that it ripens during
our wet season, and the fruit consequently sours and bursts. As one
recedes from the coast, the fruit does better, and is less liable to
injury from excessive wet. The coastal tablelands and the more Western
Downs grow it well, and the trees, when planted on soil of a rich
friable nature, grow to a large size and bear heavily. Many varieties
are grown, which are used fresh or converted into jam, but no attempt
has been made to dry them, though it is possible that this industry may
eventually be found profitable in the drier parts of the State, where
there is water available for the trees' use at certain periods of the
year, but not during the fruiting period, as it cannot well be too dry
then if a good quality of dried figs is to be turned out. This fruit is
easily grown, and is not at all subject to serious pests, so that anyone
who will take reasonable care can produce all that is required for home
use or local sale, as its softness renders it a difficult fruit to ship
long distances in a hot climate.

THE MULBERRY.

This is one of the hardiest fruits we have, one of the most rapid
growers, and one of the most prolific. There are several varieties in
cultivation, and those of Japanese or Chinese origin will grow from the
coast to the interior, and thrive either in an extremely dry or humid
climate. The common English or black mulberry does not do too well as a
rule, though there are many fine trees scattered throughout the State,
but the other sorts are as hardy as native trees. The fruit is not of
any great value, still, as it is so easily grown, it finds a place in
most gardens, and in time of drought the leaves and young branches are
readily eaten by all kinds of stock, so that it is a good standby for
stock as well as a fruit.

THE STRAWBERRY.

To those who have been accustomed to look upon the strawberry as a fruit
of the purely temperate regions, it will be somewhat of a revelation to
know that exceptionally fine fruit can be grown right on the Queensland
coast, and well within the tropics, and that on the coast, between the
26th to the 28th degrees of south latitude, we are probably producing as
fine fruit and obtaining as heavy crops as are produced in any of the
older strawberry-growing countries. Not only this, but that we are able
to supply the Southern markets of Australia with finer fruit than they
can produce locally, and at a time of the year that they cannot gr