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2. ^k1903.WESTERN AUSTRALIA.T HIIE.,-pb* OF Horticulture and Viticulture OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.BYA, DESPEISSIS, M.R.A.C. 2ND EDITION.PEETH : BY AUTHORITY : WM. ALFRED WATSON, GOVERNMENT PRINTER.1903.^^^^^^^^>^^^ 3. PREFACE To First Edition. As it is a physical impossibility for the Yiticnltural andHorticultural Expert of the Bureau to be in all places at all times,;and as the demands for Mr. Despeissis advice have been so great,the Bureau of Agriculture considered it advisable to have Mr.Despeissis viewson cultural matters embodied in book form.Before commencing the HANDBOOK OF HORTICULTURE AND VITI-CULTUEE OP WESTERN AUSTRALIA, whichis now presented to thereader, Mr. Despeissis visited all the districts in the South- WesternLand Divisionof the Colony, so "heknows whereof he speaks."Neither the Bureau of Agriculture nor Mr. Despeissis have sparedpains or expense to make the Handbook as complete as the some-what limited time at the authors disposal would permit. It washoped that the HANDBOOK would have been issued before thepresent planting season, but the work insensibly outgrew itsoriginally prescribed limits. The HANDBOOK has been written asmuch for the new-comer as those already settled upon the soil, andfor this reason chapters on the preliminary preparation of the landhave been included. Errors, almost inseparable from the some-what hurried preparation of a book requiring a vast amount ofthought and research, may be discovered in these pages, but it is tobe hoped they will be immeasurably counterbalanced by the massof valuable information the HANDBOOK contains. In conclusion,the Bureau of Agriculture would take this opportunity of acknow-ledging the kind assistance received from the Hon. the Minister ofAgriculture ofNew South Wales, the proprietors of the " Austra-lian Agriculturist," Messrs. Sandover & Co., and others, in lendingmany of the blocks which illustrate this volume. L. LINDLEY COWEN, Secretary Bureau of Agriculture of Western Australia. Perth, 12th July, 1895.270426 4. PREFACETo the Second Edition.To W. PATERSON,Esq., the Director Department of Agriculture of Western Australia.For several years past, the demand for the HANDBOOK OFHORTICULTURE AND VITICULTURE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA hasbeen so persistent that a second edition of the work, long] since]outof print, had to be taken in hand. In this volume much of what appeared in the first one] "isreproduced, but to such an extent has the work been re- handledthat it is only in name that it may be said to be related to theHANDBOOK issued by the direction of theBureau of Agriculture. Owing to the pressure of work on the eve of my leavingWestern Australia for a visit to the vinegrowing districts ofAlgeria, Spain, Portugal, and the South of France, I have delegatedto one better qualified than myself the care of preparing thechapters dealing with the description of the more common insectpests of our orchards, and of those beneficial insects which do dutyas natural checks to these pestsand in the hands of our;entomologist,Mr. G-. Compere, the subject will be dealt withauthoritatively. To Mr. Lindley Cowen, the late Secretary of this Department,the idea of bringing out this book belongs, and I have endeavouredto carry out as best I could the plan he had thought out. . I have also to acknowledge the valuable assistance given tome in bringing thisbook out by Mr. G-. Chitty Baker, the editor ofthe Journal of this Department. In collating the mass of information which will be foundgrouped within the several chapters of this HANDBOOK I have, asfar as possible, acknowledged the sources whence that informationwas derived and the value of those sources, ;together with thepersonal experience I have been able to gain in questions dealtwith in the following pages, will, I hope, be of some benefit tothosewho may consult this book.A.DESPEISSIS, M.R.A.C.Department of Agriculture,Perth, W.A., 30th June, 1903. 5. CONTENTS.PAGEIntroductoryWest Australia as a FruitLand 5Our Soils15Bingbar king and Clearing Land 22Preparing Land for Planting35Drainage... ...... ...... ... ... ... ...40Shelter45Fencing ... ... ... ... ......... ... ...51Laying out the Ground ... ... ... ... ... ... ...56Planting 63Grafting . ...86Budding "...106Pruning... .................. ... ... 114Vine Pruning119Summer Pruning .................. ... ... 169Irrigation and Eoot Management......... ... ... 193WhatFruit to Grow 204Small Fruits285Tropical Fruits 303Fruit Drying316Drying Vegetables... ............ ... ... 326Fruit Candying327Canning and Fruit Pulp331Pulping Fruit 335Gathering and Marketing Fruit ......... ... ... 337Rules for Exhibitions and Judging 358The Oversea Fruit Trade ... 365Wine Making...... ... ......... ... ... 374Unfermented Grape Juice 470Infertile Grape Vines 475Insect and Fungoid Pests... ... ......... ... ... 480Garden and Orchard Crops, their pests and remedies485Plant Fumigation ... ...... ...... ...501Fungus Diseases ......... ......506Description of Insects, injurious and beneficial ...532 6. THEHANDBOOK OFHORTICULTURE AND VITICULTURE or WESTERNAUSTRALIA. BY A. DESPEISSIS, M.E.A.C.HEawakening ofWestern Australia as a fruit-producing State dates only from the beginning of the past decade.It is concurrent with the development of the wonderfulgold belt which has since been proved to run through it, from theGreat Australian Bight, in the South, to Cambridge Gulf and thetropical Kimberleys, in the North. Previous to that epoch, sufficient had been achieved by theolder colonists to show that Western Australia could produce vinesand fruit of great excellence, but the gardens of the State were fewin number and far apart. Yet, fruit was then more easily procur-able than it has since been, and the requirements of the 50,000 oddconsumers were liberally satisfied indeed, fruit was then so cheap;that no market value was attached to it.It was mostly consumedon the spot, and the surplus rotted under the trees, and was notworth carting away. In those days consumers were producersthemselves ;long distances and lack of rapid communication mili-tated against the marketing of fruit, and methods of picking andpacking for distant markets were not familiar to fruit-growers, norhad they any experience regarding varieties which, better thanothers, lend themselves to long keeping and travelling. With the discovery of gold came the rush of gold-seekers. Theconstant stream of population which then set in soon taxed theresources of the farming districtssupplies of all sorts were soon;exhausted, and all the commodities of life had to be largelyimported.The ever-increasing flow of population continued itscourse to the inland goldfields. Every new coiner proved a consumer. Even the settlersdeserted their farms and rushed to the arid interior in quest of gold.Famine prices were offered and given for all products of the soil.Then a new current set in, and whilst the main stream of population 7. rontiin-.-i to pdti^ntQ%e,Goolgardie and the Murchison goldfields,a smaller stream spread over the moister coastal districts. Goldwas to be won from the ploughed fields as well as from the quartzreefs. A great many may claim, to have first discovered that WesternAustralia was teeming with gold, but the pride of having discoveredthat the State was teeming with latent horticultural and agriculturalwealth must belong to the proprietors of the West Australian news-paper. At their instigation, the late Mr. L. Linclley-Cowen set outon a vovage of discovery through the agricultural districts of what isknown as the South- West Division of Western Australia a pro-vince covering an area of country 350 miles from North to Southby 100 to 200 miles from West to East. From every point of thatterritory which he visited Mr. Cowen, in a series of articles whichat the time attracted attention, as well as enlightened the settlers,old and new, described the achievements of the pioneer agriculturistsof the country, and prognosticated the era of wonderful developmentwhich every branch of agriculture has since entered upon.That Western Australia bids fair to eclipse the other States ofthe group as a fruit-producing territory is firmly believed by all whohave paid any attention to the circumstances which favour or retardfruit-growing as an industry. Its soil is virgin, and for ages withoutnumber has supported gum trees and shrubs of various sortswithout a rest, and been fouled by their residues, until at last itwelcomes fruit trees with the same eagerness as does a corn-sickfield some other crop in the course of the rotation. Its climate is consistent and not capricious.When goingbeyond well-defined and moist zones for the purpose of startingfruit-growing, the settler has himself to blame for courting failure;his cropsnot periodically threatened by destruction from hail-a/restorms, such as are at times heard of in other parts of Australia. Untrammelled by errors which, in the Eastern States, havedefeated the aims of the earlier fruit-growers, andproved a sourceof loss to them, Western Australiangrowers start with theexperience of others, and are reaping the fruit of the knowledgedearly bought. Thus they are able, with comparatively few faults,to start a clear course on embarking into fruit-growing oncommerciallines. This State besides possesses, amongst all Australian Statesthe incalculable advantage ofbeing from 1,200 to 2,000 milesnearer the European markets or, in other words, its ;perishable fruitcrops, owing to its geographical position, are produced from fourto eight days nearer the consumers table.Another advantage of no meanimportance is that the popula-tion of Western Australia very small until thediscovery of gold -has since been increasingand as the mineral andsteadily rapidly,agricultural resources of the country are being Such developed.indeed are the demands of the local market that a ready sale, at aprofitable price, is obtained for all fruit of good quality and, whilst ; 8. preparing for extensive fruit export, the grower is enabled to disposelocally at highly remunerative prices of small parcels of fruit he maygather from his young trees. WEST AUSTRALIAN FRUIT LAND.From CambridgeG-ulf, in the tropical North, to the GreatAustralian Bight, in the temperate Southern regions, WesternAustralia unfolds a coast line of over 1,200 miles capable of growing,according to latitude, some sort of fruit or other. Under the regulating influence of the monsoons, the rainyseason follows the dry one with almost clockwork precision ; andthus, within the coastal zone, the grower knows what to expect,nor is he confronted either by a sweeping deluge or a prolongeddrought. Farther inland great waterless tracts of fertile land occur, which,with the spread of settlement, disclose favoured spots withoutnumber where artificial irrigation is rendered possible, and wherefruit-growing offers great possibilities. In this handbook no reference will be made to that part ofWestern Australia extending from the Kimberley districts on theNorth to the latitude of the Murchison River 28 S.That vast stretch of country is for me unknown territory, and,untilan opportunity is offered me of getting acquainted with itsnatural features, I feel loth to pass judgment as regards its capabil-ities for growing fruit.Few settlers, hitherto, in that vast stretch ofcountry, until recently given almost entirely over to pastoralists,have paid systematic attention to horticulture. The cause iseasy to discover. Few, if any one, of those who in the pasthave lived at the Nor-West and the North of this State have hadany idea of permanently settling down. WhiJst there their wholeattention has been engaged in more or less nomadic occupations ;the small cultivated patch has proved sufficient to supply therequirements of the household, and no inducement had until nowoffered to plant largely, owing to the lack of frequent and quick meansof communication with the markets of the South. Sufficient is, how-ever, known to state that at several places where facilities offer forirrigation, or where the soil is naturally moist, the cultivation oftropical plants and fruit trees has been atte tided with such successas points to great possibilities in that direction. Oneof the most successful undertakings of that nature is thatof the Trappists Mission at Beagle Bay, about 21deg. lat. S.,where some 10 acres have been planted, chiefly with bananas, man-goes, guava, figs, tamarind, date palm, cocoanut trees, oranges, andlemons, which all thrive well.In a report on the capabilities of the East Kimberley district,Mr. R. Helms, the biologist of the Bureau of Agriculture, said : " Thegreatest prosperity of the country will begin when thecultivation of specially tropical products is taken up in earnest. 9. itwill then be that the country becomes populated, for a couple ofiimdred acres, well tilled and planted with suitable crops, enables anan to acquire an independency. The country possesses not onlvhe rare advantage of being perfectly healthy, but the land bestuited for the growth of tropical products is free from timber.It,herefore, requires no coloured labour to produce cotton, sugar, of com-ocoa, tobacco, rubber, or fibre, and other profitable articlesierce. Europeans can do the work, and no great capital is requiredo prepare, the land, the grubbing of trees in a tropical forest beingcan be carried out atIways a great expense. Moreover, irrigation minimum of expense. In a number of places it will be found thatrater can be conserved in such a way as to enable large areas to beCatered by gravitation but where that method is impracticable,;indmills may effectively be employed, as a steady breeze generallylows throughout the day." The districts that will be more particularly considered in thisandbook are those comprised between the Murchisoii Eiver, 50liles North of Champion Bay, lat. 28deg. S., to King Georgesound, lat. 35deg. S., and an imaginary line enclosing a somewhat"iangular-shaped territory, about 50 miles broad at the Murchisoiiad to 300 miles at its base, from the Leeuwin to Esperance. Such area is shown on the maps issued by the Lands Depart-tent of Western Australia as the South- West Division.That a great extent of the country is admirably suited for vinead fruit growing is abundantly demonstrated by the success whichas accompanied the numerous attempts made in that direction byjttlersin the various districts of the State.variety of climatic conditions and soil make it possible toTherow in this division of Western Australia almost any fruit of the>ol-temperate as well as semi-tropical climates, and for the purpose guiding the choice of intending settlers and growers, as well asLose already established on the land, in selecting the sorts of fruit plant, the areas susceptible of growing profitably fruit and vinese sub-divided into zones or fruit-growing districts.The boundaries of these zones must, by reason of the greatinability in the configuration of the country, be only approximate,id not regarded in the light of a definite line, on one side of whichme varieties of trees could be grown with profit which wouldirish ifplanted the other side.Wherever possible, permanent watercourses or ranges of hillsive been selected as the boundaries of the severalfruit-growingstricts, which, in order to prevent confusion andcomplication,ive been restricted to four, viz. :1. The "Northern Coastal Division, including the lower Mur-tison, Champion Bay, the G-reenough flats, down to the Mooreiver. 2.The Eastern Division, comprising the Victoria Plains,-von Valley, and the agricultural country through which runs thereat Southern Railway. 10. 7 3. The Central CoastalDivision, extendingfrom Gringin, anincluding theSwanto the Collie River.4.The Blackwood and adjoining districtsEastward to Albarand Esperance. A better understanding of the requirements which underlie tlpursuit of modern fruit-growing one of the most interesting anprofitable branches of agronomybrings out several features in ibWest Australian climate, which point to the particular suitabilitof this country for fruit-growing. For the purpose of illustrating this statement, no more coivincing means offer than comparing the climate of the South- WesDivision of this State with the climate of some of the most notefruit districts of the world, and especially California, in 1st, tenperature; 2nd, light3rd, air humidity; which are all climat: ;conditions, absolutely necessary to fruit ripening. According 8these three conditions are met with in a more or less suitable degnthe fruits ripen with greater or less perfection.TEMPERATURE. When compared with the chief fruit-growing districts of Calfornia, the West Australian climate shows to advantage, its elmcharacteristics being 1st, freedom from extremes of low and higtemperature 2nd, an abundance of sunshine 3rd, summer atmos ; ;phere, with a low percentage of humidity. The following table, which gives the lowest thermometric reacings during a period of five years, at six places which can well senas land marks in dealing with the fruit-growing districts of th:State, compares favourably with some Calif ornian stations wheifruits of the citrus tribe, for instance, are known to attain to gresperfection:IGeraldtonPerthBunbury...Albany . . .YorkKatanning 11. 8The same botanist who laid down the above rule (Boussin-ilt) determined that, in the case of the grape vine, while a mean59deg. Fahr. during the growing months will allow the plant toirish, a much higher mean temperature is necessary during thenmer and autumn months from the time the seeds are formed:ilfull maturity, to bring the fruit to perfection, and there musta month the mean temperature of which should not fall below2deg. Fahr.The following table gives the average summer temperatureing the growing months at various Western Australian and Cali-nian points :Deg. Fahr.. 75-5 . 72-9 . 70-5.67-3.77-2 . 72-1 12. 9while Bunbury, which comes next as regards a low mean sumtemperature, as given in the above tables, is reported to have duithe growing months an almost continuous succession of briicloudless days, which are conducive to sugar production. Thris seen that, although the temperature in the district aroBunbury is fairly cool in the summer months, yet the great piness of the atmosphere is favourable to the perfect maturaticwgrapes, as the plant profits during those months by its full sharthe chemical effect of the direct rays of the sun. Viewed in the light of practical fruit-growing, abundanccloudless days in connection with high and protracted heat, resin high sugar production, which is of great advantage inproduction of raisin and prune, and also in the successful riperof a second crop of grapes in a season. It is thusshown why wine,for instance, made from grjproduced from cuttings of the same varieties, and perhaps obtaifrom the same parent vine, but grown in a hot and clear distin the one instance, and on the other hand in a cooler locality,iperhaps an atmosphere not quite so bright and clear, will presenthe palate and to laboratory tests quite different characterisIf, for instance, we take Malbec or Cabernet as an example, 1will produce a rounder and stronger wine in the first district, arwine of a lighter character and more of the claret type in the colocalities ; for, inthe process of wine-making, sugar means alcolstrength.In order to continue the parallel between Western Austraand Californian climates, and also the climate of other State:America, the following table is given to compare the relative deof sunshine at various places mentioned below. In this table cloudiness is ratedfrom to 10 ; two observatare taken daily at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.Geraldton . 2-7Lawlers ... . 3-1 Kalgoorlie . 3-4 York . 3-0 Perth .... 44 Bunbury. 5-5Katanning . 5-2Albany .... 5-0 13. 10The oidium of the vine, for instance, is much more troublesomenoist than in dry seasons and, for the same reason, in the moist;districts close to the sea, than in districts situated further inland,3re the atmosphere is drier.For another reason is dry air of value to the fruit-grower. It9urs the better penetration through the atmosphere of heat andit, and their access to the plant. The effect of the chemicals of the sun, which, although not appealing to our senses in thele measure as its thermal rays, are nevertheless essential iniging about the perfect ripening of fruit. Now, a layer of vapour-en atmosphere floating over the earth acts as a screen, which,lough pervious to the heat rays, shuts off in a great measurechemical rays of the sun. A practical illustration of this fact . been noticed by everyone. However hot the season, fruit will3n slowly and rot on the plant if the atmosphere is dull, moist,L muggy whereas in a dry and bright autumn, fruit will be;respondingly luscious and richly flavoured, and will put on the?htest of those tints of colour by which each variety is differ-iated from the other.Mean Monthly Relative Air HumidityAugustto April- ind MeanAnnual. (Saturation = 100.) 14. 11 " " Practically, there are only two seasons, thedry and"wet." Both are influenced by monsoonal action. In the Nortpart the wet season sets in during the summer months, commenin December and lasting till March or April.During that"smart cyclones, locally called "willy-willies and "cock-eyed bobstimes sweep over the land, causing occasionally damage to stockproperty.In the South, the wet season sets in after Eagenerally May, lasts through the winter and ends in October,a few occasional showers during the summer months. During twinter months the weather is made up of heavy showers and csunny intervals. In the South- Western corner the moisture-hclouds which are carried on one side over the Southern Ocean,the other over the Indian Ocean, impinge over the rangtmountains which rise a few miles from the coast line, and iparallel with it for a distance of over 300 miles, and there dissinto heavy rain. Once blown over these ranges, farther toeastward, they meet with no obstruction to bring about tprecipitation, and thus are carried away into the vast unsetinterior, where the farther from the coast the drier is the cliniat The following table gives the average rainfall in WesAustralia at points located in the several divisions of the StateLocality. 15. 12Locality. 16. 13inland districts, are often too highly mineralised to be of any use forthe purpose of watering plants. Soaks abound over the country, and almost invariably followon the process of clearing land of trees previous to cultivating ;wherein their presence is made manifest on the surface by the lookof the green patches during the dry months, when all vegetationlooks brown and languishing around there water may be obtained;by shallow excavation. Indeed, in the Eastern districts, some 100miles or more from the coast, soaks constitute the chief source ofwater supply. In those drier districts, strewed over the surface of the country,occur bold, bare outcrops of cap slab granite, from 10 to 100 feet inheight, covering from 10 to 60 or 80 acres. These outcrops rise fromsandy and loamy flats. They seem to have been provided by Naturefor the conservation of water in that arid region.After even thelightest rainfall they shed water like a house-roof; whilst andalmost invariably, somewhere at the foot of those denuded rocks,fresh water soaks occur in natural dams or basins filled with sand,which, when cleaned, supply for stock or for trees an abundantsupply of fresh water. Nowhere in the South- West Division of Western Australianeed fruit-growing be checked by dearth of water, as, apart fromnatural sources of supply, any amount commensurate with therequirements of the orchardist can, at small cost and with littletrouble, be impounded in tanks and dams excavated by means of aplough and an earth scoop. But, apart from the source of visible water, attempts made of lateyears to obtain fresh water by artesian boring have proved eminentlysuccessful.The first bore put down was in 1894, at MidlandJunction, when, by means of a hand plant, an abundant supply wasstruck at a depth of 500ft., and the bore now discharges through a4in. lining 260,000 gallons of water per day. Since thenbores have been put down along the many morefrom the Greenough Plains to the Preston River.coastal plateauBrackish and mineralised water has been struck in two or threeinstances, but, as a rule, pure, fresh artesian water, suitable forall domestic purposes and for irrigation, is struck at depths varyingfrom 230 to 1,000 feet. Around Guildford alone, four or five boreshave been successfully sunk, the details of which are thus given inthe Western Australian Year Book, published by the RegistrarGeneral : " The Woodbridge Estate bore, completed in 1896, depth 236ft.,cost c418 discharges at the surface 150,000 gallons per day. The;Bebo Moro bore, 1896, put down to a depth of 308ft., cost 265;yield, 86,000 gallons per day. The Waterhall Estate bore cost*