k, that there is
probably no country in the world that is better adapted to the
cultivation of or that can produce the various kinds of citrus fruits to
greater perfection or with less trouble than the eastern seaboard of
Queensland. To many of my readers this may seem to be a very broad
statement; but I am certain that, if suitable trees are planted in the
right soil and under favourable conditions, and are given anything like
the same care and attention that is devoted to the culture of citrus
fruits in the great producing centres for these fruits in other parts of
the world, we have nothing to fear either as regards the cost of
production or the quality of the fruit produced. In order to exemplify
this, it may be interesting to compare our capabilities with those of
the principal citrus-producing districts north of the equator. To begin
with, I will take Florida, which more nearly approaches our climatic
conditions than any other citrus-growing country that I know of, and
which is noted for the excellence of its citrus fruit, and we find that
we have all its advantages except that of proximity to the world's
markets, without its disadvantages. We have a better and richer soil,
requiring far less expensive artificial fertilisers to maintain its
fertility, and at a very much lower price. We can grow equally as good
fruit; in fact, it is questionable if Florida ever produced a citrus
fruit equal in quality to the Beauty of Glen Retreat Mandarin, a
Queensland production. We get as heavy, if not heavier, crops, and our
trees come into bearing very early. We have no freeze-outs similar to
those which have crippled the industry in Florida so severely in the
past that many of their wealthy growers are actually covering in whole
orchards of many acres in extent as a protection from frost. This
covering-in is accomplished by means of a framework of timber having
slat-work or panel sides and tops--in fact, by enclosing their orchards
in a huge elaborate bush-house, which is further protected by the heat
produced by six large heating stoves or salamanders to each acre of
trees enclosed. If it pays the Florida growers to go to all this expense
in order to prevent freeze-outs and to produce first-class fruit, surely
we can compete with them when a seed stuck in the right soil under
favourable conditions will produce a strong, vigorous, healthy tree,
bearing good crops without any attention whatever.

[Illustration: An Orange Orcha