACEOUS INSECTS. 
While there are a great number of destructive insects in this 
State, there are also a large number of beneficial ones. In fact, 


631 


were it not for the beneficial forms, there would be very little, if 
any, vegetation left growing in this or any other Australian State, 
as there are thousands of indigenous species of insects which are 
held in complete subjection by other insects, and are unnoticed. 
It is only when an insect becomes a pest that any attention is given 
it, and it will be found that all pests are imported forms. It often 
happens that imported forms are subject to the attacks of indigen- 
ous forms, which accomplish a great deal in checking their spread, 
and the illustrations here shown, with one exception (Leis con- 
formis), are indigenous species, and should be protected. 


Leis eonformis, Boisd. Rhizobius debtlie, Blkb. Oreus Australasies (larva). 


These useful insects are themselves, in turn, attacked by para- 
sites and predaceous ones, so that they do not accomplish as much 
in checking the spread of imported pests as they would otherwise do. 


Cocetnella transversaits, Fabr. Lets conformis Boisd. 


Blastophaga grossorum.—It has been well demonstrated that 
without the aid of these little insects we cannot successfully produce 
the Smyrna fig of commerce, 


632 


Anyone cutting open a fig when it has attained about one-third 
its size will see the lowers in full development, but unlike those 
of most fruit-trees, they make no outward appearance, but are con- 
cealed within the fig on its internal surface. They are male and 
female—the tormer situated near the orifice, the latter in that Fart 
of the concavity next the stork—the flowers being’ concealed within 
the button-like fruit. consequently there is not the same opportunity 
for pollenation to take place with the aid of bees, wind, or birds, as 
is the case with most other fruits, and nature, having left nothing 


t Male Blastophaga (enlarged). Female Blastophaga (enlarged). 


unfinished, created and commissioned these little insects, which are 
now known as Blastophagas, to perform the mission of caprification. 
The method by which this is accomplished is to plant the wild Capri 
fig amongst the cultivated ones: the insects infest the wild sort, 
which it leaves to visit the domestic one, entering to the interior of 
the fruit by the orifice. This is a very ancient practice. It was 
mentioned by the earliest Greek writers on natural history, and some 
state that it was first used in the Islands of the Archipelago. Some 
writers also doubt its utility; but.the fact remains that the cultiva- 
tion of the Smyrna fig has proven a failure without the presence of 
the Blastophaga. 


Alcohol—Absolute and Proof aces 


Alluvium Soil 

Almond ae 

Almond, LX.L. 

Jordan 

Lauder 
Languedoc 
Ne-Plus-Ultra 
Nonparei] 

Pruning of the ... 


Sanderson's Seedling 


633 


Anthracnose or Black a ack on Grapes... 


Ants ... 
Apples, Select, ‘Ben Davis .. 
Black Ben Davis... 


Cleopatra 
Delicious 


Granny Smith 
Trish Peach 
Jonathan 
King David 
Marjorie Hay 
Rome Beauty 
Rokewood ... 
Sturmer Pippin 
Yates ; 
- Pear, Pruning 
Apricot—Pruning of oe 
Apricots, Select, Blenheim 


Royal 
Artesian Water 


Chandler’s Statesman on 


Dunn’s Seedling ns 
Ellison’s Orange ... 


Camden Pale Superb .. 
Mansfield Seedling 
Newcastle Early 
Oullin’s Early ... 


Ashes of Plants, Mineral Constituents of. 


Aspect modifies Climate 
Avocado Pear 


Bait... 

Banana and Plantain 
Bark-bound Trees 

Bearing of Trees, intermittent 


Beneficial Insects— 1’ ide Insects. ... 


Blackberry 
5 and Raspberry— Pruning of ‘the 
Blasting ground for ee 
Blastophaga grossorum 
Bordeaux -Mixture 
Breadfruit—The 
Budding 
the vine 
Bullock’s Heart 
Burning-off 


Calendar for Spraying * 
Candying Citron and Lemon Peel _ 
a Fruit a 
Canning and Pulping 
Household 
as Factory 
Cape Gooseberry 
Capri Fig 
Carob Tree ... 
Casks—Ullage in 
Cherry—-Pruning the 
Cherries, Select, Bigarreau Napoleon 
% i Bing . 
Black Bohemian. 
Black Eagle 
Burgsdorf Seedling 
St. Margaret 
os + Suda ue . 
Werder’s Early ‘Black 


” 


Chestnut—The a 
i and Welnut—Pruning of 
Chocolate Soil ‘ ‘ 
Cider—Vinegar from 
» ond Perry... 
Citrus Fruits—Land suitable and unsuitable 
Clearing 3 er ais ten 
a Specification ‘for... 
Climate— Light wee 
» Rainfall and Water Supply 
a Temperature # 
» Value of dry air 
Coconnt—The iss 
Cold Storage of Fruit 5 
» How to cool and thaw ses 
Cowen, L. Lindley, and Agricultural Development 
Cultivation—Catch crops in orchards 


- Cover crops or clean culture 
a Distance travelled when ploughing 
5 Implements for F 
e Mulching 
* Spider harness ies 
Summer bu ie a 
Currant—The 


Currants and Gooseberry-—-Pruning of the 
Custard Apple or Cherimoyer : 


306 
177 
331 


Date Palm—The 
Drainage dis 
+ Arterial 
a Deep 
* Sand ee 
ay Sinkhole ... 
55 Surface 
Disbudding 


Diseases—Fungoid ... ea 
Distillation—Making Piquette for 
Dropping of Fruit—The 
Drying Fruit tee 

» Vegetables ... 


Earth Nut or Pea-Nut 
Explosives and Clearing 


Fencing ms 
a Diagram 
~ Gate : me 
35 Stretching Wirenetting see 
re Timber for 3 Ps 
Wire for 
Fermentation 


Fertilisers—Different 6 sources ; of a 


635 


ve Effect of, on Fruit Crops 


$3 Experiment for yourself 


us Relation between Nitrogen and Ammonia 
3 Sulphate of Ammonia and Nitrate of Soda 
55 Nitrogenous és os 

si Phosphatic 

+ Potassic 

iy Value of 


When and How to manure. 
Fertilising Matter removed : by Fruits 


Fig—Pruning the 

Fig Tree—The 

Figs... ah 

» Adam ... 

Adriatic i 

Bourjassotte Black 

» Brown Turkey 

Capri or Wild 

Caprification ous 

for Stock iis as 

>» Smyrna aes ‘ 

White Genoa ... ees 

Stubbertield’s Extra Early ee 

Filbert and Cob... é 
Pruning the es 

Fruitfulness of Spurs and Wood oe 

Fruit Candying... 5 


636 


Fruit, Candying, Citron and Lemon Peel 


” 


” 


” 


” 


Other fruits 


Canning and Pulping 


Case, 
Cold 
Cost 


what it should be 
storage of 7 
of Production ... 


Selection to suit climate 
Shipment Charges 


Drying 


Apples and Pears ... 

Apricots and Peaches , we 
fe ¥ Pitting Knives 

Corinth Raisins =a Sze 

Evaporators for 

Figs wh 

Prunes and Plums 

Pudding Raisins or Lexias 

Racks and Trays ... 

Raisins es ae 


Gathering , 

Grader (home- made) 
Grading 

Ladders a sce 
Picking Appliances ... 
Picking Bags 

Packing and Branding Cases 


., Nailing down Cases 

Apples 

Diagonal pack 

Grapes 

House P 

Oranges, Lemons, ‘and Mandarins 

Pears ate a 
» Wrapping ... 


Trade—The Oversea 
Weight of a bushel of 
What to aie . 
Fruits—Small 5 
Tropical 

Fumigation 


Caution to operators 

Cubic capacity 

Doses and time 

Fumigating outfit 

Granaries aie 

Nursery Stock sia 

What and When to Fumigate 


Fungus Diseases... x 
Anthracnose or Black Spot on Grape os 
Apple or Pear Blight or Scab .. ie 
Bark Browning ... oon ; 

Bitter Pit of the Apple 

Bitter Rot or Ripe Rot 

Black Rot on Tomatoes 


.» Spot on Citrus Fruit 
» or Scab ate 


Brown Rot of Fruit 


ts » Stone Fruit : yi 


Pace 
359 
362 
363 
394 
396 
399 

12 
398 
345 
356 
354 
355 
351 
358 
357 
355 
346 
349 
351 
370 
378 
377 
374 
373 
376 
388 
388 
379 
381 
380 
390 
391 
384 
385 
384 
396 
380 
225 
305 
324 
541 
5438 
545 
545 
544 
547 
546 
543 
547 
564 
548 
551 
547 
548 
571 
562 
548 
551 
557 


637 


Fungus Canker of the Apple 
Chlorosis 
Collar Rot on Citrus trees 
Crinkle or Pig Face 
Crown Gall of the Grape 
Curl Leaf ... 
Downy Mildew of the Grape 
na Gumming, Collar Rot... 
Die Back Mal-di-Goma, Sour Sey 
Leaf Rust . 
ee ais Aah of the Tomato 
Leaf Scald 
Loquat Black Spot 
Melanose ... a 
Mouldy Core sa 
‘3 _ Root of Vines 
Moss and Lichens 
Oidium of the Vine 
Peach Freckle _... 
Pear Blight or Fire Blight 
Powdery Mildew 
on the Grape. 
Ripe Rot of the Tomato. 3 
Root Knot 
Rotting of Citrus Fruit .. 
Shot hole Disease f 
Sooty Mould or Black Smut 
Squirt Berry of the Grape Be nis 
Strawberry Leaf Blight or Sunburn ... 
Tomato Wilt x 
ke » _ Blossom end Rot 
Twig Blight 
Water Core 


Gate for Fence 

Gathering and Marketing 1 Fruit 

Geropiga Bee 2a 

Gooseberries ... ois 

Grafting 

Affinity of Stock and Scion 

After care of = 

Fruit trees Stocks 

Grape Vine Stocks 

Tools and Materials 

Wax and other coverings 

Ways of i 

Grape Fruit or Pomelo . 
* », Directions for eating 

Juice, Unfermented 

i » why it ferments 

Skins into manure ... 

Vine—The ... Ve 

Vines—Infertile 359 

Phylloxera Resistant aie 

Standard of Resistance 


” ” ” 


Riparia 


PAGE 
551 
557 
561 
552 
571 
557 
567 
557 
561 
558 


556 
561 


567 
559 


638 


Grape Vines—Riparia, Glory of Montpellier 


55 Glabre Giant ... 


Ne Rupestris 


i Martin 
na Mission ... 
Monticola 


Solonis at's 
Vitis Berlandieri 


, Conveyor 


for Drying 


Currant, Zante 
Corinth, White 
Muscat of Alexandria 

», Gordo Blanco 
Seedless Muscat 
Sultana 


», Colman Gros... 

»  Cormichon, Purple 

» Flame Tokay aes 

» Malaga, Red and Black 
Ohanez or Almeria 


Packing 


of 


should be stalked — 
for Table ... 


Chassclas ‘of Fontainehleau ae 


Chasselas of Negrepont 
Chasselas Vibert 
Cornichon Blano 
Doradillo 

Early Madoleine 

Grand Centennial 
Greengage or Late Green 
Grand Turk ... . 
Haenspop es 
Kichimish Ali Violet | 


Muscat, Red of Frontignen | 
» Madresfield Court . 


Raisins des Dames 
Red Prince 
Rose of Peru ... 
Wortley Hall ... au 
(Red)... ae ste 
»  Beclan ... ime 
>» Mondeuse 
»  Touriga 
Red... EA 
Aramon j 
Aspiran sh 
Cabernet Sauvignon aes 
rf Gros 


D icetto 
Grenache 
Matbeck 
Mataro ... 
Merlot ... 
Morrastel 


639 


Grapes for Wine Shiraz 


” 


” 


, (Red) Verdot 


White Wine 2 
i" »,  Chasselas 
5 »  Clairette 


yi »,  Doradillo 


s ,  Folle Blanche ae 


+ , Gouais ... 

6 .. Marsanne 

bs .. Palomino ‘ 

ay ;, Pedro Ximencs 

5 » Pineau 

es + Riesling 

a » Roussanne 

- » Semillon 

e »  sereial ... 

y » Verdelho 
When to pick aa 


Green Manuring 
Guava—The ... 


Insects—Beneficial «ee 


Aphis Feeding Lady-birds 
Black Scale Parasites 
Blastophaga Grossorum 
Chilomenes Quadripustulatus 
Coceinella transversalis 
Codlin Moth Parasites ... 
Lace Wing Fly : 
Leis Conformis 

Orcus Australasie 


Parasites of Soft Brown. Scale . 


a San José Scale 
is Cut Worms 
Woolly Aphis 

Potato Moth parasite 
Red Scale Parasites 
Rhizobius debilis ... 
Soldier Bug 
Syrphus Fly sia 
Tachina Fly of Locusts .. 
Tachina of the Cockchafer 
Pests 
Ants 
» Aphis . its 
» Aspidiotus Rossi ... 
.. Beetle, Honey and Spring 
. Bark Lice ... 
.» Diack Aphis of the Peach 
- » Scale eis sch 
», Brown Grape Scale 
3 oi or Soft Scale 
,, Cabbage Aphis... 
a Moth eee 
,, Case Moth or Dag Moth 
,, Cherry and Plum Aphis 
,, Cherry and Pear Slug 


"256, 632 


640 


Insect Pests—Cockchafer 


Codlin Moth 
Cut-worms . 
Curculio —... 
Eel Worms and Call Worms 
Fruit Fly ... 
Gall Worms and Eel Worms 
Greedy Scale 
Hawk Moth 
Leaf Miner 
Mealy Bugs 
Mussel Scale 
Natural Checks 
Natural enemies (sce Insects, Beneficial) 
Orange Aphis ao Bae si 
Orange Mealy Bug 
Parlatoria Scale... 
Pear and Cherry Slug 
», Leaf Blister Mite ... 
Plague Locust a a 
Plum and Cherry Aphis 
Potato Moth : 4 
Rhizococeus of the Pine 
Red Mite ... oid = 
» Scale ... 
»» Spider 
Rutherglen Bug 
San Jose Scaie 
Scale Insects ; 
Snails and Slugs ... 
Strawberry Beetle 
Thrips et 8 
White Ants ‘ 18 
White Cottony Cushion Scale a 
Wire Worms ‘ sins 
Woolly sce 


Introduction _ an ie — ae 


Trrigation, 


Jack Fruit—The 


Jellies 


Advantage of 48x 
Amount of Water required si 

Evils of . 

Factors which influence 

Methods of 

Root Management ‘ 
Spread of water from deep furrows. 
Water for Irrigation ets : 


” 


* ” 
Water measurement 


Kaki or Persimmons 
Kerosene Emulsion ... 


Kumquat 


641 


L. 
Labels sae 
Ladders—Orchard 
Tand—Burning- OFF cc. * 
» Clearing and Ring. harking 
» Fruit ov . 
: Geraldton District din 
» Great Southern 
» How to clear 
>» Murray 
» Northam aes 
» Preparation for Manting ae 
» South-West ... : 
+»  Toodyay 
York 
Laying. out the (Cromnd oe 
5 5 Diagonal : 
ug 5 Distances Apart. 
ss 45 Quineunx 
3 ‘ Septuple 
ee : Square 
Lees and Tartar 
Lemons—The 
”s Curing 
os Eureka 
5 Lisbon 
- Sicilian 
3 Villa Franca 
Lime—The 
Litchi—The ... 
Longan—The 
Loquat—The 
Pruning of ‘the 
Loquats, Select 
M. 
Mandarins, Select—Beauty of Glen Retreat 
5 , Emperor ns 
. , Packing of 
m » Scarlet 


pa aa are 

Mango—The : : 
Manure from Grape ‘Skins. 

a How to, when Planting 
Manures and Green Manuring 

» Manuring ... 

Map of Orchard and Vineyard 
Marketing—Gathering Fruit 
Melons 

= Gathering and “Packing 
Mulberry 
Mulching ie 
Must—Components of, Grape 


Nectarines, Select, Dr. Chisholm 
Coldmine 
3g Vietoria 


“ 


642 


Nursery Stock and Fumigation 


” 


Nuts 


” 


Almond 
Chestnut 


Trees, Examination of ... 


. Earth Nut... 
. Filbert and Cob 


Walnut 


Oidium of the Grape Vine 


Olive. Ascolano 


Bouquetier ... 
Correggiolo ... 


CGordal 35 
Herbequina ... 
Manzanilla ... 
Mission. 


Oil 


Pendoulier - 


Picholine 


“a Pickled 
is Pleureur a 
Pruning the 


: 


Sevillano 


” 


The ... 
Verdale 


Oranges—Packing of 
Select, ‘Australian “Navel 


Papaya—The 


Passion Fruit 


” 29 


2» 


Cheriton.. 

Jatia 

Queen... 
Seville or Bitter 
Valencia Late . 
Washington Navel 


Packing g 
Vine—Pruning of . 


Peach and Nectarine—Pruning the 
Peaches, Select, Alexander 


Amsden 


Brigg’s Early Red. May, ft 


Carman 

Dunhelm ... 

Karly Rivers 
Elberta 

Flat China 

Hale’s Earl, 4 
High's Karly Canada 
Muir 

Pullar’s Cling 


Pacr 
540 
vit) 
2WYS 
296 
299 
300 
302 
303 


DBT 
294 
291 
291 
294 
291 
294 
294 
291 
294 
294 
294 
291 
174 
294 
289 
291 
385 
248 
250 
249 
250 
249 
249 
248 


341 
322 
323 
175 
165 
238 
239 
239 
239 
238 
239 
239 
238 
239 
239 
239 
239 


Peaches, Select. Salwaoy 
Pelicrced J iuit Prees 
Pear---Packing of ... 
Pears. Select. Bartlett 


» Clapp’s Favourite ... 
»  Gansel’s Bergamotte 


. » Howell 


a . Kieffer’s Hybrid 
si .  LInconnue ... 


ee » PP. Barry 


ee g. Packbam’s Triumph 
- .  Viear of Winktield .. 


Winter Nelis 


cr 2 


trays 


Persimmon-—Pruning ‘the ie 


Porsimmions or Kaki 
u Dai-Dai Maru, 
a Hachiya 
os Hyakume 
es Tane-Nashi 
Yemon 
Pests, Insect 


” 2 


» Remedies 


Pests—Insect and Fungoid ° 


Pinching Shoots 
Pineapple—The = 
Piquette for Distillation 
Plant Breeding 


2? 


Food. 


” ” 


” 


Planting 


” 


Board. 


- ae tie a tree 
¥§ Selecting trees 
55 Trees 

Vines 


Plum—Mpyrobolan or r Cherry 
Plums—Japanese— 
Botan or Abundance ... 
Burbank 
Kelsey 


Red Tuite (hire | Smomo) 


Satsuma Blood 
Shiro mie 
Wickson 


Plums and Prunes—Pruning of 


Plums and Prunes, Select— 
Damson ... oe 
Diamond 
Magnum Bonum | 
Pond’s Seedling 
Prune d’Agen 
Splendor aes 


Natural “checks | 
“ » Garden and Orchard Crops-~ “Table. 


Pollination 


available and total .. ai 
removed ey a "STARS ‘crop 


Draw plan " orchard 
How to manure when 


643 


644 


Pollination 

Pome trees 

Pomegranate . oes 

Pomelo—The (or grape fruit) 

Directions for eating 

Proof Spilt ... sig 

» and absolute alcohol 

Pruning see ee aa 
s Burning the cuttings 

Cutting to a bud 


e Fruit trees 
s5 outfit 
_ Root 


Vines i 
When best to prune 
Pulping Fruit : 


Quince—Pruning 
Quinces, Select—Angers 
55 >»  Bourgeaut 
9 ie Champion 
’ » Van Dieman 


Rainfall and water supply 
Raisins (see Fruit Drying). 
>,  Seedless 
>» Prices ee ‘ 
» Home consumption 
Raspberry 
Renovating old trees 


Saccharometer re ae 
Baume’s Scale 
5 Brix or Balling 
Guyot 
Salt, limit in water 
», patches 
Shelter trees ... 
Shoots and Buds—Control of growth 
Snails and Slugs 
Soil— 
4 Alluvium 
.» Amendments and improvers_ 
» and its en Neer of 
» Chocolate ‘ 
5, Ironstone gravel 
>, Salt patches 
» Sandy ... 
», Swamps ae 


Summer, and thinning of ‘fruit 


Specific Gravity Scale 


» Table 


Split “Limbs ... 2 
Spray—How and when tu, 
Sprayers, Dust 

Spraying Pumps 

Stone Fruits 

Strawberry—A few profitable 


> 


Botanical structure ... 
Classification of the ... 
Cultivation of the 
Trrigation and drainage 
Leaf Blight 

Manuring 

Marketing 

Mulching a 
Points of a good 
Propagation 

Pruning of 

Pruning the ... 

Soil and Location 

The aes 
Transplanting 


Sultana—Pruning of 


‘Thermometer Scales 
Thinning the Fruit 
Tomato—Pruning the 


Trellises 


Tropical [Fruits 


Breadiruit ar 
Bullock’s Heart . 
Coconut—The 


Date Palm—The 
Guava—The sito 
Jack Fruit—The 
Litchi—The 
Longan—The 
Mango—The sic 
Pineapple—The ... 
»,  Papaya—The 


Ullage in Casks 


Unfermented Grape-juice 
Unit Value of Fertilisers 


Vats—Brick and Cement ... 


Vegetables—Drying 


645 


said ine or Avocado Pear 
Banana and Plantain 


Custard Apple 0 henge 7 


Uz. 


PAGE 
426 
430 
156 
BST 
534 
Bel 
236 
320 
31) 
310 
pli 
319 
319 
315 
319 
318 
319 
314 
313 
179 
313 
309 
316 
141 


456 
183 
180 
143 
324 
325 
325 
330 
331 
332 
331 
333 
338 
339 
339 
340 
340 
342 
341 


459 
462 
496 
205 


412 
358 


646 


PAGE 
Vinegar, from Wine and from (Cider So * ; 5M 
oi 


Vines, Crape--Summer Pranins of Sd as 183 
Vs 
Walnut—The — ak ms bay — ier aes 303 


Water—Amount of required ars ass Se si 7” - 223 
fit for Irrigation... st ay aig bad er a 214 


Limit of Salt in... ee nt zh a3 sit ae 18 
; . Measurement Sits si srt sate sie 214 
» Spread of, from deep furrows... eee Ae Bas oe 220 


Supply sid ss sie ce nes se 
Whitewash— Washington ae oe ae Mei ak sas she on 
Wine—-Acetification ee os was mel ~_ es aes 49] 
Acidity in Wine... ee wie es ee en aes 420 
i Aeration he ia pan at she we ak ue 436 

Bitterness... _ uae sie an ee ot oe 495 
Bottling of ... ste ee as ae ees wee 480 
Brick and Cement Vats ne wai ss ree sa oe 412 
Casks—Cracked staves oe ae aoe -_ — ’ 41] 

as Flagging oa “a aes sa ae am 
gauging of.. ‘ ~ ck sad ae Re 404 


: 5 Keeping in good 0 order ... win ss ax st 411 
x a size of abe si su Pe _ 3 403 
4 3 Slack ste ai a0 sis cit nate ee 410 
ny bs Sulphuring se se ‘ii Fes a Lee 410 
; = To Clean ... oa sie 8 ei in an 406 
" 75 To Discolour es st 8 wie ve sis 407 
p be To Disinfect ia ie ier sit ely ony 407 
es To Season .. aes sais zit ing oa dee 405 
= Casks and Vats... zi ea a “a5 2c a3 £02 


Timber for... sides ais sit me eas 402 


i Casky taste ... sia He ies wad ar ae se 485 
» _ Casse .., Bes i 5 as si 492 
Me Casses or break in the Colour wae See es cies 258 463 
e2 “ ‘A 7 Me: pes vlc. tae -2402 
2 Colour, Deficient... ae aR ee nie ae pi 485 
ms Crusher and Stemmer ec ee uae alee sa rn 415 
» Defects and Diseases of ... re ate oe sit one 484 
» Definition and Classification st nis ne en die 468 
» Dull Coloured ee 5% ae oa o 7 485 
» Earthy taste a ee Aes Sas re zit Sa 484 


= Fermentation si ane ae sete vas ate ‘ats 418 
Fermenting shed... aps si zine ae _ sis 400 
»  Ferments of , i ss aes aide sis iss 442 
Fixing and Filtering | sa ait “ish oy is ave 463 


. Flowers of es a we aed wie wee 490 
» Formula for cone ne oe ar se aes aie 433 


»  Greenness ... ‘ oe ase wis ite a _ 

»  Harshness ... £35 ie ee sic ae — 2 FH 
- Heated ek or sea i ae we ee 485 
- How to taste ate whe ‘oud ast say — mae 469 
Liquorous... se pee as ees ae st 457 


> 

e Low Alcoholic strength ies iis sig oe aus eee 485 
» Making . sais te oe wes ass eis 400 
a Maxine, Fining and Wiltering + “iss sss 6 si 463 


Geropiga ... a ve te we or on 478 


” ” 


Wine 


647 


Making, Lees and Tartar 


»  Parafiin for Pumps, Piping Vats, etc. 


. Refrigerators 
Mannitic fermentation si as ie, 
Pastenriser oo, i ayy ai aoe oo 
Per ton of vrapes is ms nis wes 
Presses 
Pumps 


Putrid, Decomposition 
Racking of 

Revival of fermentation 
Ropiness , : 
Separating Must from Skin 
Stalky taste and Bitterness 
Starting fermentation 
Sulphites instead of S. fumes 
Sulphiting for clearing Must 
Sweet, Alcoholic strength of 
Tasting and technical terms 
Temperature and fermentation 
Temperature control 


” ” ae 
Tourne and Poussc Diseases aie 
Vatting eee x68 ses Yeas 
Yeasts of fermentation wie 
Young, Rearing of 


By Authority: ru Wa. Stupsonx, Government Printer, Porth.