pest renders them more profitable
than varieties of superior quality that are liable to blight, and that
are at the same time often somewhat indifferent bearers. It is outside
the scope of this paper to go into the question of varieties, but I may
mention that such sorts as Irish Peach, Gravenstein, Summer Scarlet
Pearmain, Twenty-ounces, Jonathan, Lord Suffield, Rome Beauty, and
Prince Bismarck do remarkably well, and many other well-known kinds can
be grown to perfection.

[Illustration: Prince of Pippins Apple, Darling Downs District.]

THE PEACH.

This king of the temperate fruits grows with us to perfection. The tree
is hardy, a rapid grower, comes into bearing early, and is, if anything,
inclined to overbear. It can be grown over a considerable part of our
coastal and inland downs, as well as the Stanthorpe district, and
thrives in many kinds of soil, from light sandy loams of poor quality to
rich loams of medium texture or even heavier. In this State, the peach
is always grown on peach roots, the desired variety being either budded
or grafted on to a seedling peach, and the resulting tree is planted out
when it has made one year's growth. No tree is easier to grow, but if
the best returns are desired, it requires very careful pruning for the
first three years, after which an annual winter pruning is usually all
that is necessary. The young tree is such a strong grower that unless it
is heavily cut back it becomes top-heavy and breaks to pieces with the
weight of fruit, but when hard cut back for the first two years, so that
it has a good main stem and strong primary branches, it will form a
strong tree, and stand up well under a heavy crop of fruit. The strong
growth it makes necessitates heavy pruning when large fruit is
desired--and it is large showy fruit which sells best here--as were the
tree allowed to go unpruned, it would bear enormous numbers of fruit,
many of which would be of small size. Growers now realise this, and many
of our orchards are well pruned, whereas a few years since the trees
were allowed to grow pretty much as they like.

The peach remains profitable much longer here than it does in
California, as the trees do not wear out so quickly, the roots remaining
sound up to the last, so that, unless the top is too far gone, the life
of the tree may usually be extended for several years by heading hard
back and forming an entirely new head to the tree. Trees in full bearing
often pro