The following is an excerpt from the Brisbane Courier, 11 February 1905:
The Stanthorpe Show: Unsurpassed Fruit Exhibits
“The twenty-eighth annual show of the Border Agricultural, Horticultural, Pastoral, and Mining Society was continued today.
The weather was splendid.
The show has been a great success from every point of view.
The great features of the show were the exhibition of fruit and vegetables, and fat cattle.
The fruit was a really splendid exhibition, and a credit to every grower exhibiting.
The grapes, apples, pears, peaches, and plums were fit for any showground in the Commonwealth. No praise is too great for the apples exhibited by Mr and Mrs Peteler, the grapes by Mr John Saxby, peaches by W and H Smith, cooking and the largest apples by Mr W. L. Rudder, plums by Sir K. Scholz and Mrs W. Barton.
Stanthorpe can certainly hold its own in the fruit exhibit, and it is to be hoped that the appeal of the Minister for Agriculture to various growers will be successful in inducing them and sending some of their fruits into cold storage for exhibition at the August National Show.
All the fruit shown was excellent, and the judge must have had hard work to decide between the various exhibits.
The vegetable tables shown were exceedingly good, and showed well what the district is capable
of.
If the whole exhibit of fruit and vegetables could have been shown at the Royal Society’s Show in Toowoomba, and the National in Brisbane, it would have been a revelation to the public, who have not had the opportunity to see Stanthorpe products.
The greatest surprise was the exhibition of fat cattle.
No better display has been exhibited on any showground in Queensland.
Fruit growers say that the fruit fly has not been very troublesome this year, and Mr Petzler says that he has entirely rid himself of both that pest and the codlin moth, by turning poultry into his orchard.
He finds they are the very best antidote to every fruit pest.
Pigs and sheep were poorly represented.
The quantity of poultry was small, but the quality was good.”
