Ferdinand von Mueller

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Letter not found. For the text given here, see B86.08.06.

Melbourne, 5th June, 1886.

Sir,

In reply to your last communication,

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Letter not found.

I have the honour to state, for communication to the Royal Commission on Vegetable Products, that, in my opinion, those plants (cultivable under the Victorian sky) deserve preference for rural attention of which the largest import takes place into this colony.

Taking them in the order of their monetary value as articles of import, Tea stands by far on the head of the list, and it is, therefore, the Chinese tea-plant (the Assam variety being too tender for most parts of Victoria) which should engage the interest of the rural population, particularly that of selectors in warm forest regions. Over and over I have urged the culture of this most important plant on a commercial scale also in this colony; and I would beg to advise that my essay on the culture of the tea shrub, and on the cheap and simplified method of preparing the leaves for the marketable article,

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B76.13.05.

should be reprinted and widely circulated a copy of this treatise having been communicated to your office some time ago. I would also urge anew that the most desirable test-gardens, in the mildest, in the coldest, and in the driest parts of the colony, should be speedily formed, so that advantage may still be taken of this season for commencement of operations, the tea-plant to be located, tested, and multiplied in the garden of the mildest region. Perhaps seeds of the hardy Chinese varieties of the tea-shrub could be got cheaply and in quantities from the Neilgherries,

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Nilgiri Hills, India.

or perhaps even so near to us as Ceylon, although there the tender Assam variety is preferentially cultivated.

Next on the list of imports into Victoria, we have the Tobacco; this therefore, also, should be pushed as a plant for local culture. Although in our clime we cannot successfully raise the tropical varieties for obtaining the respective valuable sorts for cut tobacco and cigars, still, it appears quite hopeful to add the extra-tropic varieties to our own cultural resources here, provided that the fittest localities, as regards clime and soil, are chosen for this plant. Quite as much, however, depends on the treatment of the harvested tobacco leaves as on the culture itself; but among our colonists are very many who are familiar with this plant as one of special rearing in other extra-tropical regions of the world. From such former experienced planters much detail-information might be obtained applicable to this colony. Indeed, the possibility of raising and preparing here a marketable tobacco has again and again been proved in our industrial exhibitions, and indeed, to some extent, in the trade also. Unlike the tea-bush, first alluded to on this occasion (of which seeds can only be got after some time in large quantities here from local plants, though by careful arrangements they might be brought safely across from China and Japan), the tobacco plant, as well known, can be raised with the utmost facility from easily obtainable seeds, and, what is important also, it yields to the ruralist a return at once in the season.

Currants and other fruits rank next in importance here as vegetable imports. Most kinds of Orchard fruits of the extra-tropic zone are long since introduced, and the colony possesses a vast number of varieties of superior value. Therefore, nothing is opposed to giving this branch of vegetable industry that vast dimension which it clearly deserves, unless it be this one difficulty, that some kinds of our leading orchard fruits are subject to diseases, obstinate and extensive, for which remedial means are not always easy. I venture to plead again for the appointment of a specialist of long practical experience in vegetable pathology, who could lecture on this subject, visit all parts of our colony, give personally local advice, and conduct new experiments in this direction. The comparatively small expenditure for such a rational measure would yield hundredfold recompense. In my work on 'Select Plants for Industrial Culture and Naturalization,'

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B85.13.26.

however, many kinds of fruits for the table or for preserves are recorded, which have never yet found their way into the gardens of our colony, or, indeed, into any part of Australia. Among these highly desirable fruits, correctly noted at p. 416 and 417 of the above-mentioned work, are several sorts of superior blackberries, huckleberries, tangleberries, cranberries, whortleberries, blueberries, bilberries, mostly of peculiar deliciousness, but of which some would attain to perfection only in our alpine regions. It needs not my assurance to the Royal Commission that I would most willingly aid in the introduction of these plants, so that the Australian real highlands, which as yet yield hardly any revenue from cultural pursuits, may also contribute to the prosperity of the country. This would most effectually become initiated by the early placing of an experienced working gardener at some test-locality, not less than 4,000-5,000 feet high, as suggested in my former communication.

The aggregate import of various Fibres, raw and manufactured, forms one of the largest of our imports, and the majority of these fibre-plants can be quite well cultivated here, even the jute plant, as shown many years ago, as far south as Port Phillip. How far we here can compete with cheap labour, in India and other tropical countries, is a theme so large that I cannot discuss it in this document. In a lecture, delivered about a dozen years ago, before the Farmers' Club in Ballarat, I entered rather extensively on our prospects here for cultivating plants of textile value,

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B76.05.01.

and, as in the case of my essay on the tea-plant, I would advise that the discourse on the fibre-plants be also reprinted for wide distribution, as it applies as much to the present requirements of Victoria yet as it did then.

I have, however, pointed out already on a former occasion that only a limited number of fibre sorts will ever prove sufficiently easy obtainable on a large scale, will yield readily to the process of separation, will show a superior degree of tenacity, will cheaply submit to any pulping process, and will adapt themselves to machinery, as to enter into competition with the leading fibre-plants of the world, and thus become commercially available for the weaver's loom, for the rope factories, or for the paper mills.

One of the next kinds of imports into Victoria, as representing money value, is that of various Oils, mostly from plants which could be successfully reared in one or the other regions of Victoria. But here I must again allude to the necessity that farmers reasonably expect an assurance of local oil-mills being forthcoming, if minor previous tests induce any agriculturists to devote special attention locally to any very promising oil-plant. This question is in so far also an important one, as it affects the systems of rotation of crops. Local test-gardens can also give a great help to bring the most eligible oil-yielding plants under practical notice.

I can foresee that, sooner or later, the Beet-plant will also play a prominent rôle in our industrial culture; but I must pass this subject on this occasion, as the co-operation of ruralists and manufacturers is needed to bring the sugar-beet here to any appreciable extent into utility.

The sum annually expended for Cork, imported into Victoria, is a very large one, but as the yield of good bark from the cork-oak is obtainable only after a series of years, and subsequently only at intervals, the cork-oak plantations would become lucrative here only to the next generation. Young cork-oak plants have, however, been distributed by me annually from 1859 till 1873, so that now many of the trees in different parts of our colony must be bearing their acorns, thus affording the means of providing an independent supply for raising the tree for the benefit of the next century, which is all the more desirable as our clime suits so well the cork-oak; and, as the supply of good cork falls short of the demand, even now already in commerce, it seems enigmatic why maize, various grass seeds, mustard, hops, tan-bark (unless sumach, scotino, and a few other select sorts), canna arrowroot, broom corn, millet, canary seeds, pulse of some sorts, opium, starch, wicker-ware, and even some cereals, should yet be extensively imported, instead of rather forming export articles of ours. In some instances the inadequate access to fertilizing substances may account for this, and I would venture to allude to this and to the command of extensive water supply, to which the Government devoted already such circumspect and vigorous attention, as the main factors on which the permanency of a flourishing rural industry must depend to a very large extent. Thus, it may not be out of place here for me to insist on the necessity that our rural population should not merely endeavour to extend the range of cultural plants, to be rendered subservient to them, but the agriculturists here should, by every means, endeavour to prevent the waste of manuring substances; while through deep-sea fisheries, by utilizing the gypsum deposits on the lower Murray region, and by any other new means, we should try to augment the supply of manures. Returning to the main objects of this report, it remains for me to suggest respectfully to the Royal Commission the advisability of placing a copy of the new edition (specially prepared for the Commission) of the volume on Select Plants into the library of every Mechanics' Institute of this colony, and also, it seems advisable to render it similarly accessible to the many Agricultural Societies of Victoria. I could add, in special cases and on particular interrogation, to the information contained in that work; but I believe that, for general guidance, the volume comprises most, or all, that the rural population would need to be informed on for drawing new plants into their operation. Moreover, the work is so inexpensively available that any one might obtain a copy from the Government Printing Office, or through any of the bookselling establishments of the colony; while the many and copious indices given in the work will enable even the plainest farmer to find out what additional plants he might seek for trying to extend the variety of his cultural resources. Doubtless, the several agricultural schools, to be established in various localities, will afford valuable aid also in the selection of new rural plants; but such highly laudable institutions are more calculated to serve the coming generations, by initiating them into systems and scopes of agriculture, of which their fathers and forefathers, under different circumstances and in colder climes, could not possibly avail themselves; whereas, the immediate wants of the present tillers of Victorian soil could best be met with, so far as I can judge, by the simple and not costly three independent test-gardens recommended repeatedly for the three different climatic zones of our colonial territory.

To John Shillinglaw, Esq., Secretary, &c.