The following is an excerpt from the Brisbane Courier dated 14 February 1902, archived by the National Library of Australia.
Stanthorpe Show 25th annual exhibition
‘The twenty-fifth annual exhibition of the Border Agricultural, Horticultural, Pastoral, and Mining Society was opened today under very favourable conditions.
It was thought that the extremely dry weather experienced during the past few months would prevent a good display of the products of the districts, and it was all the more pleasing, therefore, to see such a fine collection of fruit, which is always
the chief feature of the Stanthorpe show.
A heavy hailstorm passed over the district at the commencement of the fruit season, destroying a great portion of the fruit and vegetable crop in the vicinity of the town, and this no doubt had some influence on the quantity of the exhibits.
Another matter which made it difficult for the show to be representative of the fruitgrown in the district is the fact that the fruits ripen at different periods, and many of the beat fruits, such as cherries and
apricots, are thus not represented because
they ripen at a time long before the date of the show.
The date chosen for holding the show is that at
which most of the fruit ripens.
The fruit exhibits
The quantity of fruit exhibited this year is not so large as on some previous occasions, but the quality is of the finest and is greatly admired by the numerous visitors to the show.
It would be difficult to mention any one variety of fruit as being better than the rest, but apples were the most prominent.
The prize for best collection of fruit went to Mr W. Wright of the Ballandean Orchard, who had a varied and well arranged collection of fruit of high quality.
Mr R. Hoggan of Lyra was a large exhibitor, his pears being very much admired.
This gentleman has done more than any others in the district to promote the fruit growing industry, and his efforts in this direction were generally acknowledged.
Other exhibits
Farm and garden produce was not well represented, which was chiefly due to the dry season and the disastrous hailstorm.
H. Gimm gained first prize for cabbage and the tomatoes shown were of the best quality.
There were a large number of exhibits of school work
and fancy needlework.
There were also a number of drawings and paintings, and the general exhibits were satisfactory.
The horse-section filled remarkably well, the number of exhibits being double those of last year.’
The following is an excerpt from ‘They Came to a Plateau’ by Jean Harslett and Maryn Royle.
1902: Mr Benson fruit culture expert in Queensland visits Stanthorpe and reports, “growers showing a determination to work out their own salvation”.
He visits the established orchards at Kyoomba, Stanthorpe, Ballandean, Lyra and Wallangarra and reports pruning being done systematically, spraying with lime-sulphure and salt wash covers most problems, inspect pests are not prevalent, growers are already planting trees they have ‘worked’ (propogated) – an advantage to have varieties which have proven themselves.
