gh quality.

There are large areas of similar country to that in which they are
planted in different parts of the State, and I feel certain that this
really valuable food fruit is bound some day to be a considerable source
of our national wealth. So far, the drawback to the growth of olives has
been the cost of gathering the fruit and the limited demand for the oil
or pickled fruit, but, against this, it has many advantages, one, and by
no means the least, of which is its value as a shade and shelter tree on
our open treeless plains. It is also a very hardy tree, withstanding
drought well, and thriving in land that is too stony for the cultivation
of ordinary farm crops. It is a healthy tree, free from most fruit pests
other than the olive scale, which can be kept in check by spraying or
cyaniding; and last, but not least, it is an ornamental tree whose wood
is of considerable value. The olive does best with us in loamy soils of
fair depth and basaltic origin, that are moderately rich in lime and
potash, and have a fair drainage. A subsoil of decomposed rock answers
well. It will, however, do on several other kinds of soil, but it is in
the type that I have just described that it does so well, and in which I
would recommend its culture on a large scale. It will stand a fair
amount of frost as well as great heat, and I have never seen the trees
injured by either on our Downs country. I have also seen trees doing
well right on the coast, where they have been subject to heavy
rainfalls, so that it appears to adapt itself to the conditions
prevailing in many parts of our State.

In addition to the fruits I have briefly described, there are several
others of minor importance that can be grown successfully, but, as they
are not of any great value commercially, I will leave them out, and go
on to the fruits of our more temperate districts, as, in addition to
growing the tropical and semi-tropical fruits which I have already dealt
with, Queensland can also produce temperate climate fruits to a very
high degree of perfection.

The fruits of the temperate regions that we are able to grow include the
apple, pear, plum, prune, quince, apricot, Persian peach, nectarine,
almond, walnut, chestnut, cherry, &c., as well as some of the hardier
fruits which I have classed as semi-tropical--viz., the Japanese plum,
persimmon, Chickasaw plum, strawberry, &c. The districts adapted for the
growth of the distinctly temperate fruits are mostl