chipping hoe. Once the stumps have rotted out the
plough and other implements of culture take the place of the hoe. These
soils are especially adapted for the growth of oranges, limes,
mandarins, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, papaws, custard apples,
strawberries, and cape gooseberries in the South; in fact, for nearly
every kind of tropical and semi-tropical fruit.

Some basaltic soils are occasionally covered with forest in the place of
scrub, or a mixture, part scrub and part forest. Forest country, as
distinct from scrub, is open-timbered country, with little undergrowth,
and no vines or other creepers. The timbers are also, as a rule, very
hard, and the stumps will not rot out. Such land, when at all heavily
timbered, is much harder to clear and get ready for fruit-growing than
true scrub, as all timber must be felled and burnt off, and all stumps
and roots taken out, so that the land can be thoroughly broken up and
brought into a good state of tilth prior to planting. These soils are
suitable to the growth of similar fruits to the true scrubs, but, as a
rule, they are not as rich. The second class of soils suitable to
fruit-growing are of alluvial origin, and are of a sandy, loamy nature,
of fair depth. They are usually met with along our creeks and rivers, or
in the deltas of our rivers. In their virgin state they are either
covered with scrub or forest, or a mixture of both, but the growth is
seldom as strong as on the red volcanic soils. Heavy alluvial soils are
not suitable for fruit culture, and are much more valuable for the
growth of farm crops, but the light sandy loams and free loams of medium
character suit all kinds of fruit to perfection. These soils usually are
easy to work. They retain moisture well when well worked, and frequently
they are capable of being irrigated, either from adjacent creeks or
rivers, or by water from wells. These soils are some of our best for
citrus fruits, and are well adapted for the growth of pineapples and
bananas, as well as most other tropical fruits, when free from frosts.
The third class of soils are free sandy loams, either scrub or forest.
They are of various colours, and range in texture from light sandy loams
to medium loams; they possess excellent drainage, and though, when
covered with forest, they are not naturally rich, they make excellent
fruit soils, and respond rapidly to systematic cultivation and manuring.
They are usually of sandstone or granitic origin, an