People on the land were able to weather the depression better than those in towns and cities. They could live off the land and there was always a demand for the food they grew. The Victorian Government encouraged employment by offering a bonus of £3 for every acre of new orchard planted. In ten years, 1500 acres of orchards increased to 4000 acres. Wages were cheap, so a man who employed labour had a financial advantage. On larger holdings, men lived in huts and ate in the kitchen or lunchroom at the rear of the homestead. John Finger once said that he could hear his workmen talking and laughing in the lunchroom and wished he could be with them, but with the strict German tradition of the time he had to eat with his family in the dining room. There was a social distinction between owners of an orchard and their employees. Even when they sat at the same table, the family were often served better food than the workers.
Men who worked long hours in the open air had good appetites. The main meal of the day was dinner at midday. Morning and afternoon tea was also provided, when teacake, scones and perhaps even an apple pie, were brought into the orchard. The bell of the Lutheran church would be rung at noon to give the time, but for those further away the housewife would ring a dinner bell or cowbell. Each bell had a different sound. Even a plough-horse would distinguish the call from his own homestead and would neigh with pleasure at the thought of a rest and a feedbag of chaff around his neck.
As the years passed, methods of working changed. Growers learnt by trial and error. Trees took nourishment from the soil, but this was replenished with manure and there was a plentiful supply as all of Melbourne’s transport was run by horsepower. Visits to stables to collect loads of manure was a regular part of orchard life.
The value of green manure to break up the soil and supply nitrogen to break down the organic manure was well appreciated. Field peas, tick beans, lupins with oats and barley were sown between the rows in autumn and ploughed in during spring. The green crop was levelled with a heavy wooden roller, and ploughed into the soil.
Branches were a problem while ploughing. The horse could not walk close to the tree and all ground not turned over by plough had to be turned over by hand. A plough was designed with the handles and hitch bar offset to allow it to run to one side. The horse walked clear of the tree and the plough, guided by the strong arms of the ploughman, passed under the tree.
The Horticultural Society and nurserymen experimented with new varieties of fruit but it was the orchardists themselves who relied on the success of the tree. Any sort of stone or seed was planted in the hope of finding a new, improved strain. Experiments with rootstocks were continually being tried. Quince stock was found to produce a stronger pear or apple tree; also, the tree was small and the fruit easier to pick. Northern Spy stock was found to be resistant to woolly aphis. W.S. Williams had introduced citrus fruit to the district. He and several other growers experimented with careful bud selection and produced the Doncaster Improved Lisbon Lemon. Methods of pruning were found to increase fertility. Edwin Lawford studied the pear from stock to fruit. He worked on some large Marie Louise trees, which the previous owner had declared, “white as my shirt with blossom every spring but bore no pears. ” By removing much of the blossom, Lawford discovered the tree bore good crops regularly. He followed up this treatment with other varieties of pear and it worked successfully with them also.
Pears in full blossom in Victoria St
Primary production was important to Victoria but Government Departments were given little encouragement. All too often one government made plans and appointed officers to aid horticulture, but with a change of government, plans were shelved. In 1856, an experimental garden was to be opened at Richmond Park, but it did not eventuate and in 1861, the Horticultural Society of Victoria was allocated land to start their Burnley Experimental Garden. The Board of Agricultural formed in 1859 was so short staffed, that its whole time was taken up administering grants to other bodies. The Department of Agriculture was formed in 1872, but was made a branch of the Lands Department without resources to carry out its program until 1890 when it became a department in its own right.
Horticulture was considered the least important of the various branches of agriculture, and that caused problems when space was being sought in cool stores or when exporting fruit. However, a Royal Commission on vegetable products was set up in 1885, as a result of general concern about diseases and pests. As a result, Mr. C. Lrench was appointed as government entomologist and Mr. D. McApline as vegetable pathologist. Both these men contributed greatly to the treatment of pests and diseases. It was Mr. Lrench who introduced a parasite to control woolly aphis and both men carried out experiments with the help of Doncaster growers.
The Department of Agriculture encouraged and supported competition to improve the standard of the industry. In 1885, a competition was organised for the best fruit garden in the Melbourne district. The Horticultural Society supplied judges and the 'Leader' a weekly news magazine, awarded a cup. The first grower to win the “Leader” Cup was W.S. Williams. John Petty, Richard Clay, Tom Petty, and Frederick Thiele were also competition winners.
Inscription: "The Leader Cup. Awarded to W.S. Williams Doncaster for the best fruit garden in the Melbourne District. March 26, 1885". This photo by Audrey Killey was used as an illustration in the revised edition of the publication The Orchards of Doncaster and Templestowe by Irvine Green 1985 revised by Eric Collyer 2016. 64p. (Copies from Schramm's Cottage for $10).
A community spirit had always existed in the district. James Read was always ready to share his farming knowledge and many newcomers to Templestowe were thankful for his help and advice.
In 1892 fruit gardeners met at the Athenaeum Hall in Doncaster to form an association, The Doncaster Fruit Growers Association was established with Frederick Thiele as the first president.
The association aimed to improve the industry with lectures and demonstrations on tree culture, fruit packing, orchard management, and methods for the control of pests. This was the first of many such organizations that brought together fruitgrowers in Victoria and other parts of Australia. In 1897 an interstate conference on fruitgrowing was held; as a result, a uniform size for fruit cases was agreed upon - 20 inches by 15 inches by 10 inches and uniform pest regulations were also introduced.
By the end of the century, orchards were spread across the hills and valleys — 73% of orchards in Doncaster and 23% in Templestowe. The bush land had almost all gone and rows of pine trees were growing up along the edges of the orchards. Baron von Mueller had encouraged farmers to plant windbreaks of Pinus Insignus to protect fruit trees from the cold strong winter winds and hot north winds of summer. Dams had appeared on the landscape, excavated during the dry seasons of the 1890’s. Post and rail fences lined the dirt roads and separated properties. Farmhouses were surrounded with a cluster of buildings — stables, out buildings, packing sheds, machinery sheds, fowl houses and piles of firewood next to a lonely wooden lavatory.
A pattern had developed that would last for the next fifty years.
| Finger homestead, on the north side of George St. The house was originally built by Henry Finger about 1870, later altered, and at time of this photograph, was owned by the Rieschieck family. 1970 Irvine Green dp0208 |
Source: The Orchards Of Doncaster And Templestowe By Irvine Green Published By Doncaster-Templestowe Historical Society 1985 - Original Scan.
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