years the buyer got half his money back, and in two years they took over fifty tons of strawberries from fifteen acres.
"Where is the cereal that can equal that?" triumphantly queried my host. Certes! Echo answers, "Where indeed?"
Another product for which the island has become famous is its hops. Since its first introduction in 1822 by Mr. W. Shoobridge, the industry struggled on through many fluctuations, and in 1867 numbers of new growers erected kilns for curing the hops at various places, and hop-growing became fairly settled as one of the leading industries in the New Norfolk district. The low prices in 1869–70 checked for a time the progress of the industries, but now it seems fairly established, and as time goes on, adding to the experience of the growers, and their ability to turn out a good article, there seems every reason to predict a great future for Tasmania as a hop-growing country. The leading kinds at present grown are the early white grape, goldings (Canterbury),and late or green grape, and also a very early kind called the red golding.
In 1879 the Agricultural returns give the following statistics: 587 acres; produce, 738,616 lbs.; value of hops exported, 26,512l.; weight, 558,622 lbs.
After a very pleasant day among the orchards we rejoined the steamer, and sailed for Melbourne during the night.
Next morning we had a beautiful view of the picturesque coast of the goodly little
