Monthly lectures delivered at School of Horticulture by various specialists during 1892-1893

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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, VICTORIA‘

= —— Z

, SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE,

. Established” May, 1891.

—nosnoo

MONTHLY LECTURES
__ |

SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE

DURING

1892-1893.

. Gy Authority:
ROBT. 8. BRAIN, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, MELBOURNE.

826.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, VICTORIA.

—— Seo

SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE.

Established May, 1891.

——_aom oo

MONTHLY LECTURES

DELIVERED AT

SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE,

BY VARIOUS SPECIALISTS,

DURING

1892—18938.
ALBERT R. MANN
LIBRARY
Ay

CORNELL UNSTVERSITY

By Authority:
ROBT. S. BRAIN, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, MELBOURNE.

826.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, VICTORIA.

School of Horticulture, Richmond.

EstaBLisHED 1891.

Members of Horticulinral Board of Advice:

D. Martin, Esg., SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE, CHAIRMAN.
Hon. Wintiam ANDERSON.

Henry Boyce, Esq.

CuarLes Draper, Esq., J.P.

JosEPH Harris, Esq., M.L.A.

JAMES LANG, Esq., J.P.

Curator:
Mr. Gzo. Nettson, C.M.R.H.S8.L.

Hecturer on Sotanp, Vegetable Pathology, and Agricultural Science
bearing on Horticulture :

Mr. D. McAprne,

Practical work in the Gardens and the Lectures are continued throughout
the year.
The Lectures are free to all interested in Horticultural Pursuits, Ladies
included. ©
Country Horticulturists when in town may avail themselves of the
privilege of attending any of the Lectures,
Az

PROSPHCTUS.

SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE.

1. The maximum number of students is twenty-five (25).
2. The instruction is free.
8. Students are non-resident.

4, Applications from intending students will be received by the
Secretary for Agriculture, Public Offices, Melbourne.

5. Applications for vacancies which may occur will be dealt
with in the order of priority of application.

6. Each student on admission must be over the age of fourteen
years, and must produce a State school certificate, or an equiva-
lent thereto, as to his education, together with a certificate of
moral character from some person of known good repute, a justice
of the peace, or a clergyman.

7. A moiety of the students may be adults, who may not be
required to furnish school certificates.

8. All applications for admission as students must be accom-
panied by a sum of Five pounds (£5) as a guarantee for good
behaviour, and which may be used for payment of fines.

9, Students are received for a term of not less than six months,
and not more than three years.

10. Each student shall conform to the rules and regulations for
the time being in force for the government and management of
the gardens, under penalty of expulsion or of such lesser punish-
ment as the board of advice may impose.

11. The course of instruction will include practical horticulture
in its various branches, botany, vegetable pathology, and agricul-
tural science as applied to horticulture.

12, An examination of students will be held at least once in
each year by examiners to be appointed by the board.

13. Students who shall, at the end of the second or third year’s
training, have passed a satisfactory examination in the subjects
taught may be granted a certificate of proficiency. ,

As the lectures, which were intended for the instruction of the
students in the School of Horticulture, contain an amount of
information of general utility—and although the public were
admitted to the lectures, there is necessarily a large number of
persons engaged in horticulture who, from the nature of their
employment, and the fact of their residing at a considerable —
distance from the metropolis, were unable: to avail themselves of
the privilege of attending the lectures—it has been decided to
publish the series delivered during the present year, in the hope
that the information contained therein may be disseminated with
profit to persons engaged in rural industries.

Copies may be obtained on personal or written application.
D. MARTIN,
Secretary for Agriculture.

Melbourne, 20th December, 1893.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
1. Inaugural Lecture—Botany in its Relation to Horticulture. By
D. McAlpine... ase ah wes is Hs 7
2. Our Indigenous Plants in Relation to Horticulture. By Baron
von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M.D., F.R.S., &c.... wes wx: 19

3. Undeveloped Sources of Wealth. By Joseph Harris, M.L.A. .,. 22.

4, Manuresand Manuring. By A. N. Pearson, Government Agricul-
tural Chemist .., “us wes nee aii ve A

5, Economic Entomology: Some Advantages to be derived from
its Study. By C. French, F.L.S., F.R.H-S., Government
Entomologist ... sc ae nes aes oe 64

6. Glimpses of some British Botanical Gardens and their Conser-
vatories. By W. R.z steels F.L.§., Director Melbourne

Botanic Gardens “a ae 75
7. Victorian Land in its Relation to Cultural Effort. By Ambrose
. Neate ons eae eee we «86

8. The Commercial Aspect of Beanie oa L. Ty Sues
Bee-keepers’ Supply Association .. a. 98

Appendix : Prize Essays by Student A. E. Bennett ... .» 101

BOTANY IN ITS RELATION TO HORTI-
CULTURE.

A lecture delivered by Mr. D. McAlpine, Government Pathologist,
at the opening of the School of Horticulture at Richmond.

INTRODUCTORY.

We are met here to-day to publicly inaugurate the new School
of Horticulture, which has already been open for the reception of
students since the month of May ; and as I understand that this
is the first institution of the kind in Australia devoted specially to
the instruction of students in the principles and practice of horti-
culture, I think you will agree with me that the occasion is one
of more than ordinary importance.

The chairman has already briefly sketched its history, from the
time when the proposal was made to take over the Royal Horti-
cultural Society’s Gardens by the Department of Agriculture until
the establishment of a School of Horticulture has become an accom-
plished fact. And it now remains for me to show, before entering
upon the special subject of my lecture, how this school proposes
to fulfil the objects for which it has been called into existence.

NeEcEssITy FOR ScHOoL oF HoRTICULTURE.

Of the need of such an institution, and of the time being ripe
for its establishment, there can be no manner of doubt. The
necessity for something of the kind to stimulate and give direc-
tion to an industry which is destined to take a leading place in
the development of this colony is clearly shown by the fact that
agricultural colleges have supplied a decided want, and the ery is
for more of them. Indeed, the incongruity, if I might so call it,
of attending to the educational wants of the farmer in agricultural
matters, and neglecting those of the fruit-grower, seems to have
impressed the Government, for the Hon. Alfred Deakin, presiding
(as Acting Minister of Agriculture) over the conference in con-
nexion with the suppression of insect pests a year ago, said—
“ We have agricultural and viticultural colleges, or we are about
to have them; and as far as we can judge by our experience the
work done by those colleges is good work, and work the value of
which is likely to greatly increase. It seems very desirable that
something of the same sort should be done in connexion with
horticulture. I hope to be in a position in a short time to make
public the conditions under which something like a horticultural
college, of course with gardens attached—a practical horticultural

8

college—could be called into existence.” The hope of a year
ago is a realized fact to-day, and the horticulturist, as well as the
agriculturist, has his training school, to which he or his sons may
go, provided by a paternal Government. Then, again, the mone-
tary value of the fruit industry alone to the colony argues the
necessity for the best possible training being given to those about
to engage in it. I find that while the imports of cereals and
preparations thereof have declined within the last ten years from
£235,000 (in round numbers) in 1881 to £109,000 in 1890, and the
amount retained for home use from £178,000 to £64,000 in the
same time, making us almost self-supporting in the matter of
grain, in the matter of other vegetable products for food (including
preparations), i.e., fresh fruit, dried fruits, &c., the imports have
increased from £468,000 in 1881 to £552,000 in 1890, and the
amount retained for home use from £328,000 to £552,000 in the
same time. The necessity for importing for home use, however,
is now likely to become less and less, for, while the area under
cultivation for orchards and gardens has been stationary, and
sometimes even decreased during the three years from 1887 to
1889, in 1890 there were 1,714 acres approved of for the bonus
for planting fruit trees, and this, of course, only represents a
portion of the increased area taken in. In the Mildura irrigation
settlement alone there are about 6,000 acres devoted to vines or
fruit trees, and it is a valuable object-lesson to show what can be
done by scientific irrigation and intense culture.

No doubt but we are rapidly approaching the time when we
shall be able to supply our own wants with regard to fruit, and
have a surplus for others; and, seeing that many of those who
are engaging in this industry are novices in the art of husbandry,
and that an evident desire is abroad for obtaining the highest
practical skill and the best scientific knowledge in the department
of horticulture, the necessity for this school and the timely estab-
lishment of it will be acknowledged by all.

And even the farmer of the future—in Victoria, at least—will
require to grow a greater variety of products than hitherto, in
order to survive the competition of the Indian ryot and the Rus-
sian peasant, in wheat-growing at any rate. This means that a
general training in horticulture is desirable for all agriculturists
who do not wish to be left behind in the march of progress, and
that the farmer would do well, where the conditions are suitable,
to become a fruit-grower in addition. This school, therefore,
supplies a decided want in the education of the farmer, and a
term of at least one year might profitably be spent here.

INDUCEMENTS TO GO TO THE COUNTRY.

We have heard a deal of late of the flocking of the population
to the cities causing a congested state of affairs there, so that we

9

have overcrowded cities and towns, while the country is crying
aloud for labour. There are many and complex reasons for such
a social condition, and it is not to be remedied at once or by any
one specific, but certainly the establishment of institutions such
as this, where the practical as well as the scientific training will
be acquired, which will equip our young men for successfully
cultivating the soil and making it yield its best results, will help
towards that end.

I know no better means of inducing those who are dissatisfied
with their city surroundings, or those who are looking around for
a healthful and profitable occupation, to engage in fruit-growing
and kindred pursuits than by affording them the opportunity, such
as this school offers, of acquiring the most approved methods of
cultivation and the necessary knowledge before entering upon the
cares and responsibilities of an orchard on their own account.
The question is often asked, and variously answered, “What are
we to do with our boys?” I would reply that for many of them
the best thing to do would be to send them to the School of Horti-
culture, where they can qualify themselves for an honorable and
profitable career.

Scueme or INSTRUCTION.

How it is proposed to carry out this necessary and opportune
scheme of horticultural education may be learned in detail from
the prospectus of the school and the syllabus of instruction, but
I may just draw attention to the main features of it. ‘“ Practice
with Science” is the motto of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, and is the principle on which this school is to be con-
ducted.

Under the guidance of Mr. Neilson, the experienced curator,
students will prepare the soil, then plant, manure, prune, and cul-
tivate the various fruit trees and vegetables grown here. The
fruits will also be gathered and stored by them, and packed either
for the home or foreign markets. The raising of nursery stock
will likewise be attended to, and the general management of an
orchard will be learned under the personal superintendence of Mr.
Neilson.

The nomenclature or naming of fruits will likewise be attended
to, and, generally speaking, pomology, or that branch of know-
ledge which deals with fruit trees and fruit, will here be taught
so thoroughly and practically that every student may be expected
to distinguish himself in that particular branch in after life.

But as man ought not to live by bread alone, ought not merely
to dig and plant and reap, and thus become a mere hewer of wood

and drawer of water, so it is necessary, absolutely necessary at .

the present time, that he should be trained in the principles, as
well asin the practice of his art, that he should have scientific

1

10

knowledge as well as practical skill. At present the scientific
course is not very extensive, but: by-and-by, as the school extends
and expands, the scientific will keep pace with the practical, and
not merely the subjects of study, but the extent to which they
are studied, will widen out, as students pass into their second and
third years.

Agricultural science in its relation to horticulture will be
taught, and will deal with such fundamental and important sub-
jects as soils, tillage, drainage, irrigation, and manures; and the
insect foes of the orchard will be attended to as may be considered
desirable by the Government Entomologist.

Botany in its bearings upon horticulture will also be dealt with
under the three principal headings of Vegetable Physiology, or
the healthy life and growth of plants and the conditions suitable
thereto ; Systematic Botany, or the arranging and classifying of
plants in their proper families, &c.; and Vegetable Pathology, or
the diseases of plants.

HorricuLtursL SCHOOL FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY.

But I may digress here for a little to point out that the Horti-
cultural School will not merely exist for and benefit those inside
its walls, but it will prove an educative and improving influence
for the entire horticultural community. The school possesses in
the experimental gardens attached to it a means of education not
only for students who may attend there, but for the fruit-growing
and gardening community at large.

No doubt horticulture is being specially attended to in the
sister colonies, as is evidenced by the decision in New South Wales
to. appoint a thoroughly competent pomologist ; the labours of the
Agricultural Bureau in South Australia ; and the project in Queens-
land of instructing pupils in horticulture by gentlemen connected
with the Botanic and Acclimatisation Gardens; yet, as already
stated, it has been reserved for Victoria. to open the first School of
Horticulture, devoted wholly and solely to instruction in practical
and scientific work.

Such places are of great practical value, and have become a
necessity of our time. They afford the means whereby the
teachings of science are translated into the language of ordinary
life and put into practice. They supply that “connecting link”
between science and practice which bridges the gulf between the
two.

The place that science should hold in a scheme of agricultural
or horticultural education is not yet definitely agreed upon, but it
is generally acknowledged that a scientific training, added to prac-
tical experience gained in the field, is necessary in the keen com-
petition of modern life. ‘Our theory here is that it is better to

li

educate farmers to some knowledge of science than scientists to
some knowledge of farming” is a practical and common-sense
view of the matter. The farmer or fruit-grower does certain
things in his work, and he goes to science to explain to him the
reason why, and to help him perhaps to do them better and to.
greater profit. By reducing science to practice in an experimental
field or garden, science is then expressed in terms of daily life,
and the grower can follow and profit by it, but in its abstract
form as accurate knowledge he fails to get the benefit from it.
The multiplication of such experimental gardens, if the experi-
ments are properly conducted, is simply so many scientific lessons
conveyed in a language which the fruit-grower can readily under-
stand and appreciate.

In Mr. Neilson’s department the meriis of the different varieties
of fruit trees in the market may be tested, so that growers may
know the best kind to use, making due allowance for the different
districts. And this is particularly important at the present time,
when tea and other traveliers are turning their attention to tree
peddling. In several districts I have visited the tea agent has
been about, and effected sales at a high price, while no guarantee
was given that the trees supplied were what they were represented
to be. The next step will be that the country will be overrun
with seed-mongers, who may provide a very inferior article, unless
the schoolmaster is abroad to enlighten the buyers. It is to be
hoped that the kind of knowledge scattered from this horticultural.
centre will soon cause the “tree peddlers,” like Othello, to find
their occupation gone. Experiments will also be made in hybrid-
izing, cross-fertilizing, and selection, whereby improved varieties
of various kinds may be raised. Cross-fertilization takes place
between flowers of the same plant or between flowers of different
plants of the same species, whereas hybridization is a further ex-
tension of this process, or a crossing of the flowers of different
species. The gardener has already largely used it for combining
desirable qualities in the same plant.

Experiments also as to the different and best modes of cultiva-
tion, propagating, and pruning, as well as in the application of
manures, and even the effects of irrigation will be tested when
water is available.

In my own department the effect of various remedies on diseases
of plants are being tried, and this is a most important use to which
the experimental gardens may be applied. Disease, like the poor,.
we have always with us, and here test experiments can be carried
out under personal control, the results of which will be available
for the colony at large. Of course, we do not wish and do not
expect to have a great variety of disease to deal with here, but in
different districts there are experimental plots, as we might call
them, where the owners are willingly carrying out experiments.

12

under my direction. Thus in raspberry-growing, strawberry -
growing, and peach-growing districts the diseases belonging to
each are being treated with different re-agents to find out the
cheapest and most effective remedy. _ : :

There is also a plot here in which various remedies will be tried
for the treatment of rust in wheat. This may seem at first sight
as having little bearing on horticulture, but when I tell you that
rust in wheat, peach and plum leaf rust, and celery rust are all
due to fungi belonging to the same genus (Puccinia), but of
different species, you will see that remedies found effectual for the
one may also be useful for the other.

The museum is another educational agency which has not been
overlooked, and, although as yet in its infancy, it will be gradually
extended. I hope before long to have displayed, in an attractive
form, specimens of the various diseases to which our fruit trees,
fruit, and vegetables are most liable, with the most reliable infor-
mation as to remedies accompanying them so that growers may
recognise the disease, when it appears, and apply the remedy
accordingly.

New implements and inventions of interest to the horticulturist
will also find a place here, and I would just call your attention to
the latest addition—the Strawsonizer, which, as a distributor of
liquids or powders for the destruction of insect and fungus pests, as
a broadcaster of the various chemical fertilizers, and even as a sower
of seeds of various kinds with great regularity, is recognised to be
the most efficient combination machine we possess at the present
time.

There is another instrument—a patent seed germinator—which
is found to be very useful in testing the germinating power and
vitality of the different kinds of seeds. This is a subject in which
the students here will be exercised. Mr. Ellery has likewise pro-
mised a complete set of meteorological instruments, and the
students, under Mr. Neilson’s direction, will watch and record the
varying phases of the weather and its effects on vegetation. The
desire on the part of the board of advice to make the benefits of
the school as largely available as possible is seen in the fact that
the lectures are free to all interested in horticultural pursuits, and
even the ladies are invited.

WomEN STUDENTS.

; It is not to be imagined, however, that Victoria takes the lead
in this respect, for at the Swanley Horticultural College, Kent,
a ladies’ branch has been opened. We learn from a recent issue of
the Queen newspaper that although this college is still in its
infancy, having only been two years in existence, already the ex-
periment of providing for women students is being tried. A
maodern villa near the college has been neatly furnished, and

13

placed under a lady superintendent, where the women students
board. They have an eight hours day, five for practical and
three for theoretical work. The subjects of study include
chemistry, botany, physics, zoology, including entomology, and
the theory of horticulture, and there is a handsome lecture-hall
where the men and women, of course, study together. The inclu-
sive fees for a year’s training are from £70 to £80, but arrange-
ments are made whereby ladies can give the work a few weeks’
trial, and see how it agrees with them, fora weekly sum. It
remains to be seen whether women in sufficient numbers will be
found able and willing to undertake the general work of an orchard,
although, no doubt, there are certain branches, such as flower-
gardening, fruit-preserving, and scent-making in which women
might excel. I am in communication with the principal of the
college, and the novel experiment will undoubtedly be watched
with interest. Nevertheless, the board deserve credit for taking
this step, and it ought to meet with a hearty response. Country
horticulturists, when in town, are also invited, but I must confess
that when a systematic course of study is followed, as will be done
here, attendance at occasional lectures, say in the middle of some
subject, is apt to prove rather unsatisfactory and disappointing.
This suggests, however, that a short continuous and connected
course of lectures might be arranged, say six, at certain seasons
of the year when absence from the orchard would be least missed.
The course could either be on one subject and by one lecturer, or
on a variety of subjects, and various experts of the Department
could take part in them. The subjects might be similar to those
chosen by the British Fruit-growers’ Association in response to
the invitation of members of the County Council, London, to be
lectured on in any part of Great Britain, viz.:—

1. The Principles of Vegetable Life.

2. Soil—Constitution and Management.

8. The Culture of Apples and Pears.

4. The Culture of Stone Fruits.

5. The Culture of Small and Bush Fruits.

6. Gathering, Packing, Marketing, and Preserving Fruits.

This work is already partially done by the experts of the Depart-
ment, who visit and lecture in various districts, but the idea
intended to be conveyed here is to give the fruit-growers an
opportunity once a year of getting the benefit of the best and
ripest experience, in a connected form, on some important matters
bearing on their industry.

But this is only one of the various ways in which the horti-
cultural school may be utilized for the benefit of the community,
as I hope that occasional lectures may be delivered here that will
benefit even the denizens of our cities or suburbs who cultivate a

14

flower garden for pleasure and not for profit. Thus, in connexion
with my lectures on the “Principles of Agriculture,” at the
Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh, I secured the services for
occasional lectures of such men as the Curator of the Royal
Botanic Gardens there, who gave us, I remember, a thoroughly
practical lecture on “ Plants Suitable for Room Decoration.”

Borany IN RELATION TO HORTICULTURE.

Coming now to the special subject on which I proposed to
speak, and that with which I have to deal in the course of
lectures here, viz.:—Botany in its relation to horticulture. This
relation is a very intimate one, and the place botany will hold in
the course of instruction here will be to enable students to under-
stand the why and the wherefore of the various operations they
perform.

We sometimes speak of the science of horticulture as dealing
mainly with the variation of plants under cultivation and selection,
but botany will be regarded by us as the science, and horticulture
as the art, which is just botany applied and practised in the
orchard and garden. It is not intended to turn out botanists
here, but practical horticulturists, and so the subject will always
be treated with that end in view, as a means to an end. The
subject of botany in its bearing upon horticulture is a very wide
one, and would require much more time than can be devoted to it
now in order to do full justice to it, so I will just confine myself,
in the first place, to the consideration of the value of botany as a
means of general training ; then, in the next place, its utility to
those who intend to cultivate the soil, and to reap the fruits of
the earth with the best possible results.

VALUE oF Borany as A TRAINING.

The general advantages of studying botany may be briefly
stated as a training in accurate observation, methodical description,
and classification.

To observe accurately seems a very simple matter, and yet how
few there are who can be implicitly trusted in their observations.
The eye sees what it brings with it the power of seeing, and
this power has to be developed and trained. I know of no science
which can surpass that of botany in this matter of accurate and
exact observation. In describing a plant or part of a plant—it
may be a leaf, a flower, or a seed—you are expected so to picture
it in words, so to present it to the mind of another, that he or she
from that word-picture could make an accurate drawing of the
object.

This power of accurate, exact, and careful observation is a
valuable one, and well worth the trouble of acquiring, not only
in the business of horticulture, but in the ordinary affairs of life.

15

In the gardens there will be many opportunities for the exercise
of this quality, in watching the germination of seeds, the develop-
ment of leaves and flowers, the fertilization of flowers by bees
and other insects. But, above all, in conducting experiments is
this watchfulness and care and scientific judgment necessary.

After observing carefully and accurately, one has to describe
what one sees, and for methodical description botany is acknow-
ledged to hold a high place. Description of plants has to be
eminently methodical, in order to leave out nothing of importance,
as well as to state the facts in the order of their importance. To
such an extent, however, has this minuteness of description been
earried in botany that some have overstepped the bounds of
common sense, and caused the language of botany to become a
jargon of sesquipedalian terms. One remedy for this would be to
pay greater attention than has hitherto been the case to the uses
of the different parts described, and associating structure with
use, as in the varied forms and arrangements of flowers, there
would be less mere dealing with words than with the things they
represent. To realize in a word that the tree is a living body,
feeding and growing, maturing and multiplying, decaying and
dying, and subject to the laws of living things. Names we must
have, for a technical language is as necessary to the botanist as
the terms used by the workman in his special trade, but we must
make the language plain by appealing constantly to the things them-
selves. And in that sense the course of botany here will be
thoroughly practical, seeing that we have not only the resources
of these gardens to fall back upon, but of the Botanic Gardens
and University Gardens as well, and last, but not least, the
extensive collection of dried specimens of Australian plants
kindly presented to the school by Baron von Mueller, the
Government Botanist.

In the matter of systematic arrangement, botany again gives a
valuable training. Science has been said to be the detection of
identity, and classification is the placing together of those things
which resemble one another and the separation of those which
differ. In botany, resemblance does not always lie on the
surface—in fact, often “things are not what they seem,” and the
detection of unity in variety and variety in seeming unity exercises
the judgment and enlightens the mind.

Urumity or Botany IN CONNEXION WITH HortIcuLtTuRE.

While what I have said with reference to the study of botany
would apply to its being included in the curriculum of any school
or college as a means of education and training, I will now
endeavour to show how useful and essential its study is in a

school of horticulture.

16

1. Vegetable Physiology.—A knowledge of vegetable physi-
ology, or of the healthy life and growth of plants, is of prime
importance to the fruit and vegetable grower. How the roots and
leaves take in their nourishment, the one from the soil and the
other from the air; how healthy root and leaf action is best
promoted ; what substances are taken in from the soil and air
respectively, and how the resulting sap is best conveyed to its
destination, when and where it is most wanted ; how the flowers
are fertilized and fruit produced, so that where nature fails science
may step in and often prevent the barrenness of the flower; the
principle of the different modes of propagation; the effects of
stock on scion; the theory of pruning; the conditions of
germination, and the duration of the vitality of seeds—these are
a few of the questions to which vegetable physiology supplies an
answer, and the proper understanding of which enables the
grower to insure and promote a healthy and vigorous growth, and
the attention to which may often mean all the difference between
a luxuriant healthy crop and a miserably poor one.

Hybridizing, as well as cross-fertilizing and selection, are also
very important from a horticultural point of view, and may result

n the production of improved varieties.

The anatomy or structure of plants will also be studied, but
only in connexion with their physiology or function, for the use
of a part is the main thing for us to learn, and the structure
explains the action. We must not treat plants, as is too often
done, as mere bits of mechanism, but as living and growing and
reproducing organisms, endowed with vital activity.

It will be necessary for the proper understanding of plant-life
that a certain amount of chemical knowledge be imparted, such
as the composition of the air, the water, and the soil, and various
vegetable products. Inthe meantime this will be given in con-
nexion with the lectures on botany, and as far as practicable by
means of illustrative experiments. But chemistry is such a
fundamental study, treating of the constitution of ‘matter, and so
necessary for an intelligible explanation of various phenomena,
that its introduction into the curriculum of study as a special
subject can only be a matter of time.

2. Systematic Botany.—A knowledge of the classification of
plants is also exceedingly useful in enabling us to recognise
plants naturally related, and thus probably having many proper-
ties in common. This is well seen in the process of grafting,
where plants of the same family only unite and grow, and in the
production of hybrids, which are the result of crossing one
species with another. Hence the utility of being familiar with
the affinities of plants and their arrangement into natural groups.
In dealing with weeds, for instance, which, for our present pur-
pose may be regarded as plants out of place, it is important to

17

know the families to which they belong, and thereby something
of their characters—their peculiarities of growth and reproduc-
tion—in order the more effectually to adopt proper measures for
their extermination. .

3. Vegetable Pathology.—In spite of all our care and attention,
sometimes indeed because of it, disease will appear in our orchards
and vegetable gardens. And if it were only for coping success-
fully with’ disease, 2 knowledge of vegetable physiology, or the
conditions of healthy growth, might be recommended, for in order
to understand disease properly, which is a departure from the
normal condition, you must understand health, the condition from
which that departure has been made. There can be no question
of the supreme importance to the fruit-grower of his being
prepared to deal with the various diseases which threaten him.
Our climate, which is so favorable to vegetable growth, is like-
wise pre-eminently suitable for the various forms of fungi which
prey upon our fruit trees and fruit, and there is an absence of
that continuous and excessive cold of other countries which tends
to keep in check both insect and fungus pests.

This department of vegetable pathology is one which will be
specially and practically attended to here. Not only have we
specimens of the various diseases affecting fruit trees ‘and fruit,
which will be used for illustration, but any such will be treated
in the gardens, and the best-known measures for their prevention
or mitigation practically demonstrated, in conjunction with Mr.
Neilson. ;

But in order to apply the remedy we must first study the
disease. The Premier, on a recent occasion, referring to a serious
disease of the body-politic, used language which is also very
appropriate here. He said—‘“If we desire to effect a cure, the
first thing is to ascertain the nature, the history, and the extent
of the disease; and then, having done so, to apply the proper
remedy, if it can be found.” We seek to find out the cause of
the disease, and having done so, to remove it, if possible, and
thereby effect a cure. :

In studying the fungi causing disease it is absolutely necessary
to use the microscope, and therefore every one attending this
school will be trained in the use of that instrument. I hope that
the day is not far distant when every horticultural society will
possess one for the use of its members, and I am pleased to be
able to state that I was asked to choose a microscope for a horti-
cultural society a short time ago, intended to be presented as a
mark of respect to their energetic secretary.

Knowing the disease, which can often only be accurately
revealed by the microscope, we are provided with the means in
many cases of dealing with it. Great advances have been made
in remedial measures within the last few years, and when the

826. B

18

dreaded potato disease has at last been successfully treated we
are encouraged to experiment with other diseases, in order to dis-
cover aremedy. The day is now past when such inflictions are
regarded as dispensations of Providence, something to be endured
and not to be cured. : ‘

I have already referred to the fact that the whole subject of
botany will be properly graduated, and the more advanced topics
reserved for the latter part of the course. Among these will be
included such subjects as the geographical distribution of plants,
and the origin of cultivated plants. Such studies will be useful
in showing the natural conditions under which certain kinds of
plants grow, where they are likely to thrive here, and the kind of
treatment most suitable to the peculiarities derived from their
environment,

In the introduction and cultivation of new products this
knowledge forms a valuable guide as to the best mode of treat-
ment and management.

ConcLusion.

I have thus endeavoured to show very briefly, but still I trust
successfully, that scientific knowledge may be brought to bear on
the art of horticulture with the happiest and most beneficial
results, that such knowledge is a power not only to relieve the
tedium and monotony of mere mechanical labour, but to invest it
with an interest which it would not otherwise possess, to increase
the charm of rural pursuits, to suggest improvements and modi-
fications where otherwise dull routine would bear sway, and thus
to produce ‘the result which is, or ought to be, the reward of
faithful and intelligent toil, a bountiful return of the fruits of the
earth.

The Horticultural School is now about to be fairly launched on
its career of usefulness, and may be likened to a noble ship about
to set forth on what we all hope will be a prosperous voyage,
commanded as it is by a veteran in the service. Carrying out the
simile, I am sure the words of the poet express the feelings of
us all on this auspicious occasion :—

Sail forth into the sea, O ship!
Through wind and wave, right onward steer ;
The moistened eye, the trembling lip,
Are not the signs of doubt or fear.
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea !
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee ;
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee, are all with thee.

19

OUR INDIGENOUS PLANTS IN RELATION
TO HORTICULTURE.

By Baron von Muetuzr, K.C.M.G., M.D., F.R.S., Evc.,
GoveRNMENT Botanist.

(2nd September, 1892.)

A free discourse was delivered by Baron von Mueller, initiatory
to the lectures, given in the College of Horticulture at Burnley,
on the 2nd September, 1892, at which address besides the students
were also present D, Martin, Esq., the Secretary of the Agricul-
tural Department, the Hon. Wm. Anderson, Joseph Harris, Esq.,
M.L.A., and several other distinguished ruralists and friends of
theirs. Baron von Mueller commenced in some graceful wording
to allude to the facilities, which in so enlightened a spirit the
Government had offered through the Minister of Agriculture to
incipient horticulturists under the principal care of the Superin-
tendent of the Horticultural Gardens and throtigh special teachers.
He referred to the horticultural career as one of the happiest
most prosperous and healthy in life under most circumstances;
further he dwelt on the ease, with which rural pursuits also in
this direction could be carried out in a winterless clime like ours,
as compared to the difficulties to be overcome by the length and
severity of the winters in the home-countries, indeed we here
having almost two springs annually, the one ushered in by the
first greening of the grass about Easter ; the other commencing
some months later, when the orchard-trees burst into bloom. The
Baron referred further to the very ample scope of horticulture
here, as from a so much vaster number of plants could here be
selected for outdoor-culture than it was possible in the countries
of our forefathers. Indeed, he said, in the milder regions of
Victoria almost any plants of the globe might be reared except
those of the equatorial zone, added to which was the blessing,
that rural lands were obtainable in the cheapest of all possibilities.
In the continuation of his remarks he pointed out the advantage,
which studious horticulturists here had in becoming acquainted
with the exact chemical contents of soils and of various manuring
substances, the relative action of these, their respective adapta-
bility to various forms of plant-life, and the accuracy with
which the adequate nutrition could be offered in each instance.

B2

20

The Baron exhibited in connexion with these observations various.
gypsum-preparations from extensive beds of this mineral, as pre-
pared in a Melbourne-factory from material obtained near the
south-coast of Australia and the Murray River. As a particular
horticultural resource, almost latent, yet replete with deep local
interests, he regarded the methodic gathering of our most orna-
mental plants for our own gardens, so that every Australian might
become more intimately and extensively acquainted with the flora
of his native land. He showed pressed dried specimens of some
most gorgeous plants, particularly from extra-tropic Western
Australia, which never had yet reached even any conservatory in
Britain or elsewhere, among such plants of extraordinary beauty
the Verticordia oeulata, which as having its flowers embellished
with minute feathers, reminding one of those of the smallest
humming bird. He thought that the export trade of seeds of
ornamental plants, indigenous to this part of the world, ought to
assume dimensions more on a mercantile scale. He spoke of
the 300 kinds of Australian Acacias, some of which were the
main glory of the glasshouses in the first half of this century
much more than now, he having greeted them himself as the
harbingers of the spring throughout the earlier years of his life
in European gardens.

In speaking of scenic culture here, he emphasized, how we
were envied in the colder lands by being able to surround our
dwellings with the grandeur of vegetation, which inspired some
of the greatest of poets such as Byron and Goethe with rapturous
effusions, when they beheld on a then difficult journey to Italy
the laurel, the myrtle and the olive in their natural grandeur ;
but he pointed out, that, to this colony was not denied the mag-
nificence of alpine scenery with its own charming vegetation,
which for continental Australia exists only in Victoria and New
South Wales. This brought Baron von. Mueller to touch briefly
on culinary garden-culture and the advantages, which our wide
range of clime affords for it. He instanced, how the London-
market was earliest in the season supplied with kitchen-vegetable
and orchard-fruits from the Channel-Islands, and latest from the
Scottish Highlands. The railways, he remarked, approached also
here the Alps already, and we could have vegetables and fruits
now brought to the metropolis from our sub-alpine valleys, after
the supply from the lowlands had ceased for several weeks.
This, he meant, was all the more significant, as the establishment
of sub-alpine farms in our Snowy Mountains by Scotch High-
landers, Scandinavians and Swiss would enable the prospecting
parties of miners much more to hold out in their searches, so that
much of auriferous country in our Alps could be far better tested, °
if re-provisioning, all required to be done through pack-horses now,
could be effected from near places in our highlands, so far as

21

turnips, cabbage, beans, carrots, barley, rye, oats, fowls, eggs and
much other food is concerned, that can be raised even in coldest
climes.

He directed attention finally to the facilities, with which water,
without expenditure by mere gravitation was obtainable from the
Alps, and how by diverting water of the rivulets or by slightly
tapping natural reservoirs or reaches, new flow for irrigation
could be secured,—mitigating thus by the least exertion and out-
lay the dangers of floods in the lowlands, and pointing out, that
in the cooler regions also the invasion of all kinds of horticultural
crops was least to be feared through destructive fungs and insects.

In conclusion Baron von Mueller congratulated the students on
the splendid prospects before them, which circumspectness and
experience of the rulers of the land had opened up; and he felt
‘sure, that they would derive therefrom all the anticipated benefits
in their own practical life, and would bave cause ever to be grate-
ful for the boons offered to them by this first Horticultural
‘College established in the great Austral Land !

22

UNDEVELOPED SOURCES OF WEALTH.

By JosrpH Harris, M.L.A.
(19th May, 1893.)

The paper I am now about to read to you is not of a sensational
character ; it will simply deal with a few subjects which I think
deserving of attention, and may prove to be of some value either -
to yourselves or to others. The title of my paper may be given
as “ Undeveloped Sources of Wealth.” LIadmit this to be a high-
sounding and grandiloquent phrase, and may lead you to anticipate
something much greater than will be realized by the time my

_ paper is finished.

I have not discovered a speedy way of wiping out our National
Debt, nor an instant method of at once giving employment to the
thousands of idle men now in Melbourne ; but I trust that what
I say may have the effect of causing you and others to think how
best we may add to the general wealth of the colony by growing
those plants and trees, and manufacturing their products, which
may be readily produced, and which at present we have to
import from other places. The fact that pur School of Horticul-.
ture is now full, that we have even more pupils than the Board
originally intended taking, is a sign, I think, that our fellow
colonists thoroughly recognise that it is absolutely necessary we
should give more attention to the cultivation of the soil than we:
have done.

Owing partly to the fewness of our people as compared with
older countries, to our distance from the great centres of popular
tion, and to the comparative high price of labour, our manufac-
turing industries have not been the universal success at one time
anticipated, and on all hands it is recognised that to “‘ mother
earth” we must chiefly look for our permanent prosperity. Not
only in these colonies, but in England, America, and elsewhere,
considerable attention has been given of late to horticulture and

agriculture. ‘

Royal. commissions and select committees have been inquiring
how best to increase fertility of the land and restore prosperity to
the tillers of the soil. Many of the leading statesmen of the
mother country’have taken a keen interest in this subject, such
men as Gladstone, Lord Derby, Sir J. Lubbock, Jesse Collings,
and Lord Sudely have spared time to devote to this matter. The
latter gentleman a few years ago put his faith in horticulture into

23

practice by planting large areas of fruit trees ; 100 acres of straw-
berries, 60 acres of raspberries, a quarter of a million of black
currants, nearly the same number of gooseberries were included
in the 700 or 800 acres this gentleman devoted to fruit culture.

In America, about 30 miles from San Francisco, in the heart of
one of the largest fruit-growing districts in'the world, has recently
been opened the Leland Stanford Jr. University of California,
with a first endowment of £4,000,000. The endowment being
ample no fees are necessary, the education being practically free.
Students have only to arrange for board, clothes, and books.
Belonging to the university there are about 40,000 acres of
excellent land, about 1,100 of which are already in bearing as

‘vineyards, a considerable tract being orchard land. Immediately
surrounding the university buildings there are 8,000 acres of rich
land; upon this is already located one of the finest stock-
breeding farms in America. Something like 1,000 acres of this
tract will be planted as orchard, and about 100 acres will be used
for illustrative horticultural work of various kinds; 250 acres
will be devoted to landscape gardening, and about 100 acres to
botanical purposes. This is the first university in the world to
elevate horticultural educatioa to its true place of dignity among
the arts and sciences by making it one of the leading features of
the institution.

You are all aware that old England has its colleges of horti-
culture, and at the one at Swanley they take in lady students.
The women’s branch there has now been in existence about two
years, and so far has been a success. ‘These nurserymaids—not
in the domestic but in the horticultural sense—are trained in
fruit, flower, and vegetable culture. They are-also taught jam
and sauce making, and other kindred subjects. The last report
of this college states ‘that several applications had been received
for women, both as head and single gardeners, and in one case to
take entire charge of the conservatories and green-houses. This
is what is occurring in crowded England, and may never occur
here, and I only refer to the fact as indicating another outlet for
female labour in a congested population. ButI must refrain from
saying more as to what is being done in other countries, but will
come nearer home. Not only is our own Horticultural School
full, but our agricultural colleges are always full, and to get
admission to either Dookie or Longerenong application must be
made months in advance. Greater facilities must be afforded our
young people to learn both horticulture and agriculture, and I
think some rudimentary instruction in these subjects should be
given in some of our country schools. ak

The profession of horticulture is a noble one—no science more
healthful or pleasurable. Agriculture and horticulture are, with-
out doubt, the two most important industries under the sun,

24

inasmuch as they deal with the food supply of the whole world
Horticulture may be considered the parent of agriculture in one
sense, for it determines upon a small scale the value of those
principles upon which a more extended cultivation of the soil
depends. No art demands a wider range of natural and experi-
mental knowledge than the practice of horticulture. Like many
other sciences it is never learnt ; there is always something fresh
to be picked up, some new and improved: method of culture,
whereby quality and quantity are improved, some new variety of
vegetable, fruit, plant, or tree to be tested. It is the most ancient
of all industries. Shakspeare makes his grave-digger declare
there are “no ancient gentlemen but gardeners,” and since it was
tke calling of our first parent, so. will the last man be dependent
on the gardener’s energies. No business combines so much of the
utile et dulce as gardening. By the sweat of his face mankind
is fed, by the taste he exhibits the earth is beautified.

Fortunately for our horticultural efforts we have in Victoria a fine
genial climate and fertile soil, we can grow the currant of Greece,
the olive of Italy, the lemon of Portugal, and the raisin of Spain
as well in some parts as the countries I have mentioned—this
is an indisputable fact. The gentlemen (leading grocers of the
city) who acted as judges of dried fruits at our late Intercolonial
Wine, Grain, and Fruit Exhibition stated that some of the Zante
currants, muscatel raisins, and prunes were of -the very highest
order of merit, and a few samples even superior to any imported ;
this fact is very encouraging, and should lead, and no doubt will
lead, to extensive areas being placed under these crops. Now, when
we remember that we annually import some seven to eight million
pounds weight of currants and raisins alone, we can see what an
opening there is for the extensive'cultivation of these fruits. In
addition to these two kinds we import something like a million and
a half pounds weight of other kinds of dried fruits, some of which,
for instance, figs and prunes, can well be grown here. We also
import considerable quantities of almonds, walnuts, and other nuts,
and these we can grow in some part or other of the colony as well
as in any part of the world. We Victorians are often boasting of
the enormous wealth of our natural resources, but these resources
must be developed and not permitted to lie dormant in the soil.
Our farmers tell us that the growing of our great staple product,
wheat, barely pays, and that a smaller yield, unless better prices
were obtained, would mean disaster. We have yet a few million
acres available for wheat-growing in the mallee, where land can
be rolled, cleared, and ploughed at a very low cost, and our wheat
yields will doubtless, unless serious droughts or other calamity
ensue, increase annually for some years to come. My main object
is to direct attention to a-few plants and trees which are not
ordinarily cultivated in the colony, but which may probably be

” 25

grown to advantage, not of course to the neglect of others which
are known to be profitable, but as adjuncts, some perhaps at first
experimentally only. Toa lover of his profession, there is an
immense amount of pleasure derivable from testing and experi-
menting upon new plants and novel industries. Nothing would
be easier than to make up a list of exotic plants and trees which
would grow in some part or other of the colony, but we are at
once met with the high cost of production as compared with many
other countries, and if we are to engage profitably with many of
these it is inevitable that the price of our rural labour must be
reduced.

I have no desire to be thought a “paper” gardener—one who
can sit down and write fluently on subjects he has no real practical
knowledge of. J have many a time smiled at letters and articles
which have occasionally appeared in our public press recommend-
ing the cultivation of this plant or of that; scores, aye hundreds, of
plants of economic value will grow with us, but the main. question
we have to deal with is, can they be successfully and profitably
grown here? This is the crux of the whole thing; itis simply a
matter of £s. d.

I have seen the cultivation of the tea plant recommended. We
all know this plant will grow well in numerous places—for the
past dozen years I have had it flowering and seeding at Mount
Martha ; but to grow the plant to perfection, as I have seen it in
the hilly districts of Ceylon, you must have a yearly rainfall of
90 to 120 inches, so that the warm, moist, and steamy atmosphere
will force the growth of leaves, and even if our climate were ever
so favorable we could not compete with Coolie labour at the
miserable price at which it is paid. A few years ago it was
thought that that valuable quinine plant, the cinchona, would pay
to cultivate here, but although it will grow in many places our
climate is too dry and variable for it to succeed. In the cinchona
districts of Ceylon the temperature is exceedingly equable, varying
a few degrees only in the year.

The conservatism of farmers and gardeners is proverbial, and a
lot of drumming and drilling is required to get them to move out
of the beaten paths they have been accustomed to, but we in this
young country, with a fine climate and fruitful soil, must take
every advantage of these, and cultivate any and every thing we
can be assured will pay. The necessity for discovering every
plant, fruit, and tree which will tend to increase our wealth from
the soil, and expand our exports, never before existed to such an
extent as now. All kinds of garden produce, and I may add
farm produce as well, were never, I suppose, so cheap as at present,
and I think if I can point out to you some plants and crops which
can be profitably grown here—if I can set some of you thinking
of what I say and recommend—I shall be pleased. Writers in

26

newspapers and others usually indulge too much in generalities ;
they, and all of us, know how absolutely necessary it is to get all
we can from the soil, but they do not sufficiently indicate what
we should grow—my intention is now to point out those crops
I think should be tried.

Sugar Beer.

First and foremost among crops not grown here—and which I
feel convinced would pay well to cultivate—is this most valuable
root. It is about 30 years since the press of Melbourne and a
few of our public men first directed attention to the importance
of sugar beet. At that time cane sugar was the common staple
article all over the world. Sugar produced from the beet root
was very small ; in fact, the industry was then only beginning to
develop. In 1868 the total yield in all Europe of beet sugar was
only 650,000 tons. In 1889-90 the yield in Europe alone was
no less than 3,543,107 tons. California—with soil and climate
similar to our own, but with a little less rainfall—is now, after
considerable opposition from those connected with the established
cane-sugar indusiry, growing the root largely. In 1890 3,250
tons of crystallized sugar’ were produced; but in the very next
year (1891) this quantity increased to 10,350 tons from three
factories, and two more factories were in course of building.
In the whole of the states of America they are now manufacturing
something like a million tons of.this sugar annually. The pro-
duction of cane sugar is gradually diminishing, thé total yield for
1890 being, according to Hayter, 2,676,500 tons, or a trifle more
than half the quantity made from beet. The wonderfully rapid
increase in the production of beet sugar is, of course, owing to
the large subsidies paid by Germany, France, Belgium, Russia,
and other European countries. Some 20 or 25 years ago a
commencement was made in this colony to grow this root and
manufacture it into. sugar. As far as the growing of the root
and its conversion into sugar were concerned the experiment was
successful, yet the enterprise came to grief, if I remember rightly
the causes being want of sufficient capital, proper management,
and the lack of the necessary scientific skill to make the venture
a success. The quality of the article made was pronounced by
experts to be equal to any imported.

The history of the attempt to start this novel industry in
Victoria was graphically given at a meeting of the Royal Com-
mission on Vegetable Products some half-dozen years ago by Mr.
Murray Ross, a gentleman who had sufficient faith in the practi-
cability and remunerativeness of sugar-beet growing and manu-
facturing the same to build, at a cost of some £50,000, that fine
pile of buildings near the junction of the Gippsland and Mor-
nington railways. This. gentleman stated to the Commission

27

that he was willing to spend another £50,000 to complete the
works. Whether he is still ready to spend this trifle of £50,000
Ido not know. No possible doubt can exist as to the suitability
of our climate for the growth of this plant, and we have any
amount of land eminently adapted for it. The crop is ‘very
exhaustive to the soil, and cannot be grown successfully on the
same ground year after year. Of course a deal depends on the ,
richness and the natural constituents of the soil, but in ordinary
cases—and this may be laid down as a rule—beet should only be
grown once in three or four years on the same land. Mr. Pearson,
our Government Agricultural Chemist, has experimented upon
beet root; and in one of his reports he says—‘ It may be con-
sidered to all intents.and purposes demonstrated that sufficiently
rich beet can be grown in this colony. With properly-selected
seed, with the improvements in the modes of cultivation which
are the result of experience, there is practically no doubt. that a
yield of from 6,000 lbs. to 8,000 Ibs. of sugar per acre per annum
may be counted upon.” Although the beet plant will grow in
almost any kind of land, great attention must be given to the
selection of those soils best adapted to its successful cultivation.
It thrives best in a deep sandy loam or an argillaceous soil; peaty
and also chalky soils are not suitable. It does well in light
silicious ground if it be rich in humus or in manure. A purely
-elay land is unsuitable, being too cold, and the long tapering roots
would not easily penetrate it; they would also be deficient in
saccharine matter. The land should be well drained. Neither
marshy land nor a dry sandy soil will yield a satisfactory crop.
The presence of salt in the soil is very inimical to the production
of sugar from this root. Monsieur Baruchson says that 1 per cent.
of salt destroys 5 per cent. of sugar. Even close proximity to the
sea, solar action on the portion above ground, the use of any
manure impregnated with salt is a serious obstacle to success.
So important a matter is this that some of the German manufac-
turers, when contracting with the growers of the root, stipulate
that it shall not be grown on certain soils, and sometimes name
the kind of manure which shall be used. Land which has already
been cropped should be preferred to that newly cleared. The
roots penetrate to a good depth if the soil is open and well pul-
verized, and newly-cleared land may contain some matter detri-
mental to the sugar-producing power of the beet.

I need hardly add that stony soils should be scrupulously
avoided. From what I have said about the cultivation of the
beet plant, you will see that more attention to ‘soils is required
than that necessary to grow potatoes, onions, or other roots. To
renovate the soil impoverished by the beet, various manures are
used. If farm-yard manure be used, it should be applied in the
autumn, the land deeply ploughed, and in the spring, at seed time,

28

some artificial manure may be lightly ploughed in, sulphate of
ammonia being considered one of the best fertilizers. All the
leaves cut off at the time of digging up the roots, if not used for
feeding cattle or sheep, as well as the refuse or waste substances
made in the manufacturing, should be returned to the soil.
The selection of seed saved from roots rich in sugar is very im-
portant, and large European manufacturers frequently provide the
seed themselves, so as to insure the best quality being grown.
Neither very large nor very smal] roots are best adapted for sugar
purposes, those averaging between 2 Ibs. and 3 lbs. are reckoned
the best. They should have small tops, not necky, and those
which grow almost entirely in the ground are the best. The
harvesting and the manufacturing of the-root into sugar are
matters somewhat foreign to the object of my paper, and at
present unnecessary for me to speak upon. I need hardly add
that until the factories and machinery necessary to transform the
beet root into sugar are ready, it would be madness for our farmers
to rush off into beet-growing.

_At the period I have already mentioned, when this industry
was first started and failed, the necessity for extracting all we
can from the soil did not exist to the same extent as at present.
Now we are faced with the fact that thousands of our fellow men
are wanting work, that numbers are leaving our shores for New
Zealand, South Africa, West Australia, and other places; short-
sighted persons may say, well, let them go, the better for those
who remain. I say no, most emphatically ; these men are the
very life-blood of the colony, and it is disastrous that we should
lose them. Let us take steps to attract population rather than
repel it. The growing of sugar beet or of any other crop will
not afford instant relief, but I feel convinced that this industry
would be of great benefit, and be a large factor -in our national
wealth. We consume between 50,000 and 60,000 tons of sugar
annually. IZf this were to be grown here, it would mean the
occupation of, say, 30,000 to 40,000 acres of land, and give em-
ployment to a large number of men, irrespective of those required
in the factories. Our railway receipts would be largely increased
by the conveyance of the roots to the factories, the transport of
manures, and in other directions. Just now all the talk is about
placing men on the land, but what are they to grow? Our local
markets for vegetables can easily be swamped. Several years
must elapse before fruit trees come into full profit. Beet is an
annual crop. <A living no doubt could be made by combining
several rural industries, such as poultry, pigs, bees, and other
things, but it seems to me that in this beet industry we have the
very thing which smail holders could cultivate profitably. The
proposal to place men on allotments of 10 acres each should be
inereased to say 15, @ man could then grow a crop of beet of

29

5 acres every year, and the sale of his produce would be
assured. Fairly good land should give a return of 20 tons of
roots to the acre, the manufacturer would give, say, 15s. per ton
placed in the railway trucks, so 5 acres at 20 tons to the acre
would realize £75. The seed for these 5 acres would cost about
15s. per acre ; the manure, say, 40s. per acre ; and extras 5s.; ora
total of £3 per acre, totalling for the 5 acres £15 ; this deducted
from the money realized would leave a net income from the
5 acres of £60. The balance of the 15 acres would, of course, be
used for growing potatoes and other vegetables, perhaps a little
corn, a few fruits, fodder for their cow, horse, pigs, and fowls.
In the cultivation of beet a quantity of light labour is required—
earthing up, hoeing, and weeding—such work that children could
engage in. The price of labour in the colony is fully one-third
higher than it is in Germany, but against that drawback we have
much cheaper land. There it runs about £3 per acre per annum ;
here, with the exception of some extraordinarily fertile spots in
the western district, it is very much less, infinitely less. Here
we have a duty of £6 per ton on cane sugar and £12 per ton on
beet sugar. This should bea sufficient set-off against the imported
article.

The growing of our own sugar might possibly provoke hostility
from those interested in cane-sugar refineries. I have not forgotten
the injury done to those immense sugar refineries at Bristol and
elsewhere in England by the development of the beet-sugar
industry ; but while some harm to individuals might accrue here,
should this replace cane sugar, I am convinced that very great
national benefits would follow the cultivation of a plant so:
eminently adapted to the country. Accept if you please the advice
given by Mr. Pearson, and send to the continent of Europe for
some properly accredited gentleman of experience who would
understand both the administration and the technical sides of the
question.

I have not lost sight of the fact that the Gillies-Deakin Go-
vernment offered a bonus of £100 for 20 tons of a good market-
able quality sugar grown in the colony, said bonus available up
to 30th June, 1895. This has not yet been applied for, nor
will it ever be ; the suin offered is altogether too small, and the
required quantity of sugar too small also. Iam not by any means
a fervent advocate of the bonus system; with the one exception,
perhaps, that of the butter bonus, which, no doubt, has been suc-
cessful, the other bonuses offered have been either partial or total
failures.

Will not some of our enterprising men take this subject up, but
should private enterprise fail, then it might be worth while our
Government and Parliament considering the propriety of offering
something substantial, say, £5,000 for the first 500 tons of beet

380

sugar grown in the colony. I hope that beet-sugar production
will oA much longer be with us a dream of the future, but that it
will speedily become a well-developed source of wealth.

Fisre Pants.

Spasmodie attempts have been made from time to time to grow
fibre plants here, but, although flax and hemp will in some parts
of the colony do as well as in any part of the world, we can point
to no results of which to be proud. Mr. Guilfoyle, Director of
our Botanic Gardens, has on several occasions exhibited splendid
collections of fibres, which, although very interesting from a
scientific point of view, were not of much use to the practical
man who might be anxious to cultivate for profit. ‘To be of any
real service 2 few acres of each should be grown, an account of
the cost of the same to be kept, and then the value of the fibre
produced estimated ; but-even this would be difficult, different
fibres require different treatment and machinery.

The three principal fibres are flax, hemp, and jute; the latter
we may abandon ali thought of growing ; our climate is too cold,
the plants producing jute will only thrive in a warm and humid
climate. —

Of flax (Linum usitatissimum) we had last year, according to
Hayter, the prodigious area of thirteen acres under this crop, pro-
ducing 15 ewt. of fibre and 267 bushels of linseed. In the same
year we imported 373,392 gallons of linseed oil, valued at £44,000.
Surely in the flax we have a plant we should be able to grow
enough of to supply our own requirements at any rate. Now, what
is the reason it is not cultivated in quantity? We have in many
parts of the colony the very soil and climate most suitablef or it;
we have also among us plenty of men who have grown it in
Ireland and in Scotland, and who know all about its culture, and
also some who understand the manufacturing the fibre, and the
expressing the oil from the seed. Mr. Miller, the rope manufac-
turer, informs me that his firm is prepared to purchase pretty well
any quantity of fibre for manufacturing into cordage and.twine
purposes, and that if they could buy plenty of flax they had all
the necessary appliances for making canvas, and that with a little
extra outlay they would be able to manufacture other linen goods.
Hayter says that last year we imported fibres to the value of
£67,050, and this independent of jute and cocoa-nut fibre, which
we cannot produce here. I am informed that in Gippsland a few
farmers have grown this last season a few patches of flax, and
have been well pleased at the result. One farmer particularly has
gone to some expense in getting machinery to prepare the plant
for market, and intends to go extensively into the cultivation of
flax next season. The only obstacle I can see in the way to
a profitable cultivation of this valuable plant is the high price of

31

labour compared to that in other countries. The greatest flax-
producing countries in Europe are Russia, Italy, France,and Bel-
gium, and in each of these countries the cost of labour is very low.
But in some of the states of America immense quantities of flax
are grown; in three states alone as much as nearly 7,000,000
bushels of flax seed were grown in one recent year. I have no
record of what the rate of wages is in Iowa, Dakota, and Kansas,
the three states I allude to, but it will be very much higher than on
the European continent, although probably less than what has
been ruling here. d :

Steeping, or water-retting, is done by immersing the flax in a
stream or pool of water. Sometimes the flax is spread out thinly
on the ground and exposed to the decomposing influence of dew
and rain ; this is what is known as dew-retting. But these means
of separating the fibre are largely superseded now by the so-called
dry process, resulting in a gain of both strength and quantity.
The use of chemicals and the application of steam for the purpose
of freeing the fibre from the woody matter have resulted in a
great saving of time over the old-fashioned methods.

Hemp is cultivated nearly all over the world. At our Horti-
cultural Gardens was grown this last season a patch of splendid
hemp, and I have no doubt that it, like flax, would succeed in
many parts of the colony.

The New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) isa valuable plant
to have in any garden. Possibly it may pay to cultivate in some
parts of Victoria. In New Zealand a considerable trade is done
in its fibre. The plant will grow almost anywhere, thriving best,
like most other plants, in fairly rich soil.

Tur Esparro Grass (Stipa tenacissima)

is one of the most valuable fibre plants in the world, and is
imported into England at the rate of 140,000 to 150,000 tons
annually. It is a native of Spain, Portugal, and North Africa.
It grows on the poorest of soils where no other vegetation is
produced. A drawback to the cultivation of this plant is the
fact that it takes many years to establish, and from twelve to
fifteen, years before fit for harvesting. It will then produce 6 to
8 tons to the acre, value £5 to £7 per ton. The late Dr.
Schomburg was fortunate in raising, some twenty years ago, a
large number of plants of this grass, but at this moment Iam
not aware of what has become of them. Our Mr. Bosisto also
succeeded in importing this plant some few years since, and I
must make inquiry as to how it is succeeding with him. Mr.
Noble, paper manufacturer, says the New Zealand tussock ‘grass
is as good as esparto, and probably our own tussock grass, so
plentiful in many parts of the colony, may be equally valuable.

32

Tue RamMeEz,

or glass-cloth plant (Boehmeria nivea), will do fairly well with
us in many places, but at present can only be recommended
experimentally, A plantation made by Mr. Fuller at Cheltenham
some years ago resulted in failure. The plant wants thorough
shelter from cold winds and frosts. The fibre is very strong and
valuable, realizing from £30 up to sometimes £100 per.ton. I
observe that Fiji has gone into growing ramee largely.

- Tue SUNFLOWER,

with its large handsome smiling face, is being grown in immense
areas in Russia, Germany, and other European States, and would
probably pay well to cultivate in Victoria. On good land the
yield should be 50 bushels of seed to the acre, and a bushel
of seed should yield 1 gallon of oil. Haldane says the oil is
of great value, and is employed for table purposes, lamps, paint-
ing (especially for greens and blues). It makes excellent soap
of great softness. When travelling in Switzerland and Germany
two or three years ago I observed the words liberally placarded
at all the railway stations “ Zunflower Zweep.” For some time
I could not imagine what this meant, when presently a ray of
intelligence ‘flashed across my dull intellect that “Zunflower
Zweep” just meant Sunflower Soap, and so it proved to be. As
a lubricant it is most excellent; as a drying oil nearly equal to
linseed ; quite equal to olive oil for salads and other domestic
purposes, in fact, seems to be superseding olive oil. The seed,
shelled and ground, makes very fine sweet flour for bread, and is
also a valuable food, of course in its whole state, for poultry.
The seed, roasted and ground, is a substitute for coffee ; the seeds
also make demulcent and soothing emulsions. No flowers yield
more honey ; they also give a fine yellow dye. The pith may be
used in surgery instead of moxa; the oil is used for cloth-dressing ;
the leaves are excellent fodder, either fresh or dry ; the mare, or
refuge after expressing the oil, is superior to linseed cake for
fattening cattle and poultry. By treating the stem like flax a
very fine fibre is produced, nearly as fine as silk. So you see
every part of the plant is of value—the flower, the seed, the
leaves, and the stem, while a valuable potash is made from the
stem and leaves. As you already know, the sunfloweris an annual
plant, It isa gross feeder, and does best in a rich calcareous
soil; one of the best manures for it is old mortar. The im-
poverishment of the soil by its culture can be remedied greatly by
burning the stalks and spreading the ashes over the soil, and of
course the land could be kept in good heart by a liberal use of
bone-dust, blood manure, guano, or other artificial fertilizers.

33

There are several varieties of sunflower, the white-seeded one
producing the most oil, while many cultivators on the continent
prefer a dwarf species (Helianthus indicus) as being the most
profitable for general cultivation. It is stated that wheat grows
better when succeeding a crop of sunflcwer. I have had inquiries
as to how the seed should be extracted from the head or dise.
When the seeds are shining and ripe the plant may be either
pulled from the ground or cut with a sickle. The discs are cut
from the stem and the seeds rubbed ont with any suitable instru-
ment, such as that used for rubbing out maize.

OTHER VEGETABLE OILS.

Time will not permit to more than just mention olive, castor,
colza, and other oil-producing plants which grow well here.
The olive, as you all know, does well in numerous parts of the
colony, and excellent samples of oil have been exhibited at our
various shows and exhibitions for very many years past, but, as
I stated before, the sunflower, which gives a return in as many
months as the olive does in years, and which appears to yield a
product as valuable as the latter, may possibly in time supersede
it. One advantage the olive has over the sunflower, inasmuch as
the latter requires special soil and manuring, while the olive will
live nearly for ever, and requires little attention in the way of
pruning and dressing, it will also grow in a great variety of soils,
wet marshy land being alone inimical to it. An Italian saying
is, “If you wish to leave your children a lasting inheritance,
plant an olive tree.” De Candolle puts the average age of the
olive at 700 years. The castor oil plant does well enough here,
in some parts of South Australia is quite a weed ; but we cannot
expect to compete with India and its cheap labour in the pro-
duction of castor oil. I have little faith also in our being able
to produce economically rape or colza oil. But there is one other
valuable oil plant which I think may prove profitable—it is the
earth-nut (Arachis hypogea). I have only seen this singular
annual plant in two or three places. At the Horticultural
Gardens at Richmond it does well. The crop is a most profit-
able one, producing in a good year as much as 100 bushels
(25 to 32 lbs. to the bushel) to the acre. The seeds contain
42 to 450 per cent. of oil; after they are cleaned, decorticated,
crushed, and pressed by cold pressure, 1 bushel of seed will
yield a gallon of the finest oil, very clear, and of a pale-straw
colour; it is then frequently sold in Europe for olive oil. It makes
an excellent lamp oil. It is also used for dressing cloth, and for
lubricating watches and other delicate machinery. An inferior
quality of oil is made by the seeds or cake remaining after the
first pressing being ground finely, heated, and pressed again; this

826. c

34

is largely used by soap manufacturers. After the oil is expressed,
the cake is given to cattle, being particularly rich in flesh formers,
of sweet taste, and agreeable flavour. Cattle are fond of the
stems of the plant, so nothing need be wasted. These earth, or
pea-nuts as they are commonly called here, are, when fresh, very
rich and delicious, very different to the rancid trash frequently
found in Melbourne. Most people who have been accustomed
to consume them fresh much prefer them to any other kind of
nut. The seeds roasted and bruised in a mortar and made into
cakes are an excellent substitute for cocoa, and when parched
and beaten with sugar make an excellent sweetmeat. This
valuable and humble little plant has lately been placed to a novel
use, the oil it produces, under the name of “ Arachide,” is ex-
tensively used in some parts of Europe in the manufacture of
margarine ; from a report I have seen, the trade done in this oil
for this purpose is kept very secret. When fresh, the oil is per-
fectly wholesome, and it will keep for a long time without getting
rancid.

The plant requires a warm situation to thrive in, and a deep
rich soil is the best for it. Sir Ferdinand von Mueller says that
in the southern United States alone the annual value of the crop
is upwards of half-a-million sterling. It is also largely cultivated
in the south of France and Spain, in parts of Africa, and many
other parts of the globe.

FLOWER-FARMING FOR PERFUMES.

The time will come when this industry will in Victoria become
of great importance. Very many of the flowers which provide
the material for perfumes grow well with us—the rose, lavender,
jasmine, mignonette, sweet-scented geraniums, and a host of
other plants do as well with us as in any part of the world, while
some others, such as the boronia, the acacia or wattle, and the
sweet-scented pittosporum probably thrive better. Mr. Piesse,
of the celebrated firm of Piesse and Lubin, of Paris, when
visiting our Great Exhibition of 1880, and after travelling
through a considerable portion of the colony, drew our attention
to the great advantages we possessed in climate and soil for the
successful cultivation of numerous scent-producing plants. He
strongly urged us to give this matter our thoughtful consideration,
feeling confident it would be a bond fide and remunerative method
of augmenting personal incomes, and would contribute greatly to
the general prosperity of the colony. The profits at first may
not be large, but the attempts at new industries would afford
employment to a number of young people, teach them habits of

industry, ard in the course of time develop into an important
item of our exports.

35

I know of no industry so delightful, so healthful, as this. A
valuable object-lesson in this line is to be found at the Govern-
ment Scent Farm at Dunolly, where, under the enthusiastic
superintendence of Mr. Mellon, a great variety of plants and bulbs
are grown expressly for perfume purposes.

In establishing a flower farm for perfumery purposes we must
bear in mind that one great essential to pecuniary success is the
ability to obtain cheap labour, such as women and children may
afford ; it would never pay to give 6s. or 7s. per day to collect
orange blossom or jasmine flowers. It would also be a mistake
to attempt to cultivate too many kinds of scent plants ; only those
specially adapted to the soil, situation, and climate should be
selected. It is a well-known fact that these factors influence in
a great degree the delicacy and fragrance of many flowers. The
lavender and peppermint grown at Mitcham, in England, yield
oils which far excel in value those of France or other countries.
The greatest flower farms in the world are those lying on the
shores of the Mediterranean, commencing near Nice on to Cannes,
which is 20 miles, and from Grasse to the sea, 10 miles ; but for
considerable distances beyond these inland places flower farming
is carried on. Here grow the jasmine, the tuberose, the rose, and
other plants as we grow cabbages, onions, or potatoes. Labour
is abundant and cheap, men getting about 24 francs per day ;
these of course do all the heavy work of the fields while women
and children gather the blossoms and attend to hoeing and other
light work, the former being paid from a franc to a franc and a
quarter per day. In this colony of Victoria you enter a homestead
of golden grain, there in France one of lavender sheaves; here of
butter and cheese, there of olive oil and of violet butter; here
vats of wine, there of orange flower and rose water. Now, while
our sparse population and higher-priced labour may prevent our
entering into successful competition with England, France, Italy,
and other places in the cultivation of some of our commoner scent-
producing plants, we are able to grow, as I stated before, some kinds
infinitely better than any other country. Mr. Bosisto and some
other chemists have after repeated trials succeeded in extracting
what may perhaps be considered the most exquisite of all scents—
I mean the Boronia megastigma. Now, if this can be profitably
done, I have no hesitation in saying it would shortly become the
most highly prized of all scents in Paris or Loudon ; the plant
luxuriates in the poor sandy peaty soils of some parts of Brighton,
Cheltenham, and numerous other districts, while I have also seen
it doing equally well in the richer loams of more inland places.
I am no great advocate for company forming, but it seems to me
that there is a legitimate field for a number of persons to join
together and form a company for the express purpose of growing
perfume plants. Soil, situation, and climate would of course have

C2

36

first to be considered, while proximity to population, so that
women and children may be procurable, must not be left out of

calculation.
SERICULTURE.

It must be something like 30 years since an enterprising Italian
gentleman started near Lilydale a mulberry plantation on a
somewhat pretentious scale, but it came to grief. If I remember
rightly, Signor Martelli had not sufficient capital to keep the thing
going, and at that period most of us were too busily engaged
making money in other directions to tempt speculation in the
slower art of silk growing. Since then several attempts have
been made by Mrs. Bladen Neill, Mrs. Timbrell, and other ladies
to establish this industry—Corowa, Albury (N.S.W.), Northcote,
and other places were selected, but from some cause or other no
good or lasting results have been achieved. I observed only two
or three months since that another attempt was to be made, and
I wish the “Women Silk Growers’ Association” (I think this
was the name) every success. New Zealand has been planting
mulberries extensively at her agricultural farms at Whangarei,
the idea being to give employment to the Industrial Schools
children. This is an industry which, above all others, requires the
aid of women and children, and this only for a short period in the
year ; but it-seems to me it should prove a paying one, provided
always the persons engaged know how the worms should be
managed and the silk manufactured; like everything else, the
necessary knowledge and attention is required to make the thing
profitable.

Numerous plants afford food for the silkworm—the ailantus,
the bombax, the ricinus, the maclura, or Osage orange, the
Indian plum, and others ; but by far and away the chief is the
mulberry, of which there are several varieties. The best appears
to be morus multicaulis, or moretti; but in Europe they have kinds
which are specially adapted for certain situations, The white
mulberry, upon which the worms chiefly feed, will grow almost
anywhere, provided the soil is fairly good and the site sheltered
from high winds. The trees soon arrive at an age fit for the
leaves being stripped.

My friend Mr. Bosisto has drawn my attention to what came
under his observation when travelling in Spain a few years ago,
and which I think is not generally known. I quote his words :—
“T noticed in the districts of Murcia and Miranda the morus alba
growing in clumps and rows on lands belonging to the villagers;
on inquiry I became acquainted with a novel industry, viz., the
making of silken gut from silkworms fed on the mulberry leaves.
This industry is carried on by villagers entirely in this part of
Spain, and a trade is done to the extent of some thousands of

37

pounds sterling. This silken gut resembles very much catgut,
but is finer in appearance ; it is employed as strings for the guitar
in Spain, but throughout Europe is used chiefly for the ends of
fishing lines, on which to fix the hook. I had some difficulty in
finding out the process of manufacture, and the following may
not be quite complete :—When the worm is well developed and
showing signs of spinning its cocoon, it is at once removed from
the feeding tray and put alive into strong vinegar; in this it is
kept for about fourteen days, the head and tail are then removed
and the double entrail is pulled out between two fingers of each
hand to its utmost stretch, forming two strings, each generally
measuring from 9 to 15 inches, according to the size of the silk-
worm ; these are repickled for a time, they are afterwards rounded
in a similar fashion to that of a leathern shoe lace; another process
follows—in order to neutralize the acid absorbed they are then
dried, and the process is complete.”

Specimens of Victorian silk have been sent on various occa-
sions to Europe, and extremely favorable reports have been
received—of equal commercial value to those of any country, and
So on,

Baron von Mueller informs us as to the profits of sericulture
elsewhere. He quotes a fact from California, according to which
£700 was the clear gain from 3} acres of mulberries, the working
expenses being £93. In this country, California, this industry is
assuming enormous dimensions, since 1870 between 7,000,000 and
8,000,000 mulberry trees having been planted. The Commissioner
of the United States for Agriculture estimates that an acre
should support 700 to 1,000 mulberry trees, producing, when four
years old, 5,000 lbs. of leaves fit for food. On this quantity of
leaves can be reared 140,000 worms, from which over a net profit
of from £80 to £240 per acre may be obtained by one person
only. Mr. C. Brody, of Sydney, thinks the probable proceeds of
silk culture to range from £60 to £150 per acre. The dis-
crepancies in these calculations arise from difference in cost of
labour, soil, attention, climate, and so on.

MEDICINAL PLANTS.

The cultivation of these may be regarded as a very minor
industry ; still, as we import a great number, either in a natural
or prepared state, there is no reason why we should not cultivate
those which readily grow here. I may mention camomile, sar-
saparilla, phytolacca, rhubarb, tansey, broom, and numerous
others. Liquorice does as well with us as anywhere. In a spot in
my old garden at South Yarra it was rampant, a perfect weed,
and it seemed almost impossible to keep it within bounds. It
delights in a deep sandy loam. The roots are fit to use in about

38

ars after planting, and are easily manufactured into the
cane of he We import annually 50,000 to 60,000 lbs.
weight, of a value of upwards of £2,000. There is an import
duty of 2d. per lb. ae .
To any one thinking of embarking in the culture of medicinal
plants, or, in fact, the culture of any plant not in common cultiva-
tion, I would urge him to procure a copy of Baron von Mueller’s
valuable work entitled “Select Plants for Industrial Culture,”
price 5s., to be had at the Government Printing Office, and should
be purchaseable at our principal booksellers.

Dye Pants.

Out of the numerous plants used for dyeing I can hardly point
to one I think would pay us to cultivate. Indigo, woad, turmeric,
safflower, madder, sapan-wood, in fact the bulk of plants used
for this purpose, come chiefly from India, and, even supposing our
climate was suitable, we could not compete with the cheap labour
of that country. The late curator of the Adelaide Botanic
Gardens, Dr. Schomburg, who was an enthusiast in experimental
cultivation, had got together a fine collection of dye plants and
dyes, numbering about 70 objects, but at this moment I do not
remember that he was sanguine of the successful and profitable
cultivation of but a very few.

THE Carer Puant (Capparis spinosa)

has not, I think, been grown anywhere in the colony with a view:
to profit, and yet it does well in numerous places, and there is
little doubt but that we could grow it as well as Southern Spain,
from whence our chief supplies are sent. As a pickle the flower-
buds of the caper are in great esteem everywhere. The buds are
gathered by children, then thrown into a cask containing as much
salt and vinegar as is sufficient to cover them, and as the supply
of capers increases more vinegar is added. This runs on for, say,
six months, when the caper season closes. The casks are then
emptied and the buds sorted according to their size and colour, the
smallest and greenest being considered the best. They are then
put into smaller casks ‘of fresh vinegar for commerce, and in this
state will keep for five or six years. The caper plant is pro-
pagated from seeds, from cuttings of the stems, and also from
pieces of the root. It must have a warm aspect, delights in dry
or even rocky situations, and positively refuses to grow in wet
land. In my old garden at South Yarra we grew it merely as an
ornamental plant, but winter frosts generally damaged it con-

siderably. It required a higher and drier place than the margin
of a swamp.

39

TanNING MATERIALS.

Amongst plants producing tanning materials, next in importance
to our native acacias may be placed the tanning sumach (Rhus
coriara), a native of those countries bordering on the Mediter-
ranean; of easy cultivation, well suited for dry soils, I am con-
vinced it would thrive in numerous parts of the colony, and be a
profitable plant to grow. Some few years since I obtained from
Europe, through a Melbourne seedsman, a quantity of seed of this,
which grew well, but ultimately the plants languished and died,
solely, I found out afterwards, through the soil being too rich and
the situation too damp. The importation into England of this
sumach, chiefly from Sicily, is enormous, 12,000 to 18,000 tons
being the usual annual quantity. The price of Sicilian sumach is
from 15s. to 16s. 6d. per cwt., that imported from Spain is not so
valuable. The parts used are the leaves and young twigs. These
are gathered two or three times in the summer, then dried and
ground or crushed, when they are ready for packing. Plants
raised from seed take longer to mature than those raised from
cuttings or suckers, and it is generally four or five years ere they
are fit for cropping, whereas plants from cuttings or suckers are
ready for stripping in the second year. The plant lives for ten
to fifteen years, and an acre of plants at their prime produces
about a ton of leaves.

Sumach is also used for dyeing, the leaves are principally used
for yellow and black, and the roots give a red dye.

Venetian sumach is the product of Rhus cotinus, and contains
about 20 per cent. of tannin ; it imparts a light colour to leather
and considerable firmness ; the leather is soft and friable. The
leaves yield a yellow dye, called in commerce “ Young Fustic.”

Rhus vernicifera is the celebrated “ Lacquer-tree”’ of Japan, a
small tree which yields a vegetable wax. By making wounds in
the tree the juice is collected, placed in tubs, then an infusion of
galls and iron is added, and after some other manipulation the
beautiful jet-black varnish is produced. The tree which produces
what is commonly known as “Japan Vegetable Wax” is Rhus
succedanea, and was, I think, first introduced into Victoria some
30 years ago from Japan, by Mr. G. W. Rusden, a gentleman well
known to many of us. It does well here, is a strikingly hand-
some small tree, and should be planted largely for scenic effect.
It is the berries of this plant which produces the wax which is
chiefly used for manufacturing candles and vestas. I have men-
tioned these two last plants not with any idea of recommending
them to be cultivated for economic purposes, but having mentioned
Rhus coriara and cotinus I could hardly refrain from just refer-
ring to two plants considered of so much importance in their own
country, Japan.

40

I cannot leave this subject without alluding to the plant intro-
duced from America some few years ago, and which was reputed
to beso valuable for tanning purposes. I refer to the “ Canaigre”
(Rumex hymenosepalum) one of the dock or sorrel family, a
plant said to yield 20 to 40 per cent. of tannic acid. I have grown
this at Mornington, but not with pronounced success, the soil
being probably too poor and the situation too cold. Further north
considerable success has resulted in the cultivation of this plant,
and it will likely become a considerable source of wealth.

Tue Cork OaK (Quercus suber)

is a tree which thrives well in many parts of the colony. In the
Fitzroy Gardens, Botanic Gardens, Macedon State Nursery, and
in many private gardens throughout Victoria, are to be found
isolated specimens of this useful tree. On account of the length
of time one has to wait before any return comes in, it is not a tree
we could recommend to our selectors and farmers to plant, but
surely we have among us a number of landed and wealthy pro-
prietors to whom immediate revenue would not be so necessary,
and who would, by planting a few hundred acres of the tree in
question, be not only exhibiting a kind of patriotism—a love for
his country—but would at the same time insure, if not to himself,
to his heirs, a valuable property. Mr. Hayter informs us that in
1890 and 1891 we imported cork in its natural and also cut
state to the value of £46,000. The demand for cork is fast in-
creasing, being now used for purposes which twenty years ago
would never have been dreamt of. Those new substitutes for oil-
cloth called kamptulicon and linoleum are manufactured from
cork and caoutchouc. We also find that cork dust makes excel-
lent packing for fruit for exportation. Thousands of tons are
used in various parts of the world of the rough cork bark for
making artificial rock-work. With what excellent effect has it
been used in the Aquarium at the Exhibition Building. The
cork tree is a native of the south of Europe and the northern part
of Africa. I have also seen it growing abundantly, apparently
wild, in Tuscany, and there it seemed to be doing well on rocky
sidelands where there was very little depth of soil ; it thrives best
in a granite or schistose soil. It may be multiplied by seeds or by
grafting on to the common evergreen or Holly Oak (Quercus Ilex),
which seeds most abundantly. Probably trees so raised would
not be so good as those raised from seed sown in the place where
they are to remain. I have imported these acorns from England,
but although freshly gathered at the time of shipment, none of
them grew. If packed in moss or sand and despatched by one of
the fastest boats they should carry all right.

I have already alluded to the length of time before the tree is
fit to strip for its bark ; this somewhat depends on the climate ;

41

in Algeria and Southern Spain the trees are fit for barking before
those grown in colder climes; fifteen to twenty years is the usual
time before they are ready, and then in from eight to twelve years
the trees may be rebarked, and this process can be renewed for
150 years or more. I need hardly say that the inner layer, or
what is called the “mother bark,” must not be injured, or the
tree will fail to renew its bark, or perhaps may die. Napoleon III.
did incalculable good by planting along the coast of the Bay of
Biscay miles of this valuable tree, thereby draining a large tract
of swampy and unhealthy country, making it a place fit to live
in, and also causing it ultimately to become a source of profit.

THE Vatonia Oak (Quercus Agilops)

is a singularly beautiful and most valuable tree, a native of
Southern Europe, from whence enormous quantities of the
commercial article called “ Valonia” is exported to England.
“Valonia” is the cups of the acorns produced by this tree.
Although it is some time since this tree was first introduced into
the colony, and attention drawn to its great value by Sir
Ferdinand von Mueller and others, it is still scarce. ‘

Mr. Cunnack, of Castlemaine, and Mr. Wm. Lawrence, o
South Yarra, have imported both plants and seeds of this oak,
and J think it would well pay some of our enterprising Melbourne
nurserymen to get out large quantities of both; a ready sale
would be found among numerous gentlemen interested in tanning
and the leather trade. There are some trees already seeding in
the colony, and it is to be hoped that every acorn will be collected
and sown. The tree is not a rapid grower, it is growing very
slowly with me near the coast; but further north, and in warmer
districts, the growth is more rapid. I may just add that the
value of “ Valonia” consists in its giving a rich bloom to
leather, a8 well as hardening it and making it less permeable to
water.

FRUIT-GROWING FOR Export.

It is not my intention to more than just allude to this industry.
There are gentlemen infinitely better qualified to speak on this
most important subject than I, besides the matter is of too great
moment to be dealt with in this paper. For the past two or
three years we have been shipping to England considerable quan-
tities of apples; a few pears, and other fruits. The results have
varied, but there is no question that those growers and shippers
who have carefully selected fine, sound, and good sized fruit, and
have properly packed it, have been rewarded with excellent account
sales, while others, less careful in the selection and the packing,
have had most unsatisfactory returns, and serve them right too.
Properly done, there is an immense future in the exportation of
apples to England, and probably to many continental towns, to
India, perhaps to Canada by the new route, and other places.

42

In selecting the kinds of apples and pears with a view of
exportation, the greatest care must be taken in planting only
those which have been proved to carry well, and which can be
placed on the London market at just the proper time, when they
are pretty sure of commanding a ready sale. Reports have from
time to time appeared in the newspapers as to the most suitable
kinds, methods of packing, &c.; besides, Mr. Neilson and many
of our leading fruit-growers, who have shipped fruit successfully,
would, I am sure, cheerfully impart any desired information.

We can hardly expect to be able to export to Europe what are
known as soft fruits—plums, tomatoes, and other kinds have been
tried in one or two instances, but success was not achieved. One
of the most perishable of fruits is the strawberry, and yet it is
constantly shipped from America to England. At a recent date
the steamer Majestic conveyed from New York to Liverpool
147 erates of strawberries and thirteen cases of tomatoes ; both on
being opened were found exceptionally good and fine, and realized
good prices, the shipment being pronounced a success. I need
hardly say that the steamer was specially fitted up with refriger-
ating rooms. JI allude to this more particularly to illustrate what
can really be done with proper packing, careful handling, and
suitable means of transport.

I have no hesitation in saying that considerable loss is occa-
sioned to our fruit-growers by the rough and careless handling
the fruit is subjected to at the hands of railway porters, carters,
and others. Stringent measures should be taken to prevent loss
from this source; men, after being cautioned, should be fined or
penalized in some way or other. An industry yet quite in its
infancy is the canning, the bottling, and the drying of fruits;
very great possibilities are here before us, and I feel convinced

that presently great developments will take place in these
directions. ‘

Tue VINE.

The culture of the vine, whether for wine making or for the
production of raisins and currants, is as yet only in its infancy
with us, time alone will develop the immense possibilities there
are in the colony for our wines. Some persons think that in a
little while the wine industry may mean more wealth to us than
even wheat-growing. A late visitor to our colony, Mr. Burgoyne,
says this is pre-eminently a wine-making country, and that we
are as well able to make good wines as any other community in
the world. He was struck with the remarkable advantages our
grape growers possessed, not only with regard to soil and climate,
but the configuration of the country also, as compared with the
assistance nature offers to the vignerons of France along the
banks of the Rhine and Moselle. Mr. Burgoyne is, as you
know, a leading wine merchant of London, and a gentleman

43

whose opinions can be relied upon. During his recent visit
here, he not only purchased large quantities of wine, but
also invested a considerable sum of money in buying a vine-
yard in one of the northern parts of the colony. As a
temperance man, not a teetotaller, I would like to see much
more wine consumed and less ardent spirits; the former would, I
am convinced, tend to reduce drunkenness, and, consequently, the
misery caused—every facility should be atforded by the State to
the wine-grower and the wine-seller. France drinks 30 gallons
of wine each per annum; we hardly a gallon. There it means
£40,000,000 per annum, giving employment to two or three million
persons. California yields 20,000,000 gallons of wine annually,
Victoria only 2,000,000 gallons. I know that we are now making
fair progress in the direction of vine planting, but we have a
lot of leeway to make up to get abreast of California—a country
whose wines are generally much inferior to those produced here.

SaucEs AND PICKLES.

What is there to prevent our making nearly all these within
our own borders. Why should we import yearly nearly £20,000
worth of these articles? It seems to me a reflection on our
enterprise that we do not, with perhaps a few exceptions,
manufacture everything needed in this line.

CIDER.

From sauces to cider is a jump, but often on reading the
market reports, and when I saw the price of apples quoted so low,
I have wondered the growers did not make them into cider. Nearly
every year, just at mid-season, when they are most plentiful, we
are told that, with the exception of the very best fruit, apples do
not pay to send to market, they are given to pigs and cows; but
frequently I have seen them lie rotting on the ground, not paying
to pick up. The quantity of cider imported into the colony is so
small as hardly worth mentioning, but I am quite convinced that
in apple districts it would pay well for one or more persons to
start the manufacturing of this most wholesome and refreshing
beverage; there are plenty of west country people who would be
only too glad to have the opportunity of indulging in what may
be termed their native liquor. I am well aware that to make
first-class cider, apples of any description will not do, special
varieties are required; at the same time, a very good wholesome
drink can be made from the gleanings of a general orchard.

Farm SEEDS.

We import annually from £30,000 to £40,000 worth of seeds
of various kinds, a good portion of which is grass, clover, and
canary seed. The latter seems to have gone out of cultivation

44

altogether, for Hayter, in his Victorian Year-Book for 1892, puts
down the area as nil, and yet I have seen fine crops of this a few
years ago in the Drysdale district. Mustard is another crop
which seems dwindling to nothing, last year showing only 2 acres
as against 30 to 40 two or three yearsago. Howis this? Our
Melbourne seedsmen almost invariably prefer their stocks of rye
grass and cocksfoot from New Zealand to seeds grown in our own
colony; andwhy? Because itis cleaner, better dressed, freer from
sorrel, and other weed seeds. Is this not a reflection upon our own
farmers, that they do not keep their fields clean, and so be able to
produce a good marketable article? At present I do not think we
could successfully compete with Belgium, Holland, and other
places in Europe in the production of clovers, lucerne, and a few
other grasses, but I feel assured we import large quantities of
seeds which should be produced on our own soil.

Insect PEsts,

It would be a source of wealth to the colony were we to keep
in subjection these pests which play such havoc in very many
of our gardens. It would be almost impossible to estimate, even
approximately, the loss we suffer from the ravages of codlin moth,
pear, and cherry slug, and a host of other pests. By drastic
measures we have stamped out phylloxera from our vineyards; we
should do our best to subdue those pests which ravage our
gardens. A most important thing it is to know the best means
to be taken to attain this end, and I hope our Government will
lose no time in introducing and passing a measure dealing with
these scourges, which, like the rabbit pest, will, the longer they
remain undealt with, be all the more difficult and expensive
to eradicate. Fortunately for us, I think that terrible plague the
“Hessian fly” has not yet appeared in our fields, but our
neighbours in New Zealand suffered very severely in some
localities last season; in one district as great a loss as 50 per cent.
was experienced.

CoLonrat Woops.

The value of our colonial timber seems to be getting more
appreciated than formerly. Reiser’s process of seasoning will
cause @ revolution in the method of dealing with them, and it is
quite on the ecards that by-and-by we shall be exporting to
England and other places some of the best of our hardwoods.
Our display at the recently opened Imperial Institute should cause
some inquiries to be made. We have been hiding our light under,
a bushel. I believe a demand will spring up for our blackwood
redgum, and many of our high coloured and best woods for
cabinet-making and other purposes. May we not possess in our
forests a very valuable asset—a wealth as yet quite undeveloped?

45.

MANURES AND MANURING.

By A. N. Pearson.

Under the title of “Orchard Manuring” a lecture was recently
given at the Government Horticultural School, Burnley, by Mr.
A. N. Pearson, the Government Agricultural Chemist. Although
the lecture had reference mainly to the special requirements of
orchardists, yet it dealt in so concise and comprehensive a manner
with the whole question of manuring generally that it will
doubtless be of use and interest to agriculturists of all sections.
The following is the substance of the lecture :—

All living things must feed. This is as true of plants as of
animals. But upon what do plants feed? We might, perhaps,
obtain an answer to this question if we were to find out what a
plant is made of. If we take any piece of a plant—green grass, for
instance, or the leaves of a tree, or a piece of wood, and heat it in |
a dish or shovel over the fire, we see the first thing that happens
is the escape of steam. This shows that the plant contains water.
After having dried off all the water, if we heat the plant still
further we find it catches fire and a large portion of it burns away.
But we find it will not all burn away, there is a small portion
left behind which we call ash. Thus, by this rough analysis,
we find plants to be made up of three different kinds of matter—
first, of matter dissipated on drying, which is mostly water; second,
matter dissipated on burning ; and third, ash or matter not dissi-
pated on burning. Of these three kinds of substance the first is
far and away the greatest in quantity. On an average we may
say that plants contain about 72 parts of water in 100; some
plants, such as turnips and cabbages, may contain as much as 92
parts in 100. Of the matter dissipated on burning we may say
that there would be on an average about 26 parts in 100, and of
the ash about 2 parts.

Were we to adopt a finer method of analysis we could find out
what the matter dissipated on burning was made of, and what the
ash was made of. We should find that in the former there was
carbon, which is the black stuff we see in charcoal ; nitrogen,
which is the principal gas in the air we breathe ; and the elements

46

of water, namely, oxygen and hydrogen. In the ash we should
find oxide of iron, lime, magnesia, potash, soda, phosphoric acid,
sulphuric acid, chlorine, and silica. These various substances
would on the average be present somewhat in the proportions set

down as follows :—

AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF PLANTS.

Parts in
100,000,
Matter dissipated on drying, consisting almost wholly
of water 60 sai Pee wey ... 72,000
Matter dissipated on burning, consisting of—
Carbon... ste ee ... 11,000
Nitrogen ..- die yp ace 750
Elements of water (oxygen and hydrogen) 14,250
26,000
Matter left behind after burning (ash), consist-
ing of—
Oxide of iron iis ies aie 20
Lime an ae a aie 300
Magnesia ... sa oo ase 125
Potash... sé a oS 550
Soda aes ore on sain 70
Phosphoric acid —... i fer 270
Sulphuric acid iss #66 site 80
Chlorine ... des si ang 85
Silica ae cir eae 500
— 2,000
100,000

Now, where does a plant obtain these different substances,
where can it find the food with which to supply them? Are they
obtainable from the soil? Let us see what the soil contains.
Were we to put a sample of soil through the same process of
rough analysis as we did the plant, namely, by drying and then
burning it, we should get similar results; it would give off steam,

47

showing the presence of water; it would blacken and catch flame,
showing the presence of carbon and other matters dissipated on
burning ; and there would be left behind a quantity of matter,
namely, the ash, which would not be dissipated by burning. But
we should observe an obvious difference between the plants and
the soil, for whereas in the plants the greater proportion consisted
of water and the least proportion was the ash or earthy substance ;
in the soil it is the other way about, the ash or earthy substance
greatly preponderating. We shall, in fact, find an average soil
to contain something like the following :—

AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF SOILS.
Parts in 100,000.

Water wis rae swe ... 10,000
Burnable matter, commonly called humus... 8,000

(Consisting of carbon, the elements
of water, and nitrogen, the nitro-
gen amounting to saa at 200)

Earthy substance or ash, consisting of—

Alumina a wi -» » 1,000
Oxide of iron... ON 3,500
Lime oy site “eee B50
Magnesia side ba i 250
Potash wee use ait 200
Soda avi van iets 150
Phosphoric acid aes eee 100
Sulphuric acid ... ees oe 150
Chlorine — sass es 10
Carbonic acid ... ies ae 300
Soluble silica ... aed a8 250

Insoluble silica and sand ... 75,740 ‘

82,000

100,000

From this list we see that there is everything in the soil that
there is in the plant. Yet we may not from this fact conclude

48

that the plant gets all it requires from the soil. We could, how-
ever, set the matter at rest by making different kinds of artificial
soil—as has been done by various experimenters—and trying to
grow plants in them. We might take pure quartz sand, wash it
in strong boiling acid, and, having obtained it perfectly clean and
dry, mix it in different ways with the substances shown in the
above list ; in one pot, for instance, we might put all the above
substances, in another we might put all except the humus, in
another all except the nitrogen, in another all except the oxide of
iron, and so on all through the list. By such an experiment we
should discover that a plant obtained from the soil all its foods
excepé one ; that one exception is the carbon. This substance
the plant obtains from the air. We burn fuel, and the carbon of
the fuel goes into the air in the form of gas. Men and beasts,
when they breathe, exhale the carbon of their bodies in the
form of gas into the air. Plants absorb this carbon from the
air; it goes to form wood, and grass, and grain, thus being
converted into the fuel and food of man, from which the carbon
again passes into the air, and so again forms the food of
plants, and thus again and perpetually passes through the same
cycle. With this solitary exception, however, the plant gets all
its food from the soil. The greatest bulk of these foods consists,
as we said, of water ; 72 per cent. of water, removable by drying,
and 142 per cent. of the elements of water, removable by burning,
making a total of over 86 per cent. ef water. Considering that
a plant consists mostly of water, and that this has to be
obtained from the soil, it will be readily understood how the mag-
nitude of a crop is strictly limited by the rainfall or by the
amount of water used in irrigating. Water is the chief food of
plants, and no amount of manuring can ever make up for lack
of water. 4

But the water being provided for and the carbon obtained, as
we see, from the atmosphere, let us turn our attention to those
other constituents of the plant which are found on burning to
remain behind as ash ; and let us consider at the same time the
nitrogen which disappears on burning. The list is rather a long
one :—Nitrogen, oxide of iron, lime, magnesia, potash, soda,
phosphorie acid, sulphuric acid, silica. These things the plant
obtains from the soil. Now, supposing a soil does not contain all
these things, or contains some of them only in Very small quantity,
shall we have to put them into the soil in the| form of manure?
That depends upon whether the plant needs them all or not. It
does not follow that, because a plant takes substances into it, those
substances are essential to the well-being of the\plant ; they may
be neither helpful nor hurtful to it. We might carry out a
series of experiments with artificial soils made \by mixing sub-
stances with pure quartz sand in the manner

49

described, and in this way we could find out which of the sub-
stances was necessary to the well-being of plants. By a series
of such experiments we should find that the nitrogen and all the
substances in the ash except the silica were absolutely necessary ;
if even one of these was left out of the artificial soil the young
plant would grow only so long as the food originally contained in
the seed lasted ; after that was used up the plant would cease
to grow, or if it put forth new leaves it would be by absorbing
the substance of the old ones ; it would not increase in weight or
size. This would occur in the case of the omission of any of the
substances excepting the iron. The omission of the iron would
cause a somewhat different appearance. The plant would grow
to a considerable extent, even after it had used up all the food
originally contained in the seed, but it would be white and colour-
less, and would ere long perish. From such experiments we
should obtain results which would show us that all the above
substances except the silica must be presented to the plant
through the soil, and if the soil does not contain sufficient of
them they must be supplied in the form of manure.

Shall we then have to arrange for the supply of these nine
plant foods to the soil? If we have to do this then the art of
manuring may become a somewhat complicated business. But
fortunately the matter is very much simplified for us by the fact
that some of these plant foods are already contained in all natural
soils in practically inexhaustible quantities. Take, for instance,
the oxide of iron: An ordinary crop would remove from an acre
of land about 2 lbs. of this substance, but the amount naturally
present in an acre of average soil 2 feet deep is from 50 to 250
tons. Take, again, the sulphuric acid: An ordinary crop would
remove 9 lbs. or 10 lbs. of this substance from an acre, but the
amount naturally contained in an acre of soil 2 feet deep is from
83 to 10 tons—sufficient to last for several centuries. But take,
however, the case of nitrogen: The amount of this substance
removed from the soil by an average crop is 80 lbs. per acre.
Now, I have known many soils which have not contained more
than 24 tons of nitrogen in an acre 2 feet deep ; and this, drawn
upon at the rate of 80 lbs. a year, would be wholly exhausted
in 70 years. But many years before it became exhausted the
crops grown on such @ soil, unless the nitrogen were replenished
from some other source, would, cease to be profitable—in fact, it
may be taken as a general rule that unless the nitrogen in a soil
exceed 5 tons per acre 2 feet deep crops cannot be grown profit-
ably without manuring. :

If we glance over the list of substances which enter into the
composition of plants we find that those essential substances
which it absorbs from the soil in greatest quantity are nitrogen,
potash, lime, and phosphoric acid ; and of these four substances

826. »

50

many soils contain so small a store that they quickly become so
far exhausted as to cease to yield profitable returns. Of these
four substances it is, generally speaking, the phosphoric acid that
begins to fail first, for most soils contain much more nitrogen and
potash than they do phosphoric acid ; then the nitrogen begins to
fail, and finally the potash and lime. Some soils may also per-
haps fail in magnesia, though I have not yet had such brought
under my notice. But the four substances—nitrogen, potash,
phosphoric acid, and lime—are the four plant foods about which.
we have chiefly to concern ourselves in manuring. But we may
reduce the list still further, for we cannot give phosphoric acid
to the soil without at the same time giving lime, for any substances
we may use for supplying phosphoric acid to the soil invariably
contain the phosphoric acid combined with lime. Thus, then,
our list is reduced to three—namely, nitrogen, phosphoric acid,
and potash ; and these are the three plant foods to which we may
practically confine our attention in manuring.

But how are we to know that we shall have to apply any or
all of these plant foods to our particular soil? Our soil may be
naturally rich enough in these plant foods, or at least in one or
two of them. We may find this out in most cases by means of a
chemical analysis of the soil ; there are cases in which a chemical
analysis does not give all the information one wants, but it will
at least show us if the soil is poor in plant foods. If the chemical
analysis show us that the soil is poor in any particular plant food
then we may make up our minds at once that we shall have to
supply that plant food. But there is another way of finding out
which of the three plant foods a soil requires to have given
to it. I refer to the system of trial or test plots in the field,
which during the last few years I have so often advocated.
Suppose we have a series of plots laid out according to the
following plan :—

Plot 1. Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash; light dressing.
Plot 2. Do.; medium dressing.

Plot 3. No manure.

Plot 4. Nitrogen, phosphoric, and potash; heavy dressing.
Plot 5. Same as Plot 2, but without nitrogen.

Plot 6. Do., but without phosphoric acid.

Plot 7. Do., but without potash.

Plot 8. No manure. :

% Plot 3 receives no manure; Plot 2, alongside of it, receives a
mixture of the three plant foods; this mixture it is customary to
call a complete manure. Now, if Plot 2 gives us a better yield
than Plot 8, we shall know that the soil needs to have some

51

plant food given to it. But how shall we know what quantity to
give? This we find outin the following way:—On Plot 1 we give
a light dressing of the complete manure, on Plot 2 we give twice
as much as on Plot 1, and on Plot 4 we give three times as much
as on Plot 1. Now, suppose Plot 3, without manure, gives us at
the rate of 60 bushels of fruit per acre, and Plot 1, with the light
dressing of manure, gives us 90 bushels, we shall then know that
30 bushels per acre increase has resulted from the light dressing
of manure, If again from Plot 2 we get 120 bushels per acre, we
shall see that twice the dressing of manure has given twice the
increase of crop, namely, 60 bushels. Therefore, the money
spent in the medium dressing has given just as profitable a return
as that spent in the light dressing. Naturally, then, we should
think it desirable to give not less than the medium dressing.
Now, suppose that on Plot 4 we get a yield of 150 bushels, we
should likewise see that the heavy dressing was just as profitable
as the medium dressing. Suppose, however, we obtain from this
plot only the same as from Plot 2, then we should conclude that
the increase of manure over and above what was given on Plot 2
was simply waste, and if we got a result intermediate between
these two we should reason that the most profitable quantity of
_INanure was somewhat between the medium and the heavy
dressing. i

Thus far, however, we shall not have learnt whether our soil
‘needs all the three plant foods, or only one or two of them. How
are we to find this out? How, for instance, must we find out if
the soil needs nitrogen? Some people might suppose we should
‘do this simply enough by putting just nitrogen on one plot and
comparing the yield of that plot with the yield from the unmanured
plot. But this plan would not answer at all, for suppose the soil
needed potash and phosphoric acid as well as nitrogen, then no
amount of nitrogen added by itself would give us an adequate
inerease of crop. In such case, indeed, by disturbing the balance
of growth, it might result in a decrease of crop. We should have
to supply the phosphoric acid and potash to one plot, and then to
another plot the phosphoric acid and potash together with the
nitrogen. This is arranged in the case of Plots 2 and 5 of the
above plan. Now, if Plot 2 with the nitrogen gives us an increased.
yield of 60 bushels of fruit, and Plot 5 without the nitrogen gives
us an increase of only 10 or 20 bushels, we learn at once that
the soil needs nitrogen manuring, though perhaps not the whole
of the dressing given in Plot 2. Similarly Plots 6 and 7 tell us
about the phosphoric acid and the potash.

Let me here quote from some actual results of these test plots as
applied to fruit trees by Mr. Ewers, of Childers, on his raspberry
plantation. The test was made upon some young raspberry
bushes in their third season; and striking as were the results

D2

52

gained, we may expect that they would have been still more
striking with older vines. The following were the results :—

Rerurns From Test PLots,oN THREE-YEAR-OLD RasSPBERRIES BY
Mr. Ewers, CuitpErs, 1892-3.

Weight of Estimated Weight
— Raspberries of New Canes
per Acre. for Next Season,*
Ibs. oz. per plot.
Plot 1. Complete manure, light dressing... 2,700 43
Plot 2. Complete manure, medium dressing 3,000 54
Plot 8. No manure bei ee ees 2,050 364
Plot 4. Complete manure, heavy dressing ... 3,500 62
Plot 5. Same as Plot 2, but no nitrogen... 2,275 35
Plot 6. Same as Plot 2, no phosphoric acid 2,750 45
Plot 7. Same as Plot 2, no potash ae 2,850 47
Plot 8. No manure aay sie ar 2,000 49
Plot 9. Same as Plot 2, but nitrogen given as 2,900 62
_ nitrate of soda
Plot 10. Same as Plot 2, but twice as much 8,300 65
potash

* The weight of the new canes was estimated by measuring their length and thickness:
by multiplying these together the cubical contents were approximately ascertained, and
from this the weight was readily calculated.

Compare the yields from Plots 1, 2, 8, and 4. The increased
yields on Plots 1, 2, and 4 are 650 lbs., 950 lbs., and 1,430 Ibs.
Plot 1 is a little high relatively to the others, but such irregu-
larities often occur if we take only one series of plots or only one
season’s yield. If the increase in that plot had been only 500 lbs.
then the series would have been perfectly regular, and would have
convinced us that this soil would bear the heaviest dressing of
manure with profit, Now compare Plot 5 with Plots 2 and 3.
The increase on Plot 5 without nitrogen is only 225 Ibs., as com-
pared with 950 lbs. with nitrogen. We should, therefore, reason
that this soil needed all, or nearly all, the nitrogen given in Plot 2;
and, indeed, if we refer to the second column of figures, showing
the weights of the new canes which will bear fruit in the coming
season we shall see that the growth of new canes, without
nitrogen, was even a little iess than without any manure at all.
Now let us compare Plots 6 and 7 with the unmanured Plot 8.
If we were to judge from the yield of fruit alone we should form
the idea that a great portion of the phosphoric acid and potash
given in plot 2 could be dispensed with; but if we turn to the
weight of the new canes we shall see that without the phosphoric
acid or potash the growth was even slightly less than with no
manure at all,

Having, by some method, found out what plant foods our soil
requires, the next point to be considered is where to get these

53

plant foods. Where are we to buy our nitrogen, phosphoric acid,
and potash? If you were to go to a manure dealer and say you
wanted a ton of nitrogen, he would probably stare at you; he
would not know what you meant. In the Melbourne market the
principal source of nitrogen as a plant food is sulphate of
ammonia, which is obtainable at the gas company’s office for
£12 10s. ton. Ammonia exists in coal gas as it first comes
from the retorts, and must be removed before the gas is fit for
consumption. It is removed by passing the gas through sul-
phuric acid, which absorbs and combines with the ammonia,
forming the crystalline salt known as sulphate of ammonia.
Ammonia consists of nitrogen to the extent of over 82 per cent.,
and sulphate of ammonia contains 21 per cent. of nitrogen. Now,
from these figures we can ascertain the money value of nitrogen.
If sulphate of ammonia, containing 21 per cent. of nitrogen, sells
at £12 10s. per ton, then the nitrogen must be worth close on
£60 per ton. But the simplest method of reckoning its value is
to consider what would be the price of a material containing only
1 per cent. of nitrogen. Thus, sulphate of ammonia containing, as
it does, 21 per cent. of nitrogen is sold at £12 10s. per ton, there-
fore a substance containing only 1 per cent. would be worth close
-on 12s. per ton. Thus we calculate the money values of manures
according to the value of 1 per cent. of the essential ingredients
per ton. So if we have presented to us a substance containing
84 per cent. of readily soluble nitrogen, we know that it must be
worth eight and a half times 12s., that is to say, £5 per ton.
Another source of nitrogen is nitrate of soda. This contains
only 16 per cent. of nitrogen, and its value, according to
what we have already seen, would be sixteen times 12s.,
that is to say, £9 12s. per ton. But, as a matter of fact, it
is never sold in Melbourne for less than £18, that is to say,
nearly twice its value.* In Europe, with its cold winters, the
nitrogen in nitrate of soda is more quickly taken up by fruit
trees and by root crops than the nitrogen of sulphate of ammonia;
but I have tried the two in comparison with each other five
or six times on fruit trees and root crops in this country, and
find that this superiority does not exist here; in fact, if any-
thing, the nitrogen in the sulphate of ammonia gives the better
results. We do not, therefore, need to use nitrate of soda here.
But there are also other sources of nitrogen, as shown in the table
at the end of this lecture. :

It will be seen from this table that nitrogen is obtainable in
sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of soda, dried blood, dried offal, and
also mixed with other things in dried night-soil, farm and stable
manure, and compost heaps, and in smaller quantities in dried fish,
‘some kinds of guanos, and bone dusts and meals.

* Since the above statement was made it has been offered at £12 10s. per ton. ’

54

T would recommend a careful study of the above list. It gives
a statement in brief of all the sources of nitrogen, phosphoric
acid, and potash—the three principal plant foods ; and it pre-
sents the prices at which these various manures are now sold in
Melbourne as compared with their real value.* It shows that
there are at present three really cheap manures offered, namely,
dried blood, real value about £4 10s., offered at £2 10s. to
£3 10s.; concentrated superphosphate, real value £21, offered at
£13 7s. 6d.; and highly concentrated potash sulphate, real value.
£14 10s., offered at £12. These are the cheapest sources of
nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash taken singly. In addition
to these are some cheap mixed manures, such as dried night-soil,
worth about £2 to £3, offered at £1 to £1 15s. per ton; some
samples of bone dust and offal dust also are offered at a low
price. On the other hand, there are some manures which are
constantly sold at prices above their intrinsic value. This is
nearly always the case with special mixtures. Speaking
generally, however, manure prices in Victoria are low as com-
pared with other countries ; and the wide-awake cultivator who
takes pains to look well into the manure market can make some
very advantageous purchases.

To show what may be done in this respect, let us take a simple:
illustration. Suppose a man wanted to manure his orchard or
vineyard, he buys, we will suppose, a mixed manure, which is
sold to him under the name of “orchard manure,” at £14 per ton.
He is told to put on half-a-ton to the acre. This costs him £7
per acre, together with freight. On sending this to be analyzed
he finds that the half-ton of manure consists of 4 ewt. nitrate of
soda, at 18s., £3 12s.; 5 ewt. superphosphate, 16 per cent., at
9s., £2 5s.; 1 ewt. potash chloride, 62 per cent., at 20s., £1;
total, £6 17s. It is a good manure, and produces a very good.
effect, and, considering the ingredients of which it is mixed, the
charge for mixing has been only 6s. a ton, which is no great
thing, This half-ton of manure will have given 72 lbs. of
nitrogen, 90 lbs. of phosphoric acid, and 70 lbs. of potash to the
acre of soil, and this will have cost him £7, exclusive of freight.

Now, let us see what this man might do in the way of cheaper
purchases. He now, we will suppose, buys his nitrogen as blood
manure, which contains 9 per cent. nitrogen, and for which he
pays £3 per ton. The nitrogen contained in blood manure being
not quite so soluble as nitrate of soda nitrogen, he buys a little
more of it. But as the blood manure contains also a little phos-
phoric acid and potash, he needs to buy somewhat less super-
phosphate and potash salt. He makes his mixture as follows :—
8 ewt. blood manure, containing 88 lbs. nitrogen, 9 Ibs. phosphoric

* Since the delivery of this lecture the prices in some cases have considerably altered..
See note at bottom of the ‘List of Plant-food Suppliers” at the end of this icone.

55

acid, 6 lbs. potash, at 3s., £1 4s.; 12 ewt. concentrated super-
phosphate, 45 per cent., containing 81 lbs. phosphoric acid, at
18s. 43d., £1 1s. 4$d.; 14, ewt., potash sulphate, 54 per cent.,
containing 66 lbs. potash, at 12s., 13s. 23d.; cost of mixing,
3s. 5d.; total, £3 2s, By this arrangement he gets the same
amount of plant food for £3 2s. an acre that he did in the former
case by paying £7. And further, suppose that he had applied
the test plots to his soil, and had found it to be naturally rich
enough in potash, he could knock off the 13s. 24d. for potash salt.

But suppose he were to buy dried night-soil containing 3 per
cent. nitrogen, 3 per cent. phosphoric acid, and 23 per cent.
potash. This substance being not quite so soluble as in the
blood manure and superphosphate mixture, he would require a
larger quantity. Suppose he bought this at £1 15s. per ton, and
used it at the rate of 1} tons per acre he would then be getting
as follows:—14 tons dried night-soil, containing 100 Ibs.
nitrogen, 118 lbs. phosphoric acid, and 83 lbs. potash, at £1 15s.,
£2 12s. 6d. Thus for 80s. an acre he would have got the same
result as he did in the first instance for £7; but the cost of
carriage and spreading on the land would have been three times
as great.

This question of cost of carriage is a very important one, and
leads one to consider the advantage of concentrated manures.
Take, for instance, the potash manures. Suppose we wish
to buy a ton of potash, We may buy it in the form of
kainit at £4 10s. To buy a ton of potash in this form we
should have to pay £36, and the freight on 8 tons of material.
But if we were to buy itin the form of highly concentrated sulphate
of potash, containing 53 per cent. potash, we should have to pay
only £22 16s., and the freight on 1 ton 18 cwt. The same in
regard to superphosphate. If we wanted to buy a ton of soluble
phosphoric acid we might do it by purchasing a low grade super-
phosphate, containing 16 per cent. phosphoric acid, and selling at
£7 10s.*; in this form we should pay for a ton of phosphoric acid
£47, and freight on 6} tons of material. But if we were to buy
it in the form of concentrated superphosphate, containing 45 per
cent., and sold at £13 7s. 6d. we should have to pay only £29
14s. 6d., and freight on 22 tons material. The cultivator who is
a good business man will readily see the advantage of these con-
centrated manures.

Speaking of concentrated manures naturally leads us to con-
sider the most bulky and least concentrated of all these plant-
food suppliers, namely, farm-yard and stable manure. This
manure varies in value, reckoned according to average market
prices of plant food, at from 8s. 6d.up to 11s. a ton. Its average

* But see note at bottom of table at the end of this lecture.

56

value may be taken at about 7s., delivered on the land. If it
cannot be obtained delivered on the ground at that price, it is
almost certainly cheaper to buy the plant foods from other
sources. You will see that farm-yard manure contains less phos-
phoric acid than it does nitrogen and potash, therefore in using
this manure on average soils, such as the orchard soils 20 miles
round Melbourne, it should be supplemented with superphosphate.
To obtain from average farm-yard manure the same result as we
could from the mixtures above described we should have to use it
as follows :—10 tons per acre stable manure, containing 100 lbs.
nitrogen, 601bs. phosphoric acid, 100 lbs. potash, at 7s., £3 10s.;
and 4-5th ewt. concentrated superphosphate, containing 36 lbs.
phosphoric acid, at 18s. 43d., 10s. 8d.; total, £4 Os. 8d.

Let us place these different methods of obtaining the same result
side by side and compare the cost :—1. Special orchard manure
mixture, cost £7 per acre. 2. Stable manure and superphos-
phates mixed, cost £4 per acre. 3. Blood manure, concentrated
superphosphate and potash salt, cost £3 2s. per acre. 4. Dried
night-soil, cost £1 10s. per acre. No. 3 of the above methods
has the advantage of the others, namely, that its composition is
just what you like to make it, and you can make it to be just
what the soil requires. In all the other cases you may be pay-
ing for material which the soil does not require. If the soil does
not require potash, you cannot leave the potash out of the stable
manure or the night-soil. No. 4, however, is so cheap that even
if the potash it contains is not required still you get the value of
the money in other plant foods. The only objection to this last-
mentioned manure is the odour, but this is by no means so strong
as in the undried night-soil ; and the disease germs which might
have been contained in it have been destroyed by heat.

The extreme variability of manures, as shown by the table at
the end of this lecture, will indicate the advisability of always
buying them according to the results of analysis. There are no
respectable manure merchants who will not sell on these terms.
Buying without analysis is worse than buying a pig in a poke,
for if the pig be not worth the money given the loss is no great
thing, but if the manure be not what the soil requires the loss
is one affecting a whole season’s yield from every acre of ground
that has been manured.

One word more before leaving the subject of stable and farm-
yard manure. It is often said that these small concentrated
manures will not have the same mechanical effect on the soil that
the bulky farm-yard manure has. This is true, but where such an
effect is required it can always be obtained by green manuring.
And by green manuring with peas or beans the soil not only
becomes broken up and rendered lighter and more porous, but the
peas and beans, like all leguminous crops, indirectly cause the soil

57

to be enriched in nitrogen, so that they save the cost of supplying
nitrogen in the manure. This effect is shown in the following
illustration, which is engraved from a photograph taken by
Professor Dr. Wagner, of Darmstadt, in Germany. The illustra-
tion speaks for itself, and needs no explanation.

Manured — with Manured with phos- Manured with Manured with phos-
phosphoric acid phoric acid, potash, phosphoric acid _ phoric acid and pot-

and potash. and nitrogen; the and potash. In ash. In the previous
nitrogen ao the previous season vetches were
as nitrate of soda. season mustard grown in these pots

was grown in and afterwards dug
these pots and in as green manur-
afterwards dug ing.

in as green

manuring.

Suppose then that we adopt this plan of green manuring with
peas or beans, we need only manure the ground with superphos-
phate and potash salt, sow the peas or beans, and plough them in
at blossoming time. Our expenses would then run as follows:—
12 cwt. concentrated superphosphate at 13s. 43d., £1 38s. 5d.;
14 ewt. potash salt, at 12s., 13s. 6d.; peas or bean seed, 4s.; total,
£2 0s. lld. This is one of the cheapest and most beneficial
methods of manuring the soil, and is especially to be recom-
mended at distances from Melbourne, where the freight on manure
is heavy.

On the whole, it may be said that manure prices in Victoria
are low as compared with other countries, and the wide-awake
cultivator who looks well into the manure market can make some
very advantageous purchases. This cheapness of manure is not
owing to the great quantity of manure in the market, but to the
small demand for it. A great deal of manure is exported from
Victoria ; it may be that more is exported than is used within the
colony. This is not because Victorian soils do not need manure.
‘There is no country in the world that is covered with rich first-
class soils. The majority of soils in all extensive countries are

58

poor ones, and Victoria is no exception to this rule. I suppose that
amongst the hundreds of soils which I have examined at least
three-quarters of them have been what we should call third-class
soils; and the really first-class soils could be almost counted on one’s.
fingers. Victoria at present is looking for a return of prosperity:
to its agricultural exports. What are we, then, to say to the fact
that perhaps the greater portion of the plant food which ought to
be used for the growth of this agricultural export is allowed to
be sent out of the country to feed the agriculture of other
lands ?

But, it is said, will manuring pay ? Weare too poor ; we cannot
afford to manure. In answer, one has to say that, not only will
cultivation with rational manuring pay, but it is only when one
begins to manure that in the majority of cases cultivation
becomes a profitable business. It is cultivating without manuring
that does not pay. Only when people study their soils and
supply the crops with plant food in accordance with the require-
ments of the soils will the mass of them be able to rise froma
hand-and-mouth existence up to competence and comfort.

Now, to show you in conclusion what may be done by manur-
ing, let us turn again to the case of Mr. Ewer’s test plots in his
raspberry plantation at Childers. The results of these plots are
here reproduced from the first part of the lecture :—

Returns From Tests oN THREE-YEAR-OLD RasPBERRIES BY
Mr. Ewers, CHILDERS, 1892-3.

Weight of Estimated Weight
—_— Raspberries per of New Canes
Acre. for Next Season.*
Ibs. oz. per plot.
Plot 1. Complete manure, light dressing 2,700 43
Plot 2. Complete manure, medium dress-
ing ae asi aor Alas 3,000 54
Plot 3. No manure one sia sa 2,050 364
Plot 4. Complete manure, heavy dressing 3,500 62
Plot 5. Same as Plot 2, but no nitrogen... 2,276 35
Plot 6. Same as Plot 2, but no phosphoric
acid aes “an ave see 2,750 45
Plot 7. Same as Plot 2, but no potash ... 2,850 47
Plot 8. Nomanure_... a toe 2,000 49
Plot 9. Same as Plot 2, but nitrogen
given as nitrate of soda ee ie 2,900 62
Plot 10. Same as Plot 2, but twice as
much potash sine wa aie 8,300 65

The weight of the new canes was estimated by measuring their length and thickness;
by multiplying these together the cubical cont i i d
from this the weight was readily caleulated Vere *PProximately ascertained, and

59

Plot 4 was manured with 105 lbs. soluble nitrogen, 105 Ibs.
soluble phosphoric acid, and 105 lbs. soluble potash. This could
be obtained by the following mixture :—11 ewt. dried blood, con-
taining 120 lbs. nitrogen, 12 lbs. phosphoric acid, 8 lbs. potash, at
3s., £1 18s.; 12 cwt. concentrated superphosphate, containing 97
lbs. phosphoric acid, 18s. 44d., £1 5s, 1d.; 12 ewt. concentrated
potash salt, containing 993 Ibs. potash, at 12s.,£1 2s.6d.— £4 Os. 7d.;
freight and application, 10s.; total cost of manuring, £4 10s. 7d.
Now compare the yield of 3,500 lbs. of raspberries peracre obtained
from Plot 4 with the yield of 2,050 lbs. obtained from Plot 3
without manure. There was an increase of 1,450 lbs. of raspberries
duetothemanuring. The profit of the transaction was as follows:—
Increased yield per acre, 1,450 lbs. raspberries, sold at 24d.,
£15 12s8.; cost of manure, £4 10s. 7d.; increased profit due to
manuring, £10 11s. 5d. Or compare Plot 10 with Plot 8, which
shows a similar profitable result with somewhat less outlay.
Fruit takes out of the soil much more potash than nitrogen and
phosphoric acid. Thus, for instance :—

Would remove from the Soil—
150 cases of—
Nitrogen, | Phosphoric Potash.
Tbs. Ibs. Tbs.
Apples eas on aa 32 2}. 63
Pears sais aa are 34 44 15
Cherries... es wie 6 42 15
Plums sa tee sas 7% 4} 17
Gooseberries a = 43 7% 14
Strawberries see naa 104 53 8k

It will be surmised from this that a good result might be
obtained by increasing the allowance of potash in the manure and
decreasing the nitrogen and phosphoric acid. This was done on
Plot 10. The nitrogen and phosphoric acid were only two-thirds

60

of that given on Plot 4, but the potash was half as much again.
This would be given by the following mixture :—

74 ewt. dried blood a .. £1 2 0
1} ewt. cont. superphosphate . O16 8
24 cwt. potash salt =e se 11h 6
£3 13 2

Freight and cost of application -- 0 610
Total cost of manure . £4 0 0

1,300 Ibs. increased yield of raspberries,
at 2id. ae iis --- £13 10 10

Cost of manure ... age . 4 0 0

Increased profit per acre -- £9 10 10

If the nitrogen were supplied by green manuring with peas,
the results would doubtless be still better.

I am unfortunately unable to quote more instances from my
experiments in fruit manuring. But I have dozens of similar
returns from my experiments with cereals, hay, peas, beans, roots,
and potatoes; and there is no question about manuring being
profitable when carried out in a business-like way. Indeed it is
as I have already said, that, except in a few fortunate cases of
naturally rich soils, agriculture cannot be carried on as a highly
profitable business except with the liberal use of plant foods.

There is only one further matter remaining to be considered, and
that is in regard to the mode of applying the manures to the soil.
In manuring fruit trees it is advisable that the manures should
get down to a considerable depth. To this end the solubility of
the manures must be considered. The most soluble manures
are the nitrogen salts—sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda
—the potash salts, and the superphosphates. Next to these come
dried blood and dried night-soil. Farm-yard manure is partly
soluble and partly insoluble; some of the insoluble gets very
slowly converted into the soluble kind, but a portion of it
becomes finally so fixed as to be of little use to plants. Bone
meal is readily made use of by plants having roots near the

61

surface, but it only very slowly reaches deep roots. The same
remark applies probably to Thomas phosphate. Coarse bone dust
is so slowly dissolved that when placed in the surface soil it is of
scarcely any use to deep-rooted plants. And bone ash, bone
black, and mineral phosphates are of all manures the least soluble,
and, therefore, of the least use in orchards. In this connexion
I may mention a new and very promising mode of manuring fruit
trees, namely, that of putting the manure into holes 2 or 24 feet
deep around each tree, there being from 1 to 4 such holes to each
tree according to size, and the holes being put down in different
places each year. By this method the manure gets at once to the
roots, and it does not cause that growth of weeds which results
from surface manuring.

In laying out an orchard it is a good plan to dig the holes for
the trees wide and deep, say, from 2 to 34 feet deep, and to place
at the bottom of each hole from 3 to 8 lbs. of coarse bone dust.
Before returning the soil to the hole it should be mixed with
from 2 lbs. to 5 Ibs. of fine bone dust, and the upper foot or 18
inches should be mixed with about 4 lbs. to 10 lbs. of dried blood.
This amount of manure will generally serve until the trees come
into bearing. After that a complete dressing of manure, accord-
ing to the requirements of each soil, should be given each year,
the amount being spread in a circle of from 2 feet to 6 feet radius
around each tree, and dug or ploughed in.

In conclusion, I would emphasize what I have already said in
regard to the necessity and importance of rational manuring.
Amongst the many benefits which agriculture has gained from
science is a knowledge of the nature and action of plant foods.
Fifty years ago nothing certain was known on this subject
beyond the fact that increased crops were sometimes obtained by
putting certain things, chiefly farm-yard manure, into the soil.
’ Now, the reason why these things cause an increase of crop has
been ascertained, the composition of manures and the action of
each ingredient has been studied, and the nature and requirements
of different soils have been to a great extent investigated ; and
it has become possible, by applying in a business-like way the
knowledge so gained, to obtain the largest crops at the least
possible cost. Thus the sphere of profitable cultivation has been
considerably widened. I have in lectures and published reports
on several occasions shown from my own experiments in the field
what results it was possible to obtain. And I would now urge
cultivators in their own interests, and in the interests of the
country, to endeavour to obtain similar results for themselves.
Complete success may not attend their first efforts, but let them
try again until they succeed. And if they will consult me in
their efforts, it will give me pleasure to assist them when possible
with counsel and advice.

62

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64

ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY :
SOME ADVANTAGES TO BE DERIVED FROM ITS STUDY,

———

By C. Frencg, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., GoVERNMENT ENTOMOLOGIST.
(14th July, 1893.)

The subject on which I have, by request, ventured to address
you this afternoon is one that, in the present state of affairs in
Victoria, would appear to be appropriate, inasmuch as we are
embarking in the cultivation of our rural industries to such an
extent as to cause us to hope that prosperity may return to us,
and that the prognostications of our pessimists and “ crest-
droopers ’” may not be realized.

When I allude to the large areas that, during the last few
years, have been taken up for the cultivation of grain, wine, and
fruit, it will at once strike those of us who were fortunate enough
to have listened to Mr. West’s splendid lecture that we have
only as yet touched ihe fringe of our great natural resources. To
talk of over-production in either grain, wine, or fruit is only to
expose our little weaknesses and want of knowledge on the
subject.

It is not my intention to deal further with such matters ; still,
some allusion, as above, to these growing industries may not be
out of place.

In the early days of fruit-growing in the colony, when our late
venerable friends T. C. Cole, R. Watmaugh, Murdoch, and a few
others led the way, they had comparatively little to contend with,
at least in the shape of pests, either insect or fungus. But since
the wholesale destruction of the valuable insectivorous birds, the
extensive importations of trees and plants from foreign countries,
and from other causes, the grower at the present time finds him-
self confronted with insect and other foes both numerous and
formidable.

Again, with the extension of the orchard and farming area into
thickly-timbered districts, native insects, formerly confined to in-
digenous plants, have thought fit to attack our imported trees,
these latter being, I suspect, more palatable to them than many
of our native gums, wattles, &c.

The destruction of our valuable auxiliaries—the insect-destroy-
ing birds—has, without a doubt, been the cause of an enormous
increase in the number of noxious insects, all and sundry, and
nothing could have been more suicidal than for us to have allowed
this destruction to continue as it has done.

65

To every dark cloud, however, we are told there is a silver
lining, and this we hope will be the case in the matter of the
future protection of our insectivorous birds; and owing to the
persistent efforts of the Field Naturalists’ Club, supported by the
Zoological Society, together with my own humble efforts in the
same direction, this has been taken in hand by the Governments
of the day, the result being that many of our best birds are per-
manently protected throughout the year.

As to the causes leading to such a wholesale slaughter of these
birds I have little to say, but if I were to express my feelings on
the subject I fear it would be much more impressive than edifying
to you. I feel, however, that, to put it mildly, a deal of the
destruction has been caused through a want of knowledge of the
subject, and this is where I consider that an acquaintance both
practical as well as scientific with economic entomology, coupled
with ornithology, is absolutely indispensable to those engaged in
our great rural industries. ?

Within the present century, at least according to Kirby and
Spence in their delightful volumes on entomology, one of the prin-
cipal causes of the little attention paid to entomology in England
has been the ridicule and almost, we may say, contempt which
have by the ignorant and unthinking been lavished upon those
who ventured to preach any of the advantages to be gained by a
study of such matters; but in a comparatively few years things
in this respect have vastly changed, and we have but to look to
America with its splendidly equipped entomological institutions,
and as their systems are being followed by Europe and the
colonies also, they are thus leading the way in such eminently
useful work.

Great naval and military commanders have told us how that to
be fully acquainted with the habits or movements of an enemy is
to assist them materially in the annihilation of the latter, and so
it is with ourselves in connexion with a knowledge of insect life
in all its interesting though oft-times very destructive bearings.
We must be able to follow the practice of a physician or surgeon,
viz., to diagnose where such is required, and, having found out
the true cause and seat of the disease, then proceed to apply, if
possible, the remedy. ae

Supposing, for example, that a young man—and it is for such
that this little discourse has been prepared—who is tired of the
apparently dazzling but very temporary pleasures of city life,
wishes to go on to the land and commence an independent busi-
ness of his own, say, as an orchardist. He will first of all consult
some good authority as to the best situation to commence
operations. Having made up his mind, he will naturally wish to
know more about that which he is about to undertake. He will,
if convenient, obtain suitable books, attend practical lectures

826. Ez

66

bearing upon the subject in which he has ventured, He will prepare
himself for his newly-imposed task by seeking for practical infor-
mation from all and every available source. His evenings, when
not otherwise taken up, should be spent in the study of such
subjects as the chemistry of soils, rotation of crops, seasons, and
diseases of all kinds. Lastly, he should, if possible, provide him-
self with a good powerful lens, supposing he cannot yet afford
a microscope, and this, together with his note-book, should be his
constant pocket companions ; he may then commence his study,
during his leisure hours of economic entomology. ;

My young friends will perhaps say—“ Oh! this advice may be
all very well, but what time will a man have left after having
spent his day in the field or orchard, and what inclination will he
have, being tired, for either literary work or for the study of
entomology?” My reply is, that to the man who is intellectually
and studiously inclined nothing hardly is impossible.

In the room to-day, brought here for your inspection, are some
of the most beautiful illustrations of insects and their life-histories
that have ever been done in Australia. These illustrations, mark
you, have been prepared by my young friend, C. C. Brittlebank,
in after hours—often after having followed the plough from day-
light till dark. No light work on such land as that at Pentland
Hills, I can assure you. If you require information on these
subjects read Smiles’ “ Life of a Scotch Naturalist” or “ Lives
of the Earlier Lancashire Botanigts.” These works ought to
be possessed by every student, having been written when there
was no such thing known to the toiler as eight hours work, eight
hours recreation, and eight hours rest. So you see, that without
wishing to deprive you of your share of athletic sports, you can
spend your spare time profitably, both for yourself and probably
for others also.

With the microscope—and very useful instruments of this kind
may now be purchased at a cheap rate—there is to be derived
endless pleasure. I allude to pleasure combined with profit.

I do not mean that our embryo orchardist should, by the study
of the above subjects, neglect for a moment his necessary duties.
I well recollect my early horticultural training, when we used,
after the day’s work was finished, around the fire at night, and in
the season, either do much of our grafting, label-making, writing,
&c., &c., with our instructor by our side; and who would, that is,
when we thought proper to behave ourselves, read to us from
such works as Paxton’s Dictionary, Loudon’s Encyclopedia, and
others of the grand old works which, even in modern times, we
cannot afford to despise. Thus many a pleasant and instructive
evening was passed by those learning the business.

The competitive system of giving prizes for the best essays and
collections, prepared by permission of the Department, and assisted,

67

by your instructors, should be the means of greatly stimulating
this feeling of emulation amongst the students. In Part I. of my
new book I have given some brief instructions for the collecting
of insects and the preservation of the same; and, if anything
further bearing upon the subject be required at any time, it can
be had for the asking.

Our young man may now be supposed, with the aid of a few
pounds in cash, a fair stock of common sense, diligence, and a set
of garden appliances, including a good spray-pump, to have made
a fair start. His trees have been well selected from advice
supplied, probably by either our friend, Mr. Neilson, or other
experts. ‘The chemist, we will suppose, has been asked to furnish
some particulars as to the soil and its constituent parts, and the
work may be fairly said to have commenced.

The trees thrive well and show signs of permanency, when lo!
our young friend detects something wrong with his trees, which
are either looking sickly or display signs which, to the practised
eye, are not to be mistaken, of some pest more or less insidious in
its attacks upon the tree. What is best to be done? Having
thought the matter over, he determines to seek advice either from
his books or from those whom a paternal Government have
appointed for such work. He sends down specimens, obtains the
necessary information, and all appears to be well. It is here
where a practical knowledge of these diseases makes itself apparent.
He discovers, for example, that his peach trees are covered with
little brown insects with longish antenne (or horns), with two
projections sticking out from near the extremity of the body.
Now the person who does not know, or has not read anything
about the nature and habits of this pest, often says to himself—
“Ah! I have heard somewhere of Paris green. I will give
my tree a good dose, and so surprise our little brown friends.”
He gets the London purple or Paris green and sprays his trees ;
the result being that he finds the aphides there as usual, and not in
the least disconcerted by what he considers his remarkably
ingenious device for their destruction. Why and how is this?
I will endeavour to tell you.

The aphides, as well as the very large family of so-called plant-
bugs, are wholly suctorial in their habits, that is, they have a
rostrum or beak with which they pierce the bark, and through
which the sap of the tree is sucked out. It will thus be seen that
such useful preparations as the arsenical compounds are next to
useless against the above-mentioned insects, as their “beaks” are
thus far below the reach of such applications.

The man who has studied the habits of these creatures for
himself knows this much, and proceeds to destroy the hordes of
little insects by spraying with a liquid that will kill by coming
into contact with them. (I need hardly tell you what to use, as

EZ

68

this has been done in Part I. of my Handbook, and also in Part IT.,
the latter being now in the hands of the binder.) You will thus
see that by making a study of the subject you can save a deal of
useless experiment, and devote the time which you would have
spent therewith in a more profitable direction.

We will suppose the aphides on the branches to have been all
disposed of—no easy matter, 1 can assure you—when lo! next
morning we find countless numbers swarming up the stems of the
tree. Then the man who neither reads nor observes for himself
would doubtless say—‘ Why, those that I sprayed yesterday have
recovered from the effects of the spraying, and are as lively as
ever again.” But the careful observer will examine with his lens
the parts of the tree sprayed with proper material, and thus satisfy
himself as to the efficacy or otherwise of his attempts to destroy
them, and, if successful, he would look over the tree for further
indications of their presence.

The trained man knows that the insects are on the roots, where
they hybernate, as well as on the tops. He at once concludes
that he should first strike at the “root” of the disease. Whereas
the man who knows nothing of the subject, and probably cares
little either, proceeds to lament and predict the destruction of all
orchards, and not infrequently winds up by chopping out his trees.
This man, then, probably returns to the city again to seek employ-
ment likely in some menial position, where he thinks, as did the
historical London tallow-chandler, “ that the profits, though slow,
are sure.”

When one goes on the land, whether it is for the purpose of
growing anything, from wool to special products, he will find that
there are leisure moments which may be profitably spent in the
interesting and useful study of economic entomology. Laying
aside the many marvellous and wonderful provisions which nature
has provided even the simplest of insects with a means of main-
tenance, the study is both useful, intellectual, and delightful.
We will suppose that a grower comes across an insect eating the
epidermis, or outer skin, from the foliage of his fruit trees, and
thereby admitting the direct rays of the sun at a time when such
may not be desirable. If he has a well-trained eye, and knows
anything of the subject, he will naturally think to himself, well,
I will poison these leaves, and when the insects eat the tissue of
the leaves they will all be destroyed. He gets out his sprayer,
gives the trees a good spraying, and finds in a few hours his
caterpillars dead under the trees. His knowledge that the leaves
have been eaten by insects which are not suctorial therefore proves
to be of practical use to him.

As an example of “how not to do it,” we will take the case
of a grower (I have seen many) who, whilst either digging,
planting, or ploughing, keeps his gun near to his hands, Ask

69

him why he carries his gun, and he will probably tell you that he
has it to shoot the magpies (Gymnorhina) which destroy his
crops. It possibly has never struck him that our common bush
magpie, although it will occasionally eat a little grain, also
grapes, is one of the most valuable of our native birds. It
follows the plough and spadesman, picking up the grubs as they
are turned out of the ground, and is the faithful friend and com-
panion of the ploughman.

Our old ‘friend, the laughing-jackass (Dacelo gigas), also
comes in for his share of abuse and persecution from the
ignorant. I have seen many of these birds shot just because
they happened to be perching on some high tree near an orchard.
Surely this must be something worse than ignorance on the part
of those holding such an opinion. Still many of these con-
temptible pot-shotters might, if the matter of the economy of the
bird was properly explained to them, be induced to see the error
of their ways, or by a little gentle persuasion, as the following
anecdote will show, be compelled to either do so, or pay dearly
for the luxury of killing:—A few months since two very fine
specimens of the native turkey or bustard (Choriotis Australis)
made their appearance in a certain district ; and after the pro-
clamation to protect the turkey “all the year round” issued by
the Commissioner of Customs at the request of myself, and kindly
supported and forwarded by Mr. Martin, Secretary for Agricul-
ture. Here was a chance for the so-called sportsmen. Away
they went, and brought back in triumph (which was, however,
short lived) the two identical turkeys which they had shot as
expected. All appeared to be going along smoothly until they
chanced to meet the local policeman, who promptly summoned
them to the court, and they were fined £5 each for shooting the
protected turkeys, together with costs and the confiscation of the
birds, which were probably eaten and enjoyed by the policeman
and his family.

Most of us recollect the serious outbreak of phylloxera that
occurred in the Geelong district, and for which we were wholly
unprepared. Although I am one of those who believe in the
efficacy of the action taken by the Government of the day in
suppressing this fearful scourge, I think, however, that if we had
been better acquainted with the pest, and the remedies which in
Europe and America have been tried, but with only, it is true,
partial success, we might have thought twice before resorting to
such extreme, though very necessary, measures. We now know
something of the aerial as well as of the root forms of this
wonderful little insect, and this knowledge has enabled those
situated in the great wine districts of Europe and elsewhere to
bring into use the various means which have been tried for its

eradication.

70

When the great scourge of locusts took place in Africa, and
later on in America, Cyprus, and even in our own southern
colonies, and, although the plague is of ancient origin, little
was hitherto known of its life-history. Nowadays, however,
the inhabitants of these hot countries have been able, by a patient
and exhaustive study of these terrible insects, in many instances
to be partially successful in coping with what would appear to
have been a singularly hopeless task. It was found that there
were two special periods at which they could be successfully
attacked, viz., when in the egg stage; and, secondly, when in
the newly-hatched or “ hopping” stage; the former being accom-
plished by the collecting of the eggs, the authorities paying the
collectors so much per bushel for same. The second plan consists
in driving the young locusts, which were found by observation to
be travelling always in the one direction. (I have had a rough
sketch made of the latter plan from a photograph taken by a
friend who took part in the locust destruction in Algeria. This
plate I have brought for your inspection.) When tke young
locusts are hatched they travel for a few days in a circle, and
after they have obtained sufficient strength they commence their
onward march in one direction. During this march they eat up
every living plant which they can manage to digest. They have
a wonderful appetite, and when in the winged state will devastate
the whole vegetation of a country in no time.

The screens as shown in the sketch, also in the model, often
extend for a hundred or more miles over mountains and rivers ;
and where labour is of little value the number of locusts destroyed
by means of these screens is simply beyond all attempt at caleu-
lation.

In Australia, however, I am afraid that until the interior
becomes more settled, and owing also to the comparatively high
price of labour, an attack on the locusts on such an extensive
scale as in the countries before mentioned would be well nigh
impossible.

At present we know a good deal concerning the life-history of
these pests, and, partly for the purpose of refuting a statement
that our Department of Agriculture were too late in taking action,
I obtained freshly-deposited eggs and had them hatched artifi-
cially. After making allowance for difference in temperature, &c.,
I found that we had nearly two months in which to attack them
before they assumed the winged stages. These experiments,
which I undertook principally for the defence of the Department,
and partly for my own information, conclusively disproved the
assertion that the Department had been dilatory in the matter,
and also proved that it had done its best to induce the settlers to
band together for the destruction of this terrible enemy.

71

Before closing my few remarks about the locusts, it may interest
you to know that for some time past I have been trying to find
time for the preparation of an illustrated treatise on this important
subject. Owing to pressure of work, however, I have not yet
been able to get it ready. The coloured plates are ready, speci-
mens of which are here to-day for your inspection; and in this
connexion I may be allowed to point out some of the difficulties
under which one labours when preparing books of this kind.
The notes are got ready, and you place them before you on your
table, when lo! a knock is heard, and a visitor is announced ;
or else you are besieged with letters asking for information on
matters all and sundry. I would here like to commend to my
youthful hearers the excellent practice of replying to all letters,
if at all possible, on the same day as that on which they are
received. I mention this as some of you may at a future time
hold a similar position to that held by our experts at the present
time. If you are at literary work correspondence should not, if
possible, be allowed to accumulate. It is a bad practice, as a
grower when he writes for your advice is no doubt anxiously
awaiting the reply to his request for information. Reply at once.
The matter is then off your mind, and you are ready for the next
day and the work required of you.

In the early part of last year I received several caterpillars of
the “Celery Vine Moth” (Cherocampa celerio). In some in-
stances they were described to me as “ horrid things with horns
on.their heads” (the so-called horn is fixed at the other end), and
that when handled they ‘“‘ would ‘spit’ and fly back.” I was
anxious, of course, to interview this “monster,” when to my
astonishment it proved to be the larva of the beautiful Hawk
moth, which you will find figured in Plate XIX., page 108, of
Part II. of my new book on insect pests, an advance copy of which
I have obtained to show you this afternoon. If these persons had
taken the trouble to place one of these caterpillars in a box and
fed it with freshly gathered vine leaves, they would have been
able to trace the insect from the grub to the pupa, and from thence
to the perfect insect. This would have been very little trouble,
and from that time they would have had a practical acquaintance
with the habits and life-history of one of the worst caterpillar
pests of the vine. '

How often has it happened that a traveller who, by stress of
weather or from other causes, has had to refrain from accomplish-
ing that for which he had left home, and has had to pass many a
weary hour at some country hotel, and who has had a bitter experi-
ence, that is, if he be an intellectual person, in walking about
doing nothing? Whereas had he been a naturalist his spare time
could have been agreeably and profitably spent in observing and
collecting some of the insects or plants of the district. As to

72

those who know how to spend their leisure profitably and intel-
lectually at the same time, more especially in the delightful study
of nature and her handiwork, the feeling becomes one of intense
pleasure. You have also the feeling that you are not only adding
to the store of your own knowledge, but in all probability making
observations which may be of use to some one else, and that some
one will in all probability be the grower.

Kirby, one of the most delightful and practical of our great
English writers on entomology, remarks “ that entomology is un-
questionably the best fitted for thus disciplining the youthful
mind, and simply from these circumstances, that its objects have
life and are gifted with surprising instinct admirably calculated
to attract youthful attention, and are to be met with everywhere.”
“Tt is not meant to undervalue the good effects of the study of
botany or mineralogy, but it is self-evident that nothing inanimate
can excite such interest in the mind of a young person as beings
endowed with vitality, exercising their powers and faculties in so
singular a way, which, as Reaumur says, are not only alive them-
selves but confer animation upon the leaves, fruits, and flowers
that they inhabit, which every walk offers to view, and on which
new observations may be made without end.” ‘ Besides these
advantages no study affords a fairer opportunity of leading the
young mind by a natural and pleasing path to the great truths of
religion, and of impressing it with the most lively ideas of the
power, wisdom, and greatness of the Creator.”

We have thus said a little, only a little to be sure, concerning
the use of entomology in enabling one to know something about
insects that are destructive to crops, but there is another aspect
of the question, and that is the advantages to be gained in being
able to tell a destructive insect from a beneficial one.

Take for example our little ladybird (Leis conformis) which,
when in the larval state, is so destructive to aphides all and sundry,
It is no uncommon occurrence for growers, I mean those who have
not taken the trouble to think or read for themselves, to send me
these useful little insects as something to be dreaded, and asking
to be supplied with an effective remedy. Again, I have seen
people shaking these, their best friends in the insect line, on to a
cloth and destroying them wholesale. Surely this must be for
the want of knowing better, as a very cursory glance over any
aphis-infested tree will disclose the presence of numerous ugly-
looking grub-like forms busy devouring the aphides in a wholesale
and voracious manner.

Then there are the Hemorobide, or lace-wings, which, in the
larval state, like wolves ina sheep-fold, make great havoc amongst
the aphides. I must refer you to Part-II. of my book for a more
lengthy description of these two valuable “ insect helps”? to the

et ee

73

fruit-grower. In France, we are told, boys are employed to pre-
vent the birds, chiefly sparrows, from destroying these useful little
insects.

The Syrphide, flies whose larve are armed with a singular
mandible furnished like a trident with three points with which
they transfix their prey. These grubs are most destructive to
aphides of all kinds. (On Fig. 9 of the chart which I show you
to-day you will see the larve in the act of killing an aphis.)

A large group of Hymenoptera, wasp-like insects, are most
merciless destroyers of insects, especially amongst the Lepidoptera,
that is, butterflies and moths. They do not, however, confine, by
any means, their attacks to members of this large order of insects,
as even the destructive Cecidomyia, or Hessian fly, has its
enemies in certain minute species of a genus closely allied to
Ichneumonide. In Europe no less than three species of these
little flies are known to render us valuable help in destroying the
larvee of this dread scourge of the wheat-grower.

In Victoria we have a number of beetles, especially amongst
the carabide, which, both in the larval and perfect state, destroy
vast quantities of grubs which affect our cereal crops, grass,
lands, lawns, &c. I had one of these, our largest species
(Hyperion Schretteri) alive to show you how he would demolish
either a grub or a moth. Unfortunately, however, for me at
least, an unfriendly rat got into the box, the lid of which I had
incautiously left off, and in the morning nothing but a few frag-
ments were left on which I could ponder as to the wrong principle
of counting one’s chickens before they are hatched.

Spiders also, at least most of them, are very useful animals,
more especially as they are destructive to boring insects, also
those which hybernate under the bark of our native trees. One
(Focconia) which we know by the common name of tarantula,
which it is not, being a perfect glutton, as the piles of insect
débris, z.e., wing-cases, &c., will show.

The tale has been told of gallant officers who were fearless in
the face of an enemy, but would feel very uneasy in the imme-
diate presence of a huge spider, and although they are useful we
must be careful, as many of them bite sharply, and a few kinds are
also venomous.

The economy of some of our much despised hornets, more
especially of the genera Sphex, Pompilius, and other large kinds,
which we know principally by their orange-yellow bodies, often
banded with black, and some of us by having felt their formidable
ating, is well worth the trouble which it would entail in watching
some of their peculiar habits, and as destroyers of grubs (above
ground), centipedes, scorpions, cicade, &c., they have few
equals.

74

It would take hours for me to give you even a brief account of
the many advantages to be gained by a study of economic insects,
as the subject is not only interesting and useful, but also well
nigh endless. I can, however, promise you that should the
Department so desire it, and your instructors think fit to ask for
another discourse on these lines, I will be most willing to place
my humble efforts at your disposal. : : ;

As the days are now short, and the daylight is fast passing
away, I must conclude by saying that to be successful we must be
practical as well as energetic, always willing to learn from those
who are willing to impart their knowledge to those requiring it,
and never ‘setting ourselves up” as knowing everything, as we
can learn something from the humblest. In these days of busile,
turmoil, and keen competition, it behoves every one of us to be
on the alert, and the grower who is able to discriminate between
his insect enemies and friends must surely have a better chance
than those who know nothing of the subject. As for botany,
what shall I say of it? Nothing further than to remark that the
same rule which applies to the use of a study of entomology will
apply, as our friends Baron von Mueller and Mr. McAlpine can
tell you better than I can, to botany ; not forgetting chemistry,
which is probably the most valuable of all the applied sciences.
If I were asked whether I would prefer the study of botany to
that of entomology, I feel sure, from previous experiences, I
should reply that I weuld prefer to study both. Do not, when
you have gained a little scientific knowledge, look with a superior
sort of air upon the practical orchardist, as he, having better
chances often of observation in orchards than you may have, will
be able to teach you many a practical lesson which may serve
you in good stead. The time is upon us when we must use our
heads as well as our hands, and the end of all this will probably
be, as the great Darwin has told us, the survival of the fittest.

75

GLIMPSES OF SOME BRITISH BOTANICAL
GARDENS AND THEIR CONSERVATORIES.

By W. R. Guitrorte, F.L.S., Direcror Mrtzourne
Botanic Garprns.*

(11th August, 1893.)

Having been granted a holiday by the Government some three
years ago for the purpose of visiting Europe, I made the best use
of the opportunities thus afforded me of seeing the principal gardens
and parks, public and private, of Italy, Switzerland, Germany,
France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.

During my travels I saw so much in the way of gardening and
horticulture that was really interesting and useful to me that I
devoted my time almost entirely to wandering from one garden
or park to another, until I had fairly exhausted my holiday.

It may truly be said that Britain itself is a garden from one
end to the other, so beautiful in the simplicity of nature and so
frequent, so extensive and so well cared for, are the private
parks, gardens, and ornamental grounds of the wealthy classes,
and so liberally are the places of public resort and recreation
endowed. In dealing with the subject “Some British Botanical
Gardens and their Conservatories,” I have endeavoured to
describe, as concisely as possible, the principal points of interest
in five of the most instructive of these scientific institutions,
referring also to some of the rare and beautiful plants’ they
contain.

I had the advantage of seeing the Royal Botanic Gardens of
Kew under favorable circumstances, and, although to them must
fairly be conceded the pride of place, as being the finest in exist-
ence as scientific gardens, I cannot agree that they possess any
strikingly picturesque natural features or that they contain many
examples of high-class landscape art, in fact, they were never
intended as such; they are what might be termed a botanical
map of the world.

* The lecture was illustrated by coloured drawings (life size) of the
following plants :—Nelumbium speciosum (lotus lily), Nepenthes (pitcher
plant), Sarracenia (side-saddle plant), Anthurium (flamingo flower), Brownea
macrophylla, Musa coccinea (scarlet banana), Rafflesia Arnoldi (root flower),
and Raoulia eximia (New Zealand vegetable sheep).

76

The Kew Gardens and Arboretum contain the largest collec-
tion of living and dried plants known, obtained from every clime,
and afford facilities for the study of the science of botany and
horticulture which no other institution of the kind has been able
to eclipse, if even to approach. The cost of keeping them up
amounts to upwards of £25,000 per year.

Of course to give a detailed description of all the subjects of
striking interest in these gardens would take up far more time
than could be possibly devoted to them, even in a fairly compre-
hensive lecture ; indeed, it would necessitate many visits to Kew
before the enormous amount of material therein accumulated and
classified could be even superficially grasped. Nevertheless
there are certain features which, from their importance and
bearing on botanical science generally, call for more than a mere
passing remark; I allude to the various conservatories and the
museums of economic botany. The palm house of Kew, one of
the finest and largest in the world, is 362 feet long, 100 feet
wide, and 66 feet in height, having wings 50 feet wide and
30 feet high. The central part of this great conservatory is
encircled by a gallery 33 feet from the ground, and ascended by
spiral staircases. Visitors are thus enabled to view from above
the canopy of rich and varied tropical leafage which arches
over the pathways and obscures the roof. The glass (about
45,000 square feet) is slightly tinged with green, to obviate the
scorching effect of direct sunlight. The magnificent collection
of palms, for the cultivation of which‘the house was primarily
intended, comprises some hundreds of kinds, but mingled with
them, towering high or fighting for existence below, there is a
variety of other tropical vegetation which is marvellous to the
beholder.

On a lawn to the north of the palm house is a T-shaped house
of various temperature, consisting of a central area, occupied by
the great “ Victoria Regia, or Royal Water Lily,” from South
America ; two lateral wings, one for economic plants.and one for
temperate and tropical orchids ; a back wing, used as a tropical
stove; a compartment for begonias and Gesneracer, and for
Cape heaths, fig-marigolds, &e.

No less than 1,400 species of orchids are growing in the Kew
conservatories, and of the most showy kinds there are perhaps
eight or ten specimens of each. The most recent enumeration of
the number of species known, to say nothing of mere varieties or
hybrids, is said by Sir Joseph Hooker to be upwards of 5,000.

A succulent house, 200 feet long and 30 feet wide, is mainly
devoted to those plants of warm and arid countries which are
characterized either by excessive succulence or by the converse
condition of extreme dryness and rigidity. The plants in this

77

house, as is the case in the temperate and tropical fern houses,
are all arranged in groups, closely allied, and the more important
ones are the cactuses or “ Indian figs,” euphorbias, bromelias,
dasylirions, dracenas, beaucarneas, yuccas, aloes, agaves, cras-
sulas, rocheas, sempervivum or “house leeks,” echeverias,
mammillarias, opuntias, and cereus. Among the latter was the
celebrated Cereus giganteus (called by the Mexicans “suwarrow”),
which in the Rocky Mountains imparts a singular aspect to the
scenery ; its enormous tall stems, 50 to 60 feet in height, with
diameter of about 2 feet, having the appearance of telegraph
posts.

In one of the tropical stoves I saw for the first time a young
plant of the double cocoa-nut palm, or “ coco-de-mer” (Lodoicea
sechellarum), the fruits of which, found floating about the sea
prior to the discovery of the Seychelles Islands, in 1743, puzzled
so many botanists, and gave rise to many absurd and fabulous
tales.

One of the tropical houses is devoted to the great group of
Aroidee and Marantacee, the latter order showing all the prin-
cipal kinds of ginger and arrowroot ; the Cyclanthacee, embracing
the closely allied Pandanus, “screw pine” or vacona, from
Mauritius, and of which sugar bags or sacks are made ; also the
pepper tribe, Piperacee. Among the aroids, which abound
chiefly in tropical swamps and humid forests, were many
splendid anthuriums or “flamingo flower,” Dieffenbachias or
“‘Dumb-cane,” with their spotted leafage, and the Colocasia anti-
quorum or “taro,” so well known and valued as an esculent in the
islands of the Pacific. The great aroid, Amorphophallus titanum,
which flowered at Kew three years ago, is a native of Sumatra.
It is a herbaceous plant of gigantic proportions, and of its kind
eclipses all others. The spadix of the flower is 5 feet high, and
the spathe 3 feet in diameter. The divided blade of the leaf covers
an area of 45 feet in circumference. Among the peppers (Piper)
was the “kava” plant of Fiji, from which is prepared a stimu-
lating beverage. The root of this plant is chewed by young
boys or girls, and the juice thus extracted, together with the
pulp, and water poured on, is placed in a bowl, and after strain-
ing through a piece of “tappa” (cloth made of the bast of
Brousonettia papyrifera or “paper mulberry”), is drunk with
avidity by the chiefs and others assembled.

One of the greatest boons to botanical students is the three
museums, and I cannot do better than to quote the words of Sir
Joseph Hooker (the late director of the gardens), as given in a
handbook :—

“ The object of these museums is to show the practical appli-
cations of botanical science. They teach us to appreciate the

78

general relations of the vegetable world to man. We learn from
them the sources of the innumerable products furnished by the
vegetable kingdom for our use and convenience, whether as
articles of food, of construction, and application in the arts of
medicine, &c.”

Museum No. 1 contains the collections Wlustrative of the pro-
ducts, &c., of the dicotyledonous and gymnospermous divisions.
The arrangement is eminently practical, the contents being
systematically arranged, numbered, and labelled. The building
itself is a plain brick one, of three floors, and was opened to the
public in 1857. It is filled with glazed cases, each of which
contains specimens of raw and manufactured products of the
vegetable kingdom, consisting of food, medicitte, articles of
manufacture, and woods used in construction, &c.

In this museum, also, are specimens in every stage of growth
of that most singular plant, Welwitschia mirabilis, discovered by
Dr. Welwitsch, in South-western Africa, about half way between
the equator and the Cape, in 1859 ; and to quote Sir J. Hooker’s
description of it—“Has a dwarf woody trunk, seldom rising
more than a few inches above the ground, with a diameter often
of several feet, and a single pair of leaves, usually torn to
ribbons, which spring from the margin of the trunk, and persist
through the life-time of the plant, which it is estimated may
reach 100 years. It is related botanically to the pines and firs
Coniferg, and is remarkable as presenting—associated with the
simplest type of structure in its vegetable organs—a more
complex form of flower than we find elsewhere in the group.”

Another most extraordinary vegetable production, Rafflesia
Arnoldi—a plant said to be impossible to cultivate—is represented
by a wax model, presented by the Royal Horticultural Society of
London. The Rafflesia Arnoldi is the largest flower in existence,
is destitute of true stem or stalk and leaves, and in its natural
state weighs from 12 to 15 pounds, while it is capable of holding
twelve pints of water. It was discovered by a Dr. Arnold in the
interior of Sumatra.

In another glazed’ case is a specimen of the balsam bog plant
(Azorella cespitusa), from the Falkland Islands, forming huge,
hard, and hemispherical hillocks, often 2 to 4 feet in height,
and which, in some respects, at first sight is not unlike the sheep
plants of the mountains of New Zealand (Raoulia mammilaris and
R. eximia), called so from their compact large tufts, resembling
that animal when seen at a short distance. The Raoulia, which
is also shown in the museum, is, like the former, a huge con-
glomerate mass of diminutive flowers, but it belongs to the com-
posite order, while the azorella is of the Umbellifere. The
contents of Museum No. 2 comprise the products of the palm,
grass, lily, mushroom, and sea-weed families.

79

Museum No. 8 contains a large collection of timber, the woods
of Europe, British India, Natal, Cape of Good Hope, British
Guiana, Trinidad, Canada, Queensland, New South Wales, Vic-
toria, Tasmania, and New Zealand.

An afternoon at Oxford was well spent in the Botanic Garden,
which is situated on the banks of the Cherwell. The garden is
only a few acres in extent, but contains some wonderfully fine
specimens of rare and beautiful trees, besides which it is famous
in the annals of botany and horticulture as being the oldest of
the British Botanic Gardens (founded in 1632), and the place
where several eminent botanists studied and brought to light
many interesting facts connected with science. Jacob Bobart
was the first director, Tradescant succeeded him, and, later,
Sherard formed the medicinal garden and herbarium. Drs. Sib-
thorp and Daubeny were also professors of botany here. John
Evelyn was a constant visitor between the years 1654 and 1675,
for the purpose of attending lectures in the School of Medicine,
and spent most of his time in the Physic Garden, which is still
in existence. Baxter, 78 years ago, planted the large Sophora
Japonica, or “ pagoda tree,” near the arch gateway, opposite the
Magdalen College, and this tree measured 11ft. 3in., circumference
of stem, 5 feet from the ground. There are some noble examples
of ash. Fraxinus excelsior (“common European ash”), F.
pubescens (“ American red ash”), and F. Ornus (“manna ash”),
the latter 45 feet high and 6 feet round. A copper beech
measured 11ft. Gin. in girth, and another variety of Fagus
sylvatica, called F. asplenifolia, was also a magnificent tree.
Pyrus aria (“the white beam tree”), P. sorbus or “service tree,”
and P. intermedia, 35 to 40 feet high, was, at the time of my
visit, a perfect picture, its branches bending to the grass with the
weight of scarlet fruit. Among other interesting fine specimens
must be mentioned Corylus colurna (“Constantinople frizzled
hazel or filbert”), 30 feet high and 5ft. 7in. in girth, Prunus
cocomilia (“the Calabrian prune”), which yields a bark con-
sidered a specific for fevers in Calabria, and the flowers of which
have a perfume resembling that of the heliotrope. On the banks
of the Cherwell some of the trees are of huge proportions.
Several Populus alba (“white or silver poplar”) averaged
14ft. 5in. in, circumference 5 feet from the base; Populus

fustigiata, or “upright poplar,” 11 feet; Planera aquatica (the
‘planer tree” of Southern United States) measured 12ft. lin. in
circumference. Many elms, too, near Christchurch meadows are
of enormous size ; but in the Magdalen Grove, at the back of the
College, are two elms, one 26ft. 8in. in girth, and was 125 to
130 feet high ; the other I found to be 21ft. 6in., and was quite

as tall.

80

A great treat was a day spent at Chatsworth, seat of the Duke
of Devonshire, one of the oldest and most celebrated gardens in
England; in fact, it is a private botanic garden. It was here that
Amherstia nobilis from the Burmese Empire, and one of the most
gorgeous flowering trees in existence, was first brought under
cultivation ; indeed, a conservatory which cost more than £1,000
was specially built for this plant alone. Three hundred years
ago gardening was known at Chatsworth, and it was interesting
to observe the various styles of the art, which are still preserved
and kept up from the stiff formal Oriental, Italian, and Dutch to
the present or so-called modern or natural landscape system.
To attempt a description of the many beauties to be met with in
the outer groundsof Chatsworth—the lovely lakes, lawns, charming
endless vistas, glades, and dells, huge artificial rockeries so skil-
fully arranged as to deceive even an expert as to whether they
were not natural formations—would occupy more time than could
be given to them just now. I will therefore briefly refer to the
contents of the glass structures, which cover some acres of ground,
The Victoria Regia house contains, besides the great water lily
itself, which is grown in a tank 86 feet in diameter, numerous
choice aquatic plants, amongst which is a fine plant of Euryale
Jferox, of the East Indies, which before the Royal water-lily was
the noblest water plant known. The Nympheas are largely
grown, and amongst them were Nymphcea gigantea and N.
cerulea, the blue water lilies; V. Devoniensis, with brilliant
-erimson flowers, the sweetly-scented NM. Daubenyana, and the
sacred lotus lily or rose of the Nile (Nelumbium speciosum), with
leaves standing up parasol-like above the large rosy-pink flowers.
The are many orchid houses, and several are devoted to kinds
requiring special treatment. One of these houses contains a
magnificent collection of cattleyas, principally Brazilian—some of
them with flowers 7 inches across, and amongst other orchids,
hanging in baskets from the roof, were some rare odontoglossums,
phalenopsis or moth orchids, and oncidiums, all American,
Another conservatory was filled with special Brazilian, Mexican,
and British Columbian species requiring cool treatment—a matter
which only within the past few years has occupied the serious
attention of orchid cultivators, it having been discovered that many
tropical species thrive better by more free circulation of air.

A draceena and croton house was crowded almost to excess with
the most beautiful kinds of the variegated forms of these plants,
striped or blotched with every imaginable colour, and they were
the more interesting to me as I myself was the discoverer of some
of them many years ago during a cruise of H.M.S. Challenger.

There is also a house of Cape heaths, one of camellias, of
Indian azaleas, and an orangery, besides grape houses, &c.

81

But the large conservatory has long been considered one of the
chief attractions of Chatsworth ; in fact, before the erection of
the great palm house at Kew it ranked foremost in the world as
a plant house, and even now is without a rival in many respects.
It contains tropical rarities which in point of cultivation and
size are not met with elsewhere. The abundant space which the
lofty and capacious house affords admits of the vegetation it
contains growing as luxuriantly as in the tropics, and well
might it be said that one can readily imagine one’s self in the iat
of a rich tropical jungle or forest.

Growing not in plots or tubs, but in a deep, rich well-drained
soil, magestic cocoa-nut, date, ceroxylon, kentia, sabal, talipot, and
other palms, tower up to almost their natural heights—some of
them the result of 50 years’ growth—and overshadow with their
weighty ample foliage their less pretentious but powerful
neighbours, tree ferns, panax, aralia, cordyline, zamias, and
eycas. The great bananas (Musa superba and M. Ensete), of
Abyssinia, vie, in their magnificent groups of broad massive
leafage, with their allies the strelitzias of Africa, and singular
urana or traveller’s tree of Madagascar, whilst bread fruit, jack
fruit, anona or “sweet sop,” avocado pear, spondias or “vi apple,”
mangoes, mangosteen (king of fruits), diospyros or “ persimmon,”
liche, longan, papaw apple, durian, Bengal quince, jujube, and a
host of other fruit trees of the temperate and torrid zones are in
their element, and, struggling for space amidst pandanus,
mangroves, banyan, cinnamon, and nutmeg trees, ixoras, jonesias,
browneas, and scores of others remarkable either for the
brilliancy, beauty, or singularity of their flowers, or the grandeur
of their foliage. An exuberant undergrowth of many kinds of
dwarf ferns—arum, begonia, piper, tradescantia, maranta, Dill-
bergia, caladium, and like vegetation fills every available space,
and up the pillars that support the vast roof, as also the stems of
the taller trees, gay and brilliant flowering climbers find their way
to the glass and partly obscure it. Glorious effects are produced
in this large conservatory by massing a number of specimens of
any particularly strong kind of plant together—Musa coccinea,
for instance, from Cochin China, five or six in a group, with pale-
green whorls of broad leafage, and dazzling scarlet bracts, leat a
charm to a jungle of reeds, bamboos, and alpinias. And such
delicious tints of colour as are produced by a combination of the
well-known cissus discolor, yellow allamandas, numerous
dipladenias, thunbergias, clematis, and aristolochias, festooning
drooping boughs, binding them together or wrestling with noble
philodendrous pothos and monsteria, can be better imagined than
described.

The Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, which is under the
directorship of Professor Balfour, is 274 acres in extent, but

826, F

82

there is also an arboretum of 60 acres, in which trees and the
larger shrubs are classified in groups arranged on the grass. Both
garden and arboretum contain magnificent collections of plants,
and afford every facility for the study of botany. The Botanical
Museum in the upper part of the garden is much patronized by
the public. The specimens therein are arranged on glass-covered
tables and in cases, some for carpological or fruit specimens,
grouped according to their relationship. One case contained the
plants of Scripture, another fossil plants, and many other miscel-
laneous articles and products of the vegetable world. Structural,
morphological, and physiological botany are taught and simplified
or made easy by models in wax, and by living or preserved
plants. One of the most interesting and useful collections in this
museum to the student of botany is the papier-maché models of
flowers, in some instances nine or ten times their natural size,
which illustrate the various orders of plants.

A series of the principal genera of each order, beginning with
the Ranunculacee, or order of the butter-cups or ranunculi,
clematis, &c., and ending with the Graminee or grass family, are
so neatly and beautifully made as to be capable of being taken to
pieces, as one would dissect the flowers themselves, to ascertain
their parts and relationship. The fungi or mushroom order, is also
well illustrated by models as well as by specimens preserved in
alcohol, whilst the Algae, or sea weeds, and lower forms still of
vegetable life, are represented.

The garden is greatly to be admired for the excellent manner
in which it is arranged, not only as a scientific repository but for
its pretty little lawns, vistas, and background of foliage, the
winding pathways through shrubberies, its old interesting trees,
and for the splendid outlook over Edinburgh from the arboretum
in front of Inverleith House (known as the Old Mansion House),
which is the residence of the director.

The class ground within the garden proper contains only herba-
ceous plants and annuals (similar to the one at Kew), which are
arranged in botanical sequence in long narrow beds, according to
Hooker and Bentham’s Genera Plantarum, for the information of
students. Therock garden is not an artistic design, being simply
a terraced slope, ascended by steps, and containing several thousand
square or triangular compartments for alpine and dwarf herbaceous
plants, besides small shrubs, amongst which several New Zealand
species were flourishing ; nevertheless it demonstrated how such
plants, with attention and a knowledge of their habits, may be cul-
tivated with perfect success. A semicircular pond in the centre of
the ground was filled with aquatic weeds and the more showy water-
lilies. The pine tribe scattered over the garden and arboretum
numbers some 300 species. No fewer than 70 distinct forms of
the English holly (lex aquifolium), variegated and green, are

83

grouped in a large bed, and at the time of my visit were laden
with berries—mostly scarlet, but many of them golden yellow.

The glass-houses teem with a rich and varied tropical and semi-
tropical vegetation, but it would of course be a work of superero-
gation to recount the names of the thousands of species contained
in this excellent institution.

The Dublin Botanic Gardens—or, as they are called, the Royal
Botanic Gardens—are situated in the suburb of Glasnevin, on the
Tolka River, about 3 miles north of the metropolis. The general
contour of the gardens being of an undulating character, has
enabled the designers of it to make much of little more then
40 acres, and the work has been very artistically planned.

As the visitor strolls along the sweeping walks or over the
well-kept turfy expanses, broken by clumps of green and variegated
hollies, maples, rhododendrons, laurels, and numerous individuals
of British and foreign timber trees, the scenery is every where
varied, interesting, and delightful. The ever-flowing Tolka
stream, with its emerald-green banks studded with silvery-leaved
willows (Salix venenata and S. regalis) and drooping reeds and
bamboos, is a factor in the landscape which adds a great charm to
the surroundings.

Dotted about the lawns are some glorious examples of golden-
leaved yew trees and copper-coloured beeches. These light up
the dark background of firs and other trees outside the grounds.
Trees with coloured foliage well blended with the greenery of a
landscape often afford more pleasing effects than the most fantastic
beds or borders of flowers that the gardener can design.

A prominent feature is the rock garden, which is well stocked
with luxuriantly growing alpine vegetation, ferns in suitable
positions, rare wild flowers from the highlands of Europe, bog
plants in great variety growing in peat beds at the base of rocky
recesses where moisture is obtainable.

This rockery is so artistically made that in many places it
creates the impression that the native rock has cropped up through
the turf in the natural way. Orchids and pitcher plants are
largely grown in houses specially provided for them, and the
collections of these embrace nearly all of the best kinds known in
cultivation. But to any person taking an interest in quaint forms
and the anomalous development of plant life, so varied and
extraordinary, there is in the collection of North American
sarracenias alone quite a study. They number about ten species
and many hybrid varieties. The plant is called “ side-saddle flower,”
or “trumpet leaf.” The flowers themselves are of no great beauty,
but the highly-coloured pitcher-like blades—often mistaken for
flowers—are in reality the leaves in a distorted condition. The
real pitcher plants are the nepenthes, of which the giant species

(NV. Rajah), found a few years ago at Kina Balu, a mountain in
F2

84

Borneo, is the finest yet discovered. Mr. Burbidge informs us
that he found the plant in large clumps, having stems 5 or 6 feet
in height with very broad massive leaves and pitchers or urns
capable of holding two or three pints of water. Besides this
species there are some 25 or 30 others, of which Mastersiana, a
hybrid variety, and Rafflesiana, from Singapore, are the hand-
somest. The palm house contains 90 species of well-grown palms,
some of which tower up to the roof, which is more than 60 feet
high. There too are perhaps the finest specimens in cultivation
in Britain of those noble trees—the Browneas grandiceps and
coecinea from Venezuela and New Granada. The former was
furnished with between 30 and 40 gorgeous flower heads of bright
clear rosy pink colour, and borne in dense clusters at the
extremities of the short young shoots: from the main stem,
contrasted charmingly with the dark pinnate leaves of 3 feet in
length. The Brownea coccinea, which flowers somewhat later,
and of which I also saw specimens at Kew and at Chatsworth,
produces dazzling vermilion tassels of bloom from out of the bark
of the stem and branches, and which, before expansion, resembles
small marbles, whilst the leaves in a young state are of a rich bronzy
hue. Two other beautiful plants, rare in cultivation, attracted my
attention—Jonesia asoca (Saraca) and Butea frondosa—which
like the browneas first alluded to, the Poinciana regia or gold
moha tree, the Amherstia, and many other of the more gorgeous
flowering trees and shrubs of the tropics, belong to the order
Leguminose or pod-bearing tribe. A curvilinear range of glass,
called the New Holland house, is filled with our eucalypts,
numbering some 70 or 80 species, numerous acacias, epdcrids, the
araucarias, dammaras, callitris, and a host of Australian plants
too numerous to mention. The vegetation of New Zealand is
fairly represented in the open borders. The Phormium tenaz or
“New Zealand flax,” veronicas, pittosporums, &c., do well with
little shelter. I may say that, as a picturesque botanical garden,
that of Glasnevin has few rivals, and the visitor to Ireland who
omits seeing it will have missed a treat which few other places
can offer all the year round.

Having briefly described these various scientific institutions, it
may be asked what British conservatories and operations connected
therewith have to do with matters of the kind here, seeing that
they are applied in most instances under very distinct climatic
conditions. The conservatory system, so called, is almost as
necessary here as in Britain, owing to the variable nature of our
climate ; and, therefore, any garden worthy of the name should
have the material aid of shelter and warmth thereby afforded.

Visitors from the Antipodes are usually amazed at the plants
to be seen luxuriating in the open air in these southern climes,
and which in some continental and British gardens it is

85

absolutely necessary to grow in pots or tubs under glass. It would
be well in my opinion for our young men, anxious as many of
them are to keep abreast with the onward march of horticulture,
to be actively in touch with the most approved methods of culti-
vation adopted by experienced growers at home, as well as in the
colonies. Thus they would learn how to increase and successfully
grow valued plants, many, perhaps, of economic importance, from
warmer or colder latitudes for test purposes or acclimatisation
here. I would add, in conclusion, that intelligent application to
the study of so useful and pleasing a profession as that of horti-
culture would most surely merit and should insure success; and
if, as is so truly necessary, forethought and observation be prac-
tised, afterthought, with all its possible miseries, would be
avoided. Our climate and soil, generally speaking, being favor-
able for the cultivation of almost anything, the opportunities
afforded by tuition in this and other institutions of the kind, also
through our increasingly liberal land laws, should enable our
young men to become not only owners of flourishing gardens, but
horticulturists in the truest sense, and second to none in the world.

86

VICTORIAN LAND IN ITS RELATION TO
CULTURAL EFFORT.

By AmprosE C. NEATE.

(8th September, 1893.)

It is not, I would assume, too much to expect in a large island-
continent such as Australia that its rapidly increasing population
will aim of necessity to secure its sustenance food, clothing,
shelter, &c., from or by means of the soil to a far greater extent
than is at present attempted. That the culture of the soil will
be extended in a remarkable manner needs no forecast, seeing—
as is apparent to all observers—the present depression is forcing
our sons to think of the country, with the view of fitting and
settling themselves upon it, as intelligent workers who intend to
test the powers which God has given them of transforming many
a wilderness into a garden.

In time to come people will look back with gratitude to the
men, both in and out of our Parliaments, who by their wisdom in
schemes for village settlements, labour colonies, &c., induced
a large part of our population to become rural in its habits, inde-
pendant in spirit, and more truly healthful in both body and
mind.

It may be asked by a young farming man, say, in one of the
home counties, “Is Victoria capable of yielding the varied pro-
ducts needful for man and beast?”? From some of us who know
something of facts not entertained by thoughtless or mere casual
observers, the answer would be given, “ Undoubtedly ; although
it is but fair to add that in comparison with America, having its
soil almost inexhaustibly rich, by reason of the enormous accu-
mulation of leaf mould throughout its forest areas, our own land
is seen to some extent ata disadvantage.” I have not visited
very much of the country “from the Murray to the sea,” so might
very fittingly ask to sit at the feet of some of our pioneers, who
know so much of its worth—far more than I can hope to arrive
at. I would, however, remark that the success attained in the
western and other districts in the yield of root crops, grains,
fruits, &c., prove that it can be almost indefinitely extended.

87

The accompanying table may offer a suggestive idea or so toa
young intending culturist :—

Quality. Suited for— Improved by— Other remarks,
1,—Sandy loam, | Nursery, garden | Bone-dust,lime, phos- | As seen on th
clay base flowers, lawns, vege- | phates, * yiver- ank | side of River oe

2.—Red friable and

tables, fruit trees

All garden produce,

soil, vegetable decay

As in No. 1, except

Such are found in

dark loams,| fruit trees, farm] river-bank goil Gippsland, &c.

clay base crops, &c, Pieadnencs, Hietlee
berg, and Goulburn
Valley.

3.—Heavy loam, | Fruit trees, vege- | Sand, lime, bone-dust,| As at Box Hill, Don-

clay base, | tables (much stir-| vegetable decay caster, Barrabool

black, heavy, | ring for root crops) Hills, and also freely

ane strong north side of Yarra.

Same as for No. 1,
except bone-dust
and lime

4,—Limestone and
marl, some-
times clay base

Vines, fruit trees (if
clay below), brassica
family, beans, &c,

As at Geelong,
Western Port, &c.,
western district near
coast.

5.—Yellow clay and | When improved

Lime, sand, wood ash, | Special need of drain-

heavy reten-| fruit trees, as pears, | vegetable decay age, exposure to sun,
tive soils gene- | apples, corn, &c. &e.
rally

.—Sandy and very | Vegetables and quick- | Lime, bone - dust, | As near sea coasts and
light | soils, | growing succulent| heavyloam andclay,| much on south side
wanting in| crops generally also river-bank and | of River Yarra.
substance other good soils

Norz.—All (1 to 6) greatly improved by stable or farm-yard manure.

The task of manuring sandy land with clay, and vice versa, is
one which would well repay a grower, for, in the first case, the
free working which the sand insures and the added strength
given by the clay to the poor baseless sand should prove the
value of intelligent thought in this respect. Such is frequently
done in Britain, and should be arranged here more generally than
now. Mr. Guilfoyle has very greatly improved some intractable
and almost unworkable land by the use of sand freely applied in
parts of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Moreover, I feel assured
that besides the changeful effect on the soil the sand freely used
as a dressing re vines affected with Phylloxera vastatrix would
be likely to prove helpful, seeing that the disease is stated not to
attack vines growing on sandy land. It would be interesting if
this statement could be confirmed by tests made at various
centres.

The trenching in of clay to poor Caulfield sand, as suggested
by the writer to a friend who was about to make a garden, was
adopted with good results in growth as affecting apple, pear, and
other fruit trees. In this connexion, I would point tothe pronounced

88

success which has attended the tropical groupings originated and
completed by Mr. Guilfoyle near the large conservatory in the
Botanic Gardens, where he took particular care to introduce an
artificial clay base, thus :—

EXAMPLE oF So1L witH CLAY BASE.

een
TEL che a

= Se Se
SS

A Ctay B Loam

The true culturist must act on the same principle as the wise
man does, who, being the owner of a horse, feeds him well to
insure good and cheerful service. The soil will respond like a
living creature to a little generosity on the part of its owner in
the way of manure, restoring those constituents taken off or
exhausted by continual cropping. There are men who trya little
“economy” by starving the land, leaving some other people a
cruel inheritance later on, discreditable to the first and ruinous to
the second.

The advantage of securing classified locations for the various
plants to succeed best in is of course a well-understood matter
with the practised grower, who would be almost sure to act some-
what as shown in the accompanying table :—

Position. Suitability. Added Note.
1,—Undulating land .. | Preferable for gardens generally—
flowers, fruits, vegetables, farm
crops, &c.
Interchangeable to
2.—Hill-sides, north and | Best adapted for vines, fruits, as some extent, ac-
west aspects princi- apricots, peach, plum, orange, cording to depth of
pally lemon, and strawberry soil, drainage, water’

: : supply, &c.
3.—Rich valleysand semi- | Well adapted for farm and garden

flat country produce, root crops, red and black
‘currant, gooseberry, &c.

The astonishing success which has followed the well-directed
efforts of the Messrs. Chaffey at Mildura, and those of the
pioneers of the Goulburn Valley districts, goes to prove the value
of rightly-conceived plans, combined with irrigation, as affecting

89

the fruit industry, and is a testimony to the sturdiness, both of
the culturists and the soil they have so skilfully wrested from
obscurity.

They have done much with water in the way of reducing soils
whose latent strength would never have been available in any
other way, to a state wherein the tender rootlets of both tree and
herb could secure their proper sustenance, but is not a werd of
caution needful? To some I feel sure there is danger not in
using too little but too much water. Were fruit trees lovers of
much moisture, as are willows, then the case would be very
different.

It needs but little in the way of argument after all that
practical men have written and done to make plain the need in
some form or other, when a young man takes upon himself to aim
at becoming a successful tiller of the soil. In some positions he
may dispense with artificial drainage, but not necessarily so
because his block is on a hill-side ; it may be the more necessary
on that account. There are of course many ways of carrying off
the soakage :—(1) The open trench; (2) the same half-filled with
stones topped by soil; (3) the trench and drain pipe styles
combined thus :—

ExampLe oF APPROVED DRaIn.

Sole
REPLACED Wellrammed.
Sons oF

LITTER

B STONES About 24 inches

in size.
A PIPE Agricultural pipe

resting on the

rE = clay.

This is without doubt the best and most reliable of drains.

Some people who are but little suited to bring even a small area
into a state of culture err by taking—say, for them—the enormous
quantity of 200 or more acres (much of it very poor and sour)
in various parts of the colony. They “ ring” and burn the trees,
and distress all lovers of the beautiful by the mischief effected,
and do not in any way compensate for it by actual culture or
other real improvement. And they are at last worn out and
‘dispirited, poverty-struck and old, with a feeling that their way
at least of rural living did not yield those pleasures about which
poets have sung and artists delighted to portray. It behoves

90

every one living by the soil to do as is the practice with the onion-
growers of the Portarlington district, cultivate every available
inch of the block, and not waste time—“ the warp of life”—in
holding too much land or becoming in any other way partners in
that well-known but scarcely successful firm of Messrs. Grasp-
all and Lose-all.

Surely 40 acres of good land, in a well-watered position, and
systematically used, should be a fair thing for a good man to -
manage, defined by a recent correspondent of one of our Victorian
newspapers as laid out thus:—l0 acres, homestead, orchard,
poultry, cow-yard, &c.; 10 acres to grow field peas, potatoes, &c.,
as food for pigs, poultry, cattle, &c.; 20 acres set apart for grazing
of cows and horses.

There are of course very many labour-saving tools, which in
the hands of our “coming men” will help them materially to
reduce their holdings to a state of tillage. Those in the
agricultural section are very numerous and mostly valuable, but
it seems to me for small selections the ‘‘ Planet Junior” hand-
plough, drill, hoe, rake, and seeding apparatus combined gives a
hard-working fellow, whose soil is friable, a means of conquering
his work in very much less time than usual. In the vegetable
and fruit garden of the Government House the gardener (Mr.
J. D. Allen) finds it most serviceable. There is another
instrument of splendid value for a good variety of work in a
garden, farm, or orchard of the style of a pick (say, 6 lbs. in
weight), made to order of my late and very much respected father.
It is shaped thus :—

Tae Mattock.

A-B
15 INCHES
B-C

7 INCHES

I well remember one of his men exclaiming when at work on
the Barrabool Hills—“ Bedad, here is a clod which has not been
turned up since Adam was a boy,” but a mattock such as this

91

would have made short work of the “clod”’ and stiff soil
generally if it had at that time been available. For trenching
levelling, and turning up obstinate soil to the action of the sun
there is nothing like it.

The future grower in these southern lands must, if he would
be a successful one, pay a great deal of attention to the details of
his work. Life in the country is searcely a sufficient reason for
either slovenliness in dress or duty. Of course there will not be
the prim habit of the shopman, but a free and easy manner will no
doubt assert itself, and his dress will be in accord with his sur-
roundings. There are several things he should know apart from
his directly horticultural training. Some young men are, of course,
very observant, and probably have their parents and former school
tutors to thank for the free use they make of their note-books. I
would assume that a young man, to be able to get his living from
the soil, requires a full equipment of knowledge of all that can be
learned, with the time at his disposal, of the three branches, viz.,
botany, gardening, and farming, and I am given to understand by
Mr. Neilson that some of the students here are candidates also for
aterm at Dookie (the Government Farm). This principle is evi-
‘dently sound, and it will be well if the students can in every
instance become apt learners in the ways named. Boys and young
men need a quiver fullof arrows to hit the mark, as well in draw-
ing, carpentering, and general building, also to practise special
lines of culture, all to afford auxiliary force, and give him a sure
living, and a balance besides to carry forward for a rainy day.

The earnest student will be likely to spend his evenings in
studying the books and other cultural publications with a view to
help himself onward; and he will, I trust, avoid that prodigal
attention to sport which was so thoughtfully referred to by
Mr. J. West, of Mooroopna, at a meeting of the Chamber of
Rural Industries, on 31st August, when he said—‘ However we
might shut our eyes to the fact, the surplus energy of the young
people was running in the direction of sport. . . . If the
matter were not watched it would have a most serious effect in
crowding out that stability which had hitherto existed in the
Anglo-Saxon character.” Of course we know Mr. West is right,
and that his word of caution is well timed.

There can be no doubt that the young land-owner, in order to
succeed, will have to act upon Samuel Budgett’s maxim, “ Push,
Tact, and Principle,” and withal must be very much of an
enthusiast, who is always learning.

Let me offer a few closing thoughts regarding such an one:—

(a) How could he better spend his holidays than to take a
trip to Mildura or the Goulburn Valley fruit and
irrigation districts ? He could there have a chat with

92

and see the labours of successful growers, and away
on other occasions to the western and other interesting
lands under culture.

(b) He will not be likely to place dependence on only one or
two leading items of produce, ‘not have all his apples
in one basket.” He will have, and needs to have, a
variety, and, besides, will not fail to supplement his
earnings by stock, the fowl-yard, &c.

(c) No doubt he will be on the alert re industrial plants,
especially after a visit to the Economic Museum,
Botanic Gardens ; will grow them experimentally at
first, but will be quite sure of his market, asking “ Can
I find a buyer in the colony or out of it?” If an affir-
mative answer comes to hand these plants will, no
doubt, in a supplementary way yield him much and
profitable satisfaction.

(d) How about his settling in life? (You may well ask if
this properly belongs to my subject.) Let him be
patient ; his selection will teach him that. Will she
help him? Perhaps so, and after all, prove more
enthusiastic than himself; and thus cause the ex-
clamation of many years ago by a Highton labourer,
about the knowing rooster’s opinion of his mistress,
to come true in her case also :—

“He crowed aloud, did Chanticleer,
The missus, she is master here !”

Women’s rights, you observe, may even be practised in a rural
kind of way and place, but they cannot be more effectually exerted
than by the mother bringing up her children (of course with the
primary help of the father) to love a country life with its usually
pleasing associations.

Norr.—The address was accompanied by several drawings, among
which were—
(1) A charcoal kiln, internal form.
(2) A charcoal kiln, external form.
(3) The Cranberry (Oxycoccus palustris).
(4) The Whortleberry (Vaccintum myrtillus).
These were intended to illustrate some auxiliary sources of revenue.

93

THE COMMERCIAL ASPECT OF BEE-
KEEPING.

By L. T. CuamBers, Bree-Krrerers’ Suppty ASSOCIATION.

(8th December, 1893.)

Bee-keeping, like many other pursuits, may be limited to a
small area, as is usually the case in amateur work, or extended to a
large area, partaking of the nature of an adjunct to other pursuits,
or becoming the sole occupation or employment of an individual
as a means of obtaining a living. Ina recent lecture given by
Mr. Ellery before this association, we had a concise study of the
economy of the beehive, and we need not now do more than
glance over the points then brought under your notice.

Our subject to-day deals with the concrete value of bee-keeping.
The money there is in it. The possibilities of turning knowledge
and labour into hard cash. This, sir, is the question that is
exercising our minds very much at the present time. And it is
my pleasure at this opportunity to supply a pointer in the direction
of one source of profit to the individual and the State. I desire
to speak with all due caution only of facts which are fully known
and proved, and which, as a bee-keeper for ten years past, I am
thoroughly conversant with.

There are three points to be considered in our subject to-day,
and these three points really resolve into two. They are these—
The source of supply, that is, the prospective crop to be gathered ;
the workers, that is, the bees ; and the superintending power, that
is, the man. Given assurance of the prospective crop, the develop-
ment and proper management of the bees lies within the power
and direction of the prime factor, the man.

Good superintendence presupposes good workmen and good
methods. Still, I desire to dwell upon this point awhile, to show -
how much depends upon careful selection, even in the matter of
breeding a bee. We find exactly the same conditions present and
under control as in the case of sheep, cattle, trees, or vegetables.
To suppose that “‘a bee is a bee,” and therefore all bees are of
equal value as workers, would be quite as great a mistake as to
assume the same of a horse, or possibly a man. There is a
wonderful variation of character and ability in the apiary, as a
little careful investigation will soon prove.

Before, however, saying anything in the direction of the crop
and the possibilities of gathering it, I should like to say a word
or two about the man—the present or prospective bee-keeper.

94

While we are on sure ground in pointing to variation in character
as exhibited in the bees, we are equally on sure ground in dealing
with variation in the character of men. . :

We cannot blind ourselves to the fact that the elements of
success or otherwise in any direction lie rather in the man than
in his surroundings. I say this because of a very general but
erroneous opinion that “ bees work for nothing, and board them-
selves,” therefore easily reached profits are available. This, sir,
is not so. Nature is not so prodigal in any direction. Bee-
keeping, with money to be got out of it, must result from applied
knowledge and industry. When these are united there is little
fear but the profits—and good profits—for labour expended are
to be reaped ; but let not the careless or slipshod expect much
from the beehive.

The first factor named—the crop—is one which claims our
especial and careful attention, because we at once must look at
comparative values, and our relation to other parts of the world
producing a like crop.

We begin sadly to know the relative value of wheat-growing
and the cost of production compared to other wheat-producing
countries. And so all along the line our first consideration is,
the relation we bear to other parts of the world which can produce
a like article to that we desire to produce. The question arises.
—Can we produce honey in quality and quantity equal or
superior to other parts of the world, or are we upon a lower
standard? We ask this question because, if there is money in
bee-keeping and profit to the State—that money must be won
from an outside market—an aim less than this is not worth
striving for.

The possibilities of comparison which lie within reach must
for the present be confined to figures which reach us from the
United States, from whence we draw our inspiration of the entire
subject as now presented on commercial lines—the production
and consumption of honey as an article of food having grown
enormously during the past twenty years. In Langstroth Honey
Bee, recently revised by Dadant and Son, we find some comparative
figures given at page 404 :—“ We have no official statistics of the
honey crop of the United States, but the following extract from
The American Bee Journal (1886) will give an idea of the
immensity of our honey resources, considering the comparatively
small area of this country now occupied by apiarists :—‘ The Cali-
fornian Grocer says that the crop of 1885 was about 1,250,000 lbs.
The foreign export from San Francisco during the year was
approximately 8,800 cases. The shipments last year by rail were
360,000 lbs. from San Francisco and 910,000 lbs. from Los
Angelos, including both comb and extracted. We notice that.
another Californian paper estimates the crop of 1885 at.

95

2,000,000 Ibs., and the crop of the United States for 1885 was
put down at 26,000,000 Ibs. We do not think these figures. are
quite large enough, though it was an exceedingly poor crop ; but
former years have given still better results. Through the courtesy
of Mr. N. W. McLain, of the U.S. Apicultural Station, we have
received the following statistics from The Resources of California,
1881:—The honey shipped from Ventura County, California,
during 1880 amounted to 1,050,000 lbs. The Pacific Coast
Steamship Company, of San Diego, shipped 1,191,800 lbs. of
honey from that county in the same year. The crop of the five
lower counties in California that year was estimated by several
parties at over 3,000,000 lbs. According toa report of S. D.
Stone, Clerk of Merchants’ Exchange, of San Francisco, the
actual amount of honey shipped to that city from different parts
of California in the sixteen months ending lst May, 1881, was
4,340,400 Ibs., equal to 217 car loads. One hundred tons of
honey, in one lot, was shipped during the same year from Los
Angelos to Europe, on the French barque Papillon. This had
been all purchased from the Los Angelos apiarists;’” and on page
406 the revisers give their own averages of honey for a period
of twenty years as 50 lbs. per hive. They say that, “with proper
management, at least 50 lbs. of surplus honey may be obtained
from each colony that is wintered in good condition. This is not
a ‘guess’ estimate, it is the average of our crops during a period
of over twenty years, in different localities. Such an average may
appear small to experienced bee-keepers, but we think it large
enough when we consider that we have very few linden trees
in our neighbourhood.” It may be stated that Chas. Dadant
and Son have been in the honey-producing business for many
years, and are practical apiarists, owning and managing about
1,000 colonies of bees, and these, of course, under the very best
management,

Here, therefore, we have a clear basis of comparison, 50 lbs.
of honey per hive, resulting from best appliances and manage-
ment. Can we equal or surpass it, or do we fall short of it?
And, before that question is answered, let us glance for a while at
our sources of supply. The present dealers in honey have an
idiotic method of naming prime honey as “garden honey.” It
may be that this arose in the past as a distinguishing brand to
differentiate it from what was then knownas “ bush honey,” which
was gathered from hollow trees and logs ina rough and uncleanly
manner. However, as little of such honey now reaches us, the
term “garden honey,” to express by name a sample upon which
more care has been taken, need no longer be used. We may
assure ourselves that the amount of honey gathered from garden
flowers is a very insignificant quantity, of varying flavour, and
not worth taking into consideration in reviewing our sources of

96

supply. Briefly said, therefore, our chief source of supply is
from the various species of eucalyptus trees. Lacking these, the
supply is of small amount, unless we name white clover, which,
in some cool and moist localities, yields a crop of excellent
honey. In fact, white clover honey may be classified as the best
of honey—finest in flavour procurable the world over.

The various species of eucalyptus trees are all honey producers,
but bearing a rather intermittent supply. So far as bee-keepers
have investigated this matter, they have been unable to supply
exact data of the blossoming of the different species. A rule-of-
thumb way of stating the case has been adopted in the past,
which gives alternate years as good and bad, so far as the honey
supply is concerned—that is one year giving a fair toa good
supply, and the following year a poor supply, or none at all.
This method of computation is anything but reliable; but still
there is a foundation of fact in it, not discoverable in Vic-
toria only, but in other parts of the world as well. A good
season is usually followed by a poor one, while a poor one is
usually regarded as a guarantee for a better one to follow. This
may, however, not be borne out; there are many intermediate
results between poor and good. So far as I know, no one has
been able to more than guess at the conditions which produce a
good supply of honey, whether past or present rainfall, or present
conditions of atmosphere and weather. Abundant blossoms by no
means guarantee abundant honey. Certain conditions of weather
increase or decrease the yield. A warm moist atmosphere,
such as is experienced prior to a thunderstorm, usually guarantees
a good flow of honey. Speaking in general terms, the eucalyptus
blooms bi-annually. The tree which blooms this year will not
probably bloom next year, but will during the second year develop
its seed pods. However, one tree may blossom this year and its
neighbour the next, and we frequently find that one part of a
tree will blossom one year and the other portion the following,
and at times we find the disparity separated by a few months
only. It will be seen that to a large extent the prospective
honey crop is an unknown quantity ; but yet the careful and
investigating bee-keeper may gather information ahead by care-
fully noting the forming and advancing blossom buds of the trees
around, And given an abundance of flowers, the probability is
that during their continuance of bloom the weather will be favor-
able to the secretion of nectar. There is still another point
of variation to be noted in the eucalypt. Most forest trees are
regular in their time of blooming, but not so the eucalyptus family.
The bass-wood of America, which produces the largest crop of
forest honey, opens its flowers at a regular month and day, and the
flow of honey from it ranges from three days to twenty or more,
so that the bee-keeper knows his preparations must be complete to

97

secure that crop at a given date; but our trees may blossom any
time from October till June, and are altogether irregular and
subject to conditions which do not appear on the surface.

This extended time of honey supply is a decided gain, and,
with good management, a large crop may be gathered. With a
large surrounding forest of honey-producing trees, keeping a
continuous bloom for months, the apiarist is placed in a much
more reliable situation than in the case of the one who knows his
crop is limited to a few days, with all the possibility of broken
and unfavorable weather.

In choosing a locality for an apiary, it is well to obtain one
that possesses a good variety of timber. This insures a longer
and more continuous supply than a position which has but little
variety.

The quality of the honey from the different species is very
various, but of that I will speak later on.

The box tribe, which is so extensively scattered throughout
the colony, stands at the head of our forest trees as a source of
supply. The red, yellow, grey, and white box trees all bear
abundant crops of excellent honey. The redgum, which grows on
water-courses, gives a heavy crop, usually every other season, but
at times breaking away from that rule. The various species
usually denominated whitegum are all likewise good producers.
The messmate, black butt, silver top, mountain ash, stringybark,
and a host of others, known by common bush names, supply
sources of honey—some good, some inferior.

It will be clearly seen that in this colony at least we have
many thousands of miles of honey-producing forest, giving a long-
continued flow of honey, such as is not enjoyed by other climates
which are not so mild or temperate as ours. In addition to the
large forest trees, there are, of course, a host of smaller growth—
banksias, hakea, acacias, &c., and thousands of flowering shrubs
herbs, and grasses, many of which yield honey abundantly.

Although much of our forest timber has been ruthlessly wasted,
there remains many thousands of square miles yet untouched, or
comparatively so. There is, therefore, abundant room for
development in this direction.

There is no necessity in this colony, as in colder climates, to
make special preparations for long months of winter. In fact, in
most parts the bees are able to fly and gather sustenance during
our so-called winter months. In most parts of the States, except
in Southern California, it is necessary to pack away all hives
of bees in cellars, that they may maintain an even temperature
of about 40° Fahr. There they remain for five months, due
regard being given to their food supply; yet, notwithstanding
these precautions, very many are annually lost. This is a matter
which gives us no concern here, entails no labour, or causes any loss.

826, G

98

We may now return to consider and compare the figures of
Dadant and Son with those which are obtainable here, and see if
their stated yearly average of 50 Ibs. per hive is or can be
exceeded here. I find also that Dr. Miller, an extensive apiarist,
of Marengo, IIL. in an article written in September this year, says
cof another bee-keeper, who reports an average of 75 lbs. per
colony—“ spring count”—for eight. years, “This makes some of
us green with envy.”

“Spring count” means the total gathering to be credited to the
original number of hives of bees that began work in the spring,
before swarming. So that it will be seen that, if the increase by
swarming were only 50 per cent., the average of 50 lbs. per
colony would have only been gained. We may, therefore, take
these figures as being reliable, and, if anything, a full statement
of the case. Southern California, which nearly approaches our
own climate, produces by far the greatest amount of any of the
States. Her supply is chiefly drawn from a dwarf bush known
as sage-bush, of which there are several varieties. The crop is,
however, a very uncertain one. In 1886 California produced a
crop of 9,000,000 lbs., but since that year has not raised more
than 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 lbs. in any year.

We get a peep at Californian prospects in page 129, “Gleanings
in Bee Culture,’ as under:—

‘Some time ago one of your honey reporters stated that the
crop of 1892 was nota failure in California, because they ‘had
already received twelve car-loads of honey.’ It is very evident
that this firm does not appreciate the honey resources of
California. In a good year twelve cars could be loaded within a
radius of ten miles of my apiary! San Diego Co. in a good year
will produce 2,500,000 lbs. of honey, and not exert herself
beyond her strength. This is 125 car-loads of 20,000 lbs. each.
In 1886 the firm of Surr and Winchester bought of the crop of
San Diego Co. over 2,000,000 lbs. There were other buyers,
too, and many producers shipped direct to San Francisco. Thus
it will be seen that Surr and Winchester alone had of San Diego
Co. honey 100 car-loads of 20,000 lbs. each. In 1887 they still
held it, and they made money by so doing, for 1887 was a very
poor honey year. You mentioned it in ‘Gleanings,’ but I think
you gave no name of the parties who held the honey. Yes, we
are waiting for a good crop, and we have been waiting for nearly
seven long years! But we are in the hands of an all-wise
Providence, who knows much better what we ought to have than
we do ourselves. In the excellent season of 1883 the honey crop
of Hancock County, Illinois, was estimated at about 200,000 lbs.,
which made an average of less than half a pound per acre.
Thirty-six thousand pounds of this was our own crop, and the
county did not contain one-tenth of the bees that could have

99

been kept profitably on it. Yet, at this low rate, the crop of
Illinois alone, with the same percentage of bees, would have
been 15,000,000 lbs. We cannot form an adequate idea of the
enormous amount of honey which is wasted from the lack of bees
to harvest it.”

We know by such statements as these that, although we may
hear of Californian crops of honey being immense, such crops only
come very occasionally, and our supply of honey is more regular,
and more to be relied upon. This fact, therefore, stands out
clearly. We have in this colony a source of wealth in the shape
of a natural crop, which yearly goes to waste through need of
gathering and marketing. We can get a glimpse at it by com-
parison. We now have a few bee-keepers of experience who
wholly devote themselves to the business of honey gathering,
and we know the probabilities and possibilities of the pursuit.
We know that, with good management, 100 colonies of bees will
collect 5 tons of honey in a season, and in some parts double that
amount. What of the thousands of square miles of unoccupied
country, where hardly a bee is to be seen?

Some few months ago, as secretary of the Bee-keepers’ Asso-
ciation, I issued a circular to all our bee-keepers of note, asking
information under the head of supply and cost of gathering. I have
here some 20 answers from bee-keepers owning 2,000 hives of bees,
and living in different part of the colony. In answer to the ques-
tion of yearly average gathered per hive, a considerable variation
exists, corresponding to the locality, but it is worthy of note that
those who are engaged in bee-keeping pure and simple, and who
have, therefore, made a choice of locality, show a very large
average, far exceeding the average of Dadant and Son, who
possess many years’ more experience in manipulation and manage-
ment, and of those who simply make bee-keeping an adjunct, show
that their averages are fully up to and past the 50 lbs. average.
Two hundred hives of bees, with a 50 lbs. average, means 5 tons
of honey, with a spot value of £20 to £25a ton. This represents
the working capacity of one beekeeper, any increase in honey
not greatly adding to the labour, so that a greater gathering
would add to the profit of that labour without greatly adding to
its cost. It would simply mean that the bee-keeper would have
to skip round a little more and possibly get up earlier.

What does it cost to produce a ton of honey may be only an-
swered by careful computation of several seasons’ work; but enough
has been said to show that a living may be made by bee-keeping
embracing seven or eight months’ work only, and the probabilities
are that a good living and something over may be obtained.

For a small outlay of capital and labour, I know of no pursuit
which gives so speedy a return. So far, we have reviewed
one-half of the subject—that of production. The other half

G2

100

needs equal attention; with a large crop available, what are we
going to do with it? To make it profitable to the whole com-
munity, as well as to the individual, we must exchange it for
foreign money, and begin to get a stream running out of the
colony, opening the way for a still larger output, that others may
engage in the production. We may have some difficulty in opening
up trade—some opposition, some prejudice ; but looking at a fair
sample of our honey, can we have any fear about finding a market
for it at its value side by side with other like products of other
parts of the world?

We may feel assured that we need only a well-regulated and
persistent effort to find and secure outside markets for this valu-
able product which we have at command.

J have spoken of variation in quality of honey. This is very
marked all the world over.

Before the introduction of the movable frame hive and the
honey extractor little was known of this subject, as the contents
of a hive were allowed to remain till a given time and then
removed, the whole being mixed. Now, however, the bee-keeper
is enabled to see the various qualities of honey as they are brought
in, note their sources, and separate one from another.

While some honey is excellent, and needs no recommendation,
other is objectionable in flavour and appearance, and as an article
of food has nothing to recommend it.

A colony of bees gathering honey from various sources during
the spring and summer will bring in very varying qualities. It
would be poor policy to reduce these to an average sample where
it is possible to grade them.

The bee-keeper may, however, classify his crops as they come
in, and set aside any honey from objectionable sources, so that it
does not contaminate the whole.

Referring to the labour entailed, and the conditions necessary
to success in bee-keeping, I can only say, as said at the beginning
of my subject, the profits lie in the man. His capital must
largely consist of knowledge, but such knowledge will rapidly be
gained where there is an enthusiasm in the subject.

While the work is not laborious, it needs constant attention,
and during the spring months long hours, but this is more than
compensated for by the ease of other times. There are many
men who, although physically incapacitated from the hard labour
of a country life, may find profitable employment in bee-keeping
as a source of living, or as an adjunct to something else.

FIG. 2,

1

FIG,

101

APPENDIX.

PRIZE ESSAYS BY STUDENT A. E, BENNETT.

THE PLUM (Prunus Domestica)

Is a naturalized English fruit, but its original country is supposed
to be Asia Minor.

The genus prunus belongs to the extensive natural order
Rosacez. ,

The plum is a deciduous tree, attaining the height of 15 or
20 feet, and forming a moderately spreading head.

Plums are amongst the hardiest of all stone fruits, and the crop
is one of the most remunerative if the season be at all favorable.

USEs.

The fruit is used for dessert, cooking, drying, tinning, and
bottling purposes.

A wine is also made occasionally from plums.

In some parts of Europe there is distilled from the fruit an
excellent spirit. The leaves of the plum are also largely used to
adulturate tea.

Its wood is valuable for turning and in the manufacture of
musical instruments.

PROPAGATION.

The best plum trees are obtained by grafting and budding on
seedlings or cuttings of Mussell, Julien, Myrabolan, or Cherry
Plum.

A French variety of the latter is now being extensively used as.
a stock. The plum has been worked on apricot and almond
roots, but this practice is invariably not successful in some soils.
In layering the varieties used are the Mussel and Julien, which
are also extensively used as stocks.

It is possible to root-graft the plum, but it is not often practised.

The two diagrams (Figs. 1 and 2) show the most successful
modes of treatment—seedlings raised from the Common Plum,
the Blue Gage, &c.

For dwarfing the seedlings of the Mirabelle are chiefly
employed.

Some sorts reproduce themselves nearly true from seed, such as
the Green Gage.

102

The seed of the plum may be sown when taken from the fruit,
or it may be buried in sand in the autumn or early spring.

Suckers are frequently used, but should be avoided if possible
in consequence of sending up numerous suckers.

Plum stocks are used in some nurseries in large numbers for
peaches, nectarines, and apricots. b=£

The time for budding the plum, January ; and grafting from
July and August—just before the sap begins to flow. :

Figs. 3 and 4 show modes of working.

The varieties given in the list below strike freely from
cuttings :—

French Cherry Plum, Common Cherry Plum, Common Yellow
Cherry Plum; Mussel and Julien do well from layers.

CULTURE.

In preparing the ground for the cultivation of the plum it :
should be thoroughly trenched to a depth at least from 15 inches
to 18 inches. Deep ploughing is, however, the most general
method of preparing the ground for large orchards—say, 10 to 18
inches or more. The time for ploughing is between spring and
autumn.

The trees are generally planted from 18 to 20 feet apart.

The depth to which the young plum tree should be planted
should not be more than it was grown in the nursery.

The roots should be well spread out, and covered over by fine
soil.

The month of June is a favorable season for planting.

One-year-old trees are by some preferred, but the trees should
not be more than two years.

The modes of cultivating the soil are by various instruments,
such as the plough, disc harrows, hoe, &c.

Many growers have found common salt one of the best fertilizers
for the plum, as it promotes its health and general appearance ;
but lime, bone dust, blood manure, superphosphate, and farm-yard
manure are the most generally used.

Varieties of Plum used for—

Dessert.
Early Rivers Washington
Early Orleans Reiné Claude de Bavay
Reiné Victoria Coe’s Golden Drop
Magnum Bonum Green Gage
Angelina Burdett Blue Superb
De Montfort Belle de Septembre
Diamond Coe’s Late Red
Prince Englebert Pond’s Seedling,

Kirk’s

103

Cooking.
Early Orleans Germain Prune
Diamond White Magnum Bonum
Belle de Septembre Green Gage
Coe’s Late Red Guthrie’s Late Green.
Pond’s Seedling

Marketing.

Early Rivers Green Gage
Early Orleans Magnum Bonum
De Montfort Coe’s Golden Drop
Angelina Burdett Blue Superb
Diamond Belle de Septembre
Prince Englebert Coe’s Late Red
Washington Pond’s Seedling
Kirk’s Reiné Claude de Bavay.
Reiné Victoria

Drying.
Angelina Burdett Fellemberg
De Montfort D’Agen
Prince Englebert French Prune
Coe’s Golden Drop German Prune
Early Rivers Ickworth’s Imperatrice
Early Orleans Washington
Kirk’s Reiné Victoria
Coe’s Late Red Belle de Septembre
Reiné Claude de Bavay Blue Superb.

The most important varieties operated upon at the college
are—

McLoughlin, of which 4 lbs. green produce 1 Ib. dried, is of
excellent quality, both before and after drying.

Washington, of which 4 lbs. green produce 1 lb. dry, also
ranks as one of first merit, both before and after drying. It does
not keep its colour so well when dried as some of the other
varieties, but makes a good dessert prune.

Of Mirabelle von Flowtow’s Gelbe Friibbe Quetsche, 34 lbs.
green make 1 lb. dried. Its quality is excellent before and after
drying, and it is a most superior light-coloured dessert prune,
resembling very much Coe’s Golden Drop, only it comes in about
six or eight weeks earlier.

Kirk’s, Reiné Victoria, Purple Gage, Diamond, and De Mont-
fort also give very good results.

The best varieties for—

Tinning.
Coe’s Golden Drop Mirabelle von Flowtow’s
Green Gage Denyer’s Victoria
Yellow Magnum Bonum Ickworth’s Imperatrice.

104

Bottling.
Ickworth’s Imperatrice Denyer’s Victoria
Coe’s Golden Drop Mirabelle von Flowtow’s
Yellow Magnum Bonum Green Gage.

Sorts anp ASPECT.

The plum will grow well in nearly every part of this colony,
but it only bears its finest fruit on loamy soils, say 15 to 18 inches
deep, resting on a clay subsoil, provided the subsoil is open and
properly drained. The ground should be well trenched or deeply
ploughed previous to planting, to keep the roots as near the surface
as possible.

It adapts itself to almost any aspect, but it does best in a north-
western one. If planted in an eastern aspect it does not do so
well, because if there has been a frost in the night the rising sun
thaws it on the leaves too quickly ; but when planted in a north-
west aspect the atmosphere gets warmer about it more gradually.

PRUNING.

In the first year when the tree has pushed out young shoots
tub off all but the three or four top ones, and allow them to grow
to form the crown or head.

If the tree has been pinched in the nursery and these three
or four shoots have been formed cut them back to three or four
buds from the base, and then when they have grown in the spring
rub off all shoots that it may not be found necessary to retain for
the future formation of the tree. In the following year it will have
made a considerable length of wood, which should be cut back,
leaving five or six buds according to the length of the stock.

In the third year after planting allow an increased growth
until the tree begins to fruit, which would be about the third and
fourth year.

A good deal of unnecessary winter pruning of young trees
can be avoided if a judicious system of summer pruning be
practised.

MopvE oF BEARING.

All the varieties of plums produce their fruit on the small
natural spurs along the stems of the bearing shoots of one, two,
or more years’ growth.

Owing to the plum being one of the hardiest of fruit trees, open
standard culture is generally practised.

It requires little or no pruning after the fourth year beyond
that of thinning out crowded wood or taking away decayed or
broken branches, and this should be done during the autumn
months as soon as the leaves have fallen. The ordinary way of

pruning is to cut off two-thirds of last season’s wood and leave
one-third.

105

Old trees that have become barren can be renovated by
cutting them pretty severely, and covering the wounds with paint
made of red lead and oil, and giving them a good top-dressing
of farm-yard manure.

Fig. 5 show mode of pruning and shape.

Insvurious Insects anp DisEaséEs.

RED SPIDER (TETRANYCHUS TELAREUS).

This pest is one of the principal enemies of the plum, and by
allowing it to remain on the tree it gives the leaves a rusty-brown
unhealthy appearance, and causes them to shed much earlier than
the natural period.

Prevention and Remedies.

Never allow stones, logs, or rubbish to collect or exist in an
orchard.

A very good emulsion is made from kerosene—say, 1 part to
25 parts of water; use when the leaves are off the tree.

Sulphur has been found a very good preventive.

Tobacco water is a very effective remedy against this insect,
and may be sprayed on the tree when the fruit is off.

Soft soap and Gishurst’s compound are also very good remedies.

When spraying use the spray in an upward direction, as the
mites are mostly on the under part of the leaves; they should be
sprayed on with considerable force.

As many leaves as possible which are badly attacked by the
spider should be shaken off into a sheet and burnt.

Painting the stems of the trees with a hard brush, using slaked
lime and sulphur mixed for the purpose, is a prevention.

CHERRY SLUG (SELANDRIA CERASI).

This insect is most destructive in the larva state. It resembles
a small dark-greenish slimy caterpillar, and infests the leaves of
plum and other trees, destroying them by gnawing the epidermis
off the upper portion, and leaving the skeleton and the lower
portions of the leaves untouched.

About the second week in November it is to be seen on the
trees.

Prevention and Remedies.

We find the best time to tackle this slug is before the fruit
becomes far advanced, and not when the tree is in bloom.

Dusting the tree with sand kills the slug, but it does not destroy
the eggs.

Helishore powder—at the rate of 1 to 1} oz. to the gallon of
water, and spraying the tree—is found the most effective remedy

for the prevention of this pest.

106

THE PLUM CURCULIO (CONOTRACHELUS NENUPHAR, HERBST),

The female curculio makes a small hole in the fruit with her
proboscis, and there deposits her eggs; after this she gnaws a
crescent-shaped slit around and partially under the eggs.

Remedies recommended.

To 1 1b. of whale-oil soap add 4 ozs. of flour of sulphur, to
half-a-peck of quicklime add 4 gallons of water, and stir well
together; add to this mixture, say, 4 gallons of strong tobacco
water.

If no rain falls for three weeks after spraying, one application
will be sufficient.

PUCCINIA PRUNI (same order as rust in wheat): OR PEACH-PLUM
LEAF-RUST.
Remedy.
Ammoniacal solution of carbonate of copper, as a spray—d ozs.
of copper; first spraying after blooming or when the old wood is
in leaf.

PODOSPHZRA OXYACANTHA: POWDERY MILDEW, FOUND BOTH ON
THE CHERRY AND PLUM.

It belongs to the group of true moulds known as the Erysiphee.

Remedy.
The Bordeaux mixture and the ammoniacal solution of carbonate
of copper.

MONILIA FRUCTIGENA (as shown in 1, Fig. No. 6): PLUM-RoT oF
THE FRUIT.
Prevention.
Burning all diseased fruit, which destroys the spores.

PHYLLOSTICTA DESTRUENS : SHOT-HOLE OF THE PLUM (ANOTHER
NAME—SEPTORIA PRUNI.)
Both these fungi riddle the leaves with holes (as shown in 3,
Fig. No. 6).
Preventions and Remedies.
All fallen leaves should be destroyed.
Dressings of sulphate of iron, either applied in solution or solid
form.
Improved form of Bordeaux mixture :—Bluestone, 132 o2s.;
lime, 134 0zs.; treacle, 183 ozs.; water, 15 gallons.

EXOASCUS PRUNI : BLADDER OR POCKET PLUM.

This disease is due to a fungus, and attacks the young plums
i as they are beginning to swell. 2, Fig. 6, shows the diseased
plum.

6.

FIG.

107

POLYSTIGMA RUBRUM: RED SPOT ON THE PLUM LEAF.
Formula for [XL.:—Unslacked lime, 40 lbs.; sulphur, 20 lbs.;
rock salt, 16 lbs.; diluted to 60 gallons of water. This is good
for a spray for the red spot, as shown in 4, Fig. 6.
VARIETIES CLASSED As PRUNES.

1. SKIN DARK. A. FREE PRUNES—FLESH SEPARATING FROM

THE STONE.
D’Agen, or French Prune Lafayette.
Autumn Compéte Mitchelson’s
Early Rivers Red Magnum Bonum

Fotheringham
Fellemberg, or Italian Prune

German Prune.

B. CLING PRUNES—FLESH ADHERING TO THE STONE.

Prince Englebert Nouvelle de Dorelle
Pond’s Seedling Ickworth’s Imperatrice
Standard of England Bonnet d’Eveque.

2, SKIN PALE IMPERIAL PRUNES. A. FREE IMPERIALS.
Oullin’s Golden Gage St. Martin’s Quetsche.
St. Etienne

2B. CLING IMPERIAL—FLESH ADHERING TO THE STONE.

Coe’s Golden Drop Jefferson
Downton Imperatrice White Magnum Bonum.
Guthrie’s Late Green

Besides the list given before the following, although not
claimed under the heading of prunes, make very fine dried fruit,
as was proved during last season at the gardens :-—

Denyer’s Victoria De Montfort
Washington Isabella
McLoughlin Reiné Victoria
Diamond Purple Gage
Perdrigon Violet Hative Kirk’s.
Denbigh

ORNAMENTAL VARIETIES.

COMMON ENGLISH SLOE, OR BLACKTHORN.

Prunus spinosa.—This being an ornamental tree in shrubby
plantations, we find that the branches are more thorny than the
common damson, and the fruit is nearly round, quite black, but
covered with a thick blue bloom. In spring the tree is a perfect
cloud of white bloom.

108

Sinensis alba (Fl. P1.)—It is noted for having fine double white
flowers. sees

Double-flowering Sloe.—It is a large shrub; its height is found
to average from 10 to 12 feet, with quite slender shoots and leaves,
but it is thickly sprinkled every spring with the prettiest little
double white blossoms, being about as large as a sixpence,
resembling the Banksia rose. It is one of the greatest favourites
among Chinese and Japanese—those unbounded flower-loving

eople.

5 ee Pisardi.—The beauty of this tree is that the leaves
are of a dark-red colour. When in flower it bears a small white
blossom, and also bears fruit.

Sinensis rosa (Fl. Pl.)—Double-blossomed plum.

MONTHLY ESSAYS.

MAY.

The month of May is invariably admitted to be the grandest
time of the year by both artist, poet, and horticulturalist, on account
of the lovely autumn tints that meet the eye at every turn.

The brown, red, and yellow leaves of the English trees stand
out prominently in front of our noble native gum-tree. Visitors
to the gardens cannot pass the pavilion without admiring the
beautiful patch of Virginian creeper, the leaves of which are
just now turning to a dark-red tint.

On entering the nursery the visitor or student cannot help
stopping to admire a very fine specimen of the persimmon tree
(native of Japan) shedding its leaves, and leaving the golden fruit
to ripen later on.

This month is one of the most important for the student, as
planting is now being carried on, and every opportunity is afforded
him to see the preparation of the soil, which must be well broken
up by spade work. It is also most important to have the ferti-
lizers properly mixed with the soil before planting time.

The fertilizers most frequently used are bone dust, superphos-
phate, and blood manure. It should be remembered not to use too
much of the latter, on account of its burning nature.

Pruning keeps many of the students busy. The plum is the
first to be operated upon, but it does not require much pruning
if the tree has had a summer pruning,

109

The pruning is effected by cutting out the superfluous branches
where they cross each other, and keeping the tree in proper shape,
&e.

A new student has to be very careful when pruning not to cut
off the fruit spurs.

Whenever a limb is pruned the surface of the wound should be:
neatly smoothed over, and should be covered with paint made of
red lead and oil.

Cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, quinces, pears, and apples
are pruned this month, which gives the students plenty of work
both for hands and mind.

It requires considerable practice to properly prune gooseberries.
It isa good plan to cut all stray and crossing branches out, and
leave the centre open. By this method the grower can gather
his crop in much less time.

Currants are also pruned this month.

The first appearance of the woolly aphis (Schizoneura lani-
gera) gives extra work. The mode we adopt to get rid of the
pest is to apply the following mixture :—Soft soap and tobacco
water mixed, rubbed on to the branches of the tree with a hard
brush. This gives good results.

Digging in the rose borders and hoeing up the weeds in the
flower garden provide occupation for some.

Picking some of the late apples and stowing them in the fruit-
room has to be attended to.

During this month cuttings of geranium, fuchsia, &c., are put in.
The cuttings are best planted in the autumn, because the sap is
descending and the earth is still warm; therefore rooting com-
mences quickly.

In choosing a cutting a young firm wood grown in the summer
is the best.

The end of the cutting should be made quite smooth close under
a joint with a sharp knife, as a clean cut heals quickly and a
jagged wound slowly.

Collecting capsicums is a tedious occupation, their fumes being
very trying to the eyes.

Grubbing trees in the old orchard gives the students plenty of
work, also enables them to look for the borer.

Levelling the ground with one of the scoops is exciting work,
this being done by horse power.

Trenching in the nursery and sowing seeds keep some busy.

The draw hoe this month is brought into play for scraping the
weeds off the paths. .

Weeding and raking up leaves are necessaries of the garden,
and have to be attended to. : ;

Collecting tomato seed is an interesting occupation. The fruit
of the tomato must be of the best and largest, and perfectly ripe.

110
The pulp is abstracted through a coarse bit of canvas, and the
seeds are then laid on pieces of paper to dry.

Trimming the boxthorn hedges provides plenty of work for
some, while others are engaged lifting rooted cuttings of vines and
wheeling manure.

The soil is kept in good order by the use of the plough, which
is used in the lower orchard, and also the hoe; burning rubbish
is also carried on this month.

To trim the edges of a buffalo-grass border, the student requires
to have a steady hand and eye.

Mr. Joseph Harris, M.L.A., gave a lecture this month on
“ Undeveloped Sources of Wealth,” which was attended by many
of the public, and was very instructive as well as interesting to
the students,

JUNE.

Pruning during this month keeps us very busy. The goose-
berries, dwarf apples, and pears are by this time well on the road
to béing finished. ;

Trenching gives a lot of work in the orchard. The word trench-
ing means moving the whole of the soil to the depth of 2 feet or
more. Fig. 2 shows mode of working.

Collecting strawberry runners and planting them in rows for
distribution occupies the students to their advantage. Cutting
down chrysanthemums and collecting tomato seed also give
employment, and some are engaged trenching in the nursery, and
putting up seed potatoes for distribution. Instructions are given
in ploughing in the lower orchard with the new American plough,
and the students are also shown this month how to lay drain-
pipes. Collecting the maize off the experimental plots and
putting up American agricultural seeds for distribution make
things a bit busy.

Mr. A. N. Pearson gave a very interesting lecture entitled
“Manures and Manuring,” which was attended by many of the
public and students.

JULY.

This month also keeps us very busy in pruning the pear and
apricot.

The students are kept busy collecting codlin moths. The
bandages of old bagging are now taken off the stems of the trees,
where they have been for about two or three months. The best
bandages are, perhaps, those made from old (not rotten) bagging,
cut into strips of, say, 4 or 5 inches wide.

Pian.

SURFACE

SOIL

SUBSOIL

O BRazin

Longiruoinar Seerion

FIG. 2.

O DRAIN

FIG. 3.

111

These bands should be carefully removed, and the grubs de-
stroyed at least once every week. The average amount collected
from one tree is 90 to 100.

Scraping off the loose bark with a three-cornered hoe is another
good plan, and also painting the stems with a mixture of cow-
dung, lime, and sulphur. This preparation fills up any cracks,
and prevents the moths from depositing their eggs.

Spraying the aphis on the peaches gives us plenty to do, the
mixture used being soft soap and tobacco water. The IXL
and new Bordeaux mixtures are found to be very effective. A
dull day is generally chosen for spraying.

Root pruning is started this month. Cutting Cape weeds in
lower orchard also gives extra work.

On wet days we are occupied in the pavilion making wooden
labels, &c.

Planting trees in the new nursery gives us plenty to do, the
trees being apples, cherries, plums, pears, nuts, and a new
American wine berry.

Re-planting roses in the flower border, and writing labels for
same, keep some of the students busily occupied. The roses are
planted 2ft. Gin. apart, and consist of 70 varieties. The following
are some of the best :—Tea-scented, Noisette, Rev. T. C. Cole,
L’Ideale, Marechal Niel, Cloth of Gold.

Mr. C. French, F.R.H.S., wrote a very interesting lecture on
“Entomology,” which was read by Mr. McAlpine, the Horticul-
tural Board being present, also many of the public and students.

AUGUST.

Planting trees in the orchard this month provides the students
with occupation and useful knowledge.

Fig. 3.—1 shows bad planting, the roots twisted, and the
soil piled up the stem like a cone. 2 shows good planting in
drained land, the roots spread out evenly just within the ground,
and the surface covered with litter of manure. 3 shows the tree
planted almost on the surface in wet or low-lying ground, the soil
for covering the roots being taken from between the trees, and
mulching with manure—thus another illustration of bad planting.

It is always as well when planting to shorten long roots and
cut off broken ends smoothly. The soil should be firmly pressed
about them by carefully treading—not ramming—the soil hard.

Fertilizers used when planting are bone dust, superphosphate,
and blood manure. When the tree has been planted cut back all
the branches to within 2 or 3 inches of the stem of the tree.

112

Dwarf apples and pears are now being pruned. The sowing
of tomatoes and egg and chili seed in the hot frame in pots requires
our best attention. The following list contains those best
grown :—

Tomato.—Mikado, Mayflower, Ponderosa, The Peach, Volun-
teer, Optimus, Sutton’s Al, Acme, Trophy, President Garfield,
Keye’s Early Prolific, Green Gage.

Egg Plant.—Black Pekin, Dwarf Purple, Long White.

Chili,—Coral Red, Tom Thumb, Spanish Mammoth, Long
Red, Golden Dwarf, Birdseye. There are also many grown at
the college not given in the above list.

We are instructed in “ root-grafting ” this month. One of the
main objects is to see that the scion and root is properly united.
Figs. 5 and 6 show the most successful modes of treatment.

To keep the scion and root in position we bind them with thin
strips of calico.

Digging in the orchard between the trees is now being pro-
ceeded with, and keeps the students well employed.

Planting potatoes in the lower orchard occupies us for some
time. The following list gives a few of the best varieties of
potato :—

Crimson Beauty St. Patrick

Red King Sutton’s Early Flourball
Seedling Kidney Tasmanian Red

Sutton’s Magnum Bonum Vanguard

Stowbridge Glory Peach Blow, &c.

Weeding and hoeing keep one and all busy. Cutting and
trimming boxthorn hedge and planting vines give plenty to do.

Mr. A. C. Neate gave a very instructive lecture this month
entitled “ Victorian Soils and Cultivation.” It was attended by
the Horticultural Board and students and a good gathering of
the general public.

SEPTEMBER.

This month is one of the most interesting to the students who
are now instructed how to make “grafting wax.” This is a
mixture of beeswax, tallow, and resin in equal quantities, and
half the quantity of lard.

These ingredients are slowly melted over a fire in a tin dish,
and well plastered on paper of good substance, which is cut into
narrow strips, and is used for wrapping around the graft in place
of the old-fashioned clay ball.

Sowing peas, carrots, lettuce, onions, and beet keep us all well
employed.

FIG.

5.

FIG.

1138

The following varieties are some of the best grown :—

Peas.—Early Dwarf Prolific Sugar, Wm. Hurst, Duke of
Albany, Early Marrowfat.

Carrots.—James’ Scarlet, James’ Intermediate, Long Red
Surrey.

Lettuce.—Buttercup, Neapolitan Cabbage, Cabbage Lettuce.

Onion.—Brown Globe, Brown Spanish, Golden Globe.

Beet.—Carter’s Perfection.

Lifting dahlias and chrysanthemums in the nursery is now pro-
ceeded with, and is interesting work.

The students have an opportunity of seeing the mixing of
manures by Mr. Pearson.

The following are some of the mixtures :—

2:14 ewt. to the acre, sulphate of ammonia.

33 ewt. to the acre, Albert’s P.K.N.

24 ewt. to the acre, sulphate of ammonia.

2 ewt. to the acre, Albert’s concentrated superphos.
2 ewt. to the acre, potash salt,

20 tons to the acre, stable manure.

In some of the plots the trees are not to receive any manure
until they come into bearing.

Spraying, hoeing, and digging in the orchard are now being
carried on.

Planting fruit trees on Pearson’s experimental plots gives the
students an opportunity of learning how to mix the fertilizers
with the soil.

Pansy seeds are now set in the nursery.

A very interesting experiment to kill the weeds in the foot-
paths is now being tried.

The following mixture is used :—

Arsenic wae «. Lib.
Caustic soda ... «. Lb.

The two ingredients are put into a wooden tub, and boiling
water poured on, keeping the mixture well stirred until dissolved
after which 100 gallons of water are added. This is then poured
on the paths with a watering pot, and we hope the experiment
will be a great success.

Mowing the lawns with a mower in front of the pavilion keeps
some of us busy.

Mr. W. R. Guilfoyle, F.L.S., delivered an interesting lecture
entitled “ Glimpses of some British Botanical Gardens and their
Conservatories,” the Horticultural Board being present, besides
many of the general public and students.

826. H

114

OCTOBER.

The work of this month is mainly tying up vines and thinning
out the laterals and stripping plum stocks of their leaves to pre-
pare the stocks for budding ; and cutting up Cape weeds in the
lower orchard. ‘he last is a very necessary operation, as the
weed has got a good hold in the ground and takes away a lot of
plant food from the fruit trees.

Hoeing and digging around the flower borders give us plenty
of employment. Ploughing in the orchard and disbudding peach
trees are now being carried on.

The planting of melons and vegetable marrows gives the
students plenty to do.

The following are the names of some of the principal varieties
grown :— f

Rock Melon.—Emerald Gem.

Cucumbers.—Noa’s Forcing.

Water Melon.—Kolb Gem, Cuban Queen, The Boss, Mr.
Phenicy.

Vegetable Marrows.—Long Green, Long White, Long Cream,
Custard, Penny Bid, also Turk’s Cap, Gregory Sugar Pumpkin,
Dilpassant, Mammoth Chili, Ironbark Pumpkin.

Collecting oranges and shaddocks from under the trees is one
of the necessaries of the orchard.

A very interesting lecture was given by Mr. R. L. J. Ellery
on “ Bee Culture.” The Horticultural Board, students, and a good
number of the general public attended.

NOVEMBER.

This month is most interesting and instructive to the students.

Setting lobelias around the pavilion occupies some of us.

Thinning out the laterals of the vine has to be carefully
attended to. A new cultivator has just been introduced into our
college called the “planet junior,” and it is found most useful ;
it is easily worked, and may be used as a seed drill, wheel hoe,
and rake.

Tying up raspberries in the lower orchard has to be seen to.

Some of the students are planting out tomatoes in the nursery
and mulching them with manure.

The list of varieties grown is given under the heading of work
in the month of August. nae

Mulching is nothing more than covering the ground about the
‘stems of plants with coarse straw or litter, which, by preventing

115

evaporation, keeps the soil from becoming dry, and maintains it in
that moist and equable condition of temperature most favorable
to the requirements of young roots.

Planting tree dahlias and ornamental beet around the flower
borders is now being proceeded with.

Summer pruning the peach and the pear gives the students
plenty to occupy their hands and mind.

When a tree bas arrived at the age of three or more years,
summer pruning is not required so much.

Mixing manures for fruit trees in the orchard is now being
attended to.

The students are kept busy fighting the pear and cherry slug
(Selandria cerasi). This little destructive insect is easily seen
with the naked eye when in the larva state ; it is a small dark-
greenish slimy caterpillar, found on the leaves of the pear, cherry,
and other trees, which they injure very much by gnawing the
epidermis off the upper portion of the leaves and leaving the
under side untouched.

Dusting the infested trees with dry sand will kill the slug, but
not its eggs.

Spraying the trees with a mixture of soft soap and water also
kills the slug, but not its eggs. The proportions used are 2 ozs.
to a gallon of water.

Hellebore powder—at the rate of 1 lb. to 20 gallons of water,
and sprayed on the tree—is found to be the most effective remedy
for the prevention of this pest.

Ploughing in the orchard with the aid of the horse, and
hoeing, digging, and weeding give some of the students
occupation.

Planting egg and chili plants is now being attended to.

Mowing grass on the lawns with a scythe and planting seed
of the sugar beet and beans in the lower orchard give us plenty
to do.

Beans are now being set, the distance apart of the rows being
2 feet.

The list given below enumerates some of the best grown :—
Emperor William, Canadian Wonder, Golden Waxpod, Ne Plus
Ultra, &e.

Thinning out onions in the lower orchard gives work to the
students.

Rooted chrysanthemums are now being planted in the nursery.
The following are some of the best grown :—Sunset, Mrs. H.
Cannell, Lady St. Clair, Gold, Sunflower, Lady Lawrence. There °
are a great many more varieties, but too numerous to mention.

Mr. McAlpine’s experimental wheat plots look very well. Mr.
Greenlaw has got the looking after them.

Cutting dead-wood out of oranges gives us work.

116

DECEMBER.

The flower garden looks very well this month in spite of the
great heat (80 degrees in the shade), and one cannot help seeing
a very fine specimen of the Grevillea robusta, order Proteacex,
which just now is in bloom in the gardens.

Budding apple trees is started this month. There are five
points to be remembered in budding—

1. The sap must be free.

2. The root action good.

8. The work done cleanly.

4, The binding not too tight.

5. The stock or stem not cut back the same season.

The students this month are occupied in disbudding peaches.

Planting dahlias in the nursery is now going on. The best
sorts are—Zulu, Mr. A. W. Tait, Yellow Pet, Sunshine, Empress
of India, and many other varieties too numerous to mention.

The cherry slug is now getting troublesome, and has to be kept
. under by constant spraying with hellebore mixture.

Hoeing up weeds in the medicinal plots has to be attended to,

We started picking fruit this month—gooseberries, currants,
and plums. ‘The varieties of plums are Red Cherry Plum and
St. Etienne.

Meteorological instruments have been carefully attended to
during the year, and the rainfall has been unusually heavy.

Mr. L. T. Chambers gave a very interesting lecture on “Bee
Culture,” which was well attended by the public, the Horticultural
Board and students also being present.

The students are now looking forward to their usual Christmas
holidays, and are working with a will to tidy up the grounds.

117

ESSAY ON TRIP TO DUNOLLY SCENT
FARM, 1893.

The second annual trip of the students of the Horticultural
College, Burnley, to the Government Scent Farm took place on
the 23rd November, 1893; some of them, taking advantage of the
exceptionally fine weather, left Melbourne by the 12.5 p.m. train.
The run to Castlemaine passes through Keilor Plains and Sun-
bury, where the vineyards were looking their best, the dark-
green foliage being very pleasing to the eye.

On the right a very noticeable mansion—the country home of
Sir William Clarke—stands out prominently and, with its beautiful
artificial lake and well-kept park-like grounds, adds much to the
beauty of the landscape.

We journeyed on through Macedon, which gave us the impres-
sion of being a charming resort for summer visitors.

Numerous residences are dotted about, and we got a glimpse of
the vice-regal residence high up on the mount.

Kyneton, our next halting place, is a town of considerable note,
being the centre of a large agricultural district.

Malmsbury is next passed, and one cannot help noticing its
reservoir. The country is undulating, and many acres seem to be
under crop.

After passing two or three stations we reached Castlemaine at
4 p.m., where some of us broke the journey to look round this
formerly famous gold-mining centre.

*We were fortunate in having an introduction to Mr. Max
Pincus, chemist, who received us in the kindest manner, and
showed us round the town, pointing out the most interesting
sights.

The town is still mainly supported by the gold mines. The
streets are wide, and laid out at right angles as in Melbourne.

The market buildings add to the appearance of the city, and
another important building is the post-office, which has a hand-
some clock with mechanical process for self-lighting it at night.

The buildings of the Supreme Court, gold offices, and Treasury
are of good design.

We visited the monument erected by the citizens to the memory
of the explorers Burke, Wills, and King. It occupies a fine position,
and bears an inscription commemorating the exploits of the ex-
plorers in crossing the continent from Melbourne to the Gulf of
Carpentaria. The leader, Mr. Burke, was a resident of Castle-
maine prior to accepting the command of the expedition.

The churches, of which there are many, occupy good positions,
being mostly erected on high ground. There are two State
schools,

118

The School of Mines and gaol are built in prominent positions.

The city seems to be in advance of many others of the same
population, being lighted by electricity.

Time being short we paid but a hurried visit to the benevolent
asylum, where we chatted with the resident doctor. The building
is of Gothic design, and with its many gables, mullioned windows,
and terraces might be taken for an old Tudor mansion.

The park, which comprises about 70 acres, has a sheet of water,
a fountain, a fern grove, and a collection of choice shrubs and trees.

(Figure 2 shows view taken from the. botanical-gardens, the
benevolent asylum in the distance.)

The chimes of the post-office clock striking 8 reminded us
that we must hasten to the train that was to carry us to our
destination—Maryborough—and after taking leave of the doctor
we hastened by moonlight to the station, where we were glad to
find the members of the Horticultural Board, including our
lecturer, Professor McAlpine, and other visitors interested in the
scent industry. . :

A two hours’ run landed us at Maryborough, and we were glad
to reach comfortable quarters for the night.

This brought the first day to a close.

Saturday morning being fine, some of the students rose early to
see what changes.had taken place since their last visit; but as the
train to Dunolly left at 6a.m. we had to hasten. The new law
courts, which were then unfinished, are now completed, and the
building adds to the appearance of the town.

On our walk to the station’ we noticed a very fine specimen of
Magnolia.

On reaching the station our party consisted of members of the
Horticultural Board, Professor McAlpine, Mr. Max Pincus, Mr.
J. N. Caire, Mr. McFarlane, Mr. Ogle, Mr. Churchill, and the
students. :

The railway trip to Dunolly occupied about one hour.

The country passed through seems good for agricultural pur-
poses, as we noticed several fine vineyards and farms all looking
well. On reaching Dunolly we were received by the mayor, J.
Desmond, Esq., J.P., Mr. Morris, and many of the leading coun-
cillors and citizens. A pleasant walk through the principal streets
soon brought us to our hotel, where a sumptuous breakfast awaited
us, to which we all did ample justice.

The mayor now escorted us round the township, pointing out
and explaining anything especially interesting.

We first visited the reservoir, which isa fine sheet of pure water,
and continued our walk along the banks, and passed the Roman
Catholic Church, which is built on an elevated position, and is of
modern design ; in contrast to which, on our right, is seen an old
digger’s hut.

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119

We passed the residence of Mr. Tatchell, and noticed a fine
crop of strawberries of The Captain variety.

The public gardens (which are well kept) were next visited ;
and they contain some fine specimens of the Portugal laurel
(Cerasis lusitanica) growing in great luxuriance.

We were then escorted to the town hall by the mayor, and
shown the concert hall and other fine rooms. The building is of
modern structure and of good design, and adds greatly to the
architectural beauty of the town. Mr. Caire, photographer (who
accompanied us through our trip here), succeeded in taking a view
of the exterior of the building.

It was now time to take our departure to our destination—the
Scent Farm ; and we mustered in the main street, where we found
the drag (kindly lent by Mr. Morris, ex-mayor) awaiting us. The
students were soon all seated, and, after three cheers and waving
of hats, a good start was made.

The post-office was considered worthy of a place in this essay,
and while the students were settling themselves in the drag a
snapshot was taken.

The road to the farm is about 7 miles, and is generally fairly
good, but owing to the recent floods it was much cut up, and
it was as much as we could do to keep our seats. A few new
homesteads were passed, with some amount of cultivation around
them. The perfume from the Eucalyptus was very strong and
refreshing. After about two hours’ driving we came in sight of
the Scent Farm, where we saw the Australian ensign floating in
the breeze in honour of our visit.

The director, Mr. Mellon, was awaiting our arrival, and gave
us a hearty welcome. He showed us round the farm, describing
things of interest. We inspected a bed of over 3,000 cuttings
of the true Lavender (Lavandula vera), and close by was the
cassie (Acacia Farnesiana), the scent from which plant closely
resembles that of the wattle blossom. We were shown a new
variety of fig, which Mr. Mellon told us has good qualities for
drying, ‘containing sugar and salt in proper proportions, and
known as the Belona Fig.

We next passed the tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa), which
grows well. The plants have to be three years old before they are
of any use. The double varieties give most perfume. Violets
(Viola odorata) grow well, and produce a valuable perfume. A
very fine bed of lavender is passed (Lavandula spica).

The lavender is planted about 5 feet apart, and we were told
that it grows wild on the Alps.

Lavandula Stechas, we are informed, is extensively used for
perfuming soap. We were shown a fine bed of Boronia, and told
that the perfume retains its strength longer when the trees are
well eut down after the flowering season.

120

The scent of the jonquil (Narcissus jonquilla) is abstracted
by the enfleurage process.

The perfume of the Geranium of Africa is much stronger than
that of the Geranium of Rose.

We next passed a fine bed of fennel, and a small plant Mr.
Mellon calls serpolet, which produces a rich and pleasant smelling
oil.

Some fine plants of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) were
seen, which forms the basis of Eau de Cologne; also beds
of peppermint.

We were shown varieties of the Seville Orange, this being the
kind best adapted for producing the oil of Neroli, a valuable
essential oil largely used in the manufacture of perfumes.

The plants at the farm are all arranged in rows running
due north and south, so as to obtain full benefit from the sun-
shine.

We were told that this is of importance, as on the influence of the
sun depends ipa great measure the quality of the essential oil
obtainable from the plant. We noticed some fine-looking shrubs
of the Sweet Verbena, also the Eucalyptus citriodora, and the
Rose de Grass (Rosa centifolia), which valuable plant produces
the Attar of Roses.

We inspected the beds of wallflower, tansy, and mint, which
grow wild on the Alps. Their perfume is used for scenting soap.
We were then taken to the distillery, where we were shown
three stills at work. One of 3800 gallons cost £80; one of
50 gallons £30; and one of 20 gallons £5, all of which answer
admirably.

The director informed us he considers that a still of 30 to 50
gallons capacity will be sufficient for small farms growing only
one sort of plants. Figure 5 shows a still, in the working of
which we were instructed. The stills are fitted with a false
inside, and this is tightly packed with flowers, and then filled
with water. They are then ready for working, and all that is
needed is to fire up beneath them. The most important point is
to know how to regulate the fires.

If roses are being distilled, some alum and salt must be put
with them.

When being emptied, the top of the still is swung round to
open it, and the false inside hoisted out by means of tackle, thus
saving a great amount of labour.

We were told a separate still for each perfume is not absolutely
needed, as by using sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol, 1 part to 20
of water, the stills are easily and perfectly cleansed.

A move was made to the store-rooms, where the extracts in
course of preparation are kept; here we were shown the fat used
to absorb the scent. Mutton, beef, and pork fats are used in

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121

equal quantities, prepared by boiling, adding 2 ounces of alum
and a handful of salt to 20 pounds of fat. The mixture is then
passed through a sieve to free it from all impurities.

This process has to be repeated, when it is ready to be stored
away for use.

This fat, after being treated with spirit, retains some amount
of odour, and is useful for pomatum.

Mr. Mellon now described the processes for extracting the
scent.

Tux Fat or ENFLEURAGE Process.

The flowers are gathered, and are placed upon a layer of pure
lard, a quarter of an inch in thickness, spread over a sheet of
glass about 2 feet square, which is framed in wood, and forms a
kind of tray. ‘

These trays, sometimes 40 or 50 together, are then piled one
upon another. The flowers are changed every 12, 18, or 24
hours, according to circumstances, and the process is thus con-
tinued until the lard is sufficiently charged with perfume.

The fat has the property of absorbing the perfume from the
flowers, and is then treated with spirits of wine, which has the
power of taking the scent from the fat.

We were informed that jasmine and tuberose are frequently
charged as often as 50 times before the lard is considered to be
sufficiently impregnated.

' Another process is by macerating the flowers in oil, after
which they are put under a press to extract all the oil and
perfume, and this oil is treated with spirit of wine in the same
manner as the fat.

Another process is by saturating calico in oil, and allowing the
oil to drop from it for a few minutes; then place the calico in a
tray similar to the enfleurage process, but with a wire gauze
bottom instead of glass. The flowers are changed from time to
time. When the oil is mixed with the scent it is pressed, and the
calico washed in spirit.

Oil of peanuts is the best for the purpose, but olive oil can be
used.

The temperature has a great effect on the time taken for these
processes. A warm atmosphere quickens the extraction, but the
production is not so good as in cooler weather, so that the longer
the time taken the better the scent.

Mr. Mellon informed us that he can teach any ordinary intelli-
gent person the knowledge of the work required in the cultiva-
tion of the plants. ‘The majority of the scent-producing plants
grow with very little trouble and attention.

The extraction of the scent needs care, but a knowledge of
the process is easily acquired.

826, ,

122

The following is @ list of plants grown on the farm, and the
modes of abstracting the scent were explained :—

Wattle (Acacia Farnesiana) _ ... Enfleurage.
Boronia (Boronia megustigma) bay re <
(4 polygalifolia) ... ea 3
Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) ... sie 45
Mignonette (Reseda odorata) wd sin -
Violet (Viola odorata) ... sa ots i
J onquil (Narcissus jonquilla) .
Juniper (Juniperus communis) = ..- Distillation.
Wordwood (Artemisia absinthium) .. ae -
Ironbark (Eucalyptus Leucowylon)... in 3
Lemon-scented Gum (Eucalyptus citriodora)... 3
Bouvardia.
Orange (Citrus cergamia) od ..- Distillation.
» ( 5, bergamia) sae so %
Lavender (Lavandula vera) is oh 5
ee ( 5 spica) i evs 4)
J ( 3 decussata) ... pe ah
( Staechas) ... sie e
Pennyroyal (Mentha Puleguim) ... by 35
Peppermint ( ,, piperita) wry ses 5
Fennel (Faniculum capillaceum) ... ss 93
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) ia ‘
Geranium (Pelargonium odoratissimum) Boe 43
( capitatum) avs ip
Anis (Pimpinella "Anisum) fee dee 3
Wild Thyme.
Celery.

Lilium eximium.

We then went into the laboratory, where we saw a splendid
collection of Eucalyptus oils and other perfumes—Lucalyptus
globulus, amygdalina, rostrata, Stuartiana, &c., and also some
different extracts from the flowers.

Mr. Mellon now proposed that we should devote our time and
attention to a most excellent luncheon which awaited us.

Mr. Martin, the Secretary for Agriculture, occupied the chair,
the mayor sitting on his right.

Among the guests we noticed Councillors Ritchie, J.P., Daly,
J.P., J. Russell, the town clerk, and Dr. Russell.

Mr. Tatchell, the member for the district, only made his
appearance at the close of the repast, his parliamentary duties
keeping him away.

After the usual loyal toasts had been drunk, Parliament was
proposed by the Chairman, coupled with the name of Mr. J.
Harris, M.L.A.

123

In responding, Mr. Harris said he regretted the duty had not
fallen into better hands. The speech from beginning to finish
was practical, and in his usual happy and humorous style, and the
applause was great throughout.

The next toast proposed by the Chairman was the Dunolly,
Borough Council, coupled with the name of Mr. Desmond, the
mayor. The Chairman remarked that most townships had some
object of interest to take visitors to. He was glad Dunolly was
proud of its Scent Farm, so ably managed by Mr. Mellon.

The mayor, in responding, apologized for the absence of the
member for the district, Mr. Tatchell, and delivered a very able
speech, bearing mostly on local matters.

Mr. Ritchie next proposed success to the Scent Farm, coupled
with the name of Mr. Mellon. It had been a very up-hill under-
taking to face, but, under Mr. Mellon’s able management, had
been a great success.

In responding, Mr. Mellon was received with great applause,
and gave a very interesting account of the Scent Farm from its
commencement, and the future prospects of the industry, which
he painted in glowing colours. If we could produce the essential
oils in sufficient quantities a European market is waiting at
remunerative prices.

Dr. Cookson proposed the Horticultural Board, coupled with
the name of Mr. Draper.

Mr. Draper thanked the guests for the way they had drunk
the toast. The members were proud to visit the Scent Farm. He
always thought highly of the district, and was, like Mr. Harris,
anxious to know the financial results of the Scent Farm.

Mr. Lang proposed the Press. He indorsed the remarks of
Mr. Harris and Mr. Draper, and hoped the industry would prove
a financial success, which would add greatly to the prosperity of
the colony.

Mr. Williamson (of the Express), Mr. Carruthers (of the Glad-
stone Gazette), and Mr. McFarlane (Leader) briefly responded.

One of the senior students had the honour of proposing the
health of their instructor, Professor McAlpine, which was done
in a few. appropriate remarks. The toast was enthusiastically
drunk, with musical honours.

Mr. McAlpine, in responding, said he was taken quite aback
for once in his life. He highly appreciated the kindly feeling
shown by one of the students in proposing his health in such a
spontaneous manner. He had great pleasure in proposing the
health of their worthy Chairman, Mr. Martin, who had always
taken a great interest in the Dunolly Scent Farm.

The mayor spoke in the highest terms of the valuable services
rendered by Mr. Martin to make the Dunolly Scent Farm a

success.

124

The Chairman, on rising to reply, was loudly applauded. He
endeavoured his best to develop the resources of the country. From
the first he had taken a great interest in the success of the Scent.
Farm, and would have liked to see a village settlement attached
to the farm, in which case the children of the settlers could be
profitably employed during the busy season.

Mr. Caire now grouped the party, and succeeded in taking a
very admirable photograph.

Other smaller groups were then taken by one of the students of
the college, which have turned out very satisfactory—one repre-
senting the students seated in the drag on their return journey to
catch the 5-o’clock train.

The usual cheers and waving of hats were given in honour of
the trip, and the outing will long be remembered by all as most

instructive and enjoyable.

te,

By Authority: Rost. 8. Brain, Government Printer, Melbourne.