The Orchard.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1057, 2 June 1892, Page 27

The Orchard.

THE VICTORIAN SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE. A correspondent of the New Zealand Herald gives the following interesting account of the working of the above institution ;—Pressure of business has prevented me sending you the synopsis I promised of the rules and syllabus of the School of Horticulture, Melbourne. Regulations : The gardens are open to the public on week days from 8 a.m. to o p.m., and on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Breach of the by-laws regulating the admission and conduct of visitors is punishable in aocordanco with tile Land Act of the colony. Students : The hours of attendance for students are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Attendance at tho lectures, when delivered during working hours, i 3 compulsory. Students are required to obey the orders of the curator and teaching staff, and punctuality, diligence, order, and quietness is enforced. Smoking during working hours is prohibited, and any student guilty of profane, immoral, or insubordinate conduct, or wilfully breaking any of the rules of the school, or persistently neglecting his work is liable to dismissal. The maximum number of students is twenty. They are non-resident, and the instruction is free. Each student on admission must be over the age of 14 years, and must produce a State school certificate or an equivalent thereto as to his education ; together with a certificate of moral character from some person of known good repute, or Justice of the Peace, or a clergyman. Applications for admission as students must ba made to the secretary for the Department of Agriculture (who is chairman of the Board of Advice), and must be accompanied by a sum of £5, as a guarantee for good behaviour, and which may be used for payment of fine 3. A moiety of the students may be adults, who may not be required to furnish a school certificate; and both sections are received for a term of not less then six months, and not more than three years. All must conform to the rules and regulations in force for the government and management of the gardens, under penalty of expulsion, or of such lesser punishment, a 3 the Board of Advice may impose. At the end of the second or third year students who shall pass a satisfactory examination on the subjects taught, may be granted certificates of proficiency. Practical horticulture is taught by the curator from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.). The course of instruction is thoroughly practical, and comprises such subjects as preparation of the soil, planting, manuring, pruning, and cultivation of fruit and fruit trees, gathering and storage of fruit, packing fruit for home and foreign markets, nomenclature of fruits, and a knowledge of horticulture generally. Two gentlemen from the college conduct classes, and deliver lectures weekly on botany as bearing on horticulture, and agricultural science as applied to horticulture, but as the subjects dealt with at those meetings are numerous and important, I will give the details in a future communication.

A NEW USE FOR EUCALYPTUS. A farmer at Mitcham claims to have discovered anew use for eucalyptus leaves. The discovery is certainly a valuable one if it be found as effective in practice as it is stated to ba. The gentleman referred to assorts that if fruit trees are mulched in winter with eucalyptus leaves they will be entirely free of blight or fungi of any kind the following season. His own practice is to gather all the gnm-tree leaves within reach, and if necessary cut down eucalyptus branches, and spread them over the orchard. If this plan be regularly followed it is alleged that the fruit trees will ba completely protected against scale or fungi of any sort. I have not seen the trees, which the owner declares to be thoroughly free from the pests mentioned, while others close by, and not so treated, are almost worthless ; but I have every confidence in recommending others to give the remedy a trial. The discoverer is a practical fruitgrower, and knows what he is talking about. He further advises that all orchards should be sheltered with eucalyptus instead of pines, elms or other deciduous trees, which act as a breeding ground and harbonr for the insect pests which so annoy fruit-growers. There seems to be a good deal of reason in these suggestions. The eucalyptus tress, it has often been observed, are remarkably free of disease of any kind, and the pungent oil in their leaves very probably contains some property that is repulsive or fatal to the insects and fungi which infest our fruit trees with such disastrous results. —Australasian.