THE QUEENSLAND GUIDE, ILLUSTRATED. University of Wisconsin LIBRARY Class Book with the complements of the Under Secretary for Agriculture To e nstaud Department of Agricultura. : : Brisbane. THE THE QUEENSLAND 1316 ILLUSTRATED GUIDE; FOR THE USE OF FARMERS, FRUIT-GROWERS, VIGNERONS, AND OTHERS. WITH A MAP, BRISBANE: JAMES C. BEAL, GOVERNMENT PRINTER, WILLIAM STREET. 1888. ATF5161 1964) REFW15 Q3 PREFACE. THIS Queensland Guide, being a description of the colony brought down to the present period, has been written at my request by Mr. Alfred Midgley, who has been many years resident in Queensland, and whom I believed to be possessed of special qualifications for the work. The result has not disappointed me, and will, I am assured, be satisfactory to all readers who know the colony, and who desire to see it progressing by means of a large influx of people from Europe and America, and especially from Great Britain. Persons of the right class possessed of some little capital and of some farming experience, especially such as can do most of their own labour with their own hands or with the help of members of their own families, and who may be disposed to settle in Queensland, will find in this book much reliable and invaluable information, such as will prove a safe guide to them in settlement upon the land which is now open in considerable quantities, both in grazing farms and agricultural farms, in many parts of the colony. It was intended to include in this publication a guide to selectors, showing full particulars of all the land open for occupation in each of the Land Agents' Districts of the colony up to the date of publication, together with important particulars as to descriptions of soil, climate, rainfall, natural products, geography, principal towns, progress of settlement, and lands open for selection in the several districts, but it has been found impossible to collect and prepare all the requisite material for this purpose in time for this first issue. It is now intended to furnish the information at the earliest possible period in a second edition of the book, and afterwards in a pamphlet published quarterly, to be entitled “The Selector's Guide," and in the meantime, the first issue of this volume now presented to the public contains what is specially interesting to that numerous class of persons in Great Britain who are disposed to try their fortunes where they will have more room PREFACE. and greater opportunities of success than in the loved but little pent-up country in which they were born. Such persons are always eagerly on the look-out for reliable information con- cerning new countries where special facilities exist for successful settlement on the land, and what is herein contained will no doubt commend itself to very many of this class, who, while determined to seek a wider field for their enterprise, have yet no desire to live under any other than British rule. The natural increase of the population of Great Britain -births over deaths-being nearly a thousand a day, a large proportion of this increase finds its way spontaneously, by means of an unassisted emigration of the very best class, either to the British Colonies or the United States of America. It is believed that fuller information about the British Colonies of Australia would result in attracting a much larger proportion of these invaluable people to these shores, and it is hoped that the extensive and gratuitous circulation of this little book in Great Britain will have that much to be desired effect. The popular series of pamphlets entitled “Papers for the People,” now reprinted as a part of this issue, have been prepared gratuitously at my request by practical men, who have most of them acquired their skill on the land in the colony, and I here tender my thanks to the writers for their very valuable contributions. These papers have been received in Queensland with much favour, and have also been com- mended in other parts of Australia ; and it is believed they will prove interesting and valuable to all persons in the old country who may come here and settle on the land, availing themselves of our land-order system of immigration, by which persons who pay their own passages in-full direct to Queens- land and settle on grazing or agricultural farms, receive what is equivalent to a free gift of twenty pounds' worth of land for each adult member of their families. HENRY JORDAN, Minister for Lands, Queensland. Department of Public Lands, May 22nd, 1888. COLLOC i tiden ULTURE UNTER TY CTC CONTENTS. CHAPTER 1.-EXTENT, AREA, AND POPULATION ... CHAPTER II.-EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND... CHAPTER III.-AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES ... CHAPTER IV.-LAND LAWS ... ... ... ... ... CHAPTER 7.-THE MINING INDUSTRIES ... CHAPTER VI.-OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS CHAPTER VII.-PUBLIC WORKS AND FINANCE ... CHAPTER VIII.-BRISBANE-OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS-CON- CLUSION CONDITIONS FOR TAKING UP LAND ... ... ... ... PAGE. 1-8 9-20 20-39 39-58 58-65 65-76 76-80 80-89 APPENDICES. PAPERS FOR THE PEOPLE. PAGE. THE CULTIVATION OF CANE AND MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR ... 217-220 WHEAT GROWING ... .. . * 156-162 THE GRAPE VINE AND WINE-MAKING ... 202-216 ORANGE CULTIVATION ... 125-130 PASTORAL FARMING ... ... 151-155 FRUIT CULTURE 142-150 ARROWROOT CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE 97-100 THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER ... 131-136 KEEPING THE DAIRY COOL ... 137-141 THE APPLE 101-106 PINE APPLE CULTIVATION ... 93– 96 THE OLIVE ... 107-111 TOBACCO CULTIVATION 177-185 NOTES ON THE BANANA 186-188 FORESTRY 189-196 VEGETABLE GARDENING 117-124 NOTES ON THE MANGO 197-201 SILOS AND ENSILAGE ... 112-116 RICE 174-176 FLOWER GARDENING ... 163–173 ::::::::::: :::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : ILLUSTRATIONS. PARLIAMENT HOUSE, BRISBANE. IMMIGRATION DEPÔT, BRISBANE. A QUEENSLAND FARM AND FARM HOUSE. SUGAR PLANTATION AND WORKMEN'S HOUSES. A COUNTRY SAWMILL AND WORKMEN. VIEW ON THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN RAILWAY. VIEW OF BRISBANE AND BRISBANE RIVER. SCRUB SCENERY ON A QUEENSLAND CREEK. GRAMMAR SCHOOL, MARYBOROUGH. (The above are from Photographs by Paul C. Poulson.) NOTE.--This edition is published especially for circulation in Great Britain. A more complete edition can be obtained shortly in Queensland, showing all lands open to selection in the different Districts of the colony, together with particulars of soil, climate, rainfall, natural products, geography, principal towns, progress of settlement, &c., &c. PARLIAMENT HOUSE. THE QUEENSLAND ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. CHAPTER I. EXTENT, AREA, AND POPULATION. YOUNGEST COLONY OF THE GROUP.—Queensland is the youngest colony of the Australasian group; in an impor- tant sense it is the largest, as the Northern Territory of South Australia has no such vital connection with that colony as exists between the southern, northern, and interior parts of Queensland. Over the whole of Queens- land there are the same laws and administration, and local government bodies exist. The whole colony is divided into electoral districts; the Supreme Court holds sittings in northern towns, and one of its judges resides permanently in the North. BOUNDARIES.-SEABOARD.—The Pacific Ocean on the east, and the Indian Ocean on the north, form the natural boundaries on those two sides. The seaboard commences at Point Danger in the south, and extends northwards to the extremity of the Cape York Peninsula, and thence west- ward to the 138th degree of east longitude. The boundary on the west is a line running from the 138th degree of east longitude to the 26th degree of south latitude; thence three degrees east, and thence again, at right angles, three degrees south to the 141st degree of east longitude. The southern boundary is almost a straight line between New South Wales and Queensland at the 29th degree of south latitude back to Point Danger. By means of its very long seaboard, with the many sheltered bays and navigable rivers, the various parts of the colony have been opened for settlement much sooner than could have been accomplished if the greater part of the interior had had to be reached by overland routes alone. NAVIGABLE RIVERS.-Rivers that in the early days of exploration were a mystery in their origin are now the highways of an ever-increasing commerce—the main more EXTENT, AREA, AND POPULATION. arteries of the life of many a flourishing town, The chief of these navigable streams are distributed with remarkable regularity of distance along the entire eastern coast, and smaller but immensely useful rivers have facilitated trade and the opening of the country in the distances between. Brisbane, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Mackay, Towns- ville, Cairns, and Cooktown are the principal ports, and a glance at the map will show the remarkable equi-distance of these ports from each other. THE GREAT DIVIDING RANGE.-The Great Dividing Range runs about midway across the colony from east to west to within about 250 miles of the coast; thence it runs almost parallel with the coast line, but the same distance from it some hundreds of miles south, then turning abruptly to the east to within 100 miles of the sea, and continuing thence into New South Wales and Victoria. It is this range of hills that so largely causes the differ- ence of climate, vegetation, and agriculture in different places situated in the same latitudes but at different altitudes. NATURAL DIVISIONS. — VEGETATION. - ADAPTATION OF DIFFERENT PLACES TO DIFFERENT CROPS.- The coastal districts, the Downs country, and the western interior are the three great natural divisions of the country. Plants, fruits, flowers, and stock that would grow and flourish in one part would be of doubtful or feeble growth in another. Wheat is not thoroughly at home on the coast, and sugar is not at home on the Downs. The intending settler would need to know something about the special fitness of the soil and climate before planting this or that, but it is information easily obtained and best obtained after arrival in the colony. The immigrant soon learns then that the names of many places are almost synonyms for the particular products, agricultural, pastoral, or mineral, as the case may be, for which they are specially suitable or particularly noted. SEPARATION FROM NEW SOUTH WALES.—Until Decem- ber 10th, 1859, the whole of the territory now known as Queensland formed part of the colony of New South Wales, and it was at that time simply known and spoken of as the Northern Districts. EXTENT, AREA, AND POPULATION. 3 The granting of separation from the parent colony by the Home Government was the dawn of a new era. From the obscurity and neglect of a mere appendage the country started, with a name at once descriptive and prophetic, on the career of an independent colony. So far as this work deals with its growth and history it deals only with the period that has elapsed since then. The 10th of December has, ever since 1859, been observed as a national holiday, and of the numerous holidays in which Queenslanders indulge none is more appropriate or popular than this. POLITICAL CHANGES.—The political changes in Aus- tralia, many of them involving large areas of magnificent territory, have been accomplished by lawful and peaceful means. There may have been strong feeling and spirited debate, but all matters of colonial and intercolonial difficulty have, in the end, been amicably and satisfactorily adjusted. Separation was not granted to Queensland without considerable contention and delay, but the bloodless battle was won ultimately, and Queensland has proved the wisdom of those who struggled for it-worthy of the confidence placed in her, and fully capable of the work of self-govern- ment. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS.—To assist the British reader we shall indulge considerably in comparisons when dwelling upon the dimensions, population, cultivation, and commerce of the colony. These, and the necessary statistics, will be made as brief and clear as possible; and to anyone perplexed with the problems of social life in the “Old Country,” or contemplating a radical change in his own lot in life, these comparisons should be deeply interesting. What are the inducements to emigrate to Queensland so far as room is concerned ? Is it, after nearly thirty years of self-government, and more or less of free or assisted immigration during that period, becoming now too strait for the people that are already in it? Can a man get there easily, cheaply, and expeditiously, and when he gets there has he a good chance of obtaining employment, and a prospect of obtaining, in a reasonable time, a home of his own, and a heritage for his children ? EXTENT, AREA, AND POPULATION. AREA AND POPULATION.—Another striking phase of this interesting subject is brought prominently into notice, when the extent of the country in comparison with other lands is considered in relation to their respective populations. Let the reader weigh carefully the following facts, which point to the conclusion that the evil of over population in the old lands has its remedy provided by Nature, and needs no such inhuman and revolting remedy as has been sometimes advocated. The remedy is simple and natural. CENSUS RETURNS OF UNITED KINGDOM AND QUEENS- LAND.—The last census of Queensland was taken on May 1st, 1886; the last census of the United Kingdom was taken in 1881. The population of England and Wales was 25,974,439, and of the whole of the United Kingdom 35,241,482. The population of Queensland was only 322,853. From this data may be drawn the following facts, comparisons and inferences :- (1.) The increase in the population of England and Wales in the last census period was equal to ten times the total population of Queens- land in 1886. (2.) This increase took place in ten years from 1871 to 1880, and amounted to 3,262,173, or nearly equal to the total population of all the Australasian colonies put together at the end of 1885. (3.) Should Queensland ever be as densely popu- lated as England and Wales it will then have a population of 300,000,000; that is, its present population will need to be multiplied 930 times. (4.) The whole of the Australasian colonies cover about 1-17th part of the earth's surface, but do not contain 1-410th part of the earth's popu- lation. (5.) Population to the Square Mile.- Queensland with the exception of South Australia and Western Australia, is the least densely popu- lated of all the colonies of the Australasian EXTENT, ARFA, AND POPULATION. group. In 1881 a careful estimate of popu- lation to each square mile was made, with the following result, omitting small decimals :- Victoria had 104 inhabitants to the sq. mile New South Wales 29 „ . Tasmania 45 , . New Zealand 44 Queensland $ (fully) ) ) South Australia (hardly) Western Australia 32 - (6.) Although the population of Queensland has increased considerably since the preceding estimate was made, yet at the census of 1886 it was found that there was still only 0:478— that is, there was not quite one inhabitant to every two square miles. (7.) It is worthy of note that even in the southern division of the colony, which was the first settled, and is the most thickly populated part of it, including as it does the capital and a number of the largest towns, there were only li inhabitants to each square mile. In 1881 there were 446 inhabitants to each square mile in England; while in Belgium, in 1880, there were 485; and in Saxony, 514 to each square mile. (8.) In the fifty years preceding the census of 1881, the population of England and Wales increased 86.9 per cent. The increase between 1871 and 1881 was 929 for every day during the decade. The daily increase during the preceding ten years was 692. It is calculated that if the same rate of increase is maintained, the population will be double in 1936 what was in 1881. The aggregate population of the whole of the British Empire was estimated at 254,000,000, occupying 8,000,000 square miles. Australasia comprises three-eighths of the territory, but contains only about one-seventy-fifth of the whole population. EXTENT, AREA, AND POPULATION. The significance of these comparisons is apparent. It is hardly credible that in all the territory of Queensland, a colony which has had an independent existence for nearly thirty years, there were still only 322,853 inhabitants-not as many, in fact, as there are in the one municipal borough of Manchester alone. NUMBER OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.-If from the total population the women and young children be deducted, and also the number of men living in the towns, engaged in commercial or professional pursuits, it will then be seen, even more vividly, how few as yet are engaged in developing the pastoral, agricultural, and mineral wealth of the colony. Nearly 74,000 of the inhabitants were, at the census, within a radius of five miles of the Brisbane Post Office. The total number of females in the colony was 132,509; the total number of male children under fifteen years of age was 34,840. ACQUISITION OF AUSTRALIA.—In these facts there is abundant cause for reflection. Itis generally considered that Great Britain has shown remarkable aptitude for the work of colonisation, and, compared with other nations, so much may be readily conceded. So far as Queensland is con- cerned it will be safe to say that her progress bas been the result of her inherent wealth and vitality, and has not been dependent upon maternal oversight or assistance. England in some instances has been prompt to acquire but slow to turn to their best use some of the fairest and richest regions on earth; slow to understand and utilize the opportunities and deliverances which modern discoveries of Nature's abundant provision have made possible and easy. EMIGRATION FROM ENGLAND.— With her immense national wealth and grand possessions, England holds the solution of problems of social life, which can never be satisfactorily solved so long as she confines her attention to the limited territory comprising the United Kingdom. Australia, acquired by England without bloodshed, and retained and governed hitherto without perceptible cost to her, is only now beginning to be understood and recognised in a manner worthy of the natural resources and the growing importance of the great Southern Con- tinent. EXTENT, AREA, AND POPULATION. For untold ages its wealth and beauty were unknown to the white man; its resources were reserved and kept in store until mankind should need them. Then came dis- covery and exploration by men whose names will be immortalised in Australia's classic lore, and the whole continent, one great treasure trove, was acquired by England without a struggle. UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRANTS.—And while in them. selves the increase of population, the expansion of commerce, and the evidences of enterprise and industry may be gratifying, and in some respects wonderful, there is room for the contention that, in view of the crushing necessities of tens of thousands of British subjects on the one hand, and the enormous wealth and boundless territories of Britain on the other hand, she has not always made the most and the best of the means at her disposal. A country which still retains the tenure and monopoly of land of feudal times, under the completely altered conditions of its social and national life in the present day, should not discountenance but encourage the emigration of its surplus population to its colonial possessions. Nor should it seek only to rid itself of its criminals and its paupers, for both classes of which its own political institutions with regard to the land are largely to blame. The desire to ship to the Australian colonies only the poor and the aged and the halt and blind is little less offensive to colonists than was the attempt to keep this fair land as a place of banishment for felons. Both ideas are ignoble and indicate culpable ignorance of or disregard for the hopes and aspirations of Australians with regard to the future position and power of these young nations amongst the nations of the earth. Queens- land wants men of character and of energy in its young years to develop its resources, and in the exercise of their political power to direct its course and shape its destiny with such conscientious care that ere long it shall take its place amongst the nations of the earth rich in all the qualities that make a people truly great and prosperous and free. - - - - - - - - - - --- =- = - IMMIGRATION DEPÔT. EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. CHAPTER II. EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. IMMIGRATION.—In each of the Australian Colonies there is, or has been, some system of immigration, under Gov- ernment control and paid for out of each colonial exchequer. It is equally true that in each of them a conservative and jealous element soon made itself heard, and in some in- stances felt. Free and assisted immigration has not been considered as a matter of philanthropy but a matter of policy, and a policy liable to be modified or changed or abandoned at any time. No FREE EMIGRATION TO VICTORIA-FREE EMIGRA- TION TO QUEENSLAND.— Although there were only 10} inhabitants to each square mile in Victoria in 1881, yet Victoria since 1882 has introduced no free or assisted immigrants to its shores, and now, practically, there is no national system of emigration to Victoria. Of course men may go there at their own cost and take their chance, but the colony gives no help, and no special inducements are held out. In no other colony is there now a system of immigration so liberal and helpful as that which exists in Queensland. There is free and assisted immigration, and equivalent to a valuable gift of a farm of good agricultural land to every man, woman, and child above one year of age, who pay their own passage to the colony. OPPOSITION TO IMMIGRATION.-Since 1879 only twenty- two free or assisted immigrants have been landed in Victoria, while during the same period 61,000 have been landed in Queensland. The thoughtful reader will ponder well this fact of the evident disposition of the colonies to discontinue free immigration as soon as possible. The policy or justice of such a system is doubted and debated. There are colonists who notice that it is a heavy tax on the resources of a young country, and who are influenced more by what immediately affects them in the way of taxation than by any patriotic or philanthropic considerations of the EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. general ultimate good. This feeling no doubt exists in Queensland, but it is only like the little leaven as yet, and has not made itself seriously felt. The successive Gov- ernments of late years and the great bulk of the people have recognised that consideration was due to their fellow countrymen, and also that an essential element of increased prosperity is an increased population. IMMIGRANTS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.—The average number of immigrants from the United Kingdom during the five years 1882 to 1886 was 15,771 per annum, or equal to about nine immigrants every day. Taking a wider range of view, this is at once seen to be a mere trifle of the number of emigrants constantly leaving Great Britain, and a mere atom from the masses who should emigrate, and would probably, if they had the means or knew how to set about so great and desirable a change in their lives. SMALL PERCENTAGE OF EMIGRANTS TO COLONIES.— EMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES.- According to the returns issued by the Imperial Board of Trade the emi- grants from the United Kingdom in 1885 numbered 264,385, and of these 40,689, or only about 15 per cent. of the whole, went to the Colonies of Australia. The total number of emigrants from the United Kingdom in thirteen years, from 1873 to 1885, was 3,451,993, of which the United States received nearly 68 per cent., and the Australasian Colonies received only about 15 per cent. EMIGRANTS Lost TO THE BRITISH EMPIRE. - For many years there has been this steady and continuous stream of emigration of British subjects to the United States. It averaged fully 727 every day during the above- named period of thirteen years, and still continues. Instead of every encouragement and information having been given, so as to influence and direct a fair proportion of these emigrants to the British Colonies of Australasia, they have been allowed to drift away to the United States, and so become subjects of an alien power; that is, they have become the subjects of a power that in its commercial policy puts protective and prohibitory duties on British- EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. 11 7 Brown or manufactured goods. Many of these, no doubt, have preferred to remain British subjects, and with energy, their skill, and, in many cases, their little capital, would have made most desirable colonists. Many have preferred the States because of their having friends there, others because of the shorter journey; but it is probable that a considerable portion would have preferred Queensland had its attractions been placed before them, and information concerning it been sown broadcast through the shires and towns of Great Britain. GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT.-AGENT-GENERAL'S DE- PARTMENT.-AGENT GENERAL'S ADDRESS.–So important 18 this matter deemed to be by the Government and people OT Queensland that a costly department is kept employed in London, under the direction of an Agent-General for the colony, and the chief business of this department is. the supplying 'of information and the providing for the requirements of regular shiploads of emigrants to Queens- land. The Agent-General is a member of the Queensland, Government, and, in addition to the head office, local agents have been appointed in many of the chief towns of the United Kingdom. Application in person or in writing should be made to one of these for fuller informa- tion and details as to when vessels are leaving, port of embarkation, and any other information the intending emigrant may wish to obtain. The Agent - General's office is No. `1, Westminster Chambers, Victoria street, London, S.W. There are several ways in which an emigrant may get to Queensland, according to his means or his preference, and one or another of these places Queensland within reach of tens of thousands of desirable colonists. FULL-PAYING PASSENGERS.—LAND ORDER SYSTEM.- VALUE OF LAND ORDERS.—1st. He can pay his passage money in full, if he is able, and so inclined, and the passage money of his wife and family if he is married. A first cabin passage on board the magnificent British India Company steamers now costs £50, and a second cabin passage #32 10s., and a steerage passage £17. This is the best way in many respects. It secures to the emigrant somecabin 12 EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. comforts and table indulgences which are not supplied to those whose passages are paid entirely or in part by the Government. But this is not the only nor the chief advantage. The Land Order system, which worked so well in the early days of the colony, has been revived, with safeguards to prevent its abuse. Persons twelve years old and upwards of both sexes going to Queensland receive land orders of £20 each, and of £10 each if between twelve months and twelve years. These land orders are different in one important particular from those formerly given to full-paying passengers—inasmuch as they are not transferable they cannot be sold and will be of no service except to those who intend to settle on the land. They have a purchasing power of £20 or £10 as the case may be as applied to Agricultural Farms, and a rent-paying power of the same amount as applied to either Agricultural or Grazing Farms. The amount of land which even £10 or £20 will buy in Queensland will be shown in the chapter on land selection. Nothing could be more helpful to the man of small means than this system, and nothing of the same kind is possible now in any of the other colonies. We have shown already that immigration to Victoria is practically at an end, so far as any Govern- ment assistance is concerned. Assisted immigration to New South Wales ceased at the end of 1886, and for 27 years had only amounted to an average of a fraction over 2,855 each year. Doors that used to be wide open are one after another being gradually closed and finally shut, and no colony can now vie with Queensland in its assistance and attractions combined to the intending emigrant. But there are many who are unable to pay their own passages, and these, if desirable as colonists, can obtain free or assisted passages, or can be forwarded as “nomi- nated” passengers. The persons most eligible as free or assisted passengers are farmers and farm labourers, and domestic servants. FORM OF APPLICATION.—The following schedules give much information as to what is necessary to be done and any further information can be obtained from the Agent-General's Office, as stated above :- EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. 13 SCHEDULE B. No. 1. Assisted, Free, or Nominated. Register....... FORM OF APPLICATION. Queensland. No...... This Form, when filled up, is to be separated from the other page and returned as a letter prepaid, addressed to the AGENT- GENERAL for QUEENSLAND, 1 WESTMINISTER CHAMBERS, VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, S.W., who will forward all selected Emigrants in the Ships sailing under his direction for Queensland. £ s. d. Amount to be paid for Amount to be paid for statute adults ship's kits ... . £ s. d. Total for Name of Party applying Age at last Birthday. Passage. Amount to be paid. County where Born. Day and Year when Born. or State whether Vaccinated had the Small- pox. Can the Applicant Read and Write: Say “Yes” or “No” opposite name. Read. Write. Trade or calling of Applicant; and if not now engaged in h original calling, state when ceased to be so employed ) Post Town County own County Street Place of Residence... ... ... ... ... ... If the Applicant has since been em-) ployed in any other way than above, state in what way and how long has been so engaged ... ... ... Name, Address, and Occupation of some) late Employer, and the time the Appli- } cant worked for him ... ... ... ... ) Name and Address of the Minister of the Parish in which the Applicants resides ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ) Has Applicant been in receipt of Parish / relief, and, if so, for how long ... ... S Has Applicant been out before to any Colony, and, if so, to which ... 14 EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. SCHEDULE B-continued. I do solemnly and sincerely declare that all the above statements are true; and that I have carefully read or have heard read the direc- tions contained in the paper attached to this form, and that in apply- ing for a Passage to the colony I am truly acting in accordance with the spirit of those directions, which I understand to be this :-That the privilege of a Passage, if granted, will be allowed me on the faith that I really belong to the classes named : and of good character; have never been convicted of crime, and that I have never previously resided in any of the Australian Colonies; and that I proceed to Queensland, intending to remain there, and not with the view of going to any other colony ; and that, in the event of my obtaining a Passage to the colony, I hereby under- take to remain in Queensland for at least twelve months from the date of my arrival; and I further declare that I have neither paid, nor agreed to pay, for the purpose of obtaining a passage, any fee or gratuity whatever to, or for the use of, the party through whom this application is made, or anyone else. I also engage to conform to the directions of the appointed officers, and to such regulations as may be established for the good government and welfare of all during the voyage; and I pledge myself not to leave the ship until she reaches her destination. Signature of Applicant : This margin must not be cut away. It is particularly requested that no one will sign these Certificates unless con- vinced of the truth of their statements. CERTIFICATE TO BE SIGNED BY PRESENT OR LATE EMPLOYER. I CERTIFY that , now residing at has been employed by me for a period of months, in the capacity of , and that I believe to be competent in calling, and to be a person of unexceptionable character, never to my knowledge having been convicted of crime. are : Residence : Post Town CERTIFICATE OF A PHYSICIAN OR SURGEON. I CERTIFY that I have examined the above named applicant, , and that is of sound bodily and mental health, and is not afflicted with any disease calculated to shorten life or to impair physical or mental energy. I certify also that has had the small-pox or has been vacci- nated, and is entirely free from any disease usually con- sidered infectious or contagious, and that is capable of labour in calling. Signature: Residence: N.B.-Any free, assisted, or nominated emigrant who obtains a passage and arrives in Queensland with the intention of immediately proceeding to another colony, will be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable, on conviction, to twelve months' imprisonment. Leaving or attempting to leave the colony within three months after arrival will be considered as primâ facie evidence of the intention. *** This paper must be kept clean, and will be returned unless filled up exactly according to the directions given above. Nothing additional must be written on the form; any remarks the applicant wishes to make must be by letter. No erasures or mutilations must be made. Queensland Government Emigration Offices, London. Issued , 188 EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. 15 This half-sheet to be kept by the applicant. ASSISTED OR FREE. QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION OFFICES, LONDON. DIRECTIONS TO BE OBSERVED BY PERSONS WANTING FREE OR ASSISTED PASSAGES TO QUEENSLAND, AND THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH THE PASSAGE WHEN GRANTED MUST BE UNDERSTOOD TO BE ACCEPTED. DESCRIPTION OF PERSONS ELIGIBLE. 1. The Queensland Government grant passages to persons eligible as to occupation, and passed at the Queensland Government Emigration Office, on the payment, per adult, of the amount mentioned at the bottom of first page; two children of twelve months, and under twelve years of age, counting as one adult. 2. The class of persons eligible are domestic servants, farmers, farm labourers, vine dressers, labourers, and mechanics, and their families. By “ Labourers" is to be understood those whose labour has been con- nected in some way with the land, such as farm-servants, gardeners, road-makers, miners, quarry-men, navvies, and the like; and such other persons as the Agent-General, with the authority of the Government of the colony, deems eligible. By “Mechanics,” such as engineers, engine- fitters, engine-drivers, railway carriage builders, carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shipbuilders, and the like. 3. All the adults must be capable of labour. The candidates most acceptable are young married couples without children, families with a large proportion of daughters over 14 years of age, and female domestic servants of good character. 4. The separation of husbands and wives, of the parents from children under 15, will in no case be allowed. 5. Single women cannot be taken without their parents, unless they go under the immediate care of some respectable married couple, or are willing to be placed under the care of the person appointed as matron on board the ship. 6. No persons, whether adults or children, can be accepted unless they have been vaccinated or have had the smallpox. 7. No applicant will be accepted without decisive certificates of good character and of efficiency in his professed trade or calling. AC Certificates of Marriage will be required, also extract of the Register of Births or the Certificate of Baptism, specifying the age, for any children under twelve years; or if these cannot be procured, a declaration of age signed before a magistrate and witnessed by him, and these must be sent up with the form, ali the spaces being carefully filled up exactly in accordance with these directions. Declaring Forms for age of children may be obtained at the Queensland Government Emigration Office, No 1, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, London, S.W.; but the Declaration Form must not be used except in cases where the Register of Birth or Certificate of Baptism, specifying the age, cannot be procured. APPLICATION AND APPROVAL. 8. Applications must be made in the form annexed, which must be duly filled up and attested, as explained in the form itself, and then for- warded to the Queensland Government Emigration Office with an inti- mation of the probable date it will be convenient for the applicants to embark. The Certificates of Birth and Marriages, as above explained, to be sent with the form. EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND. 17 :::: :::::: :::::::::: : : : : : : : : : : 20s. to send up the money named at the top of this schedule, making in all £1, to the Queensland Government Emigration Office, on the following scale for each adult :- Outfit for 20s. 1 Bed and pillow... 1 Pair blankets ... 1 Do. sheets ... 2 Canvas bags ... ... 1 Wash basin ... 1 Plate ... i Pint drinking mug 1 Quart do. do. 1 Knife and fork ... 2 Spoons ... .... 3 lbs. soap... 1 Brush ... ... These things, together with the necessary brushes and combs and clothes- brushes, for cleanliness, must be provided also by persons receiving these passages. They must not have less than the above outfit, but the larger the stock of clothing the better for health and comfort during the voyage, which usually lasts three or four months, and as the voyagers have always to pass through very hot and very cold weather, they should be prepared for both. Two or three coloured serge shirts for men, and an extra supply of flannel for women and children, are strongly recom- mended. These remarks apply to emigrants going to Queensland by the old route-viâ Cape of Good Hope. 16. It is desirable that parties should take out with them the neces- sary tools of their trade. Bulky agricultural implements, however, cannot be admitted on account of their inconvenience, size, and weight; neither can furniture be received on board. Feather beds are especially prohibited. 17. The whole quantity of baggage for each adult person must not measure more than 20 cubic or solid feet, nor exceed half a ton in weight. It must be divided into two or three boxes, the contents of which must be closely packed, so as to save space in the ship, and the owner's name should be legibly painted thereon with white paint. Large packages and extra baggage will not be taken unless paid for, and then only in case there be room in the ship. 18. Each family will be allowed to take only its own luggage. Any violation of this rule will subject the party to a forfeiture of his passage. 19. On arrival in the colony all passengers, unless going out under special agreement, will be at perfect liberty to engage themselves to anyone willing to employ them, and to make their own bargain for wages. They will be expected strictly to observe on board the regu- lations framed with a view to their health and comfort during the voyage. Scale of Payments for Assisted Passages. Sex. Betwen one and twelve years. Between twelve and forty. Above forty and under fifty-five. Male Female 20 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. an exhilarating atmosphere are the normal condition, the regular environment, of Queensland. Very many colonists, after years of life in the colony, take a trip to the “Old Country,” but very few remain there. Memory may turn and cling to the old land, but living ties and interests and hopes draw back more powerfully to the young and the new. EMPLOYMENT GENERALLY PLENTIFUL.—On arrival at any of the chief ports of the colony the immigrant will be accommodated for a short time, if he wishes, at the Immigration Depôt. In ordinary good times all classes of workers soon find employment. Single girls, as domestic servants, are always engaged at good wages within a day or two of their arrival. The new comer must be willing to work ; he must not be fastidious as to what he works at, nor exacting in what he works for, and then before long he will fall into the ranks, he will find a place in the hive, sharing the toil but sharing the spoil also, with all Queensland before him with its possibilities of progress and gain and happiness. - - - - - - CHAPTER III. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. But the intending emigrant naturally wishes for definite information as to what can be done in Queensland when he gets there. A short holiday, a pleasant voyage, and glimpses of strange lands and strange faces by the way, will not compensate for the breaking up of even a poor home in one hemisphere if there is no prospect of a better in the other. GENERAL INFORMATION.-In endeavouring to supply such information we will, first of all, give some idea of the agricultural industries and resources of the colony. We shall, in this, confine ourselves to broad outlines. Any reader wishing for more detailed information and instruc- tion will find both in the series of “Papers for the People," which are appended to this volume. PASTORAL INDUSTRY.-From what has been stated in the preceding chapters, the reader will have concluded that the great bulk of the land is either not utilized at all or - - SETTLER'S HOUSE. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 21 that it is held by some sort of tenure, by a few tenants, in large areas. The latter conclusion is nearest the truth. Queensland, like the other colonies, was, in the first instance, and is still chiefly, a pastoral country with large sheep and cattle stations in every direction. Some of these stations or consolidated runs are of greater extent than some European States. The attractions of Queens- land to the pastoral tenants we will deal with further on, giving the first place in order to what is intrinsically the first in importance, the agricultural pursuits and possibili- ties of the colony. The official returns show that in 1886 there were 221,843 acres of land under cultivation, being an increase of 12,173 acres on the preceding year. The detailed re- turns give some idea of the various crops which may be grown, but, in addition to these, there are many other things which can be cultivated most successfully, but which, from want of inclination or capital or technical knowledge and experience, are not cultivated to any such extent as to have any statistical or commercial value. ACREAGE OF DIFFERENT CROPS IN 1886.-ABSENCE OF ARTIFICIAL AIDS.–Of the total area under cultivation- 15,665 acres were under Wheat 11,099 Oats 2,006 Barley 76,481 Maize 887 Rice 4,952 Potatoes 2,250 Sweet Potatoes Cotton 54,010 Sugar 255 Arrowroot 1,110 Grape-vines 1,497 Bananas 411 Pine-apples 751 29,149 Lucerne 1,821 Panicum 90 Tobacco 388 Sorghum Other crops 2,530 Gardens and orchards 15 Oranges 674 22 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. The above list gives a fairly accurate account of what has been done, but only a type and prophecy of what will be done in Queensland in the way of horticulture and agri- culture. There is hardly any limit to the variety of field, garden, and orchard products that may be grown in different parts of Queensland ; and with regard to the quantities, the returns obtained have been for the most part the result of rough and primitive husbandry. The urgent demands of human necessity, the facilities of transit to numerous and regular markets, the artificial appliances, and the careful and scientific tillage of Eng. land have never put either the soil or its cultivators to any real test, and until equal methods and appliances are used all comparisons must be defective. And yet Queensland need not fear comparison with any country in the variety of the products of the soil. The above is a list of which any country might be proud. In several of these products Queensland excels, and in others she bears favourable comparison with the lands to which some of these roots, grains, and fruits are supposed to be indigenous. VEGETABLES AND FRUITS.-SOME FRUITS ALWAYS IN SEASON.—But in addition to the above the following vegetables and fruits grow readily, and with ordinary care, to perfection and in abundance:-Cabbages, all the various kinds, beans, onions, carrots, turnips, vegetable marrows, cucumbers, pumpkins, celery, green peas, beet-root, lettuce; figs, guavas, custard apple, mulberries, passion fruits, granadillas, bananas, watermelons, mangoes, pine-apples, peaches, nectarines, loquats and many other tropical and semi-tropical fruits. So varied are the soil and the climate in different localities that some kind of fruit is always in season, and there are places where English fruits, such as apples, pears, plums, strawberries, &c., grow to perfection and where the trees bear abundantly. The following quotations of average retail prices of fruit apply to Brisbane, and some other of the southern and coastal towns, but away in the far north and west fruit is sometimes very scarce and very dear, owing to the risk and cost of carriage :- AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. afford congenial and profitable employment to hundreds where at present only one here and there is employed. The fruit-growing capacities of the Queensland "soil and climate are practically unlimited. Grapes, in every variety, grow luxuriantly in the poorest soil provided it is trenched and drained, and the making of wine is already an industry of some importance and considerable promise. We have already placed before the reader certain information with regard to the acreage under crop with different agricultural products, and now revert to this subject again, in order to show what inducements there are to engage in agricultural pursuits in Queensland. Does farming pay? Do the returns per acre and the market prices compare favourably with those of other lands in which agriculture is one of the chief pursuits of the people? In replying to such inquiries as these we, shall again make free use of comparisons. WHEAT-AVERAGE YIELD.-This cereal has been grown for many years in Queensland, chiefly on the Darling Downs and in the neighbourhood of Warwick. The one great drawback to its cultivation is its liability to a disease known as rust. Many attempts have been made to counteract this disease, but the success has been only partial hitherto. Taking a period of ten years, from 1877 to 1886, inclusive, the total gross acreage sown with wheat was 135,793 acres. Of these, 28,051 acres were mown for wheaten hay; 181 acres were cut for green feed, and 38,267 acres were unproductive. The balance of 69,294 were divided, statistically, into two classes—that which was affected by rust and that which was not. The average yield of what was affected by rust was 10 bushels 447 pounds; the average yield of what was free from rust was 14 bushels 58 pounds. Taking the yield all round, the average was 12 bushels 51 pounds. Taking the total area sown with wheat, and applying to it the test of the total yield, including in the average the entirely unproductive acres, we have an average yield of a little over 9 bushels to the acre. And this last is really the only thorough test as to the profitableness or otherwise of wheat-growing. COMPARISON OF WHEAT RETURNS.—If this severe but accurate mode of averaging is the same as is AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 25 followed in other countries, then the following figures may be regarded as being thoroughly reliable for all comparative purposes. For a period of ten years the following have been the average yields, omitting small fractional portions :- Queensland ... 9 bushels per acre.. New South Wales 15 , Victoria ... ... 10 South Australia ... Western Australia 12 Tasmania ... ... 18 New Zealand ... 253 The average yield in- The United Kingdom is 27 France ... ... 17 Italy ... ... 12 » United States ... 12 Russia in Europe ... 4 ;, The highest yield in any of the above years in Queens- land was in 1880, when the return was 21į bushels. There is reason to believe that that yield will be excelled by the crop which is now maturing at the beginning of 1888. MEDIUM POSITION OF QUEENSLAND.-SEASONS OF DROUGHT.—It will be seen that Queensland occupies a medium position with regard to this crop. Rust is the great enemy, but it may be further explained that during the three years 1883 to 1885, Queensland passed through a season of terrible drought, which not only seriously affected the wheat crop, but also almost every other crop- a drought which destroyed tens of thousands of sheep and cattle, caused well-nigh a monetary panic, and ruined, for a time at least, many colonists both in town and country. Queensland, however, in common with the other colonies, is liable to these periodic droughts, and the farmer must reckon on their recurrence at intervals in making his calculations. POWERS OF RECOVERY.—The country has wonderful powers of recovery, and two or three good seasons soon put things right. The Registrar-General points out that the wheat not affected by rust in 1886 yielded 17} bushels. 26 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. to the acre, and furnishes “a sufficient proof of what could be done with this crop in Queensland were it possible to discover any specific for rust." Oats.- COMPARATIVE YIELD OF Oats.—This grain is sown chiefly for the purpose of raising green feed and making oaten hay. Of the total area sown in 1886, amounting to 11,099 acres, only 138 acres were reaped for grain. These few acres yielded 1,438 bushels, being an average of 103 bushels per acre. The average yields of this crop are- Australasia (generally), 24 bushels per acre. United Kingdom ... 343 Cape of Good Hope ... 8 , United States ... 26 Germany ... ... 21 Russia in Europe ... 12 , COMPARATIVE YIELDS OF HAY.—There is little care bestowed on this crop in Queensland, except for hay and green feed. The average yield of hay in- Queensland ... is 1,6 tons per acre New South Wales » 1* .. Victoria ... South Australia Western Australia Tasmania ... » lio » » New Zealand United States ,, lo » » Queensland occupies a leading position as a hay-producing country, from artificial grasses, but improvement in quality and appearance is possible and desirable. Thanks to the many agricultural shows now held annually in the colony, and the keen competition of some of the neighbouring colonies, more attention is being paid to the get-up of hay for market, and first-class quality and first-class workman- ship in baling are now often seen where stained and unsightly bundles used to be sent to market, to the loss of the growers and the disappointment of buyers. GROWTH OF BARLEY.—Barley is sown for green feed also, and sometimes for hay. In 1886 768 acres were reaped for grain, and yielded 24 bushels to the acre. 19 colo come como foi ? " - - 28 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. parison, as that period includes the time of the terrible drought already alluded to, and excludes some good seasons that went before. It may fairly be assumed that Queensland is quite equal to New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia, as a potato- growing country. Two CROPS OF POTATOES AND MAIZE EACH YEAR.- It should be mentioned here, as a most important item, that two crops of maize and two crops of potatoes are readily obtained every year in Queensland. Many varieties are grown, confined to no particular district, but not thriving well in the northern parts of the colony. SWEET POTATOES—INVALUABLE FOR FEEDING STOCK. -Queensland is also thoroughly adapted to the growth of the sweet potato, and in this has a great advantage over the neighbouring colonies. This is a delightful and nutritious root, of easy growth and enormous yield. There is no outlay for seed, as it is grown from stems of its own foliage, and it yields a heavy growth of tops which are the delight of horses, pigs, and cattle; it produces a far more abundant root crop than the ordinary potato. Like sugar and maize it does not like frost, and Queens- land has to supply her southern neighbours with this com- modity. The yield since 1884 has averaged within six tons to the acre. Many people prefer it far before the English potato. For feeding and fattening purposes it is invaluable for stock; horses, cows, pigs, and poultry eat it with avidity. These tubers are of all sizes and shapes, and have been known to grow to ten, eighteen, and even thirty pounds weight. COTTON.- DECLINE OF COTTON CULTIVATION.—This, at one time, was extensively cultivated and promised well as an industry under the stimulus of a liberal Government bonus to the growers. Its cultivation originated during the American civil war, and Queensland was regarded as the country from whence large supplies would be derived by the cotton-spinners of England. Between 1868 and 1872 over twelve thousand acres were under this crop, but with the withdrawal of the bonus the growth of cotton has gradually dwindled down year by year to almost nothing. This is owing, simply, to Queensland being unable to AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 29 compete with the cheap labour of the South American States and other cotton-growing countries. It is creditable to both the Government and the people of Queensland that the colony has no desire for, and offers no induce- ment to, industries which can only be made profitable to the few by the slavish toil and utterly inadequate payment of the many. The decision of the people has been tacitly agreed upon in this matter as surely as it has been avowedly with regard to the growth and manufacture of sugar. That Queensland can grow abundance of splendid Sea Island cotton is beyond a doubt, but that she will not do it with black slaves or the slavish unremunerative labour of her own men, women and children is equally certain. Meanwhile it is an industry that may some day be revived, under altered conditions of social life, or when the price of the product or the cost of labour shall have advanced in those lands where cotton is now the chief article of cultivation. AVERAGE UNDER SUGAR CANE.—COMPARISON WITH NEW SOUTH WALES. - Raw SUGAR EXPORTED.-Raw Sugar IMPORTED.—REFINED SUGAR EXPORTED.—REFINED SUGAR IMPORTED.-This, in point of value, is the first, and in the area under cultivation the second in importance of Queensland's crops. There were 54,010 acres under cultivation in 1886, and of these 34,657 acres were cut and crushed, for a yield of 58,545 tons of sugar. This gives an average of 1.69 tons of sugar to every acre of cane crushed. In this industry, which combines both agri- culture and manufacture, Queensland stands peerless. She has no competitor excepting New South Wales, which colony she far surpasses in acreage under crop, annual returns, percentage of yield, and general adaptation to the extensive and profitable growth of the sugar cane. The difference between the two colonies as sugar-producing countries will be seen in the following comparisons:- Total area under crop in Queensland in 1886, 54,010 acres. Total area under crop in New South Wales in 1886, 15,117 acres Total area crushed in Queensland in 1886, 34,657 acres Total area crushed in New South Wales in 1886, 5,915 acres 30 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. Total value of sugar obtained, Queensland, 1886, £1,125,284 Total value of sugar obtained, New South Wales, 1886, £98,676. The relation in which Queensland stands with regard to other countries so far as the sugar trade is concerned will be seen in the following Custom-house returns. In 1886 Queens-- land exported the following quantities of raw sugar:- 17,887 tons 3 cwts. to New South Wales 9,387 , 2 , , Victoria 368 , 19 , „ South Australia 32 , 6 , „ Tasmania 784 · 3 „ „ New Zealand 3,587 , 3 , , Hong Kong 1,200 , 9 United Kingdom And various smaller quantities to other places, making a total of 33,259 tons 4 cwts. of raw sugar exported, and valued at £621,935. The total quantity of raw sugar im- ported was only 427 tons 5 cwt. 3 qrs., the value of which was £10,072. Queensland thus exported over sixty-one times as much raw sugar as she imported. During the same year Queensland exported- 6,001 tons 3 cwts. of refined sugar to New South Wales 2,435 „ 0 , . " " 1,204 , 0 , „ South Australia 1,341 „ New Zealand » Tasmania 85 , 0 „ United Kingdom „ „ German New Guinea Making a total of 11,250 tons 16 cwts. of refined sugar exported of the estimated value of £233,575. The total quantity of refined sugar imported into Queensland was only 37 tons 12 cwt. 1 qr., the value of which was £901. Queens- land thus exported nearly 260 times as much refined sugar as she imported. In the item of sugar exports alone as against imports Queensland gained in the one year £844,537. UNRIVALLED ADVANTAGES.–CENTRAL SUGAR MILLS. -DESIRE TO PROMOTE SUGAR GROWING IN SMALL HOLDINGS.-This leading position has been attained in a „ Victoria oooooo AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 31. few years, and there is no doubt that it will be more than maintained in the future. So long as sugar can be grown. and made profitably anywhere in Australia it can be grown and made more easily and profitably in Queensland than anywhere else. As an industry it has had its reverses. but it is now too firmly established to be subject to any permanent injury. From one end of the land to the other sugar cane is grown and mills have been erected. The extent of these plantations and mills, with their cultiva- tion, tramways, barges, machinery, refineries, distilleries, &c., may be imagined when it is stated that some of them have had as much as £70,000, £80,000, and in some cases considerably over £90,000 spent upon them. But it is an industry in which the small farmer and the capitalist can engage with mutual and proportionate profit and advan- tage. Hitherto coloured labour, in the shape of South Sea Islanders, has been largely employed on the plantations, but there was a strong public feeling against it. The number of these is being reduced gradually, and a law has been passed terminating the introduction of this class of labour after the year 1890. Another peculiarity of this industry is that the Government, desiring to encourage this class of agriculture in small holdings, and knowing that it was not possible for each small farmer to erect a mill of his own, are erecting central mills, by parliamentary autho- rity and at the public cost. These mills are to be conveni- ently placed amongst a number of small farms, the owners of which enter into a compact with the Government, and the Governmeut mills crush the cane and make the sugar in behalf of the farmers. The custom hitherto has been for the large mills, owned by companies or private holders, to give the small farmers so much per ton for their cane. This was not always deemed to be satisfactory, the price given for the cane not being deemed adequate, and some- times the mill-owners had so much cane of their own that they did not care to buy the cane of other growers at all. It is hoped that these Government mills will remedy some of these evils and do away with the causes of complaint. The desire is to engage a large number of small farmers in sugar-growing in preference to the industry being left to large proprietors. It was also intended to demonstrate that sugar can be grown and made without any coloured 32 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. labour whatever. The experiment will be watched with much interest, not only by those immediately concerned, but by all interested in the progress of the colony. GROWTH OF ARROWROOT.-Arrowroot has been grown and manufactured for years past, and could be more exten- sively cultivated if the demand for it were greater. Local requirements are soon satisfied, and outside markets have been too slow and precarious to lead to a large export trade. The total yield in 1886 was 463,876 lbs., and of this 211,636 lbs. were exported. The estimated value of the crop was £7,837. In this article again Queensland supplies much to and receives little from her neighbours. INCREASE OF ACRES CULTIVATED SINCE 1860.-In order to show that the foregoing agricultural products are long since past the merely experimental stage, and that some of them have assumed considerable proportions in the industry and trade of the colony, the following particulars are given of the progress made since 1860 (which was the first year after separation from New South Wales) to 1886:- Acres under crops of all kinds in 1896 209,561 » » » 1860 3,353 Increase, 206,208 Acres under wheat in 1886 ... ... 15,665 , 1860... ... 214 Increase, 15,451 Acres under maize in 1886 76,481 » » 1860 ... ... 1,536 Increase, 74,945 Acres under potatoes in 1886 • 7,202 » „ . 1860 ... 333 Increase, 6,869 Acres under sugar-cane in 1886 ... 54,010 » » » » 1860 ... Nil Increase, 54,010 Acres under grape vines in 1886 ... 1,517 1 2 1860... Nil Increase, 1,517 Acres under other crops in 1886 ... 54,671 1860 . 1,256 Increase, 53,415 92 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 33 GROSS YIELDS OF TEN YEARS.—The following gross quantities of produce of various kinds have been obtained in ten years, from 1877 to 1886 :-- Wheat ... 982,647 bushels. Oats ... 19,010 20 Barley ... 163,907 Maize ... 14,674,510 Rice .. 24,876 „in lyear.) Potatoes 151,314 tons Cotton ... 782,967 lbs. Sugar ... 281,924 tons Arrowroot ... 3,526,174 lbs. Tobacco-leaf 5,550 cwt. 300,247 tons Wine ... 997,766 gallons Grapes (for table use) 7,059,510 Ibs. Bananas 8,390,382 dozen Pine-apples ... 927,173 , ... ... 2,535,836 ,, ESTIMATED VALUE OF CROPS TO GROWERS.—The above are summarised from official Government returns. A moderate estimate of their value to the growers is as follows: ir;:::::: :::::::::::::: Hay ...' Oranges The whole of the grain crops ... 2,776,366 potatoes ... 529,599 sugar ... ... 5,638,480 900,741 fruit . 319,820 cotton,* tobacco, ) arrowroot, wine, { 287,628 &c. hay ... £10,452,634 AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES.—These figures are given more with the intention of showing what can be done than with a desire to parade what has been done. During the same period the results might have been ten times greater had the willing workers on the soil been forthcoming in greater numbers. It is chiefly owing to * Exclusive of Government Bonus. 34 AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. this that the agriculture of the United States has reached such gigantic proportions. The soil is no better, the pro- ducts are not so varied and, as we shall presently show, the market prices are not near so good, and yet in the United States there are about five million men owning farms, and in 1886 the United States produced 974 bushels of maize and 21,074 bushels of wheat for every one bushel produced in Queensland ; and other crops in similar pro- portion. USE OF MAIZE AND HAY.-USE OF HORSES.-CON- SUMPTION OF PRODUCTS.-It will be noticed that a very large proportion of the farming produce of Queensland is such as is not intended for human food, but as feed for horses. This is the principal use to which maize is put, although there can be made from it a meal suitable for several forms of most wholesome and agreeable diet. In addition to the 1,709,673 bushels of maize grown in 1886, there were 29,149 acres of land planted with lucerne, a favourite article of consumption for cattle, horses, and sheep. The reasons for this large production of animal aliments are not far to seek. As yet Queensland is a land of live stock rather than a land of men, women, and children; the former number millions, the latter only a few thousands. Notwithstanding the rapid extension of the Government railways, there is a large amount of the transit of goods in the interior that has to be done by horse and bullock teams. Carriers, especially in bad seasons and in the far interior, have to provide feed for their teams, and in this way large quantities of maize and hay are con- sumed. There are also far more horses used in the towns, and by settlers in the bush, than is the case in more thickly populated countries; saddle horses being more easily procured, and the disposition to take things easy so far as pedestrian exercise is concerned, being very general. Many squatters are also now raising maize, green feed and hay for their flocks and herds. It is found to be profit- able to turn sheep into a paddock of lucerne for fattening purposes before sending them to market. Owners of live stock have found that it is not wise to depend wholly on the natural grasses of the country for feed for their flocks and herds. There are bad seasons ever and anon, for which it is prudent to make some provision in the "fat" AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 35 years. Maize and the various kinds of bay are grown chiefly for home consumption. The same may be said of wheat, as all the flour is absorbed by local demand, but supplies as yet only a small proportion of the amount con- sumed. The sugar annually produced is partly consumed in the colony, and the remainder, as has been shown, finds a ready sale in the markets of the other colonies. Sugar is being extensively cultivated on the rich soils on the banks of the northern rivers, but with this exception the agriculture of the colony is chiefly confined to its south- east corner. Brisbane is the centre to which the great bulk of the agricultural and horticultural produce is sent. and from thence, after local demands are satisfied, it is forwarded by merchants and agents to the central and northern parts of the colony. Good DEMAND AND PROFITABLE SALE.—WHOLESALE PRICES OF PRODUCE, &c. — RETAIL PRICES OF TABLE REQUISITES.—On the whole there is a steady and reliable demand for farm and garden produce, the prices some- times being in favour of the seller, in bad seasons, and at other times, in good seasons, in favour of the buyer. Influenced by the seasons, prices vary considerably, and we shall quote neither the exceptionally high nor the abnor- mally low, but the following quotations may be taken as a fair average of Brisbane prices :- £ s. d. £ s. d. Maize... ... 0 3 3 to 0 4 6 per bshl. Potatoes ... 3 10 0 , 5 0 0 per ton. Oaten Hay ... 3 10 0 , 6 0 0 Lucerne Hay 2 10 0 5 10 0 , Sugar (White) 16 00 , 25 0 0 , This last item has declined fully £10 per ton in value during the last three or four years, owing to the produc- tion in other lands of beet-root sugar, and the bounty which has fostered its production in some European countries. But this is an artificial competition which already shows signs of failure, and Queensland sugars are now rising gradually again in price. For beauty of manu- facture and appearance, and for sweetning purposes, they cannot be excelled, and much lower prices than were AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 37 Cotton Potatoes average in the United States 794 busl. per acre m2!! . Queensland 108 Tobacco , , United States 737 lbs. per acre , Queensland 1,008 » » United States 180 , » » » Queensland 210 » » The above are the principal crops of the United States, and amongst them it will be seen that cane sugar has no place. In America's own chief crops Queensland shows a better record of average yields in cotton, tobacco, potatoes, and maize; a slightly inferior position in wheat and barley, and only a very inferior position with regard to oats. This last is a crop which has had very little attention in Queens- land for the grain, and one, no doubt, in which she will never equal countries in more moist and temperate climes. AVERAGE PRICES IN QUEENSLAND AND UNITED STATES --DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE STATES AND QUEENSLAND.- WASTED RESOURCES. - The contrast between Queensland and the United States is very striking when the average prices obtainable in the two countries are considered. The average value of wheat- In the United States is 35. 6d. per bushel „ Queensland ... 4s. to 4s. 6d. ,, Maize in the United States, ls. 8d. , Queensland, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. , Oats in the United States, ls. 5d. , Queensland, 2s. 8d. to 38. 3d. , Barley in the United States, 2s. 6d. , Queensland, 2 s. 9d. to 3s. 3d. ,, Potatoes in the United States, 2s. 2d. , Queensland £3 10s. to £4 per ton Tobacco leaf in the United States, 4 d. per lb.. » Queensland, 6d. to ls. per lb. se figures should effectually dispose of the supposed erior attractions of the States to the man who purposes ing his living out of the soil, more especially when known beyond doubt that there are hundreds of sands of acres of land in Queensland capable of ng any of these things-acres which hitherto are -d over only by sheep or cattle. Queensland has a LAND LAWS. . 39 hero not a climate But it should be sufficient assurance and attraction to many lifference who have no such prospect when they know that in Queens- that the land a man can soon acquire a comfortable home as a sperity, Queensland farmer. turists I these olden CHAPTER IV. LAND LAWS. RECENT LAND LEGISLATION.--A history of past legislation on the occupation and alienation of Crown Lands need not be given. In most countries the tenure of land is a subject of oft-recurring controversy as between the “haves” and “have nots.” In the Australasian colonies it has been a subject of much debate and frequent legislation. The aim of legislation of late years has been to prevent the monopoly of the land by a few, in immense freehold blocks, and to promote either its alienation to or occupation by a large number of small holders. In the usual and natural course of things the squatters were the first to settle on and make use of the lands of the colony. PASTORAL INDUSTRY AT THE TIME OF SEPARATION.- PASTORAL REVENUE.—Attracted by the glowing reports of pioneer explorers, they found their way from the South with their flocks and herds and took possession of runs in the most favoured localities. Men who had previously been engaged in pastoral pursuits in the older settled districts of New South Wales migrated with their stock further north, and settled at their own pleasure on what- ever block of pastoral country took their fancy. At the time when Queensland became an independent colony there were already some hundreds of runs in existence, on which were being depastured about half a million cattle and over three million sheep. This taking up of country was never regarded as constituting a claim of ownership. It was simply a permission to use Crown lands for grazing purposes until they should be *required for closer settlement. All that the squatter paid was a small license fee of a few pounds per annum, and a small amount as assessment on his stock. How small the fees were may be judged from the fact that in the first year after separation from New South Wales, the 40 LAND LAWS. total area of leased runs in the colony was over 41,000,000 acres, and the rents received did not amount to quite £53,000—i.e., not much more than a farthing per acre. EARLY SETTLEMENT OF DARLING DOWNS.-It was at this time and in this manner that the magnificent stretch of country known as the Darling Downs was first taken up. Venturesome, enterprising men journeyed overland from the South, and one took this block and the other that of level, rich, and fertile land, the pick and pride of Queensland. The irretrievable mischief was wrought not then, but some time after. At separation these downs became part of Queensland territory, and for some time after the granting of Responsible Government the squatters exercised preponderating political power. It was owing to this that the Darling Downs ultimately became divided into a few freehold estates, and are held as such to-day. This serious blunder the people of the colony have never ceased to regret and resent, but there appears to be no remedy for it now unless the Government or private capitalists pur- chase these Downs and dispose of them in small farms, on easy terms, to agricultural farmers. DARLING Downs Lost TO AGRICULTURE. -- The Darling Downs are only a small portion of the lands of the colony, but they possess so many and so great advan- tages that their loss to close settlement, even if it be only for a time, is a matter for deep regret. They contain some of the finest alluvial plains in the world, with rich black soil to an indefinite depth, with no timber needing to be cleared away before the implements of agriculture can be used; they are fairly well watered and have a climate better even than the climate generally, owing to their considerable elevation above sea level. Add to all these things the fact that they are within reasonable distance of Brisbane, as the market of agricultural pro- duce, and that costly Government railways now traverse these downs for hundreds of miles in different directions. These railways run, for the most part, through large free- hold pastoral estates, and neither the land nor the railways are doing what they are capable of-they are not devoted to the work and service of close, thriving, agricultural settlement. THE PASTORAL INDUSTRY. 43 PASTORAL TENANCY IN UNSETTLED DISTRICTS. NUMBER OF RUNS IN 1860 AND 1886. -- In the outside districts not affected by Schedule I. the pastoral tenants have conditional leases of their runs for a period of twenty-one years, at an annual rental averaging about 12s. 6d. per square mile. Their runs are liable to resumption by the Crown at any time, if required for close settlement, but such resumption can only take place on a vote of both Houses of Legislature. In 1860 there were 1,300 runs in the settled and unsettled districts, embracing an area of 41,027,200 acres ; in 1886 there were 8,580 runs with an area of 302,260,240 acres. Of these there were 8,375 runs in the unsettled, and 205 runs in the settled districts, occupied at the end of 1886 ; the former covering 465,4047 square miles, and the latter 6,877} square miles. The total rent of runs in the unsettled districts to December 31st, 1886, was £246,559 13s. 10d., and in the settled districts £13,632 lls. The total amount of Crown lands alienated up to the end of 1886 was 8,455,033 acres 1 rood 27 perches, and the total amount of purchase-money was £5,508,680 198. 1d. LITTLE LAND ACTUALLY ALIENATED.-CHANGED LAND POLICY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.—Compared with the territory of the colony a mere trifle of the land has been alienated. There has not been the reckless parting with the public estate for the sake of revenue which has obtained in New South Wales. That colony, in the four years. from 1875 to 1878, derived £5,609,023 of revenue from auction sales of land alone ; that is considerably more than Queensland has obtained from all sources of land alienation in twenty-eight years. So serious had this question become that New South Wales has had to adopt a totally different policy. The principle that has been introduced into the land legislation of New South Wales- when it was almost too late-has been introduced into the land laws of Queensland before such serious injury had been done: the principle that revenue should be derived not from the sale of but from the rents of public lands. OPTIONAL CONDITIONS OF ACT OF 1884. — GOVERN- MENT RUNS NOT PURCHASABLE.-“The Land Act of 1884," as applied to the pastoral tenants in the settled districts, 44 THE PASTORAL INDUSTRY. or rather those whose runs are within the limits of a certain mapped schedule, leaves it optional for them to come under its provisions or not, as they think fit, but the advantages are so substantial under the new Act that it is being generally taken advantage of by the occupiers of grazing stations. One-half, one-third, or one-quarter of each con- solidated run is being, as rapidly as can be carried into effect, resumed when required, but the tenant obtains fixity of tenure of the remainder for fifteen years or twenty- one years if his run is situated in the unsettled districts and ' for ten years if in the settled districts. He has the option of obtaining the use of the resumed portion of his run until it is actually required for other purposes, and he is entitled to compensation for improve- ments at the end of his time of lease should his run then pass to another tenant. The purchase of large blocks of country from the Government for pastoral purposes is now impossible. Nothing but failure and disaster were predicted from the passing of this measure by its opponents*, but already the lessees are bringing their runs under its provisions in large numbers. If under it they hold less country than before they hold it by a far better tenure. While the much-abused right of pre-emption has been abolished there has been substituted indefeasible leases for long terms, and compensation for improvements, and while rents have been increased they are still very low, and these leasehold pro- perties are constantly being improved by Government rail- ways passing through them or drawing nearer to them. . RENT AND AREA OF RUNS.- ARTIFICIAL APPLIANCES AND IMPROVEMENTS ON RUNS.— The squatters now pay from d. to 1 d. per acre for their runs in annual rental. The runs are not larger than 100 square miles each, but several of them may be taken up by one lessee as a consoli- dated run, and so it sometimes happens that one squatter holds several hundreds or even thousands of square miles of pastoral country. These runs need not be fenced in; instead of this, generally, stockmen and shepherds are * In 1887 759,314 acres were selected under the new Act for boná-fide settlement as agricultural or grazing farms. This is the largest quantity ever selected in any one year of the Colony's history, with the exception of 1882, when the selections taken up amounted to 845,018 acres. THE PASTORAL INDUSTRY. 45 employed in sufficient numbers to dispense with the need for fencing. Squatting in Queensland is on the whole a pleasant and profitable calling. The difficulties are no greater and not so varied as those which beset the pioneer pastoralists, and they in very many cases attained to wealth and honour Seasons of drought come ever and anon, causing great destruction of stock, but the powers of recu- peration and reproduction are wonderful with the return of good seasons. With the ever-increasing number of wells and dams which are being constructed by the Gov- ernment and by private individuals, and also the more general and systematic cultivation of artificial grasses for green feed and hay, the droughts of the future will be in part provided against, and their destruction will be reduced to much smaller dimensions : LIVE STOCK STATIONS.—POSSIBLE PREMIER POSITION. —The trunk lines of the colony running inland from the coast afford the means of conveyance from many squatting stations, for wool, skins, hides, &c., and these important items of export are forwarded regularly and quickly to their European markets chiefly by means of the grand steamers of the British India Company. The total number of cattle in Queensland in 1886 was 4,071,563 ; horses, 278,694; sheep, 9,690,445; pigs, 61,861. The quantity of wool exported during the same year was 28,700,546 lbs., valued at £1,413,908. In the number of cattle Queensland stands first amongst the Australasian Colonies, having three times as many as either New South Wales or Vic- toria ; and in the number of sheep it ranks fourth, and will probably soon surpass both Victoria and New Zealand, and ultimately New South Wales also. There is nothing Utopian in this supposition, the rapid increase already seen, the thorough and complete adaptation of Queens- land to pastoral pursuits, and its much greater extent of available grazing land, justify the hope of Queensland attaining to the highest and leading position as a pastoral country in a few years. The salubrity of climate, comparative freedom from disease, amplitude of territory, abundance of natural grasses, ever-increasing facilities of transit, excellence of wool, and conditions of pastoral tenancy, are some of the attractions that Queensland offers to the pastoralist. 46 GRAZING FARMS. . + EXPANSION OF GRAZING INDUSTRY. — The early coming years will bring about great changes in Queens- land as a stock-raising country. Squatters will increase, graziers will multiply. The number of runs doubled in twelve years from 1875 to 1886. Squatting is a pursuit which requires capital, and no country offers greater inducements to the capitalist, in this line, than does Queensland. GRAZING FARMS. Provision has been made for those who wish to settle on the land, but who have no desire to engage in agricul- ture, and not sufficient means to engage in pastoral pur- suits on the extensive scale implied in being a squatter and taking up a run. AREA AND RENTAL OF GRAZING FARMS.- In the belief that there were many of this class who wished to engage in stock-raising, and in the conviction that it was not necessary for a man to hold scores or hundreds of square miles of country who wished to engage profitably in breeding sheep and cattle, the Queensland Legislature has made provision for grazing farms. Many of the resumed portions of runs, under the Act, will not be required for agriculture for many years, but they can be used for grazing under the new system, in much smaller areas, as grazing farms. These farms will be fronu 2,560 up to 20,000 acres. They cannot be purchased, but they are leased for the long term of thirty years, at not less than d. per acre annual rental. There must be personal residence, or residence by bailiff on the selection, and within three years of the license being issued the selection must be fenced in. The rental will be liable to increase after the first ten years, and at subsequent periods of five years, but the limits of increase are clearly stated and cannot be exceeded, so that there will be no element of uncertainty in the selector's calculations on that point. The inducements and facilities afforded under these provisions are many and great, and are such as to leave the man of small means nearly the whole of his capital to work on. The rental of a 20,000-acre grazing farm, at id. per acre, would only GRAZING FARMS. amount to £83 6s. 8d. per annum. These farms will be equal in every way to the runs of which they have previously formed a part. No influence of any kind is allowed to be brought to bear upon the Land Court; the runs are as fairly divided as possible, and all matters of dispute are openly discussed and publicly decided by the Land Board, which is not subject to political influence. GOOD AND ACCESSIBLE COUNTRY SECURED FOR GRAZING FARMS. -The lands are thrown open to selec- tion as grazing farms after careful inspection by quamcu and independent Government officials. Neither are these lands in out-of-the-way regions, but they are w accessible distance of some port or railway station. Roads and railways are constantly being constructed or improved in every part of the colony. These have made many a rough place of the olden days plain and smooth, and will practically bring the grazing farmer, whose selection may be two or three hundred miles away in the interior, nearer some town or port than was the squatter of forty years ago, whose run was only eighty or a hundred miles away from “ Brisbane town.” To the end of 1886 the accepted applications for grazing farms under the Act of 1884 amounted to 242,140 acres. Seeing that much of this area was selected for this purpose during or shortly after one of the most disastrous droughts that the colony has ever known, it augurs well for the pronounced success of this novel mode of settlement now that the colony is experiencing the benefits of a return of good seasons and prosperous times. ADAPTATION TO INCREASED WOOL-GROWING.–There is nothing local or limited in the grazing capacity of these Crown lands. Some localities are better than others owing to better soil, better grasses, better water supply or better roads, but from the extreme south to the extreme north and from the sea-coast on the east to the western boundary squatting runs exist, and where they are grazing farms may exist also. Wool is a commodity of world-wide demand, with ready sale at all times, sometimes resulting in such profitable returns that the struggling squatter or grazier is lifted in one or two seasons out of debt and difficulty into a position of ease and comfort. 48 AGRICULTURAL FARMS-LAND SELECTION. AGRICULTURAL FARMS. DIFFERENT MODES OF SECURING AGRICULTURAL FARMS.–Agricultural farming in Queensland, as we have already shown, is probably as remunerative as it is in most countries; so far as average yields and average prices are concerned it is superior to many countries in which agricul- ture is the chief support of the people. But all this might result in no substantial benefit if the cost of buying or of renting farming properties were excessively high. Here again, however, Queensland offers inducements which are not surpassed if they are equalled anywhere. All reasonable theories of land tenure, and the utmost possible assistance to its acquisition by selectors, are embodied in the Land Acts of Queensland. The selector can buy a farm on deferred payments, or he can lease one for the long term of fifty years and never buy it at all, or he can lease it for a while and then when it suits him to do so he can purchase it at any time during the currency of his lease. We cannot do better than insert here copy of a document recently issued from the Lands Office by the present Minister for Lands. The paper deals with this subject, and also with grazing farms and land orders, on both of which we have dwelt already, but the importance and interest attached to these subjects will justify the giving in full at this stage the contents of the official notice. It is entitled “Land Selection in Queens- land,” and is as follows :- LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND, The conditions under which country lands may be acquired for settlement are substantially as follows :- GRAZING FARMS.-Surveyed Areas of land, being the resumed portions of “ Runs” (large areas leased to Crown tenants for long periods), are proclaimed open for selection over a great extent of Queensland territory, within acces- sible distance of the eastern seaboard on leases for a term of thirty years, in which intending settlers can obtain grazing farms of any area up to 20,000 acres, at their option, at a minimum rent of three-farthings an acre, the rent generally ranging from three-farthings to twopence. This rent is subject to re-assessment by the Land Board after the first ten years, and subsequently at intervals of 50 LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND. if not made within the first twelve years the price is subject to increase in proportion to the increase of rent (if any). FIFTY YEARS' LEASE.-If the lessee is indisposed to purchase he may continue to hold the land on lease for the whole period of fifty years, the condition of occupation being performed by the residence either of the lessee or his bailiff or agent. SMALL FARM FREEHOLDS AT Two SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCE AN ACRE.-Small farm freeholds or homesteads may be secured in five years in areas not exceeding 160 acres, or smaller areas if desired, at two shillings and sixpence an acre on a system of deferred payments, extending over the period of five years, at the rate of six- pence per acre per annum. CONDITIONS TO SECURE FREEHOLD OF HOMESTEADS. - The selector must reside personally on the land during the five years, and must make improvements on it before the end of the five years of a total value equal to not less than ten shillings an acre. Thus, on a farm of 160 acres there must be work done in fencing, clearing, building, or otherwise, of not less than the total value of £80, by the end of the five years; or, on an 80-acre farm, £40; on a 40-acre farm, £20, &c. When such work is done by the farmer himself there will thus be no actual outlay of money. On the per- formance of these conditions the selector may claim a grant of the land on payment of the deed fee, amounting on a farm of 160 acres to £1 10s. The survey-fee on such area, 160 acres, amounts to £7 78. 6d.; this must also be paid, but may be paid in five equal annual instalments of £1 9s. 6d. each; the fees on smaller areas are proportionately less. FREE GIFTS OF LAND: LAND ORDERS, £20.-Atten- tion is specially directed to what amounts to a free gift of agricultural land in favour of persons of European extrac- tion paying their own passages, or those of their families in full, to Queensland from Europe, the United States of America, or any British possession other than the Aus- tralasian Colonies. A wife, child, step-child, or grand- child is reckoned as one of the family. To persons thus paying their passages in full, land-orders are issued of the value of twenty pounds sterling (£20) for each person of twelve years and upwards, and of ten pounds (£10) for each child between twelve months and twelve years of LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND. 51 age. These land-orders are available to their full nominal value in payment of the rent of agricultural or grazing. farms held by the head of the family or the person in respect of whose passage the land-order is issued, and when used in agricultural areas they amount to a free gift of land, as follows :- SINGLE LAND ORDER.- A single person, eighteen years of age, holding one land-order, value £20, may select in any agricultural area 160 acres of land. The annual rent of sixpence an acre required to be paid for five years to secure the freehold amounts to £20, and the £20 land- order, being available to its full nominal value for this purpose, suffices for the payment of the whole rent, and thus secures the fee-simple of the land as a free gift, excepting the amount of £8 17s. 6d. to be paid for the survey and deed fees. The head of a family, say of eight persons, counting seven adults, including the father and mother, paying their passages in full would receive land-orders as follows:- " ... 20 ... ... 40 40 Father ... ... ... ... Mother ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 Two children of eighteen years or over ... Two children of twelve years or over ... Two children between twelve months and twelve years ... ... ... ... ... ... 20 £140 USE OF LAND ORDERS: RENT.-In such a case the head of the family could obtain either one land-order of the value of one hundred and forty pounds (£140), or separate land-orders, of an equal aggregate amount, in respect of each person. In either case the land-order or land-orders. would be sufficient for the payment of the rent of a farm of 1,120 acres for a period of five years at sixpence* an. acre a year. The provisions of the Act relating to homesteads are intended to assist in the settlement of men of small means. If a selector desires to obtain a larger area than 160 acres, J of erson £10) ars of * Agricultural land may be obtained at threepence an acre, but for tillage- Larms, the better lands at about sixpence an acre are much to be preferred, 52 LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND. he must take up the remainder at some place not adjoining the homestead, and must perforin the conditions of occupa- tion of the other farm or farms by an agent or bailiff. SEPARATE HOMESTEADS.-In families where there are children of the age of eighteen years or over, a separate farm of 160 acres may be taken up by each such person, so that each may secure the freehold at the end of five years, as already described; but it must be remembered that the bona fide personal residence of the selector (i.e., in the case supposed, the child) is required for five years on each separate homestead, as well as an expenditure at the rate of ten shillings per acre within that period. LAND ORDERS PAY RENT OF GRAZING FARMS.-Land- orders are also available to their full nominal value in payment of the rent of grazing farms. For instance, the rent of a grazing farm of 2,560 acres at twopence (2d.)* an acre being £21 6s. 8d., the land-order given for a family counting as seven adults would pay the rent for more than six years and a half. APPLICATION FOR LAND ORDERS.—Persons intending to proceed from Great Britain to Queensland, and to pay their own passages in fuil, are advised to make application to the Agent-General for the Colony, No. 1, Westminster Chambers, Victoria street, London, S.W., for land-orders, but it should be remembered that these are not transfer- able, and can be of no use to anyone who does not settle on the land and fulfil the conditions as above described. Full-paying passengers from the United States of America, any European State, or any British possession can obtain the land-orders in the Colony. All persons holding land-orders are desired, on arrival at the principal port (Brisbane), to apply at once to the Department of Agriculture, which is under the control of the Minister for Lands; or, if they arrive at any other Queensland port, to the Immigration Officer or Land-Agent, from whom they can obtain all necessary information to assist them in the selection of land. VILLAGE SETTLEMENT.-Special provision is made for the settlement of little communities, so that the settlers may live together, for mutual protection and convenience, * The rents may exceed this in some cases, and is often less. GRAMMAR SCHOOL, MARYBOROUGH. · 53 LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND. JL. MARY BOROUGH. in townships on freehold town allotments, with farms of eighty acres contiguous or in close proximity to their residences. Land of the best description is now being surveyed in the most suitable localities for carrying out this village settlement, and land-orders are available for taking up and paying for the land in these townships. This scheme, it is believed, will be specially attractive to persons paying their own passages in full, and coming to Queensland from Europe and the United States of America. FREEHOLDS- ANNUAL PAYMENTS OF SIXPENCE AN ACRE SECURE FREEHOLDS—IMPROVEMENTS—TOWNSHIP ALLOTMENTS ONE ACRE.-In these agricultural townships the payments on account of rent are the same as on the homesteads before described-namely, five annual pay- ments of sixpence an acre each, to secure the freehold; the conditions of continuous bona fide personal residence and of improvements being as before stated; but one-fifth part of the required improvements on the farms may be made on the town allotments, which contain an area of not more than one acre. The townships, not exceeding two square miles in area, will provide space for churches, schools, and other requirements suitable for small communities of people, so that mutual assistance and protection may be secured. SELECTORS MUST BE BRITISH SUBJECTS.-It should be added that a selector, if an alien, must become a British subject by naturalisation (to which no obstacles are offered except in the case of Asiatics) before he can acquire the freehold of his farm. STATE FREE SCH001.8.—There is no State Church in Queensland, all denominations being placed on one com- mon platform. State schools are established in almost every part of the colony where there are as many as thirty or forty children. TRAINED TEACHERS-PRIMARY AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.- Well-trained male and female teachers are appointed by the State, and a good English education may be obtained in any of the State schools free of any charge. Grammar schools are liberally endowed by the Govern- ment, and scholarships are given annually, by competitive examination to pupils of the primary schools, entitling them to three years' free education in a grammar school. LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND. 55 PERSONAL RESIDENCE AND IMPROVEMENTS. – The applicant must personally reside on his selection for a con- secutive period of five years, and during that time must make improvements on the property to the value of ten shillings per acre. He may not be able to pay wages in making improvements, but the labour of his own hands is just as good in the eye of the law as the spending of current coin. So long as the improvements are made that is all that is required, and every swing of the axe, every blazing stump, every fallen tree, his own slab hut, the rough bush fence, the dam or well for water, the sty for the pig-all these are reckoned (with no grudging valua- tion) as part and parcel of the stipulated improvements, and he would be a sorry farmer and a most undesirable settler who could not succeed in making much more than £80 worth of improvements on a 160-acre farm in five years. ACCRUING BENEFIT OF LABOUR ON HOMESTEAD. For the consciousness that all this toil means money, all the labour is for his own and his family's benefit, stimulates him as he goes forth fresh to his toil in the morning, and cheers him when he returns home weary at night. Under- lying all his labour there is the strong stimulus and con- straining power of a self-interest which can be freely indulged without injury to anyone else ; there is the knowledge that he is not hewing, sawing, splitting, fencing, planting for someone else. There is no galling sense of a desperate attempt to do impossibilities under a grinding rack-rent, with a probability of ejectment as the end and reward of his toil. On Queensland soil, under Queensland skies, and by the helpful provisions of Queensland laws, he is making himself and those who are dependent upon him a home, which the labour of his hands is making brighter, better, and more valuable every day. But a homestead selection such as we have been speaking of is only one way in which an agricultural farm may be obtained. Should a selector wish for something bigger, the terms on which he can lease a farm extending to as much as 1,280 acres, are clearly stated in the pamphlet quoted above. The object of this system, of long lease with right of purchase, is to render every assistance to those who wish to engage in farming on a larger scale than 56 LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND. is possible on a homestead of 160 acres, but who do not wish to sink what little capital they have in purchasing from a private owner, or in immediate payment of pur- chase money to the Government. It would be difficult to devise anything better calcu- lated to meet these requirements, and at the same time avoid and prevent the monopoly of and speculation in the best agricultural lands of the colony. We will suppose a man to select an agricultural farm of the utmost extent that the law allows—1,280 acres. The rental at 6d. per acre (it may be 3d. or 4d.) would only amount to £32. per annum, and, subject to periodical re-assessment, he may, if he chooses, go on paying rent for the farm for the whole fifty years of his lease. Should he wish to make it a freehold the terms on which he can do so are clearly explained above. The law as it stands makes it possible for selectors to get on to their farms with the expenditure of very little money, leaving them whatever capital they have for the purchasing of tools, implements, household requisites, and a few head of stock. It gives the selector the opportunity of making the land pay for itself in what can be got out of it in a few industrious years. UTILITY OF CONDITIONS.—The British reader may wonder at the imposition of any conditions and restrictions concerning the acquisition of land in a vast colony like Queensland, but a moment's reflection will be enough to lead to the conclusion that it is better to have land unoccupied than to have it monopolised. A young land like Queensland should profit from the experience of older nations, and even by the experience of older colonies. The Government Statistician of New South Wales in his recent work, “ The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales," during the first hundred years of its history, dwells upon the fact that the alienation of land in that colony has not been accompanied by settlement in pro- portion:- “It will be observed that the alienation of the public estate by means of auction sales and unconditional selections after auction attained its highest point during the years 1875 to 1878. . . . . It was not until it became evident that this indiscriminate sale of the public estate was threatening to endanger the true interests of the country that this form of alienation was stopped. . . . . The fact forced itself upon the attention of the authorities that this wholesale alienation of Crown lands was not due to the demand created by the normal progress of settlement, LAND SELECTION IN QUEENSLAND. 57 but was the outcome of an unhealthy rivalry between the two principal classes of settlers-the pastoral tenants and the free selectors. Besides this, the estate of the country was being parted with without any con. ditions as to improvements or settlement, and as the great object of land sales was to aid settlement it was deemed advisable by the Government to temporarily suspend land sales by auction, and ultimately it was decided to sell only a limited area during any one year.” The truth and wisdom of these reflections are amply sustained by the facts of the case. In March, 1887, the returns for New South Wales showed that 977,664 acres of land were under cultivation, which was not quite equal to one acre per head of the population. The total amount of land alienated in that colony at that time was 41,285,464 acres ; that is, in plain words, forty-two times as much land had been alienated as was actually being made use of for agriculture. In Queensland the record was slightly better as to area under cultivation per head of population, but Queensland, though several times larger than that colony, had not alienated more than about one-fifth as much of its territory. New South Wales has already alienated nearly one-fourth of her territory, with a popu- lation of only about one million ; Victoria has alienated about one-half her territory amongst about the same popu- lation. It is not to be wondered at that in colonies where there is such an evident disposition to monopolise the possible home of millions by a few thousands, immigration should have been discountenanced and discontinued. LAND ALIENATION IN NEW ZEALAND.—New Zealand. has alienated nearly one-third of its territory, and has only a population of about 600,000 Europeans. Queensland has parted with about one-fiftieth part of her territory by alienation, and popular sentiment is strongly opposed to the reckless prodigality of the course which has been followed by the older colonies of the group. Land best suited for agricultural purposes is being set apart and made available for present and prospective requirements in every part of Queensland. Wherever in any district there is any considerable quantity of first-class agricultural land steps are being taken to prevent its being locked up in long leases for pastoral purposes; it must be so dealt with as to leave it readily available at any time when increased population shall require it for homesteads. and agricultural farms. :58 THE MINING INDUSTRIES. DISTANCE FROM PRESENT CENTRES OF POPULATION.- In every locality the advantages of roads, railways, and watercourses will be as fully secured to farmers as possible. There are millions of acres of as rich land as any in the world available for immediate selection. No one denies their adaptation to the growth of cereals, sugar, tobacco, cotton, fruits-one or all, as the case may be. It is only objected that many of these rich agricultural lands are too far away from any existing markets. To this we can only reply that vast changes are accomplished in young countries in a short time. The resources of Australia will be required to meet an infinitely greater demand than has yet been made upon them. Look at Canada! look at the United States! Flourishing cities and communities of to-day had their origin in solitudes far more distant from any city or market than any place in Queensland is. Let the inhabitants of Queensland be multiplied and the earth will yield her increase; then artificial comforts will be in demand, artizans will be wanted, and markets for labour and markets for produce and markets for fabrics will be created and multiplied. FREE GIFTS OF FARMS.- Let it be remembered that the Government, in some cases, offers the immigrant a good farm for nothing, and in other cases for next to nothing, and with a farm large enough and rich enough to grow nearly all that he wants, the selector may very well reconcile himself to comparative solitude for awhile, and to the absence of the commercial element, which really he can very easily do very well without. CHAPTER V. THE MINING INDUSTRIES. MINISTER FOR MINES.—THE CANOONA Rusi.-IN addition to its pastoral and agricultural resources Queens- land possesses mineral wealth of every kind. A geological description would be foreign to the purpose of this work. A highly qualified Government Geologist has been at work for some years past examining the geological formations of the goldfields and other localities. There is a Department of Mines and recently an additional Cabinet Minister has SCRUB SCENERY ON QUEENSLAND CREEK. THE MINING INDUSTRIES. 59 been created (Hon. W. 0. Hodgkinson), who, as Minister for Mines, will have this department under his control. By these means, and by the granting of rewards for new discoveries, and in every practical way, the mining industries of the colony are encouraged. For some time before the discovery of Gympie —the oldest goldfield in Queensland-there was a general impression that gold would be found. The first “rush" was to Canoona, on the Fitzroy River, in 1858. Thousands went there, but few found the precious metal in sufficient quantities to pay wages for their labour; this was when Queensland formed a part of New South Wales. DISCOVERY OF GYMPIE. – That rush did good service to the colony, notwithstanding that the immediate results were unsatisfactory. It originated the now flourishing town of Rockhampton, and introduced a number of practical diggers from other parts of Australia, some of whom pros- pected the country in different localities. Ten years after the Canoona rush a wandering digger named Nash dis- covered nuggets of the precious metal at Gympie. The usual rush, following this time upon the real discovery of payable gold, soon set in, and in a few weeks thousands of eager men were at work where unbroken bush solitude had reigned for ages. Soon after the discovery of alluvial gold, quartz reefs, the true matrix of gold, were found, and while on this goldfield alluvial digging has almost ceased, quartz reefing is an established industry which will be a source of work and wealth to thousands of miners and shareholders for very many years to come. Since the discovery of Gympie many other alluvial and quartz diggings have been found, while there is still an immense area to be “ prospected,” and every probability of the discovery of many more. The discoveries of the past were most welcome and in several instances most oppor- tune, amounting in some cases to national blessings and deliverances. Discovered in times of depression and im- pending disaster, their effect on trade, property, wages, and all the relations of social life was magical. CROYDON GOLD FIELD.-The latest discovery is at Croydon, away in the distant north-west interior of the colony. It is a region of rich and abundant reefs, and is likely to be the largest and best goldfield that has yet been 60 THE MINING INDUSTRIES. discovered in the colony. The following table will give some idea of the value of these various goldfields as means of employment and sources of enrichment to the com- munity :- Total Yield of Goldfields to end of 1886. Ounces of gold Gympie ... 1,221,331 Cloncurry, Calliope, &c. ... 289,098 Rockhampton Fields ... 89,834 Palmer 1,265,191 Ravenswood ... ... 316,825 Charters Towers and Cape River 1,460,600 Hodgkinson and Mulgrave ... 215,653 Etheridge and Woolgar 320,543 Croydon ... ... 2,144 : Total .. ... ... 5,181,219 The above yield, at the moderate average of £3 108. per oz., gives a grand total value of £18,134,266—an amount nearly equal to the present national debt of the colony. Gold is found dispersed in different localities all over the colony, and so well known are many of the mines for their richness and permanency that they have been purchased by English investors at very high prices. So regular are the crushings and so uniformly rich are the yields of some, that they furnish dividends every few weeks and give a return to the shareholders such as would never be dreamt of in any usual form of investment. The world-renowned Mount Morgan is the richest of Queensland's gold mines, and has been declared by competent authorities to contain many millions of pounds in value. The formation in which gold is found there is peculiar, and it is quite possible that it is only the first of the geological “blows” of the same formation that will yet be discovered. GOLD YIELD OF THE COLONY.–LIFE OF DIGGERS.- CAUTION TO NEW ARRIVALS.—There can be no reason- able doubt that Queensland is destined to be the richest and most permanent gold-producing colony in Australasia. The aggregated yields from 1882 to 1886 were 1,397,419 ounces of gold, valued at £4,890,966 At the latest com- putation of which there is any official record that is THE MINING INDUSTRIES. 62 at the end of 1886—there were in the colony 1,430 quartz reefs proved to be auriferous. Remembering the extent of the colony and its generally auriferous character, it will be seen how great are the probabilities of Queensland far surpassing all the other British possessions in the new discoveries and permanent values of her gold- fields. The independence and constant expectancy of something literally turning up make the search for gold irresistibly attractive to many. One grand feature of these goldfields is that they afford employment at good wages to thousands of practical miners, and are the chief support of many other trades and industries. They employed in 1886, 306 steam engines and ninety-five crushing machines. The life of a gold miner, while it is often rough and in some degree perilous, has many attractions even to the new comer. The newly arrived immigrant will do well, how- ever, to invest none of his limited means or hard-earned savings in gold-mining shares. If he can obtain work in any capacity on a goldfield well and good; far better to be content with weekly wages and watch and wait for awhile than to risk all in a venture in a claim of which and of the owners of which he knows nothing. There are many blanks in the lottery, and there are those with whom share selling is a study and a fraud. The auriferous ground of Queensland is practically unlimited, and the precious metal is found in geological formations in which it was not supposed to exist a few years ago. UTHER KINDS OF MINING. There are many mineral treasures in the colony which at present are almost untouched, owing to the greater attraction of gold, or because of the absence of local demand, and the cost of production and shipment to the markets of Europe. There are immense stores of copper and tin, but the production of both these has fallen off considerably, and the quantities exported are far less than would have been the case but for the abnormally low prices ruling in the foreign markets for several years past. A revival of demand and a return of paying prices would result in a largely increased export trade from Queensland mines. 62 THE MINING INDUSTRIES. COPPER, The principal discoveries of copper have been at Mount Perry, in the Burnett district; Peak Downs, in the South Kennedy district, distant about 250 miles from Rockhampton; and on the Cloncurry River, in the Burke district. Little is being done at any of these places, for- one or another of the reasons stated above, although in each of these localities there are mines of great richness. At Cloncurry, especially, the richness of the ore is. remarkable, containing as much as 50 per cent. of copper. At these mines heavy masses of pure copper are found, and in such abundance that, with the construction of a line to the nearest port, the ore could be sold at a figure which would considerably lower the market value of this metal. There have been years in which 15,000 to 20,000 tons of ore have been raised, but in 1886 the quantity was only 900 tons, of the estimated value of £7,000. The total value of the copper raised in Queensland to the end of the same year was £1,638,956, but there is no doubt that as much could be raised in one year as has been raised in thirty if there were a sufficient demand for it at remunerative prices, and if the best facilities for transport were available. Mines that have been sunk hundreds of feet deep, and works that have cost tens of thousands of pounds, are now lying idle. The probabilities are that this and other sources of wealth will never be fully utilized by the demands of an export trade. They are Nature's provision for the time when millions of human beings with all their wants shall create markets and industries for their sale and use on the con- tinent where they are found. TIN. This metal in its mineral state is found in different places widely scattered over the colony-at Stanthorpe in the south, and at Herberton, Cooktown, and other places. in the north and north-west. Stanthorpe, so far, has yielded alluvial or stream tin only, but Herberton has large quantities of both alluvial and lode tin in its neighbourhood. Both these places had their origin as towns in the discovery of this metal; but owing to the THE MINING INDUSTRIES. 63 non-discovery of any payable lodes of tin at Stanthorpe. the industry has declined there. In 1881 the value of this export was £2,168,790, being nearly double the value of the wool, and considerably more than twice the value of the gold exported during that year. In 1886 the value of the tin produced was £162,124, and the total value, from its first discovery in 1872 to the end of 1886, was £4,721,561. COAL. The discovery of this non-metallic mineral dates back to the earliest days of exploration and settlement, and coal beds are now known to abound in every direction. Geo- logical and practical investigations have proved the extent and quality of immense areas of coal, and the existence of many more is reasonably conjectured. COAL DEPOSITS IMMEASURABLE.—Coal-mining is now a firmly-established and rapidly-growing industry, chiefly confined to the neighbourhood of Ipswich, where it was first discovered and worked, and to the Burrum Coal Fields, in the neighbourhood of Maryborough. It is an industry in its infancy, as yet; but growing rapidly every year. No reliable estimate can be made of the quantity of this mineral, and it is only safe to say that the deposits known to exist will meet the domestic and manufacturing require- ments of millions of inhabitants for centuries. The supply may be considered practically boundless and inexhaustible, and as the years roll by the ever-increasing demand will afford employment to thousands. Queensland coal is used on the Government railways, on coasting and ocean- going steamers, in foundries and manufactories, and in the principal towns it is used for gas-making and domestic stoves. Chemical analyses show that the coal from different districts and of different geological periods and formations is specially suitable for heating purposes, steam, coke, or gas, as the case may be. COAL TRADE.—In the first year of Queensland's independent existence the total quantity of coal raised was 12,327 tons, of the value of £9,244; in 1886, the output was 218,206 tons; and the value £91,817. The total amount raised from Queensland mines was 1,451,960 64 THE MINING INDUSTRIES. tons; and the total value £677,634. The mines in opera- tion in the latter year occupied between 400 and 500 men below and between 100 and 200 above ground. Com- pared even with New South Wales, this source of wealth has hardly been touched, and, of course, there is no comparison of the production and consumption of coal in Queensland with the production and consumption in Eng- land. The time may, however, come, and even now may be within measurable distance, when, in order to maintain her pre-eminence as a manufacturing nation, England will need to import coal with other raw products. COAL TRADE OF NEW SOUTH WALES. — When the time comes that coal will be needed in and can profitably be carried to European centres of manufacture, Queensland will possess great advantages over her neighbours, her Northern coalfields and ports being much nearer the possible markets of future demand. Even now New South Wales ships coals to Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, South Sea Islands, Hong Kong, China, Java, Manilla, Peru, United States, and many other countries. The quantity of coal shipped to countries trading with New South Wales in 1886 was 1,735,865 tons, and the value was £947,002. With the increase of popula- tion at home and the increase of foreign trade, these two colonies will make rapid advances in the coal industry and trade. Queensland having every facility now which New South Wales has, and being much nearer some of the markets for Australian coal, the latter colony will have in Queensland a formidable competitor in this important branch of industry and commerce. The present home consumption is little more than a tapping and testing of a rich and an abundant store. Other metals and minerals, such as lead, silver, iron, bismuth, quicksilver, &c., are known to exist in considerable quantities, but we can do no more than allude to them. Time, capital, labour, and demand will be required for the development of these sources of wealth. SILVER ORE.-In 1886, 2,000 tons of silver ore were exported, valued at £56,242. The Ravenswood Gold Field contains rich deposits of silver-bearing galena ; ? SE SUGAR PLANTATION. OTHER INDUSTRIES ANE OCCUPATIONS. 65 and the other principal silver lodes, so far as known at present, are at the Herberton, the Star River, and the Sellheim River Silver Fields. With a country so vast, and resources so varied and rich, plain and careful description may appearlike interested exaggeration. But the plain and proved truth is that Queensland has not only immense surface area, with a capacity for producing suitable and abundant food for many millions of men and beasts, not only the pastoral and agricultural facilities for the supply of wool, cotton, leather, silk, &c., but in addition to these things there are underground supplies of mineral wealth sufficient to supply all the requirements of art, manufactures, currency, and every other requirement of civilised society to the millions of inhabitants who will one day be dependent upon these bounties for the supply of their wants, the materials of their craft, and the support of their trade and commerce. The mineral wealth of Queensland is not conjectural; it is proved, and it is immense. Hard-headed, hard-handed men are constantly going to and fro in the land, and these are the pioneers of discovery and settlement and new industries. In addition to these practical men the Government has taken care to secure the services of first-class scientific men in geology, botany, meteorology, and last, but not least, in agriculture; so that science and labour shall mutually aid and guide the toiler and explorer in his search for those things which play so important a part in civilised life, and which exist in every variety, in every direction, and in infinite abundance in Queensland. CHAPTER VI. OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. It will be necessary to glance at other industries and occupations in order to give a correct idea of Queensland as a market for labour and a country with many favourable openings for the investment of capital, in addition to its gold mines. It will be of interest to many contemplating emigration to know something more of the work and wages obtainable in this colony. The returns on which this infor- mation is given are based on the official statistics of 1886, 66 OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. and may be regarded as being fairly reliable. Trade and wages have, if anything, improved since then and with the highly favourable seasons which are now being experienced. there is every prospect of a return of general prosperity. 1. Government Services. No. of Persons. 88 647 140 299 710 87 71 216 217 474 431 591 185 Principal officers, heads of Government depart- ments, &c. ... ... ... ... ... Clerks, officers, accountants, &c. ... Architects, civil engineers, surveyors, draftsmen Subordinate officers such as sorters, lockers, &c. Police and detectives .. Officers at penal establishments ... Civil servants, undefined ... Local government officers ... Defence Force, various capacities... 2. Learned Professions. Such as clergymen, nuns, students, &c. ... Lawyers, barristers, law officers, &c. ... Doctors, medical students, dentists, &c. ... Civil engineers, analytical chemists, draftsmen, &c. State-school teachers, private teachers, gov- ernesses &c. .. ... ... ... Artists, engravers, photographers, &c. ... ... Musicians and music teachers, vocalists, &c. ... Actors, actresses, billiard table markers, &c. ... 3. Domestic Wives and widows of no special occupation ... Sons, daughters, relatives, not otherwise described Children under five years, not otherwise described Scholars attending State schools ... ... Scholars attending other schools, &c. ... Hotelkeepers, boarding-house keepers, &c. ... Domestic servants, office-keepers, porters, &c. ... 4. Commercial. Merchants, auctioneers, brokers, salesmen, &c. Shopkeepers, their wives, hawkers, &c. ... Railway servants, drivers, stokers, clerks, &c. ... Draymen, carters, cabmen, grooms, &c. 2091 224 307 188 34,643 18,133 43,071 43,217 13,468 2,959 13,928 4,424 3,008 1,554 5,103 OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS, 67 3,976 407 1,318 192 10530 44 27 9,239 5,612 6,448 7,617 2,813 7,794 5. Marine, &c. Pilots, lighthouse-keepers, seamen, lumpers, &c. Bond-keepers and others connected with storage Messengers, errand boys, telegraph service, &c. 6. Agricultural. Sugar planters ... Others engaged in production of sugar ... Vignerons ... " Arrowroot planters · Cotton planters ... Farmers and market gardeners Farmers' wives living on farms. Farmers' sons, daughters, &c., living on farms Farm servants, labourers, &c. ... ... 7. Pastoral. Squatters and graziers with their families Managers, overseers, servants, labourers, &c. ... . 8. Land Dealers, fc. Land-brokers, estate agents, &c. ... ... ... Land surveyors, and assistants ... ... ... Grubbers, bushmen, &c. Others engaged on land, but not cultivating or grazing ... ... ... ... 9. Engaged about animals, fc. Horse-dealers, surgeons, farriers, jockeys, &c. Game and rabbit catchers and killers ... Fishermen ... ... ... ... ... Others engaged about animals ... ... 10. Industrial. Working and dealing in art and mechanical pro- ductions, such as printers, publishers, book- binders, booksellers, wood-carvers, carving, pattern-making, &c. ... ... ... Mechanical engineers, tool makers, &c. ... Coach-makers, saddlers, wheelwrights, &c. Shipbuilders, ship-chandlers, sailmakers, &c. House builders, carpenters, joiners, &c. ... Furniture makers, cabinet-makers, &c. ... 37 465 937 199 770 13 718 1,663 1,720 661 1,690 405 7,991 716 68 OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. 21 50 Working and dealing in chemicals Manchester warehousemen, drapers, silk dealers &c. ... 1,202 Tailors, machinists, and others working and deals , ing in dress ... ... ... ... ... 6,572 Working and dealing in fibrous materials ... Working and dealing in food and drinks, such as brewers, bakers, poulterers, distillers, sugar refiners, &c. ... ... ... ... ... 5,706 Working and dealing in animal and vegetable substances, such as soap boilers, fellmongers, tanners, &c. ; French polishers, japanners, turners, hay and straw dealers, &c. ... 5,736 Working and dealing in minerals, such as miners, goldsmiths, tinsmiths, &c. ... ... ... 18,591 As stated above, these figures are based on the census returns of 1886, but they are altered in method of arrange- ment, very much abbreviated, and in some instances items have been omitted altogether. It would only have been misleading, for instance, to have said there was one capitalist in Queensland, or 758 land proprietors, whereas in fact there are scores of the former and thousands of the latter in the colony. These are some of the vagaries of census returns. FOREGOING NUMBERS APPROXIMATE.-The descrip- tions and numbers are general and approximate, and are quoted simply to give the British artizan and labourer some idea of the variety of vocations engaged in in this young country. The reader will notice that they include in some shape nearly all the trades and employments of the Old Country, and others which are peculiar to the colonies. TOBACCO FACTORIES.-In some of the industries mentioned very little has been done, and the openings for the establishment of new industries are many. At the end of 1886 there were only seven tobacco factories, and the output of the whole was only 597 cwt. of tobacco. The imports of this article for the same year were 8,478 cwt. 25 lbs., and 51,210 lbs. of cigars, and these were subject to a duty of 2s. 6d. and 5s. per lb. respectively. In different districts the tobacco plant grows luxuriantly. The average price for "fillers” in Brisbane is about 4d., OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. and for “wrappers” 8d., but sometimes for extra good quality as much as 1s. to ls. 3d. perlb, has been paid. Smoking is perhaps more indulged in in the colonies than in England; the shepherd in his solitude, the digger, stockman, farmer, squatter, sailor, bushman, mechanic, labourer, merchant, clerk, men in all the callings and conditions of life find in pipe, cigar, or cigarette companionship and solace in the free use of this favourite plant. Sufficient capital, the very best machinery, first-class workmanship, and proper management combined should result in the growth of a well-paying industry, as the demand is constant and ever- increasing Tobacco MANUFACTURE IN NEW SOUTH WALES.- There is only one tobacco factory in the colony owned by a limited liability company, and its operations have been limited and are now suspended, owing to its insufficient working capital. In New South Wales there were in 1886, seventeen tobacco factories, nine cigar and cigarette factories, employing 703 hands, and with the aid of the proper machinery 1,853,407 lbs. of colonial leaf and 651,514 lbs. of imported leaf were manufactured into 2,044,240 lbs. of tobacco and 12,465 lbs. of cigars and cigarettes, the total value being £313,314. These figures serve to show what might be done in Queensland, where both the growing and manufacturing might be carried on as easily, as profitably, and as extensively in proportion as in New South Wales. WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE.—There is only one woollen factory in the colony, and yet Queensland exported during the same year over 28,000,000 lbs. in weight of wool of the estimated value of £1,413,908, and imported in the same year £93,062 worth of woollen piece goods and £23,582 worth of blankets. It is surely an anomaly for a country that requires, say, £120,000 worth of woollen goods every year to send its raw material 16,000 miles away, and then have to bring whatit needs of the manufactured goods 16,000 miles back again, and yet this is an anomaly that is found more or less in all the Australasian colonies. FISH IMPORTS.—THE FISHERIES ACT, NEW ZEA- LAND.—Tinned, salted, and dried fish imported in the same year amounted to £31,543, and the only kind of fish that 70 OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. was exported, which was the produce of Queensland waters, was oysters to the value of £8,533. Edible fish of many varieties abound in the creeks and rivers, and off the coast, and if there were anything like the pressure of necessity that obtains in largely populated countries, the fishing industry would afford employment to thousands and supply food to tens of thousands. Fish can often be obtained very cheaply in Brisbane, but the supply in other places is fitful and uncertain, and any earnest attempts at à fish preserving and exporting trade have not yet been made. This also is a neglected industry in the other colonies, but in New Zealand “The Fisheries Encourage- ment Act” was passed in 1885, and is to remain in force for seven years from that date. Its chief feature is the granting of bonuses for the establishment of fish-canning and curing industries, and the Act has already resulted in enterprise and encouraging results in that direction. In view of the “woful want” of the world the “wilful waste” of resource in this matter is the more to be regretted. Schnapper, groper, mullet, perch, gar, cod, jew, whiting, and many other varieties abound, and without prolonged voyages and without exposure and peril such as are incidental to the fisheries of the Northern Seas, tens of thousands of tons of some of the finest varieties of fish known could easily be caught and cured every year. CHEMICAL WORKS. — Considerable quantities of chemicals are imported annually, many of which could be easily and profitably manufactured in the colony. £9162 worth of sulphuric and other acids alone were imported in one year, and £28,545 worth of drugs. Attempts have been made to establish chemical works, but in this case property and industry are in antagonism-strong and unreasonable prejudice against the creation of such factories in any locality that would be suitable and convenient has hitherto prevented their establishment. There is no powder or ammunition factory in the colony, and the value of this class of goods imported in 1886 was £34,956. BREWERIES. — There are twenty-two breweries in operation doing a large trade, yet of beer in bottle and in wood £158,122 was expended in importations of this article of consumption. The imports amounted to 902,876 • 72 OTHET INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. OTHER POSSIBLE BUT NEGLECTED INDUSTRIES. Amongst other multitudinous openings for capital and enterprise we may mention that there are no glass-works, hosiery works, iron-works (smelting from the ore), kerosine works, oil and colour works, paper works, salt works, starch works, and many others that might be mentioned are wonderfully and invitingly conspicuous by their absence. There is an abundance of shops but a scarcity of factories, too many competing in the selling and too few engaged in the manufacturing and producing of the com- modities of life. Interest at high rates on well secured loans is so easily obtained, and land speculation is so rife, that manufacturing industries are neglected. Outside capital and Old World enterprise are needed. Men of little means are reluctant to venture their all in experiments when they know how difficult it often is to overcome the prejudice against colonial-made goods, however excellent the quality may be. But this prejudice may be overcome by practical knowledge, artistic skill, and production of articles in demand at prices that can compete with the prices charged for imported goods of the same class. The Ipswich Woollen Factory has overcome it, after years of persistent struggle, and now its fabrics are in great demand. The engineers of the colony have overcome it, and in addition to bridges, barges, boilers, engines, dredges, and many other kinds of works, the Government has recently entrusted them with the manufacture of 75 locomotives for the Government railways. Railway carriages, luggage vans, goods and coal waggons, have long ago ceased to be imported, and are now made at the Government workshops or by private firms. Very marked has been the success of many men in Queensland who, even with little means, but with un- flagging application and industry have established some of the oldest and best known firms, and some of the chief existing industries of the colony. GOVERNMENT WORKS.—LOCAL GOVERNMENT WORKS. -The Government is the largest employer of labour, in consequence of so many things being done by the Govern- ment which in older countries are undertaken by private SAWMILL. 74 OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. RATES OF WAGES.—A few words on the ruling rates of wages, which is a matter af great interest to many, will form a fitting conclusion to this chapter. It may be safely said that, all things considered, the wages paid, the delightful climate, the facility with which land and cottages can be acquired, the cheapness of food and clothing, and all the possible advancement of the future, labourers are better off in Queensland than artizans are in England; while the position of artizans is propor- tionately better than in the “Old Country.” The rates of wages given below are obtained from official sources, based on the fullest information, and may be regarded as being reliable. WAGES. Average Rates of Labour in Queensland, 1886. ARTIZAN LABOUR. PER DIEM. Tailors 10s. Masons ... 10s. Plasterers ... 10s. Bricklayers Carpenters lls. Painters ... 10s. Blacksmiths lls. Wheelwrights Brickmakers Bookbinders Watchmakers Whitesmiths Coopers ... 10s. Shoemakers Engineers ... Cabinet-makers ... 12s. Brassfounders ... Agricultural Labour. Average wages per annum, with board and lodging. 11s. 10s. :::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::: 78. 10s. 10s. 10s. 9s. 12s. 12s. o Farm Labourers Ploughmen Reapers .... Mowers ... Threshers Bush Carpenters ... 40 , 52 ... 40 ... 40 $$ OTHER INDUSTRIES AND OCCUPATIONS. 75 ... 40 to 50 Pastoral Labour. Shepherds ... ... ... ... Stock-keepers Hut-keepers ... ... ... Generally useful men ... ... 30 , 40 Sheepwasher, per diem ... ... 5 to Shearers, per 100 sheep sheared Servants-Males and Married couples. Married Couples, without family Married couples, with families Men cooks, for hotels ... ... Grooms and gardeners Gardeners, per diem, without board ... Females. Barmaids Cooks ... ... Laundresses General Servants Housemaids ... Nursemaids Farm-house servants ... Dairy women ... Miscellaneous Labour. Quarrymen ... ... 10s. per diem. General Labourers ... 6s. to 78. 6d. per diem. Seamen ... ... ... £4 to £6 per month These may be taken as fair average quotations, though in some branches it sometimes happens that men will work for less rather than not be working at all. The general public, however, seem to regard these as being fair standand wages, and with ordinary prosperity they are likely to remain unchanged for a long time to come. Owing to the fluctuations of trade men are sometimes unable to obtain work at their own special handicraft, but something will turn up, and Queensland is a land where a man must not and need not stick fast if he cannot obtain employment in his own particular line of business. 76 PUBLIC WORKS AND FINANCE. EIGHT HOURS PER DIEM.-Eight hours per diem is the recognised limit of work with artisans and their labourers, anything beyond that being specially paid for by the employer as overtime. There are the usual workmen's protective and benefit societies, and the interests of mem- bers are attended to and guarded with zealous care. Workmen in the bush and on farms, as is usual all the world over, work longer hours, but probably not with such continuous application, and it may be safely stated as a general truth that in all the relations of life the disposi. tion appears to be to expect a fair day's work only for a fair day's pay. HONOURABLE INDUSTRY.—Many and various are the callings and occupations of the people. There are no strongly and clearly defined class distinctions. The State schools begin the work of levelling upwards. The children of labourer and landlord, artisan and merchant, meet on terms of perfect equality, learn the same lessons, compete for the same rewards and honours. Wealth and reverses are possible to all and the chances of life are not destroyed by one disaster. Ignoble and unworthy class distinctions, assumption and pretence and arrogance exist, in some measure, but the institutions and laws of the land do not recognise or encourage them; they are foreign to the spirit, temper, and genius of young Australia. All honest work is honourable, and many men now occupying leading positions in the various walks of life-merchants, pastoralists, profes- sional men, legislators—are not ashamed to have it known that they once tended sheep, drove a team of bullocks, “humped their swag,” or did any one of the many forms of hard work which had to be done before they reached the comfort, competency and honours of their manhood's prime or their declining years. CHAPTER VII. PUBLIC WORKS AND FINANCE. QUEENSLAND LOANS.—AMOUNT PER HEAD OF POPU- LATION.— With the few inhabitants constituting the present population of the colony the wonder is that so many public works have been undertaken, and many of them successfully completed. These works could never have TI SOUTHERN AND WESTERN RAILWAY. PUBLIC WORKS AND FINNCE. 77 been entered upon if the Governments of the day had had to depend upon revenue alone. The answer is, that Queensland, in common with the other colonies, has not only been a large buyer in English commercial markets, but also a large borrower from time to time in the English money market. The total amount of loans which had been authorised by the Legislative Assembly to the end of 1886 was £26,550,850. Of this total amount £20,820,850 had been sold, leaving £5,730,000 of the last loan authorised which has not yet been offered. This amount of indebtedness has been accumulating in loans of various amounts since 1886, and cost, in being issued below par, £1,236,055 15s. “ The Loan Bill of 1884" was the largest by far that has yet been passed, and authorised the borrowing of £9,980,000. This loan has not yet been disposed of nor offered to the public to the extent of one- half of the amount sanctioned, over five and a-half millions being yet available for further requirements. The first loan does not fall due until 1891, but interest on the entire debt of the colony has to be paid annually out of revenue, and for the one year, 1886, amounted to £811,565. This is a heavy obligation for a young and small community, being equal to £64 9s. 9d. per head of population loan indebtedness, and £2 10s. 3d. per head per annum for interest. EXPENDITURE OF LOAN MONEY.-The system of estimating a country's financial position by its loan indebtedness per head of population is, however, a defective one, and a totally misleading one when applied to the colonies of Australasia; it is like estimating a business firm's position by taking careful note of its bills current and open accounts owing, and ignoring its trade, its properties, and ail its diversified and substantial assets. Practically the British public have disregarded this mode of judging the position and solvency of national borrowers. Knowing that so far as the colonies are concerned the borrowed money is applied to works of peace, progress, and development, some of which will® erelong be highly profitable to the colony financially also, the various loans applied for have been granted without grudging and without fear. For the first two loans of 1866 and 1870, Queensland pays 6 per cent., and for all subsequent loans PUBLIC WORKS AND FINANCE. · RAILWAY WORKS. At the end of 1836 Queensland had 1,555 miles of railway completed and opened, and 371 miles in progress, on which £10,716,352 have already been expended. In 1876 Queensland had only 300 miles of railway, and the enterprise and energy displayed in thus opening the interior by the best means of communi- cation cannot but result in immensely increased value to the private properties and unalienated Crown lands of the interior. RAILWAY RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURE.—PosT AND TELEGRAPH SERVICE.—These railways necessitate the running of 189 locomotives, 206 passenger carriages, and 2,709 goods waggons. The total receipts from all sources of traffic for the ten years ending 1886 were £4,221,605 ls., and the total working expenses £2,601,483 15s. 7d. It will thus be seen that already the railways far more than pay all working expenses and contribute largely to the interest of their cost of construction. With closer settle- ment, resulting from the better use of the agricultural and grazing lands of the interior, the traffic will undoubtedly be increased in a much greater ratio than the increase of work- ing expenses, and the margin available for interest will become greater in consequence. Next iu importance and utility the colony had, in the same year, 8,225 miles of telegraph line, along which in the one year were trans- mitted 849,539 ordinary messages of the value to the revenue of £78,657 135. 9d. The Post and Telegraph Department is worked at a loss, owing chiefly to the great cost of working the inland and scattered districts of the bush, entailing heavy expenditure in the carriage by horse service of correspondence and printed matter in the shape of newspapers, &c. But it is considered better to submit to a loss for a time than to impose heavy postal rates on letters or any postal charge on newspapers, which would have the effect of depriving many of useful information. From loan and revenue, roads have been constructed, harbours and rivers have been made navigable, the coast and channels have been lighted and buoyed, solid and costly public buildings have been erected, bridges have been built, and a multitude of other important works have been done, all tending to the constant improvement of the public estate, 80 BRISBANE AND OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ETC. and affording facilities to trade and communication which will tell more and more favourably on the resources and revenue of the colony every year. PRESENT EXPENDITURE FOR FUTURE BENEFITS.—The expenditure of borrowed money is, of course, one cause of prosperity, and the Government is the largest employer of labour. It could hardly be otherwise in a young country bent on progression. Present labour and outlay are laying the foundations of future stability, strong and deep, and when the days come that the loans must be repaid, the colony's ability to pay or to borrow will be greater than it is now. There will be more to share the burdens, as there will be more to share the blessings, of the spirited enter- prise and liberal policy of public works of the present day. There are millions of acres of Crown lands that are being constantly improved by this expenditure, and from which ample means to pay off all loans could be raised in due course, if it were ever found necessary or advisable to part with the public estate for such a purpose. Meanwhile, in the certain knowledge that these lands cannot diminish in value, but will become more and more valuable through public expenditure and increased settlement, the wisest policy appears to have been adopted in holding them in perpetuity for the “greatest good of the greatest number.” CHAPTER VIII. BRISBANE-OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS- CONCLUSION. This handbook would be seriously incomplete if it did not afford to the intending emigrant some brief information as to the social life of the colony, its political, civil, educa- tional and religious institutions. Some idea of these matters may be gathered from the few pages of this concluding chapter. While Queensland is pre-eminently a country where steady perseverance and work are essential to success, yet a man who aspires to something above the perpetual routine of daily toil for himself and family wiĩl make none the worse a colonist. But the aspiration must not be mere longing for something that is not, resulting in dissatisfac- tion with what is. The aspiration must be an inspiration, BRISBANE AND OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ETC.. 81 a laudable ambition impelling to effort and ignoring inci- dental difficulties; it must not eventuate in sitting down and looking on, waiting the while for something to “turn up." NECESSITY FOR INDUSTRY AND ENERGY.-It must turn up something itself, and ascertain on its own account what the soil will grow, what the drift contains, where the reef runs. If a desire for domestic comfort, educational advantages, religious services and the various institutions of civilisation be combined with energy and industry in the ordinary duties of daily life, the man will make none the worse a farmer or mechanic or miner. Indeed it is men of this class that make the best settlers, for to them the routine of daily work is made not merely tolerable but enjoyable by the laudable ambition of securing comfort, education, position, competency, for themselves or their children, after the few years of “ roughing it " which may have to be submitted to at first. GROWTII OF BRISBANE.-Should he land in Brisbane in the first instance the newly-arrived immigrant will probably be astonished at the size of Queensland's capital, the beauty of its surrounding scenery, and the energy and enterprise apparent in every direction. The growth of the capital cities of Australia is something wonderful, and had the settlement of the land in each colony kept pace with the growth of the chief cities there would have been hundreds of happy homes in the bush where there are only scattered dwellings to-day. Some idea of the rapid growth of Brisbane in its dimensions, population and commerce may be obtained from the perusal of the following extract from the Gazette published in Sydney in December, 1841–followed by a reference to the latest census and Custom returns. This extract refers to a time eighteen years prior to the granting of separation, and the article was no doubt con- sidered by many at the time to be a good specimen of sanguine colonial “ blow”; but how vastly has the result exceeded the prediction ! “A settlement on the east coast of Australia, situated in latitude south 27 degrees 30 minutes and longitude 153 degrees 10 minutes, has been a penal settlement for about twenty years. All the prisoners have lately been sent away, and Mr. Dixon and party have been upwards of 82 BRISBANE AND OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ETC. two years carrying on a survey, preparatory to its being thrown open for location. The climate is fine and healthy, the soil of the richest description, clothed with abundance of grass, and well watered, having the fine rivers Brisbane and Logan navigable for steamers a considerable distance from the coast, on the banks of which coal, lime and iron can be obtained. The facilities offered by this beautiful part of the colony have induced an immense number of large stockholders to take up squatting licenses both on the east and west sides of the Great Dividing Range, and it is supposed that upwards of 1,000 bales of wool will be shipped at Brisbane Town after the present shearing is over. Brisbane Town, the present settlement, is situated about sixteen miles up the Brisbane River, pleasantly on rising ground, and consisting of several good and substantial buildings. The present population, consisting of civil officers, troops and convicts, amounts to about 280 souls. Little doubt remains but that this will soon, when open, become a fine flourishing settlement." Such was Brisbane in 1841! What is it now? A queenly city with streets, gardens, villas, warehouses, stores, churches, banks, and Government buildings, many of which, for grace, beauty, and solidity, are not to be excelled by many an important English town, the outcome of centuries of existence. TRADE AND POPULATION OF BRISBANE.-Instead of 1,000 bales of wool as in 1841 over 28,000,000 pounds weight was shipped in 1886 from the colony. Instead of several good and substantial buildings, the estimated total value of the rateable property of Brisbane is over £7,000,000, and instead of a population of 290 souls as then it has within the municipal boundaries over 32,000 inhabi- tants and about 6,000 dwellings. The population of the city and suburbs within a radius of five miles from the General Post Office was at the last census 73,619. The Brisbane River is spanned by a costly iron bridge and the foot and vehicular traffic across it is very large. The river itself is navigable right up to the wharves of the city for vessels of almost any tonnage, and the steamers of the British India Company berth right in the heart of the city. There are many other coastal and inland towns, the names of which in some cases are almost synonyms to colonists of the particular discoveries, pursuits, or indus- tries which called them into existence, or for which they are particularly noted. IPSWICH.-WOOLLEN FACTORY.-RESOURCES OF THE IPSWICH DISTRICT.-Ipswich, on the Bremer River, and about twenty-four miles distant from Brisbane, is the centre BRISBANE AND OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ETC. 83 of an old and extensive farming district. It is surrounded by farming hamlets, and was at one time the chief cotton. growing district. Now it is a steadily prosperous town of 7,576 inhabitants, dependent chiefly on the surrounding farms and collieries; this being also the district where coal mining is most extensively carried on. It has also exten- sive Government railway workshops, which furnish steady employment to a large number of fitters, carriage builders, smiths, and mechanics of various kinds. It may be here stated that the whole of the rolling-stock for Queensland railways will, in all probability, soon be made in the colony. There are several firms of railway carriage and truck builders, and contracts for seventy-five locomotives have been entered into between the Government and Brisbane and Ipswich firms. At Ipswich is situated also the only woollen factory in the colony. For many years the direc- tors had hard uphill work, and the shareholders had to be content to do without any return on their investments. The principal reason of this was the prejudice existing against colonial-made tweed. Perseverance ultimately conquered, and the mill is now an established institution, and a dividend-paying concern. It is hoped by all who note the anomalies of Queensland's imports and exports, and who wish to see this grand country making the best of its resources, that this is only the first of many mills of the same kind. Wool, water, and coal are abundant, and in the years to come the Bremer may be as the Aire, and Ipswich as the Leeds, and West Moreton as the West Riding in the quantity and quality of their manufactures. Ipswich is distant by rail about twenty-three miles from Brisbane. ToowOOMBA AND WARWICK.—ALLORA.—RAILWAY COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER COLONIES.-Toowoomba and Warwick are situated on the Darling Downs, and are amongst the “health resorts” of Queensland. Toowoomba is about 2,000 feet and Warwick about 1,500 feet above the sea level. They are distant from Brisbane 100 and 166 miles, respectively, by rail. They are surrounded by squatters' stations and farms, the pastoral and agricultural interests having originated them and being their principal support. They enjoy a milder climate in summer, but have a severer winter season than the towns situated on the coast lands 84 BRISBANE AND OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ETC. between the sea and the Great Dividing Range. Laid out with wide parallel and rectangular streets, they have. always about them an appearance of steady prosperity. They are remarkable for the variety and quantity of fruits: grown there in addition to the ordinary Queensland agri.. culture. Warwick and Allora are in the midst of the principal wheat-growing and flour-milling district in the colony. The Southern and Western Railway system, being one of the grand trunk lines running from the coast into the interior, has been constructed as far as Charleville, and connects Brisbane with Ipswich, Toowoomba, War. wick, Stanthorpe, Dalby, Roma, Mitchell, and Charleville. Brisbane is also now connected with Sydney (a distance of 723 miles) and the southern colonies by railway. The distance from Brisbane to Roma is 318 miles, and the line from Roma continues a further distance inland of 250 miles. Even then, though 92 miles long, and going almost due west, the line does not reach half the distance to the western boundary. MARYBOROUGH. Further up the coast, situated on the Mary River, is the town of Maryborough, the centre of large farming, sugar-growing, and timber-getting industries; and connected with it by rail is the town of Gympie, distant from Maryborough about 61 miles. There are several lines of railway tapping the agricultural lands and coal country in the neighbourhood of Maryborough. Further up the coast again is Bundaberg, another grand agricultural district, devoted chiefly to sugar and maize. The soil is of the best, and it has the advantages of a railway connecting it with Maryborough, and another connecting it with the Mount Perry Copper Mines. ROCKHAMPTON.- Further north again is Rockhamp- ton, on the Fitzroy River. It is chiefly dependent upon the rich pastoral country in the interior, and a number of small gold diggings which surround it. It is only a few miles distant from Mount Morgan gold mine--more correctly a hill of gold-of fabulous richness and world- wide fame. Rockhampton is the port and eastern terminus of the second trunk line known as the Central Railway, the total length of which to its present terminus, Barcal- dine, is about 358 miles. 86 BRISBANE AND OTHER PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ETC. COOKTOWN.-Cooktown is the last town of importada northward, and will be likely to grow into considerab.. importance for shipping purposes, owing to its proximity - the Pacific Islands, Torres Straits, and the settlements New Guinea. At the end of 1886 it had railway come munication with the Western interior by a railway 31 miles: in length. FIRST IMPRESSIONS. — Supposing that he lands in Brisbane, the first feeling of the immigrant as he approaches the city from Moreton Bay will be one of pleasure. The sparkling waves of the sheltered anchorage, with the first glimpses of the new land, the cooling breeze, the shining river, the verdant foliage, then the picturesque villas of well-to-do citizens, and the neat cottages of working-men, all overarched by the clear blue sky, form a picture the memory and first impression of which will not be readily effaced. His next feeling will be one of surprise-unless he be one of those self-sufficient individuals who profess never to be surprised at anything. New arrivals generally admit that they did not expect to see such a city, so extensive and so substantial. Well. paved streets, busy wharves, drays, abs, 'buses, tram-- ways, and, in short, all the surroundings of advanced civilisation—the result of the liberal expenditure of money by the Government, the municipal council, and private individuals. DISAPPOINTMENTS. — NEED OF PRESSURE TO PRC-- MOTE SETTLEMENT.- Then after a day or two the immi. grant will set about the real object which he had in view in coming out-he will begin to look for employment. And now the chances are that his admiration will be modified, and his first disappointment will put his cheer- fulness and courage to the test. He may search all over, and ask everywhere, and be willing to work at almost anything for almost anything, and yet he may be unable to get a “ billet” of any kind in the capital. There is no scarcity of shop hands, accountants, clerks, artisans, or labourers in Brisbane. Of course in the changes which are constantly taking place, many from time to time, sooner or latter, do obtain employment in some capacity in Brisbane, but we wish to impress the fact deeply on the CONCLUSION. 89 ---- triumphs and future hopes—the aspirations and endeavours of a young free land, conscious of its growing strength, proud of its resources, and sanguine of its future. CONCLUSION.–The reader must now decide for him- self, and he must use his own judgment. There are those who affirm our national system of immigration to be a great folly and a great wrong to those already here - and '80, no doubt, there were when Queensland had not half the population that it has now. Let the reader bear in mind the facts placed before him in the chapter dealing with the extent and population of the colony. To stop immigration to Queensland would be to withhold, without sufficient cause, the helping hand by means of which most of the inhabitants of the colony have been delivered from the hopeless toil and ever-imminent possibility of poverty in the old land. There are many who grunnble and com- plain, but they know perfectly well that they could never have been, and never have had, in Great Britain what they are and what they possess in Queensland. As the reader peruses these pages in his dinner-hour in the factory, or by the fitful firelight of his home on some winter night, let him contrast what is with what may be. And to do the alternative condition justice, he must feel in anticipation the thrill of pride and satisfaction of a man owning the land he tills and the habitation in which he dwells. He must fancy himself far away from a land of “Sullen skies And fields without a flower”- and lanes and streets knee-deep in snow or sludge, to a land which should have some other name than winter for that season of the year so bright and bracing and beautiful -a land of blue skies and prolific soil; a community in which the highest positions and honours are open to him or his children ; a land where comfort and true enjoyment of life are possible to all, and where riches and honour are impossible to none. - CONDITIONS FOR TAKING UP LAND. The following Table will show at a glance the conditions on which Ġrazing Farms and Agricultural Farms can be taken up in the Colony under the Queensland Crown Lands Act of 1884, and the Amending Act of 1885-6:- Nature of Tenure. Area. Term of Lease. Rent. Re-assessment of Rent. Conditions. How made Freehold. Grazing ... 20,000 acres 30 years, id, mini-| At 10 years, and continuous occupation by Cannot; but lease may be sold, sub- maximum transfer- mum every 5 after self or bailiff, and fenced divided, mortgaged, or, with con- able. wards, but no within 3 years sent of Land Board, let or sublet. increase over 50 per cent. Agricultu- ral Farms 20 to acres 1,280 50 years, 3d. mini- At 12 years, transfer- mum ditto able. Selector must be 18. Con- Fixed price, minimum 20s. to 30s. an tinuous occupation by self acre, 10 years' residence by lessee or bailiff; fence, or equal, or qualified transferee. If not within 5 years availed within 12 years, price re- adjusted like rent. All rent to be counted in part payment. May be sold, subdivided, mortgaged, or with consent of Land Board sublet. 6d. Small Free- Not over 160 holds acres (Home- steads) 6d. an acre for 5 years and Personal residence and improvements survey fee, £7 78. 6d.. of the value of 10s.; can be trans- spread over 5 years. Deed ferred, but in that case full perio of fee, 30s. residence (10 years) and full payment. ... 6d. . Village Set- 80 acres maxi- tlement mum, and 1 allotment in town 6d. an acre for 5 years, The same ; but one-fifth may be survey and deed fee spread made on Town Lot. over 5 years PAPERS FOR THE PEOPLE BY PRACTICAL MEN ON AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND PASTORAL FARMING IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA. PINE-APPLE CULTIVATION. 95 in the old country a pick-hoe, but better known here as a chipping-hoe. The planter then picks out the holes with his hoe about four inches deep, taking care to keep them in line by means of the three sticks, and plants the suckers as he goes along, making them firm by pressing his feet on each side of the sucker. In this way a good workman will plant about 500 suckers in a day of eight hours. It is usual to plant from 2,000 to 3,000 suckers per acre in rows from 4 feet by 8 feet to 6 feet by 2 feet, according to the kind of soil and variety of pine, strong growers, of course, requiring the greater distance. January and Feb- ruary are the best months for planting, for the reason that the suckers are then more easily procurable, and the soil being warm the plant commences to root at once and gets well established before the winter sets in. The fol- lowing summer many of the strongest suckers will pro- duce fruit, though probably only of second class as regards size; still they will produce something. The next spring and summer the owner may expect the majority of the plants to produce one good fruit, and, supposing him to have planted 3,000 suckers per acre, he may calculate on having 2,000 fit for market. The average market price at the present time is 2s. 6d. to 3s. per dozen. His receipts would thus be about £20 per acre. * If the plantation has been well cared for in the way of being ploughed and scarified from time to time, and kept free of weeds, after the first cutting of fruit the plants will throw up about four or five suckers to each plant, and each of these suckers will produce a fruit the following spring or summer. These fruits will not be quite so large, but the owner may safely calculate on a return of sixpence per plant, or about £75 per acre. Opinion differs con- siderably as to the number of suckers that should be planted per acre, but the above estimate is taken from the basis of my own practice. In a few years the plants become a solid mass, and a track between the beds is kept open only by trimming the plants with a reaping hook. Hitherto no disease that we know of has attacked the pine-apple. Some old plantations which have been plavted twenty-five years, and produced a large crop annually, are now showing symptoms of decay, andthe owners are wonder- , * The price to be obtained for pines, and the profit of cultivating this fruit as here given, are considered to be over-estimated. 96 PINE-APPLE CULTIVATION. crop af any place the can ing what can be the cause, but surely no practical man can expect any plant to continue to produce a remunerative crop after twenty-five years on the same soil. I would advise intending settlers not to plant a large area at the outset, unless they have means to carry it out well, but to begin with, say, three acres, and gradually work along year by year until the intended area is planted, always remembering that thorough cultivation is the first principle of success. After the pines are planted, a man with one horse and a small plough and a scarifier will be able to look after and keep in order ten acres of planted land. The principal varieties of pine-apples grown in Queens. land are:- RIPLEY QUEEN.—A first-class pine in every respect, with fine broad foliage and dwarf habit. A good winter bearer; fruit large; flesh fine and of excellent quality. COMMON QUEEN.–Of which there are several varieties. all being very productive, and of good average quality. SMOOTHED-LEAVED CAYENNE. — Strong grower. A large showy fruit, first-class quality, not so productive as: the Queens, but usually fetching a higher price in the market on account of its size. If well grown, the fruit often reaches from 10 lbs. to 15 lbs. each, but usually averages about 8 lbs. PROVIDENCE.—A very strong grower; produces a fruit of large size; a shy bearer, and consequently not largely grown. CHARLOTTE ROTHSCHILD.-A pine of great promise ; growth erect; of very dwarf habit; fruit large, and evidently an improvement on Ripley Queen, and likely to be the pine of the future. There are a few other unimportant varieties in cultivation, such as Black Jamaica, Black Antigua, Enville, Black Prince, Montserrat, Prickly Cayenne and Prince Albert. ARROWROOT CULTIVATION AND MANUFAC- TURING IN QUEENSLAND. ARROWROOT is prepared from two species of plants which thrive remarkably well in Queensland, designated in botany Maranta Arundinacea and Canna Edulis. The first-named thrives best in sandy loamy soils, and attains the height of about two feet, bearing at maturity a small white flower something similar to the blossom of the potato. The arrowroot is prepared from tubers which cluster around the roots of the plant, and are from 3 to 8 inches in length and about one inch or an inch and a-half in diameter. This kind is the same as is produced in the Bermudas, but owing to the difficulty of manufacture its cultivation is now almost abandoned in Queensland. The Canna Edulis, or purple variety, is now commonly grown, and has been found to thrive well, on the alluvial scrub lands on the banks of various rivers from the Brisbane to the Endeavour, including nearly the whole Eastern sea- board of the Colony. The stalks of this kind sometimes grow to the height of 8 feet and bear a scarlet flower, which is followed by a small seed-pod, but the seeds very seldom come to maturity. It is propagated by planting one of the smaller bulbs found growing at the bottom of the stems. Mode of Cultivation. If the portion of land to be planted is cleared of trees, it is ploughed in ridges of about 46 feet wide and thoroughly pulverised with harrow and scuffler; this will give room for nine rows 5 feet apart, leaving 6 feet for the row in which the by-furrow comes. Shallow furrows or drills 5 inches deep are run with the plough, and bulbs of about the size of a small apple are placed 4 feet 6 inches apart in the drill, and then covered by turning a furrow from each side on to the top of the bulbs. After-cultivation is carried on by keeping it clear of weeds by means of horse-hoes or scufflers. When it reaches the 98 ARROWROOT CULTIVATION height of about 3 feet the space between the rows should be turned up with a one-horse plough, throwing the soil towards the plant and leaving a furrow in the middle. Nothing then remains to be done until it is dug up for manufacture. When new scrub land is intended to be planted the scrub is felled and burnt off, and the arrowroot planted in rows 5 feet apart amongst the stumps, a hole. being made with a mattock 6 inches deep, the bulb placed in it and covered up, and then kept clear of weeds by frequent hoeing. The time for planting extends from the end of August to the beginning of January. Manufacturing.-The article of commerce is manu- factured from the tubers or root stocks found adhering to the stalks of the plant on the surface of the ground : sometimes upwards of 50 lbs. weight being obtained from one plant. The season for manufacture begins in July, and should close about the end of October, as by that time the root stocks burst forth and grow vigorously; and as the new plant grows to the same extent, the arrowroot becomes deficient in quantity and quality. Mode of preparing the Roots for the Mill — When the tubers have come to maturity, which is usually about nine or ten months after planting, the stalks of the plant are cut off as close as possible to the tubers with a cane knife or strong reaping hook. They are then raised with a grubbing hoe or mattock, and boys are employed separating them, care being taken to knock off all the soil adhering to them. They are then thrown into carts or wagons to be conveyed to the mill while quite fresh, as the colour of the manufactured article will be seriously affected if the bulbs are allowed to remain exposed to the sun and weather before being ground up. Machinery.—A six-horse power engine will be required to work an arrowroot mill capable of turning out a ton of arrowroot per diem; other machinery needed will be a. root-washer, grinding mill, cylinder, sieves for separating the farina from the pulp and fibre, and a centrifugal for drying. The root-washer is a trough 10 feet long, 3 feet deep, and 2 feet in diameter, having a half-circular bottom through which a stream of water is constantly AND MANUFACTURING IN QUEENSLAND. 99 running. A spinder having pegs placed 4 inches apart of sufficient length to reach within an inch of the bottom and sides of the trough, revolving in a horizontal position, the pegs working amongt the bulbs thrown into the trough, thoroughly cleanses it of all dirt, at the same time forcing the bulbs to the end of the trough, where a wooden rake is so fixed as to push the bulbs out of the trough as they come to it into an elevator, which delivers them into the hopper of the mill. The mill or grinder is a wooden drum 2 feet 6 inches wide on the face, and 2 feet in diameter, covered with a sheet of galvanised iron punched and 80 placed on the drum as to show the burr on the out- side. This drum, revolving at a great speed, and haring a stream of water falling on it from tanks fixed above it, grates up the bulbs as they fall into the hopper, the pulp and water passing through into sieve No. 1; this is a cylinder 8 feet long, having the bottom half perforated with holes about the size of a No 7 wire nail; a beater revolves within the sieve, which forces the farina and water through the perforations—the beater being somewhat of a screw forces the pulp and fibre out of the end. The farina and water falling into sieve No. 2-a similar one to No. 1, with the bottom of perforated copper, having holes a little larger than a pin—the process is repeated. After passing through sieve No. 2, it runs along a trough 2 feet wide and 6 inches deep and 70 feet long, set to a dead level, the farina depositing on the bottom of the trough as the water runs away. The farina settled at the bottom of the trough is dug out, passed through sundry sieves, and washings by hand, in tubs, is again left to subside. When sufficiently firm it is dug out, and passed through a centri- Tugal to drive all the water from it, and is conveyed to a place away from dust and smoke, to be dried in the sun. The mode of drying after it comes from the centrifugal is by spreading it on calico laid upon marsupial netting stretched and fastened upon wooden frames, 2 feet 6 inches from the ground; by this means the wind dries from underneath as well as the sun above. It is not advisable to trust to the sun alone for drying, as sometimes a succession If cloudy or showery days will cause the arrowroot to go 100 ARROWROOT CULTIVATION, ETC. sour before it is dry, and thus become unsaleable. A drying house should be erected capable of holding about 3 tons of arrowroot in case of unfavourable weather. As the value of arrowroot depends so much upon the colour and quality, the greatest care should be exercised during the whole process of manufacture, and the clearest water used in washing it. Sometimes hand mills are used for making small quantities for home consumption. The quantity produced from an acre of land varies from 15 cwt. to 30 cwt. The principal establishments for the manufacture of this article are in the Brisbane, Logan, and Coomera districts, producing 600,000 lbs. per annum, of which about 450,000 lbs. is exported. SAMUEL GRIMES, Coomera. THE APPLE IN QUEENSLAND. The apple appears to have the widest range of all the fruits cultivated by man. In the temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and America, it finds a home. In the southern colonies of Australasia almost all the best varieties of Europe and America have been tried. Many have proved to be as good as in their native place, some have even improved in texture and appearance by the change, while new and good kinds raised from seed in these colonies are constantly appearing. Some of the earlier farmers and fruitgrowers of Queensland have also experimented with this serviceable fruit, and considerable enterprise has been exhibited in introducing from all sources promising sorts, especially from the warmer regions of North America. Many of the most desirable of these varieties have been distributed throughout the other Australian Colonies and in several districts of our own and the experience thus gained we will endeavour to set down for the guidance of those who may be new to the conditions which affect the growth of this valuable fruit in Queensland. . On our highlands, especially in the southern part of the colony-as, for instance, the country from Toowoomba to Stanthorpe-the apple is at home, and a judicious selection of good and marketable fruit could easily be made, with every hope of success. In our coast country, from the Main Range to the sea, the selection would be more limited, and would be largely confined to the Southern American sorts, together with some of the earlier kinds from more temperate regions, as apples which ripen in late autumn and winter in the temperate zone are rarely successful here. In the northern portion of the colony it is only in the high lands, and with a limited selection of kinds, that the attempt could be made with any probability of success. The American apples from Georgia and other southern states of North America—which are especially 102 THE APPLE IN QUEENSLAND. recommended to the notice of Queensland fruitgrowers, and which were introduced into Queensland in the first instance-have been very widely distributed since in all the southern colonies and in New Zealand, winning highest place in all. The apple is not subject to many diseases, the principal that have been noticed being the canker and the woolly aphis on the tree, and the "fly" and the “black spot” on the fruit. The woolly aphis is an insect which is covered with such a coat of cottony material that an infected tree looks as if it were covered with patches of cotton wool. On pressing these patches the insects are crushed, leaving a reddish stain on the fingers. The canker, as we have observed it here, is generally caused by cutting out large branches which are crowding the heart of the tree. The wound, although covered by shellac solution, is so large that the bark does not soon cover it, and it gradually turns black and decays. The black spot on the fruit appears to be caused by a deficiency of lime or potash in the soil, as affected trees have been noticeably improved by liming and manuring the orchard. The flies, which pierce the fruit, causing exudation of gum, premature ripening and decay, affect old and neglected rather than new and clean places. All fruits that drop from the tree should be removed for the pigs and poultry, to prevent the propagation of these pests. Burning of weeds to the windward of the orchard. causing a smouldering, smoking fire, will drive away the flies when they come on their destructive mission; but the knowledge of the habit of these unwelcoine visitors is yet in its infancy, and the observant cultivator has herein an ample field for the exercise of his powers. Woolly Aphis—“ Pre- vention is better than cure”: Allapples should be grafted or budded on blight-proof stocks. The junction of the graft and stock should be clear of the ground, so that if the tree should be attacked the insect would find no retreat on the roots or the stem underground. If the head becomes infected it must be at once washed with tobacco water or a solution of soap and kerosine. This must be repeated on the least reappearance of the plague, as the insect, once in possession, increases with amazing rapidity. Canker-Prevention here, also, is best: Give the permanent shape to your tree when young, i.e., the first year. Do not allow any vigorous shoot THE APPLE IN QUEENSLAND. 103 to grow where it will ultimately be in the way. If this is neglected it is better to let it remain than to cut it out and make a large wound, which will probably prove an inlet of disease. If it must be cut out then cover the wound with a solution of shellac in methylated spirits (French polish) and make a plaster of old cow-dung and earth, to cover it until new bark is formed over it. PROPAGATION.—This, we repeat, should be always on blight-proof stocks. There are certain apples which are blight-proof-that is, the woolly aphis cannot live upon them. These stocks can be obtained by throwing a blight- proof tree and then layering the branches. But this process is very slow, and cuttings are very uncertain in striking, so the Victorian pomologists hit upon the plan of inserting a fibre of root in the lower part of every cutting, which stimulated a ready and abundant production of roots, so much so that the cuttings were often budded the same season. But propagation on blight-proof stocks is carried on so largely that it is best for the orchardist to obtain his trees from some reliable nurseryman ready worked. The Tollowing are some of the best blight-proof stocks, the first and second being the most used :-Northern Spy, Winter Majebin, Irish Peach, Hocking's Greening, and some local blight-proof crabs. .. PLANTING AND TRAINING.–Our experience points to a distance of 14 or 15 feet from tree to tree, some sorts requiring more room than others. Plough, subsoil and rain the piece of land before commencing to plant. Set the trees in straight lines, so that cultivation may be performed by horse labour. Do not plant opposite each other neighbouring rows, but in what is called “quincunx" hion. Dig the holes 4 or 5 feet in diameter ; mix some ecomposed manure or good surface soil with the loose id in the hole, raising the centre 3 or 4 inches higher an the sides; place the tree in the middle, spreading the Is straight out to the edge of the hole, so that they y evenly occupy the space. Then gradually scatter ne best finely powdered soil you can get, nearly filling me nole and leaving a little hollow round the tree stem; pour, in gently half-a-bucketful of water into this hollow, by-and-by, when thoroughly absorbed, scatter a little earth and fill up next day. The object in planting more 104 THE APPLE IN QUEENSLAND. is to get every root and rootlet surrounded by earth ; the water packs the earth compactly about the roots, besides affording the necessary moisture to start root action at once. It is necessary, also, in planting to remember that the soil (and the tree with it) will sink ; and as it is not desirable that the tree should be set deeper than it stood in the nursery, allowance must be made for this sinking. Taking pains in planting is labour very well spent. All bruised and broken ends to roots should be cut with a sharp knife and a clean cut, which will more quickly heal and push out new roots. Do not allow the roots to dry before or during planting. Choose one-year old (maiden) trees, with one stem if possible ; cut off the top, leaving a stem only about 2 feet in height. This is necessary-the old English system of stems 6 feet high is destructive to trees in our climate, producing hide-bound, sunburnt trunks, ensuring failure. Encourage three or five branches to start from this low stem, training the future tree in a vase or bowl shape. A rough hay-band of straw or grass loosely wound around the stem below the branches will protect the trunk until it is shaded by the foliage. During the summer growth, if shoots are two crowded or growing too vigorously, they may he removed or stopped by pinching, anticipating much of the winter pruning, and diverting the energies of the tree into permanent growth. In the winter, when the leaves have fallen-say in June--the branches, if the growth has been at all vigorous, will need a pretty sharp cutting back, especially if the summer stopping has been neglected. Thus treated the young tree will devleop well below and produce plenty of foliage to shade both wood and fruit; otherwise, in our warm climate, there is a strong tendency to run away to top, such as we see in many of the scraggy ill-conditioned peach-trees that disfigure some of our back yards. Perhaps it may be as well to suggest here the importance of clean cultivation and friable condition of soil, especially the first four or five years after planting. If crops are grown between the rows, we must take care not to rob the trees. The roots will extend on every side as great a distance from the stem as the height of the tree. If a tree is 6 feet high its roots will run 6 feet from the trunk, or 12 feet across. Briefly, it must be borne in mind, that it will injure the trees to grow crops where they THE APPLE IN QUEENSLAND. 105 will trench upon the province of the tree roots. An occa- sional top-dressing of lime will be found beneficial. All bones should be saved, broken if possible, and mixed with the manure heap. The fermentation of the manure reduces the bunes, and the mixture is eminently suitable for an orchard. Hints and Recapitulation. 1. Thoroughly drain and subsoil before planting. 2. Plant early-say end of May—that the young roots may take possession of the soil before the heat of summer. 3. Never allow the roots to dry, between the nursery and their final resting-place. 4. Prune the tree to a height of 2 feet, and cut clean all bruised and broken roots. 5. Spread the roots well out in planting and allow for sinking of soil. 6. Tie the young tree to a stout stake, to prevent it being blown about by the wind. 7. Water during dry times in the first year, not the surface, but make a hole with the spade; pour the water therein. When well soaked away gently replace the soil. 8. Keep the cultivator going. Let the surface be "as fine as an onion bed.” 9. Shape the tree from the start. Don't be afraid to prune. 10. Lime, bones, and cow manure are best and most wholesome for health of tree and soundness of fruit. 11. Thin the fruit if the clusters are dense, or the tree overbears. The remainder will pay you better. 12. Carefully pick and handle for market. Put as good fruit at the bottom of the package as on the top, have your own brand on the cases, and you will get good prices even in a “glut.” List of Blight-proof Apples suitable for all Queensland Apple Districts, Coast and Upland. 1. Devonshire Quarrenden ... ... 2 D. S. 2. Hocking's Greening (? Green New- town Pippin) 1 K. A. 3. Hominy 1 D. S. 4. Mobb's Royal 1 K. A. 5. Irish Peach ... 2 D. S. 6. Jupp's Surprise 2 D. S. THE OLIVE.* ALTHOUGH the olive is one of the most ancient of what may be termed commercial trees, the modern home of this plant is in France and Italy; it is also grown largely in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Syria, Turkey, and California. Some progress has already been made with the cultivation of the olive in Australia. It will be found from official returns that the area planted with olives in France is about 382,000 acres, and the annual average production of oil, valued at 6s. per gallon, is £2,442,616--equal to £6 8s. 3d. per acre. This value is for the oil alone, and does not include the value of olives preserved or used, and which added to the oil would probably raise the value to £7 per acre. In Italy there were, in 1882, 2,250,700 acres under olives, the annual average yield being from £8 to £10 per acre, but it is said that in their usual easy way the Italians do not attend diligently to the proper cultivation of the tree, otherwise the yield would be double. The olive was first introduced into South Australia in November, 1844, by the South Australian Company, but at the present time Sir S. Davenport and Mr. W. R. Boothby, sheriff of the colony, are the most extensive manufacturers of oil in that colony. Sir S. Davenport has about 1,500 trees in full bearing, the picking of which is done by women and children, who are paid at the rate of 2s. 6d. per cwt., and are thus enabled to make good wages. A hundred-weight of olives produces in South Australia two gallons of oil, for which there is a full demand at from 8s. to 10s. per gallon, according to quality. The olive is grown also in the Australian colony of Victoria, but up to the present time little oil has been manufactured except at the experimental farm at Dookie. The berries are used to some extent in feeding pigs and poultry, who get extremely fond of them, and it is said that bacon made of olive-fed pigs has a very pleasant flavour. * Notes on the Olive and its Culture, extracted by permission from a Lecture delivered at Dookie, Victoria, by J. L. Thompson, Esquire. 108 THE OLIVE. The olives at Dookie were brought from France in 1879, and on the voyage out were packed in boxes with the truncheons wrapped in damp moss and covered with oil-paper. The first year they were planted in nursery rows, and not one of them failed to strike, and in the following year (1880) were removed from the nursery and planted out, since when their progress has been wonderful, considering that the olive is generally considered to be a slow grower. In most olive countries the tree does not as a rule bear until the tenth year, yet on this farm trees that were planted in 1880 have already borne fruit for three years. There are ten varieties of olives grown at Dookie, but the greater part belong to the Olea Europea rubra, red caillet olive, and Olea polymorpha, the weeping olive. The Olea Europea rubra, red caillet olive, is fairly large, roundish in form, with long brittle leaves drooping slightly. Its leaves are green and close banded towards the top. It buds, blossoms easily, and bears roundish oval fleshy fruit, with a short pedicel, of a dark red upon a greenish white ground, which it keeps until ripe. The oil of this tree is of a very good quality. Olea polymorpha, weeping olive tree:Of all olives this is the most cultivated at Dookie. The tree there attains 32 feet in height. Its long branches, with thick foliage drooping down, distinguish it as much as. its leaves, and its fruit is oblong, of a beautiful violet black, full of good oil, and which will keep longer than other oils. The crops, although alternate, are sometimes of great abundance. The other varieties are not likely to be grown in Queensland for some time, so that it is not necessary to enumerate them in the present paper. The value of olive growing to the Queensland farmer will be as an adjunct to his other productions. It is wise not to put one's “eggs all into one basket,” and there is, perhaps, no part of the world where a greater variety of crops may be profitably grown than in Queensland. The olive is a healthy tree, not subject to diseases which would render its yield precarious, and possesses the advantage over other fruit-trees that it will not perish from neglect, and, unlike the vine, mulberry and other trees which, if neglected, come to no good, will revive as soon as the ground about it is stirred, and will respond again to the attention bestowed upon it by yielding as before ; and again, when 110 THE OLIVE. of the soil. The soil should be kept free of weeds, and the oftener it is pulverised and turned up to the air, the more healthy and rapid will be the growth of all plant life. Weeds must have nourishment from the soil as well as other plants, and it is apparent to all that where weeds abound the plant food is divided between these and the crop you are trying to grow; hence failure. The olive will grow in almost any soil except in very heavy clay or low damp places. It thrives best in permeable soils rich in lime or potash, and sheltered from the prevailing wind. The olive can be propagated like other fruit-trees from seeds, layers, cuttings, suckers, &c. The gathering of the olive is performed in three different ways-(1) By picking; (2) beating off the berries with long sticks or reeds; (3) allowing the berries to fall off the trees and then collecting them. The first method, although more costly, is the best; the second method is. rough and decidedly injures the trees by breaking the young shoots; the third method is worst of all-is. wasteful, slovenly, and where practised produces bad oil. To make good oil the fruit should be hand picked, ripe, and picked only on fine days. There is some difference of opinion as to the proper time for harvesting the olive. Some say that the fruit should be picked before it is quite ripe, others that it should be over ripe; but there is a “happy medium” in all things, and common sense shows that the proper time to pick the olive is when it is well coloured and perfectly ripe. În France, where the best oil is made, it is customary to keep the olives in barns for about three weeks until they have undergone a sort of fermentation, which facilitates the extraction of the oil. The extraction of the oil is carried on in one place in South Australia by the use of a common large corn-crusher, and in another by means of a Chilian mill-a powerful stone revolving upon a granite bed 7 tons in weight, and by which means the olive berries are thoroughly crushed before pressing. After passing through the crusher or mill the pulp is put into rice bags, as they are of stronger texture and more open than corn sacks, and pressed in a powerful press. At Dookie the berries are pressed before being crushed, and thus the finest of virgin THE OLIVE. 111. oil is obtained, and which is free from a taste that is imparted to the oil by the kernel after crushing. In France a sort of oil cake called “marc” is manufactured from the refuse of the crushing and is used for feeding pigs and poultry: After pressing, the oil must be kept in clean vessels. either of tin or earthenware, but in some places slate tanks are used. Time alone will complete the fining process, and in France it is sometimes six months before all the oil is obtained. It should be frequently racked off in a temperature of about 60 degrees. Before bottling it is passed through common chemist's filtering paper placed in an ordinary tin funnel. Olives are preserved for table use in various ways. In their green state, when full grown, the fruit of those varieties that bear the largest berries are chosen. They are first steeped in lye made of wood ashes, and when the Tye has penetrated through the pulp they are washed clean and put in brine composed of 1 lb. of salt to each gallon of water. Like other trees the olive is subject to diseases, but the best way to prevent diseases in trees, as well as in man, is by keeping them well fed and in vigorous growth. SILOS AND EN SILAGE. THE silo system is not the new thing that many people are apt to think. It is on record that the ancient Romans used to store their fruits of the earth in great under- ground vaults, and it is a matter of history that the people of Central America have preserved their cattle food in this manner for centuries, and still do so. It would appear that attention to this matter was first called in the English-speaking world by the translation of a work written by Mr. A. Goffart, a member of the Central Agricultural Society of France, in 1879. In 1882, so great had been the stir made by this translation, that a conference of farmers of the United States was held in New York, to compare their various opinions; and the consensus of those opinions seems to point out that ensilage, properly cared for, will— (1) Double the stock-carrying capacity of farms; (2) will give cattle a healthy appearance not seen in grass or hay fed cattle; (3) will, by doubling the stock, increase the value of the farm; (4) will decrease the cost of keeping stock by about one-half-the cost of feeding on ensilage, as compared to hay, being as one part to three. Thus ensilage may be termed the sheet-anchor of the dairy farmer. The opinions referred to are not culled from mere theorists, but from practical experienced men, who make their living from off the land. If ensilage has proved so good in America, where they are not subject to periodical droughts, by how many times more may silos prove valuable in Queensland, especially in the closely settled districts around the large towns? In England, Scotland, and Ireland, silos have taken a great hold, there having been at the Smithfield Club cattle show in 1884, 254 exhibits entered for competition, comprising almost every description of plant that could be placed in a silo. * Extracted from a Paper on “Silos and Ensilage" by J. L. Thompson, Esquire, of Dookie, Victoria. 116 SILOS AND ENSILAGE. the surface a small block and tackle with a large basket is a good thing to use to raise the ensilage. When the silo is small and deep, and the consumption rapid, the whole of the covering may be removed, but when it is broad and shallow it would be unwise to attempt this. Any vege- tation habitually fed by stock will make good ensilage- in fact, nothing comes amiss. Ensilage has been preserved in England by simply stacking green in the open without any silo at all, and has turned out good. This has also been tried in South Australia, where a stack silo from fresh cut lucerne was preferred by a mob of bullocks to growing lucerne. The great objection to stack ensilage in this country, however, would be the penetrating power of the sun, which would destroy a quantity of the outer covering, and thus greatly diminish the profits. To illustrate the feeding power of ensilage, the dairy cows at Beefacre's, in South Australia, in January, 1884, were not averaging 2 gallons of milk a day, but a week after ensilage feeding was started, the yield increased to 27 gallons, and the butter made from the milk had the peculiar yellow tint which stamps good butter. The Ensilage Commission of the Royal Agricultural Society of England sum up the advantages of ensilage under the following heads :- (1) In rendering the farmer independent of the weather in saving his crops ; (2) In increasing the productive capabilities of farms; (3) In greater weight of forage saved ; (4) In greater available variety and rotation of crops; (5) In increased facility for storing crops. The commission in their report wind up by saying that the chief advantages of ensilage-making against hay- making is its comparative independence of the weather; that the fodder is handled while green, without any risk of the tender and nutritious leaves being lost on the ground as in hay-making; that the resulting silage is succulent and palatable; and that on purely grazing farms it is possible to obtain a portion of the grass crop for winter in such a state as to equal the effect of summer-fed grass for the purposes of the dairy." VEGETABLE GARDENING IN QUEENSLAND. To any intending colonist who purposes to make horticul- ture the means of gaining a livelihood, or as an addition to his income, by cultivating in his spare time a vegetable garden, a few hints regarding things suitable for culture in Queensland and their times and seasons may prove of service, and prevent disheartening failure. With ordinary care and attention a degree of success may always be attained in kitchen-gardening, for there is no period of the year when a marketable crop of vegetables cannot be produced. One of the greatest difficulties the horticulturist here has to contend with is the frequent recurring dry seasons. Water storage should always be the first thought of the intending gardener, for without irrigation vegetable growing, except in very favourable seasons, can only be regarded as a failure from the start; 80 that in selecting the spot for a garden nearness to water is more to be considered than quality of soil, situation, &c. To Start a Garden.— When the ground is cleared and fenced (a close paling fence is necessary to keep out Vermin), the first thing to do is to thoroughly trench and drain the ground, no matter what the natural drainage may be or what the quality of the soil. Plenty of drains, 2 feet deep, will greatly improve its condition, and good honest trenching, 18 inches deep, will more than repay the labour expended. Irrigation.-The next thing to be considered is how to irrigate. For this there are several methods now in vogue. For small capitalists the easiest and cheapest method of raising water to the requisite height is the American wind- mill, which is specially adapted for fixing on the banks of rivers, creeks, waterholes, or wells. The supply being determined on, the next question is how best to apply it. The easiest way is to plant in convenient beds and intersect with open ditches 6 inches deep. These ditches, filled and dammed at the extremity of each section, will percolate through the soil. The water can be conveyed along the higher part of the ground by a somewhat deeper ditch, with which the smaller intersecting ones can be connected ; or it can be 118 VEGETABLE GARDENING IN QUEENSLAND. conveyed to any desired spot by means of india-rubber piping, or piping made of well-oiled unbleached calico. There is still one other method of irrigation, namely, underground. This means of irrigation can be accom- plished by leading the water from the highest part of the ground into small drains made of stones or logs, about 10 to 12 inches below the surface. These drains should be carried across the slope of the ground at intervals of 12 feet. This method not only irrigates, but has also a tendency to assist in keeping the soil sweet, and, moreover, prevents the surface of the soil from baking, which it does if the water is applied above ground. Manure Heap.—This on no account must be neglected; all fertilising refuse must find its way there. There is a mistaken notion very prevalent that virgin soil requires no food or stimulus for some years after continual cropping. This is a mistake; and to this lack of sustenance in the soil may be traced the gradual decrease in the quantity and quality of crops, and also the development of disease, blight, and insect pests. List of Seeds suitable for Cultivation in Queensland. Artichoke--Globe and Jerusalem. Asparagus. Bean (Broad) — Beck’s Gem, Brown's Longpod, Johnson's Wonderful, Taylor's Large. Bean (French)- Early Dun, Negro, China, Canadian Wonder. Bean (Runner)-Scarlet, Fiji or Snake, Golden Butter, White, Madagascar. Beet- Blood Red, Waite's Black, Silver. Brussels Sprouts — Continental, Scrymger's Giant, Mein's Victoria, Sutton's Matchless. Broccoli-Grange's Early White, White Cape, Purple Cape. Cabbage-Wheeler's Imperial Sugar Loaf, St. John's Day, Enfield Market, London Market, Drumhead, Red Pickling. Carrot-Long Red, Attringham, Intermediate, Early Horn. Cauliflower—Early Dwarf Erfurt, Early London, Large Asiatic. VEGETABLE GARDENING IN QUEENSLAND. 119 Celery-Cole's Red and White. Chinese Cabbage-Pe-Tsai. Corn Salad. Cress-Fine Curled, American Land Watercress. Cucumber-Long Prickly, Telegraph, Sutton's Cham- pion, Barnett's Perfection, Stockwood. Eschalot. Egg Plant-White and Purple. Endive-White Curled, Green Curled, Batavian. Earth Nut, or Pea Nut. Herbs-Sweet Basil, Fennel, Lavander, Horehound, Sweet Marjoram, Pot Marigold, Salsify, Sage, Thyme. Horse Radish. Kohl Rabi-Purple and Green. Leek - London Flag, Musselburgh. Lettuce (Cabbage) - Drumhead, All the Year Round, Hammersmith Hardy Green. Lettuce (Cos)--White, Green, Bath. Melon (Water)– All sorts do splendidly in summer. Melon (Rock) -All kinds do well. Mustard-White. Okra-Long Green. Onion–Tripoli, White Spanish, Brown Spanish, White Globe, Brown Globe. Parsley-Double Curled. Peas - Dan O'Rourke, Veitche's Perfection, York- shire Hero, American Wonder, McLean's Little Gem. Pumpkin-Ironbark, Prince Albert, Rio, &c. Radish — All sorts worth growing. Rhubarb. Sea Kale. Spinach. Turnip — White Stone, Red Stone, Orange Jelly, Waite's Eclipse. Sweet Potato. Tomatoes-All kinds do well. Vegetable Marrows-All do remarkably well. Yams.—These only succeed in the warmer districts. Potatoes--So many varieties are now in cultivation that it is difficult to say which are best suited to Queens land. Preference should be given to kidney sorts 120 VEGETABLE GARDENING IN QUEENSLAND. The proper times for raising the various descriptions: of vegetables will be seen under the twelve months of the year, as follows:- JANUARY.—This being one of the hottest months of the year the sowing and planting of vegetables is out of the question, except that a few rock melons and sugar maize may be sown. A row of French beans, sown, mulched and well watered, might yield fair results. A few rows of English potatoes may be planted for succession. Sweet potatoes may still be planted in the coast districts for late gathering. Water and rock melons will now be in full bearing. FEBRUARY.—This month, like the previous one, is usually very hot, but frequent thunderstorms afford opportunity for sowings of cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, savoy, kohl rabi, and lettuce. It is advisable: to sow in boxes, and transplant later. Towards the end of the month full sowings of French and broad beans may be made in well prepared ground in drills 2 feet apart. Should the weather be dry a copious. watering will be necessary. It is also advisable to mulch, that is, to cover the drills with a loose litter of straw or grass, strewn lightly on the surface, and which may be removed as soon as the plants appear above- ground. A few onions, leeks, radish, endive, lettuce, and salsify may be sown sparingly. Celery may be sown in a specially prepared bed, or in a box for transplanting later. All vacant ground should now be thoroughly dug, and where practicable well manured, leaving the surface tolerably rough. Ground for celery may now be got in readiness by deeply trenching the patch where it is intended. to grow it. A few rows of potatoes may still be planted in the coast districts. Carefully watch and cut down weeds, for if they are once allowed to seed the conditions for their development are so favourable that with neglect the best garden would soon become a veritable wilderness. MARCH.–Now is the time to get in a full supply of nearly all kinds of "Old Country” vegetables. Cabbages, cauliflowers, Brussels sprouts, kohl rabi, savoy, and broccoli, should now be planted out if plants are procurable. If not, sow at once. In poor land plant thickly. If the soil be rich and deep, give plenty of room, else the crop will suffer. VEGETABLE GARDENING IN QUEENSLAND. 121 Make full sowings of peas and broad beans. By putting in early and late varieties of the former, you will at one sowing be able to provide for a succession. Peas and beans love a rich soil. A sowing of French beans may be made for a late crop. Sow carrots, parsnips, turnips, beet, radish, lettuce, and salads of all kinds, and if there is a moist corner in the garden, sow or plant watercress; shade with a few branches, and water often. Divide plants of sage, sweet marjoram, thyme, and other pot herbs, and sow seeds of these for future crops. Parsley may be sown, and will require copious watering to start the seeds into growth. Once germinated the plants will grow freely. Liquid manure made from cow droppings makes a capital food for parsley, and is, in fact, very beneficial for all kinds of growing vegetables. Celery may now be planted out in prepared beds and watered freely. Plant in single rows. Experience points to the fact that celery growing in Queensland is not an unqualified success, the winters being too mild. It lacks the crispness of the English-grown article, although the flavour is present. The English system of plant- ing in deep trenches does not answer in Australia, the moisture and heat causing the plants to rot. The method adopted here is to remove the soil to the depth of, say, a foot and fill up with well-rotten dung or rich compost to within 4 inches of the surface. In this place the plants, water freely, and mulch heavily round the plants with straw, grass, or other litter, to which keep adding as they grow, until they are, say, 10 inches high, when the mulching may be removed and soil substituted. Again cover the surface with mulch, and keep adding as before until the plants are full grown, when they can be finally earthed up. Asparagus beds may now be prepared. The ground should be trenched at least 2 feet deep, and heavily manured. It is customary to crowd 'this excellent vegetable into some waste corner of the garden, where, half starved and neglected, it gives a disappointing yield of useless heads. Yet asparagus responds most readily to liberal treatment. Select a patch, say, 8 feet wide and 15 to 20 feet long, trench as before mentioned, and divide into two beds, each 3 feet wide, with a two- Seet path between ; plant three rows of asparagus roots. 122 VEGETABLE GARDENING IN QUEENSLAND. in each bed, one row in the centre and the others about 10 inches from the outer edge, with a foot apart in the rows ; mulch heavily with loose matter and water unsparingly. Rhubarb may be planted in this month. The ground prepared for its reception should receive similar treat- ment to that intended for asparagus. The plants should be 5 feet between the rows, and 3 feet apart in the lines. Apply liquid manure freely. Eschalots and potato onions can also now be planted. Sow largely of onions and mulch until they germinate. Sow Globe artichokes in pots or boxes for planting out later. APRIL.—Continue to sow and plant out cabbage, cauli- flower, sprouts, savoy, kohl rabi, lettuce, also put in small sowings of seed. Sow onion, parsnip, carrot, turnip, and in the warmer localities, free from frost, plant a few potatoes ; plant lettuce between rows of cabbages, cauli. flowers, &c. This method greatly tends to reduce the ravages of the aphis or green fly. Should the weather continue dry, water freely and mulch all small growing crops. Keep an eye on the weeds, which, when hoed up, should be carefully collected and burnt. The English method of digging them into the ground should not be indulged in, as the seeds lie dormant for an indefinite period, and when the soil is again stirred up; they come with renewed vigour. May.-Follow on with successional plantings of all kinds of European vegetables, except peas and beans; even they may be sown in the northern districts where there is no frost. Attend to all growing crops in the way of thinning, earthing up, hoeing, and use the fork freely, to prevent the surface from binding. Water freely in the mornings. JUNE.—Continue to make sowings of lettuce, salads, carrots, parsnips, beet, onions, and transplant cabbages, cauliflower, savoys, kohl rabi; plant out Globe artichokes in deep rich soil, and shade them from the sun with a few branches till once they are established. Apply liquid manure liberally to asparagus, rhubarb, and onion beds, and keep the hoes vigorously at work. JULY.—The garden should now be well stocked with a plentiful supply of vegetables, but as every square yard of ground becomes vacant, break it up and prepare for the next crop. A few cabbages may still be planted out in loose, VEGETABLE GARDENING IN QUEENSLAND 123 well-worked soil. Keep stirring the soil amongst growing crops. Rhubarb beds will require attention, as manure water which has been applied binds the soil. The free use of the fork will greatly assist the growth of the plants, but be careful not to disturb the roots. Asparagus beds will now require remulching. Shake up and thoroughly loosen all the surface, and add a liberal supply of fresh mulch all over the bed to a depth of, say, 8 inches. Radish, lettuce, and turnip seed may still be sown in small quantities. August.—This is a busy time in the vegetable garden. All vacant ground must be deeply dug and thrown up roughly. Never use a rake at this time of the year; the rougher the surface of the ground the sweeter will be the soil; in fact rakes, except in extreme cases, should never be admissible in the kitchen garden. SEPTEMBER.—Continue to plant potatoes. Cabbages may now be planted if water is handy. At this season the weather is usually dry. Peas and French beans may be sown in rich friable soil. The butter bean (runner) should now be sown in well prepared land. This bean being a runner, growing to a length of from 12 to 20 feet, requires plenty of room. The best method is to sow two parallel rows 3 feet apart, placing the seed 6 inches in the rows, which afterwards thin out to a foot to each plant. Place a long pole or sapling (always plenty to be got) with the point slanting towards the row opposite. When the poles are in position they present the appearance of an inverted V (thus: 1). Bring the tops together and slightly cross them and tie with wire. Along the fork thus formed lay a long sapling, tying each pair of uprights. This simple structure will withstand the high winds even when fully covered with the plant, and the yield of beans will be much greater than if grown on short branches close to the ground. It is no uncommon thing to gather beans from plants thus grown up to the end of January. They, however, must be irrigated occasionally. Cucumber, vegetable marrow, pumpkin, rock melons, and water melons should be sown about this time. Rock melons and cucumbers should be sown in boxes or pots and planted out later. Tomato, egg plant, and capsicum seed may also be sown in pots or boxes, as they transplant readily. Sugar-maize may also be sowr 126 ORANGE CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. planted. Seedling trees, even of good local kinds, are & Tittle liable to be affected by inferior kinds growing near, and then not to come into profitable bearing condition in so short a time as grafted kinds. So, as the matter is one of results, planters have preferred generally hitherto to risk the method which yielded the quickest returns. The seedlings are undoubtedly the most natural form of growth, are least liable to disease, make larger trees, and bear more heavily and to a greater age. As they require greater space to develop fully, and as it is. undesirable for many reasons to plant any other fruits in an orangery, the distance between the trees and rows leaves too much ground unoccupied during the first few years of growth, and hence the cultivation of seedlings has been thought unprofitable. The better plan seems to be to combine the two systems, and plant with a view to the seedling trees forming the main crop after ten or fifteen years. For this end the seedlings should be planted not nearer than forty feet between the trees, and. the rows thirty feet apart, the trees in each row to be planted alternately to those on each side of it. The grafted trees can then be planted in the intervening spaces, leaving, when finished, twenty feet by thirty between each tree. The grafted trees will come into bearing in about three or four years, and will have gone far to repay the cost of outlay and working expenses by the time the seedling trees come into full-bearing condition, when they can be removed to allow the full development of the seedlings. It is not wise to crop ground in the early years with exhaustive crops. Such cropping interferes with the necessary working of the ground through which the roots will extend. The greatest care should be taken in the buying or raising of trees for a planting, of whatever size, that the seedlings used should be of the best kinds, and only those most suitable to the district, as it is dishearten- ing to take the necessary pains and wait seven or eight years to find that the fruit is worthless. Especial care should be taken that the grafted trees are suitably worked as to scion and stock. As before stated, the greatest. failures have been traced to a neglect in this matter. In 128 ORANGE CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. much the better, the bark will fit all round, but, if not, care should be taken that the bark of each should fit on one side, taking care to keep the cut surfaces thoroughly clean. They should be tied firmly in contact and rubbed over freely with a clayey composition, and the soil removed should be returned to cover the graft. Compositions used in grafting are sold in tins; but clay forms a simple and effectual protection and is indis- pensa ble in successful grafting. An intelligent examination of the proposed site of an orangery is necessary, as not only the nature of the soil, but also the lay of the ground as to natural drainage are very important factors with regard to success and profit. Flat ground should be avoided and a ridge if possible chosen for the purposes. Clayey soils, or those having a clayey subsoil, must not be used for orangeries, as the extra drainage necessary is a drawback, and any stag. nation of moisture is injurious. The best soils are loams charged with sand or stones or volcanic soils, and ridges not too steep are the best situations, as they are more likely to drain naturally. Without good drainage, natural or artificial, orange growing cannot be a success. The land should be marked off in lines where the trees are to be planted, from which line the plough should be started turning the soil on either side towards the centre, finishing midway between each row. Double ploughing should if possible be done. The centre of the ridge should be again ploughed in the same way and pulverised. Each successive ploughing should be towards the centre, to increase the ridge, and thus secure a sure escape of surface water. By running a drain along each furrow two or three feet deep, perfect drainage will be secured. In planting the trees great care should be taken in no way to disturb the ground lower than the plough has worked it; any hollows thus formed act as basins to hold the water in heavy rains, and the tree should not be planted any deeper than as it grew in the nursery. If the land is at all rich, it is best not to use manure when planting, but in some cases bones of about one inch in size may be used ; in that size they give off their properties slowly. Feeding artificially in the young state of a tree always encourages a “sappy” development, which, in the vicissitudes of our climate, is ORANGE CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. 129 not so desirable as a slower and more natural growth. When the trees are in full bearing, manures are necessary to compensate for the heavy drain of cropping. Stock- yard manures are the safest, but, failing these, bone-dust sprinkled on the ground before rain acts almost instan- taneously. - As the roots extend, they should be protected with a mulch of fern or grass litter. The advantages of a mulch are numerous. It keeps down weeds, and thus prevents the surface roots being disturbed in their eradication; it retains the moisture in the soil; it protects the surface roots from the strong sun, and checks the very rapid radiation of heat from the soil at night; it also keeps the top soil in a loose condition to be benefited by every shower, and thus prevents the caking of the soil after heavy rains, so injurious to the roots of trees.. Pruning, especially to any great extent, should not be required in a properly managed orangery. If the growth is not forced by manures or very rich soils, a healthy balance will be maintained by the drain of the crops. A judicious and intelligent system of pruning is, of course, beneficial. The head of the tree should be thinned, so as to allow of a free circulation of air and light, so necessary to health, but large limbs should be removed sparingly at one pruning. Of course limbs which cross and injure by friction should be removed, but in all cases these removals should be as near the growing stem as possible, to pre- vent any decay of wood setting in. All orange trees should be encouraged to grow near the ground, as thereby the roots are protected and a great saving of evaporation from the ground results. • The orange tree is liable to diseases, and pests the chief being the coccidæ, or scales of various shapes and sizes. They always infest the tree on the first symptoms of decay. Many plans have been recommended, but the use of * Gishurst's Compound," applied according to instructions on the box, is the safest and at the same time is sure. Kerosine in solution, boiling water, soft soap, etc., are recommended, but have disadvantages. The excrescence of all these insects covers the leaves with a black covering on which other parasites flourish, and the healthy action of the leaves in absorption and respiration is suspended. K 130 ORANGE CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. The question of leaves and their uses is of more importance to the orange tree than is generally kept in mind. Trees are to be met with in moist and particularly favourable atmospheres, which contradict every known law of vegetable physiology as to soils and roots, yet bearing enormous crops, which can be attributed in no other way than that the healthy action of the leaves absorb from the atmosphere in a gaseous state all the requisite properties. The study of orange culture deserves every possible attention, and although practical and local information is most important, yet the theoretical information of a standard work on the subject is of great value towards the thorough knowledge of the subject, and the application of common-sense theories. As the cultivation of the orange in Australia extends, many improvements may be expected, for instance, in extending the season of fruit supply over a greater period, by a selection of late varieties, or by preserving the crops, by stacking in sand, in air and moisture proof pits or otherwise. ALEX. M. COWAN. THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER. ONE of the most important products of the colony, and one for which there is great demand for home consumption, is butter. Its importance to the settler cannot be overrated, as with the aid of a few cows he is enabled to provide for his family the necessaries of life, while he is engaged in fencing, felling his timber, and getting his land into con- dition to give him a return. Many of those who have attained to positions of affluence can call to mind the time when they subsisted entirely upon the produce of a few cows. In no branch of industry in the colony is the result of want of knowledge more apparent. In no other way can we account for the large amount of inferior butter sent to market, especially in summer. The fact of such a large quantity of butter being sold in Brisbane at that time, realising from 2 d. to 6d. per pound, shows the want of care and management in the dairy. As a contrast to this state of things, it may not be generally known that many butter- makers, who exercise care and judgment, are, and have þeen, realising from 1s. 9d. to 2s. per pound for their butter all the year round, and have been doing so for years. In a climate like that of Queensland, where the thermometer registers from 80 to 90 degrees on summer nights, it is an impossibility to make butter that will be marketable unless the dairyman can bring about such a change in the temperature of his dairy as will cause his thermometer to register not more than 65 degrees. Butter may be made at a temperature of 68 or even 70 degrees, but it will be wanting in colour, and so soft that it will be impossible to separate the water sufficiently, with the result that it will become unfit for use in a few days, and probably will become unsaleable before it can be gut to market. How many shopkeepers have to lament the loss sustained through their paying for an apparently good article, but which has gone bad in a day! 132 THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER. A good plan, and one which is adopted by many careful butter-makers to lower the temperature of the water used in butter-making, is to expose it in shallow pans overnight, with the result that the water is reduced from 6 to 10 degrees below the temperature of the water in the tank or in bulk. The temperature of the cream may also be reduced by the same means. Another good means of keeping the cream cool, after it is skimmed or separated, is by placing it in a large safe made with wooden frame and covered with canvas, which must be kept wet con- stantly. The evaporation causes the desired change in the temperature. . Above all things, cleanliness is the first and most important rule in connection with the dairy. Constant scalding with boiling water is necessary; all vessels used in connection with the dairy must be scalded before being used. Milk pails, milk pans, cream jars, churn, butter table, and butter-workers should be scalded effectually; no rinsing with lukewarm water, but a thorough clean- sing with the water boiling hot in which soda has been melted. Failure in this respect is the cause of much deterioration in the quality of the butter produced. The milk should be drawn from the cows by milkers with clean hands, who should have a vessel with clean water and a cloth always near to wash their hands after adjusting the leg-ropes, and if necessary to wash the cow's udder before milking. The defilement of the milk by any want of cleanliness at this stage renders it impossible to make clean and sweet butter. The milking should be done carefully and completely; the udder thoroughly emptied. This is of importance, as the milk last drawn is incomparably the richest. The “ fore-milk,” or milk first drawn, is the poorest, having gravitated to the bottom of the milk glands, while the cream, being the lighter, floats on the top, and is conse- quently last drawn. Another reason for complete milking is, that if the udder is not milked clean the cow will soon cease to give any milk, and want of care in this respect will speedily dry the best milkers. The large pail necessary for receiving the milk from the small pails used by the milkers should be hung up or fixed upon a shelf not less than 4 feet above the floor of THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER. 133 the cow-shed, so that it may not be injured by the odours arising therefrom, and should as soon as possible be removed to the dairy. Straining should be performed through two thicknesses of fine muslin, which should be well scalded before use. Considerable difference of opinion exists as to the merits of deep and shallow setting. Each process has its admirers; but we think that where the dairyman has not the means of artificial cooling, the exposure of the large surface to the atmosphere, as in shallow setting, is preferable. Whatever tends to separate the cream from the milk quickly, especially in warm weather, is beneficial. This may be materially assisted by pouring about a pint of cold water into each milk pan immediately after straining. Many good butter-makers skim in hot weather after twelve hours' setting. Those who follow this practice make good butter at the expense of the yield, as the return is much smaller. Many others, who make equally good butter, do not skim under twenty-four hours. In winter, when the thermometer stands at co degrees and under, the cream will take from forty-eight to sixty hours to rise, and may even then be sweet. it is of the utmost importance that the dairy be well ventilated, and the atmosphere in the neighbourhood clear and sweet. The dairyman should exercise care and discretion in the choice of a site for the dairy, which should be suffi- ciently removed from the piggery or the cesspits. Where this is not attended to, the wind coming from the direction of these parts of the premises affects the quality of the butter in a way for which the dairyman is often unable to account. In making butter, the dairyman may follow either of two methods-first, by churning the whole of the milk and cream without skimming, as it is done by the majority of the small farmers in Ireland and Scotland; or by churning the cream only. The churning of the whole of the milk and cream without skimming is seldom resorted to in a country like this, where labour is expensive. The introduction of the cream separator has placed within the reach of those engaged in dairying on a large scale facilities for keeping the cream sweet until churned, and a corresponding benefit is derived by the keeping qualities of the butter. Where hand-skimming is resorted to, the 131 THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER. skimmer used should be perforated with fairly large holes- and well scalded before using. The cream when skimmed should be carefully placed in the cream jar, and after adding salt, varying from a teaspoonful to the quart in cold weather to a tablespoonful in hot weather, the whole should be well stirred together, being careful that no spots of cream remain on the edges of the jar above the main body of the cream. When the evening's skimming is added to the cream skimmed in the morning after the addition of the salt required, the whole must be well stirred together and mixed, so that evenness of ripening may be secured. The best butter is produced where churning is performed every morning, the cream operated upon being that of the preceding morning and evening. The pattern of churn used is also a matter of choice. Every style has its admirers, from the primitive old upright churn, with its, staff, to all manner of circular, cubical, revolving, and stationary varieties. Some of the best butter-makers pin their faith to the old upright churn, because, they say, "we can see every change as it occurs in the cream.” Others choose the barrel churn, such as the “Hathaway” or its imitations. Others again choose the cubical revolving churn, and each in turn laud their own variety in proportion as it produces butter the most quickly. "This, in our opinion, is a mistake. One of the best butter-makers we know insists upon the churning occupying a whole hour, and should the butter appear to be coming before that time, it is religiously kept back by cold water being added from time to time for that purpose. This idea may not be suitable to those who believe in labour-saving machinery, but in this instance the maker adheres to the primitive churn for the reasons above specified. A very prolific cause of want of success in churning is in not attending to the reading of the thermometer. This is an indispensable instrument in the dairy. When com- mencing to churn the cream should be tested, and if the reading is above 64 degrees, steps should be taken to reduce the temperature to that figure at highest. If it can be reduced to 62 degrees it will be all the better. In cold weather the temperature must be raised by setting the churn in hot water. Where this cannot be done, hot water may be added to the cream with like effect. THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER. 135 In hot weather the addition of ice water to the cream, where ice can be obtained, is very beneficial, or, what is better still, by keeping the cream in the simple refrigerator previously mentioned. The churning must be continued until the butter assumes the size of grains of wheat, when the buttermilk should be drained off, and the granules covered with water mixed with salt, and made into a strong brine, which has been reduced in temperature, if possible, to 60 degrees, and allowed to stand for half-an-hour. If white specks or curds are apparent among the granules, a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda may be added for every three pounds of butter in the churn. Should the specks not disappear, and the brine not become white with the dissolving curds, a little more carbonate may be added, until the desired effect is obtained. The effect of this alkali is very beneficial, as it removes all acidity, and enhances the keeping qualities of the butter. The butter must now be washed in the churn by repeated additions of fresh cold water, taking care to keep the butter in its granular form until the last water comes away perfectly clear. The salt is now added, which should be well rolled, and be in the proportion of from half-an-ounce to an ounce and a quarter, according to the taste of the consumers. The dairymaid now removes the butter to the working table, and on no condition must she touch it with her hands ; all the preceding washings having been performed in the churn by gently using the staff or other article necessary for that purpose, so as not to force the butter into a lump. The butter having been removed to the table, she with her butter boards or pats, one in each hand, manipu- lates it until it becomes a solid lump. In this form it is left for three or four hours, until the salt is dissolved. When resuming her butter boards she continues her manipulation until all the water has been removed. Care must be taken not to overwork the butter, as it then assumes a greasy appearance. The perfection of butter-making results in an article of fine waxy appearance, with a good grain, which is seen when the mass is broken. Many varieties of butter-workers are now in the market. One of the best we have seen is of wood, conical in shape, and fluted longitudinally, revolving upon a table on 136 THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTER. an axis fixed in the smaller end, and working in an eye fastened to the far side of the table. In every case the butter table should stand at such an inclination as will allow the brine to run off without difficulty. The packing of the butter for market is now the only operation. This, if done in a wooden tub or vessel, requires great care, as a tub once used retains, absorbed in the pores of the wood, the germs of decay, which will hasten putrefaction in succeed- ing packings. This must be neutralised by the use of scalding water mixed with lime and washing soda, which must be allowed to stand in the vessel long enough to remedy the injurious tendencies. A good method of preparing new tubs is by covering the inside with a varnish composed of shellac dissolved in methylated spirits. Á nice enamelled package is now produced in America which can be taken asunder, leaving the butter standing in a square block upon the counter of the storekeeper. Other topics of interest in connection with the dairy I have been unable to touch upon owing to want of space, but equally interesting and important-viz., “Feed for Dairy Cattle," "Selection of Dairy Cattle,” &c., &c. W. CASTLES. KEEPING THE DAIRY COOL.* If there is one thing more than another which puzzles the dairy man in Australia, it is the cooling of his dairy during the warm months of the year. There are many machines by which it can be done. For instance, the De Witt machine, shown in the working dairy of the Exbibition by Mr. Robert Hudson, will cool any apartment even without the aid of ice; or the farmer who sinks a long line of earthenware pipe, and brings the air through it to his dairy, either by forcing the air through with a fan, or simply by allowing it to be the only means of ventilation during the warmest part of the day, apertures being left in the roof for the escape of the warm air, and all the windows and doors being kept closed, will lower the temperature of the dairy materially. But the simplest plan, and the cheapest, is one which was suggested after trial by a New Zealand farmer many years ago. I will quote his own words, and illustrate the plan by the accompanying small engraving:- “I must first give you to understand that my dairy is not a grand stone structure, with flagged floor; neither is it built of brick, nor is it dug out of the side of a hill; but, though simply made of timber, of the board and batten type of construction, and attached to the back part of my house, I will venture to declare that it is one of the coolest, if not the coolest, dairy in the Kaipara. Having made this particularly bold assertion, I will now endeavour to show, for the benefit of any of your readers who may like to try my plan, how it is that I dare to do so. To begin with, I must explain that I have covered the roof with sods, cut about eight inches thick, having, of course, first nailed on pieces of tin and zinc to prevent the boards from rotting. These sods I water with a syringe every other day, and I now have a nice crop of green grass grow- * Copied from Mr. James P. Dowling's “Dairying in Australia,” by permission of Messrs. Turner and Henderson, 16 Pitt street, Sydney. 138 KEEPING THE DAIRY COOL. ing, which effectually prevents the rays from the gun penetrating and heating the building as far as concerns the roof, which is the most important part to protect, as it receives the sun's rays at nearly a right angle during the hottest part of the day. At each end of my dairy I have a large opening or window, covered with perforated zinc to keep out fiies and other insects, and at the same time to ensure a thorough draught. On the outside of these open- ings are stretched pieces of canvas nailed to tapering strips of wood, placed one on each side of the window. Above each window is fixed a kerosene tin, cut open on one side to allow of its being filled with water. In this receptacle I introduce one end of a piece of cloth, the other end hang- ing over the outside of the tin and touching the canvas blind, to which it is sewn in order to prevent it blowing about with the wind. Along the bottom of each canvas blind is a strip of tin, bent so as to form a gutter, and under the lowest part of this gutter stands a bucket. The apparatus being thus completed, the kerosene tins are filled with water, which being gradually absorbed and drawn up the cloth by the force known as capillary attraction drips down on the outside, and keeps the canvas blinds saturated with moisture. The evaporation from the film of water thus spread over the canvas covers produces cold, and the air, chilled by this means, enters the dairy COOLING THE DAIRY. A. Kerosene tin. BB. Cloth, one cnd of which rests in water, the other on the canvas blind. C. Canvas blind. D. Tapering board to which blind is attached. EE. Gutter. ullit KEEPING THE DAIRY COOL. 139 through the perforated zinc. A kerosene tin, filled with water, with cloth attached, will keep the canvas saturated for fifty hours without requiring any attention whatever, and at the end of that time all that is necessary to be done is to pour the water which has run into the buckets placed beneath the gutters back into the kerosene tins, adding, of course, the quantity lost by evaporation. By following the above instructions, anyone can secure a perfectly cool dairy or larder with very little trouble, and scarcely any appreciable expenditure. As a proof of the efficacy of the plan, I may say that I have kept meat perfectly fresh for five days during very hot weather.” This plan could be extended to any extent. The kerosene tins could be displaced by a larger reservoir, which could be fixed so as to supply several windows. Mr. J. L. Bruce, a very clever architect, when lecturing recently on “ The Laws of Cooling,” took this simple plan for his key- note, and said :- “The suggestion and diagram are excellent, and the statements throughout scientifically reliable, as well as practical in the highest degree. The writer applies his notion only to his dairy, but it is of much wider application than that, and is suitable, with modifications, to every house in the colony. He cools the air going into his dairy, and absorbs heat from it out through the window as well by the cooling or heat-absorbing effect of a canvas blind kept constantly moist by suitable means, which he describes. Well, the greatest cooling effect ever observed in Sydney was on November 21, 1878, when the evaporation from our friend's dairy blind would have lowered the teinperature 347 deg. There was a hot wind from the S.W. on that occasion, and the temperature in the shade was 102 deg.; but the temperature at our friend's dairy window would only have been 67 deg.; and if anyone were living in a canvas tant, and keeping the canvas damp on that day, he would be luxuriating in a temperature of 67 deg., and finding his clothes comfortable, while his fellow- men outside were sweltering in a temperature of 102 deg., finding even a coat intolerable, and almost convinced that there was no such thing as coolness in the world. From the meteorological tables published from the Observatory, I find that the hottest day of the year before last was the KEEPING THE DAIRY COOL. 141. here in summer. This evaporation, then, is the most simple and inexpensive method of cooling, and one which can be applied in many ways. For instance, most of us. are, I dare say, familiar with the porous earthenware bottles so largely used in India. In these the cooling action is a reality, and is caused simply by the evaporation of the water, which percolates through the material and keeps the outer surface constantly damp. Canvas buckets. or water-holders act exactly in the same way as the porous. bottles. FRUIT CULTURE.* THERE is no other country in the world that offers so great facilities for fruit-growing as Southern Queensland. Thousands of acres are now lying idle which might be bought from the Government at a very low price. Much of this land is eminently adapted for fruit-growing, and much of it will, sooner or later, be utilised for that purpose. In no other of the Australian colonies can so great a variety of fruits be successfully grown as in Queensland, on account of the variation of its climate. In the coastal districts, where little or no frost occurs, the following fruits thrive well:-Oranges, and all kinds of the citrus family, pine-apples, bananas, mangoes, Wild Goose Plum, Newman Plum, grapes, persimmons, custard apple, jack-fruit, loquats, guavas, pawpaw apple, passion- fruit of various kinds, peaches, apples, rockmelon, water- melon, &c.; and no fruits are here enumerated but such as are profitable to grow for market, leaving out all “ fancy" fruits, such as the Brazillian Cherry, Natal Plum, &c., many such being enumerated by several writers, which only serve to mislead the would-be orchardist. To anyone having the least acquaintance with fruit. growing it is needless to point out how desirable it is that a favourable site should be chosen on which to commence operations for forming an orchard ; and I would strongly recommend anyone coming to Queensland with the inten- tion of taking up land for fruit-growing purposes not to be in too great a hurry in deciding on the locality in which to settle until they have gained some knowledge of the colony. The best plan is to obtain employment during the first year's residence; and even if working for little more than rations the new-comer would be gaining experience that would be invaluable later when starting for himself. Also to use strict economy with regard to money, and place any spare capital in the Government Savings Bank for the time being, until knowing enough of the colony to be able use it with advantage. * This paper on Fruit Culture is written specially for the information of new- corners iutending to settle on the land. 144 FRUIT CULTURE. Bananas thrive best in rich scrub soil—that is, a soil containing a large amount of humus or vegetable matter, but they will grow well in any fairly rich soil. They are gross feeders. It is usual to plant about 300 plants per acre. Plants are suckers taken from old plants, and if put out in November or December will fruit in twelve. months, producing one bunch each of from six to fifteen dozen, the bunches increasing in size as the plants get older. Several suckers will spring up around the parent, so that the second year two or three bunches will be cut from each stool. Bananas will stand from ten to twenty years, according to the care bestowed upon them. Mangoes on good soil and in suitable positions grow very rapidly, and make exceedingly handsome trees. They are usually raised from seed. The seeds are large and are best planted where the trees are to grow, and in this way make the best trees. Care must be taken to get seeds of only good kinds, as the seedlings come very true. The mango is a fruit in demand, either for dessert in a raw state, or cooked while young and green, and it will become, like the pine-apple, a staple fruit for exportation to the South, where they will not grow, and on that account should have special attention. Very few varieties of plums thrive well in the coastal districts*, none of the English varieties are successful. There are only two kinds that really grow and crop well, being two American varieties called Wild Goose Plum and Newman Plum. The former is a very handsome fruit, a. small edition of Victoria ; it produces fruit in abundance at three years old, as does also the Newman, which is very similar to Wild Goose, ripening about a fortnight later. Both of them are excellent for either kitchen use or dessert, and will consequently always find a market if grown in quantity. Neither of these plums succeeds well on its own roots, but should be worked on the peach stock. Grapes grow and crop with a luxuriance that would surprise anyone who had not seen them outside of England. The fruit is of large size and excellent flavour. The * Fruit culture on the elevated lands, such as the Darling Downs, where all the fruits of Northern Europe may be grown, is treated of in one of the other pamphlets of this series. FRUIT CULTURE. 145 plants are raised from cuttings, and produce fruit the second year, with a good crop in the third. Mulching is an absolute necessity for all fruit trees. Grass, sea-weed. or vegetable matter of any kind, is used for the purpose. Japanese persimmons are a splendid fruit, which have hitherto been very scarce, but are fast coming into general cultivation. The fruit will probably export well. The plants should be grafted ones. The tree is deciduous, falling the leaves in the winter months. The custard apple is a handsome tree and delicious fruit. Seedlings are generally planted, which may be expected to bear fruit about the fourth year. Peaches grow with the utmost luxuriance, and are almost a weed, as they spring up any where from chance seeds, and are consequently inferior to European kinds. The apple does but indifferently. Occasionally fine fruit is grown, but the crop is not to be depended upon in the coastal districts of the colony.* The jack-fruit is a strong- growing umbrageous tree, usually fruiting at about eight years old. The fruit is larger than a man's head, of a dis- agreeable odour but fine flavour and highly appreciated when once the taste for it has been acquired. Plants are raised from seed. Loquat: A handsome tree, usually raised from seed, produces fruit in abundance at five years old. It is an excellent tree for planting round orangeries, or any orchard requiring shelter from the wind. Guavas, of which there are several kinds, are, like the peach, very common, producing an abundance of fruit. The paw paw is a diæcious plant raised from seed and fruits the second year. The fruit is as large as a moderate sized rockmelon, which it somewhat resembles both in appearance and flavour. All these fruits thrive under Ordinary orchard culture. All the foregoing fruits are profitably cultivated on the coast, but as we get further from the sea and into higher altitudes, the tropical and sub-tropical fruits will not thrive, but other kinds take their place, such as apples, pears, apricots, nectarines-in fact all the fruits that are usually grown in Europe. The northern and eastern slopes * Apple Cultivation forms one of the papers of this series, and it wii' be seer that on the upland of the colony the apple is grown in perfection. 1 145 FRUIT CULTURE. of the Main Range are particularly adaptable for orchard purposes. I never pass over them in the journey from Brisbane to Toowoomba without feeling convinced that we shall in the near future see all the available spots converted into vineyards, orangeries, and orchards generally. I have not had an opportunity of going over the land nor of examining the soil closely, but I know a great deal of it to be of volcanic origin, and the finest collection of oranges exhibited in Brisbane at the shows of the National A 880- ciation have come from this district, exhibited by Messrs. Holmes, of Ballard's Camp, and Pentecost, of the Range, Toowoomba. On the top of the Main Range is situated the town of Toowoomba, which has long been celebrated for its fruits, the principal being grapes, apples, pears, plums in variety, oranges, lemons, peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, and specimens of these may be seen at all the local shows that would not discredit any English show. I have also seen a splendid sample of olives grown in this district. Around and beyond Toowoomba there are literally thousands of acres of land inviting settlement. Roma, famous for its magnificent grapes, is fast developing into a great wine-making district. Around Warwick and Stanthorpe all the European fruits are grown to perfection; yet, in spite of these advantages, thousands of pounds' worth of fruit, both in a raw state and preserved as jam, &c., is annually imported from the South, Tasmania, and California, that might be equally well and profitably grown in Queensland. Ir planting an orchard it is advisable not to plant it entirely with one kind of fruit, for if that crop fails—as all crops are liable to do for a season at some time or another there would be no income. At the same time, the object to be aimed at by the orchardist is growing fruit for export, or in the case of fruits suitable for preserving, to grow them in such quantities as to be able to sell to the jam factories at reasonable rates; therefore I would recommend that the number of any fruit planted be not less than 50 trees, so that when they have grown to a size to produce a full crop, even if sold at a low rate, the crop would fetch a good round sum. 148 FRUIT CULTURE. chambers during transit, and, as a whole, arrived in good con- dition. The packing had been carefully attended to, and the appearance and quality of the fruit, with the exception of a consignment of oranges, was excellent. The apples arrived in fairly good condition, and were packed in chaff, which, being of a hydroscopic character, is a dangerous material for pack ing. Apples might form an important article of export; the rate of freight is, on an average, £16 per ton, or for cases of the size recommended (see Notes on packing), 8s. per case. The few samples of grapes arrived in good condition, each bunch being packed in its own box in a very fine and clean sawdust. Those shown at the horticultural shows were highly commended, and the Knighton medal was awarded for the whole collection of fruit. It might be considered whether the production of raisins and currants would not prove a profitable industry, as the climate of New South Wales would appear to be favourable for curing grapes. The oranges exhibited were of exceedingly handsome appearance, large in size, dark orange red in colour, and of superior quality. A vote of thanks was awarded for them at the horticultural show, the most conspicuous variety being the navel’ orange. New South Wales oranges, coming in August, September, and October, arrive just before the Brazilian orange, but to judge from the first trial it seems scarcely probable that the sale will ever be o a very profitable nature. The prices obtained varied from 3s. to 8s. per case, the expense of freight being about 4s. Of shadd cks, the fruit exhibited was of medium size and good quality, :nd it would probably sell well in London, although more valuable for preserving purposes. The lemons were of ordinary appearance, but smaller than most of the South European f uit. Of passion fruit, most was on arrival in sound condition, though somewbat shrivelled in appearance. By careful packing in the methods proposed for peaches or grapes it would all arrive in good condition and sell well. “ SUGGESTIONS FOR PACKING Fruit For EXPORT. “ Th' following suggestions for the packing of fruit for export are made by Mr. Gustavo Carsten., sen., late market superintendent, but now superintendent of the Royal Victoria Gardens, Bombay:- “ Apples intended for a long sea voyage should be gathered about a wiek previous to packing, and be most carefully handled, as the slightest blow is sure to leave a brown spot, and spoil the appearance of the fruit. After gathering, the fruit ought to be spread out in a single layer on perforated shelves in a cool and alm st dark place. Before packing, every fruit should be thoroughly wiped with a clean linen cloth, as all fresh fruits are FRUIT CULTURE. 149 liable to sweat. The packing cases ought to be manufactured of strong, not too porous, thin and light boards, simply nailed together. The size used for the first trial from Victoria-24 inches by 12 inches by 5 inches—will suit the purpose: but it is suggested that 20 inches by 15 inches by 6 inches would be a more suitable size, and would hold, say, 56 lbs. or ten to fifteen dozen, according to the size of the apples. At the bottom of the case and along the sides should be placed sheets of paper, lined with a thin layer of cotton wool or other soft material - hay and straw are unsuitable, being liable to decay by the influence of moisture - and then again sheets of paper. Every fruit should be wrapped up in tissue paper; they should then be placed in the case and pressed together as tightly as possible without injury. The layers of apples should be separated by double sheets of paper, and each successive layer pressed down. The last layer may be raised about 4 inch above the margin of the case. A thin layer of cotton wool should be placed on the top, after which the lid may be nailed on. If necessary, the case can be secured by bolts of iron wire Pears : The above remarks apply to the gathering and packing of this fruit, though, considering its greater tenderness, more care, if possible, should be bestowed upon it. The choice of varieties for export must be restricted to good- keeping ones. The fruit should be gathered before it has ripened. Peaches, Figs, and Date Plums: The fruit should be gathered before it is ripe. The cases should be small and flat (say 12 inches by 6 inches by 3 inches), and should be lined with tinfoil or parchment paper, in order to prevent the admission of moisture, and the fruit should be wrapped in tinfoil, and packed in cotton wool tightly enough to avoid friction. Grapes: The best material for packing grapes is dry saw or cork dust. Care should be taken that the grapes are quite dry when picked, and that the packing is done in a cool and shady place in order to prevent a sudden change of temperature when the grapes are placed in the cold chamber. The most suitable size of case would probably be 10 inches by 10 inches by 6 inches, so as to allow of only two layers of grapes, and should be made of hardwood, be as tight as possible, and lined with tinfoil or parchment. The grapes should be handled with the utmost care; all damaged berries carefully cut away, so as to prevent damage to the bloom or any worse injury. They should not be wrapped in paper. The stalks should be sealed with grafting or seiling- wax. Oranges: The fruit should be gathered when just com- mencing to change its green colour, but previous to the final pro- cess of ripening. It should be packed, like the apple, in cases of the same size; but it would be well to sort it in five different sizessay extra selected,' selected,' 'extra,' 'medium,' and 150 FRUIT CULTURE. small.' In order to do this properly, it would be wise to adopt the same system as is followed in Sicily, i.e., to sort the fruit by the aid of various sized rings. Bananas: Bananas reach the London market chiefly from Madeira, the Azores, and the West Indies. They are packed green, or half ripe, in open boxes or perforated barrels. Straw or wood shavings are used as packing material, and would answer the purpose very well for a short voyage. For long voyages the bunches should be cut when the single fruits have attained their full size, but are still quite green and hard. As with all unripe fruit, they should, during the voyage, be exposed as much as possible to air and light, and should therefore be kept on deck. Each bunch should be protected from injury by a cylindrical cage. Before packing the bunches the cut wound of the stalk should be sealed, in order to retain the sap. If sent ripe, the bananas should, in addition to sealing, be packed in saw or cork dust, or other soft material. Pine-apples should be packed as bananas. The cage-like packages above referred to should, however, be rectangular, and about 20 inches by 10 inches by 12 inches in size, so as to contain two sets of fruits. The packages should be divided into equal partitions, according to the size of the fruit, each cell containing one fruit hanging downwards, and properly fastened by ties. If packed ripe, trouble arises in consequence of the leaves being liable to decay. Storage in Cold Chambers : A few words may be added about storage in the cold chambers of the steamers. Though most of the con- signments which have arrived in the market prove to have been carefully attended to in this respect, it happened that fruits in some of them were injured through being exposed to a too low temperature. As a rule most of the hardy fruits will without harm endure a temperature of from 26 degrees to 30 degrees, but a temperature of 32 degrees to 35 degrees will be safer, and a fall below 26 degrees will be likely to prove dangerous. In order to avoid any harm, care must be taken that the fruit on its arrival is not exposed to a sudden change of temperature, and the packages should not be undone until their contents are presumed to have acquired the temperature of the surrounding air. Any sudden change will induce the fruit to decay, or at least to lose its flavour.”—Brisbane Courier, Ist January, 1888. PASTORAL FARMING. In a colony comprising such a vast area as Queensland, the variations in topographical features, geological forma- tions, temperature, and climate are necessarily considerable. Each of these conditions exercises a potent influence on the pasture and, necessarily, also on the stock. Thus, while the rank indigenous vegetation in the humid climate of the coast watershed and in the tropical latitudes affords admirable pasturage for cattle and horses, it is unsuited for sheep. On the other hand, the fine salinous herbage in the drier climate of the interior provides sheep pasture not excelled in any other country. The lands immediately to the west of the Main Coast Range, and for a considerable distance inland-intermediate between the Coast Range and the great saltbush plains- are admirably adapted to the growth of the finest merino wool, and it is on these western slopes that the highest quality of fine combing merino wool is grown. Further westward, on the extensive plains, the pasture is of a highly nutritious nature, and there the sheep attain a greater weight of carcass. In addition to a variety of herbs of a saline nature, and therefore remarkably healthy as sheep pasture, the “ Mitchell grass” (Astrebla elymoides), the most valuable fodder grass on the Australian continent, extends over a very large area of country available for settlement. Unlike ordinary grass the stalks of the Mitchell grass are perennial, and bud out afresh at every joint after every shower of rain, and it has therefore received the suggestive name of the “squatter's stand-by." • In consequence of the more arid nature of the climate, the western districts are not so favourable to the growth of fine soft wool as the country nearer to the seaboard, but the staple is of exceptional growth and soundness, and therefore a valuable description of wool for general purposes. The whole of the colony is admirably adapted to the pasturage of cattle ; but much of the open lands of the interior can with much greater profit be devoted to the growth of wool. 152 PASTORAL FARMING. Circumstances will determine the description of sheep most suitable for particular localities. Thus on rich soils, with a good average rainfall, a strong, heavy, lustrous description of combing wool will give the best return; while on thin soil, and on broken or hilly country, a high-class fine clothing wool can be grown to best advan- tage. If the land is convenient to railway communication, and other circumstances are favourable, the breeding of crossbred sheep may be found more profitable than that of merinos. A cross between the English Lincoln and the merino produces a very valuable sheep, for which there is a great demand at the present time for fattening on the cultivated grasses of the coast and Darling Downs. This cross matures largely, and realises, when fat, 75 per cent. higher prices than the merino. The wool is a beautiful long lustrous staple, much sought after by English manu- facturers, and commands at the present time as much per pound as a medium description of merino, while the fleece is considerably heavier than the latter. There are many pure stud flocks within the colony, and stud sheep can be purchased at very reasonable prices. By far the larger proportion of cattle in the colony are of Durham or shorthorn origin. There are, however, many herds of Herefords, and a few of Devons. The shorthorn has been found to adapt itself to all districts of the colony. It is, however, the opinion of many that the Herefords and Devons are better adapted to the coast and mountainous districts. The Aberdeen-Angus black polled cattle have recently been introduced, and as butchers' cattle promise to be a very great success. All breeds of cattle, however, have answered so well in Queensland that preference for one breed over another would appear to be mere matter of fancy. Of dairy breeds of cattle the Ayrshires are as yet the leading breed; but there are now several small herds of Channel Island breeds. The native Durhams, however, when selected and bred with that special object in view, have hitherto held their own as dairy cattle with any other variety. The horse stock in the colony may be classed as follows:-Saddle horses, 56 per cent.; light harness horses, 39 per cent.; heavy draught, 4 per cent.; and blood or WH E AT-GROWING. A NEWCOMER to Queensland inquiring concerning agri- culture is informed that wheat cannot be grown on this side of the Main Range on account of rust destroying the crop before it arrives at maturity, but that on the highlands of Toowoomba and Warwick wheat is grown successfully in favourable years. Anyone sowing seed wheat brought from England, New Zealand, or Adelaide, on this side the Main Range finds the statement to be true, and that his wheat shoots into ear, bu. when about to form seed the whole plant becomes covered with little reddish streaks, which burst, giving out a dusty powder, and no grain to speak of develops. On cutting the straw the red dust flies about covering the workman's clothes, as is also the case with oats grown for fodder when the season is favourable to the growth of rust, or where the land is low and rich. No grain forms on the common oat as a rule, but the black hairy oats produce ripe seeds. Rye also perfects grain with little or no injury from rust. This was the extent of our information thirteen years ago, when a Board to investigate diseases of stock and plants was formed by the Government at the advice of Mr. Haly. This Board on inquiring into the cause of rust in wheat, by the advice of the writer sought for wheats grown in or near tropical latitudes. Wheats were known to grow with success in India, and these wheats were obtained and sowed; some of them were found to come into ear and make perfect grain on the low scrub lands near the coast, under the most adverse conditions. At Toowoomba they were also tried in the public garden by the late Mr. Way, and several were found to give excellent results. The writer has continued to grow these wheats from year to year since then, but no mill being at hand in Brisbane, ail who tried the same wheats were unable to have flour made from them. Recently Messrs Joyce, of Dalby, have at great pains taken the Indian WHEAT-GROWING. 157 wheats in hand, and have found during the two past years that they grew satisfactorily. The Minister for Lands now purposes to distribute trial quantities grown by Messrs. Joyce to the farming community, and it is hoped that at no distant date a flour-mill may be constructed in Brisbane, so that the East Mori on farmers may have the oppor- tunity of producing their own flour. The two smaller sorts now distributed are beardless and resemble European wheats. They should be sowed on forest land, or on the upper and drier parts of scrub soil. In these places they produce grain uninjured by rust. On low rich scrub soil the larger Indian wheat may be sown. It grows five feet high and has a long black beard. Birds have little disposition to meddle with it. In no case does it suffer from rust, even when too rank or laid. TIME OF SOWING.—May is the most convenient month in the neighbourhood of Brisbane. If sowed in April, the wheat may shoot into ear before the frosts are over and no grain will form. If May is passed over, rain may not be sufficiently abundant to enable the grain to germinate, though if there be a satisfactory fall of rain in June the plant will grow to maturity and ripen in October, soon enough for the land. to be ploughed and maize planted for a summer crop. STORAGE OF SEED.—The preservation of seed wheat is a great difficulty in the coast country. The same applies to sorghum, millet, maize, barley, and rye. Rice, curiously enough, is not attacked by either the moth or the weevil, and may be stored from year to year if protected from mice. To store wheat for sowing, pack the grain in bags that hold a bushel or less, and place on wire netting or other framework in the upper part of a smoky kitchen, under the shingles. The bags should be opened and the contents examined once a month, in case weevils develop in the centre of the bags where the smoke does not penetrate. Rust.-Rust is a fungus, the mould of which lives in the green structure of the foliage of wheat, oats, barley, rye, and maize: in the two latter to a limited extent. The seed or spore-bearing part of the rust plant produces ridges on the WHEAT-GROWING. 159 UNUSUALLY LARGE YIELD OF WHEAT REPORTED IN MARCH, 1888. “ Mr. Henry Allan, of Freestone Creek, has just finished threshing his this year's wheat with most satisfactory results. The wheat was sown in May last over an area of 108 acres ; the yield is 938 bags or nearly 4,000 busbels--viz, 600 bags lamas, 140 purple straw, 101 bags tuscan, and the balance defiance. Mr. Allan expected a yield of about 650 bags only, and was therefore most agreeably surprised at the end of the threshing to be the lucky owner of 938 bags as fine and as dry a wheat as ever produced in the district, the wheat being remarkably clean, free from oats, smut, and other impurities. Mr. Allan is now engaged delivering the wheat into Mr. Kates' Warwick mill. It will take nearly 50 drays to do it, and when finally delivered he will receive the handsome cheque of over £750. The average yield is about 36 bushels to the acre; that shows what the district can produce with anything like a fair season”- drgus. The above, published in the Brisbane paper in March, 1888, showing a yield of 36 bushels to the acre, must not be taken as any guide as to average yield in Queensland, as the season of 1887-8 was exceptionally favourable for wheat growing. For information on the cultivation of wheat in Queens- land, the reader is referred to what is said on this subject in the description of Queensland as a field for emigration, page of the Queensland Illustrated Guide, for the use of farmers, fruit growers, vignerons, and immigrants. WHEAT GROWING ON THE MARANOA. The following is taken from a lecture recently delivered by Mr. J. C. Minns, on wheat culture in Queensland, District of the Maranoa:- "He had no fear of the future so far as the Maranoa and wheat growing were concerned. Well, gentlemen, now coming o the subject which has brought me here to-night: the position I take up is not that of a visionary or a dreamer. Our opponents speak of agriculture so far inland as impossible, but i maintain facts are against them. The same thing was said of some portions of Victoria, and it is no secret-in fact, a matter of history—that the first attempt to grow wheat on the plains of Adelaide was ridiculed. In those days the first settlers WHEAT-GROWING. 161 . prevent the Maranoa becoming one amongst the great wheat producing centres in Australia. God has given you the con- ditions, and has placed everything to ensure success within your grasp. He can do no more. Be men of spirit, pluck, and enterprise, and make this the great and prosperous land Providence designs it should be.” The Government have recently consented to sell a suitable piece of land within the Railway Reserve in the town of Roma, Maranoa, on which Mr. Kates is erecting a flour mill, the farmers around having engaged to put about one thousand acres under crop in this first season. RUST IN WHEAT. Extract from notes by “Christophus,” published in the Queens- lander, made on visit to the farm of Mr. Banks, Goomburra. “The 'Defiance,' introduced some few years ago, the grain of which is of a lighter colour, and which is gradually getting acclimatised, is the wheat to which Mr. Banks now pins his faith. This year he reaped nearly 40 bushels per acre* of this variety, and the grain fetched full market quotations. Talking on the subject of feeding the crop down when it shows signs of super-luxuriance of growth, I found my host a thorough keliever in the practice. Bullocks are, in his opinion, far better than sheep for the purpose. At Goomburra Station the wheat grew unusually rank last year, probably because the paddock had been smirched by the inundations of January, and a fresh deposit of alluvial soil laid, and to keep the crop down Mr. Banks turned in a mob of 300 bullocks. The bullocks were kept in a 22-acre paddock during most of the winter (being turned off at night), and fed it down quite bare. The result of the cropping and trampling on the wheat showed prominently about harvest time, the crop standing up straight and level, the straw being free from flag and unusually clear, and the stripper taking off about 300 bags from the paddock. I hinted that most small farmers had not a mob of 300 bullocks to turn in on their crop; but there is no doubt that, in cases when the wheat grows unusually rank when young, if farmers were to make a mob from the cattle off several holdings and feed down paddock by paddock it would prove a strong preventive to rust. Cattle will eat wheat wh 'n it is far too rank for sheep, and * This was in 1887, when the wheat generally in Queensland was free from rust, and the yield was above the average. M 162 WHEAT-GROWING. the trampling does the crop all the good in the world, proving the truth of the saying that you cannot knock wheat about. too much.' Mr. Banks holds strong theories about the rust scourge. In his opinion a great deal is due to the description of country wheat is grown in and the preponderance of iron in the soil. The formation all around here is basaltic, and at Glen Innes the same characteristic may be observed. At Glen Innes the rust scourge has been severely felt in past years, and doubtless will be again. About Tenterfield the country shows granite formation, and there rust is almost unknown. Mr. Banks informed me that whilst on a trip in that neighbourhood he was shown paddocks that have grown wheat for fourteen years consecutively without any devastation from rust. This fact might be worth the attention of our Agricultural Depart. ment." FLOWER GARDENING. -- THE full enjoyment of the possession of a home in any clime is incomplete without a flower garden, and in Queens. land the varieties of climate are so great as to allow of the successful growth of flowers, varying in their nature from the annuals of an English garden to the rich growth and colours of the tropics. Besides, a flower garden can be gay and attractive during every month of the year. Queens- land is known as the “ Land of Sun and Light,” and it rests with its settlers to make it a land of flowers. Hence no apology is necessary in urging on all new-comers the desirability of making their homes truly home-like and attractive. Though the altered circumstances of their new life may compel settlers to apply themselves almost exclusively to remunerative work at first, yet with a little of the enthusiasm and love of flowers which characterise the home countries a great deal may be accomplished with comparatively little labour in making homes attractive to the settlers themselves, their families, and the district generally. The cultivation of flowers creates a healthy rivalry among families, promotes social intercourse, and the dis- semination of information on all cultural matters such as is often acquired, it may be, through failures, and yet proves the most useful and practical information for the locality. Matters pertaining to home gardening may be the means of benefiting the children by engaging their attention and developing in them habits of usefulness, diligence and observation, which may be the basis of future instruction, and which, if encouraged, may be a safeguard in forming character. Local horticultural shows, too, encourage a desirable emulation in old and young. No information of a general nature will suit every district, hence any mere list of plant names is unnecessary and perhaps unintelligible; still, certain suggestions may be useful. NA FLOWER GARDENING. 165 winter. The ferns and other plants of a climbing, erect or rambling habit, if carefully planted and attended to for a short time, require comparatively little further attention. The effect of such an adjunct to the dwelling is almost incredible; it is always pleasing and does away with the endless trouble and failures of the stand of pot-plants. The collection can be increased by the ferns and choice plants of the district and by exchanges. A new-comer with any taste can easily produce effects in his garden in Queensland which are impossible in a cooler clime, growing successfully his old favourites, the daisy, pansy, fuchsia, dahlia, and the ever-valued rose; while bulbous plants, amaryllis, gladiolus, crinums, etc., luxuriate and flower in rich masses in their seasons, and such plants as petunia, verbena, phlox, coleus, and balsam become naturalised and keep up a perpetual blaze of colour. The grower can have shrubs in masses, such as the bibiscus, poinsettia, lagerstræmia, acalypha, croton, dracæna, etc., etc., harmonising and contrasting in grand effect, while the pleasing sight of flowers and foliage, of climbing and trailing plants, is so easily produced. The aloes and càcti produce lasting and grotesque effects in gardens. In lands surrounding the farm, much beauty can be produced by planting trees such as the poinciana and jacaranda, whether when in flower or leaf, contrasting well with the rich evergreen colour of the spreading and shady native fig, and with the stately grandeur of the palms, pines, and bambo, and lending a beauty to the landscape never dreamt of by natives of a colder clime. The charms of the bush-house, with its ever welcome quiet and shade, its rich growth of ferns of all heights and habits, its peculiarities of shape and colour, of foliage and flower, of begonia, caladium, gloxinia, etc., etc., are a constant source of enjoyment, and give rest to both body and mind. Such results in flower gardening can be easily attained by every selector in Queensland with a little taste and enthusiasm in garden- ing matters, and will go far to make his life of work and struggle towards comfort and independence happy and contented. Seed sowing is often a matter of great disappointment. In every garden, no matter what its size, a suitable part should be set apart for this purpose. The seed beds should 166 FLOWER GARDENING. be near water and of free and well drained soil, not too rich or heavy, as an over luxuriant growth in this stage is to be avoided. On such soils pressed firm the seeds should be sown and covered only with soil equal to the size of the individual seeds, so that many kinds, and these often the most choice, require very little covering indeed. For covering seeds, well rotted horse manure rubbed fine, or ashes, can be used. These substances allow of the necessary frequent waterings without hardening the surface. The seed beds should never be allowed to get too dry, using always a watering-pot with a fine rose. As soon as the seedlings attain a size fit to handle they should be pricked off in beds of the same nature of soil, about an inch apart. They thus grow strong and sturdy and form fibrous roots which give them a start when transplanted into the garden or into pots. For most annuals in Southern Queensland the end of March is early enough to sow, for then they grow strong and sturdy without shade. If shading is necessary from the force of sun and wind, light branches of ti-tree can be laid on the ground. This covering breaks the force without excluding light and air. Seeds of tender plants such as Gloxinia and Primula should be sown in well- drained pots or pans and covered with a piece of glass and shaded until they germinate. A very porous soil is best for such purposes, and any watering necessary should be done by soaking the pot in water rather than giving it overhead. Potting deserves every attention from anyone attempt- ing it on however limited a scale. The nature of the soil used should be determined by the individual genus. The Begonia, for instance, requires a rich soil vet porous, while the Croton requires a stiff and rich loam. The compost used should consist of well decomposed turfy loam, well decomposed cow manure, charcoal, sand or brick dust, thoroughly mixed in greater or less proportions and fineness as the nature of the genus requires. The substances should be kept dry and should never be used in a wet state. The pots should be perfectly clean and dry; they should be well drained, with broken pots, charcoal, &c., arranged so as to leave interstices for the free passage of water and air. The drainage should then be covered with a rough material, spent hops, broken peat, &c., to keep the drainage 168 FLOWER GARDENING. be set apart a corner in a shaded place for rooting cuttings. Many plants such as Salvia, Chrysanthemum, Phlox, &c., are more satisfactory when renewed annually. Planting.-In any planting operations, whether of annuals, shrubs or trees, the great essentials are, healthy active roots to start with, and well prepared soil as to trenching and composition. All beds and isolated patches. should be dug or trenched to a sufficient area not to restrict root action in the first establishment of the plant. The arrangement of plants is a matter of convenience and taste. It is better, if possible, not to plant large trees in beds or borders of flowering plants or shrubs, no matter of how mixed a nature. Perhaps mixed planting is the most satisfactory. Specimens of climbing plants on pillars of showy foliage and flowering shrubs can be planted at intervals sufficient to allow of free and unconfined development the spaces between can be filled with bulbous plants, annuals, and perennials. In this way the plot can be made attractive at all seasons of the year, whereas in separate planting, although the effects may be greater at one time, yet at others the natural exhaustion from rains, drought and heat, produces a blank. Plants such as the rose, azalea, camellia, &c., are better grouped in masses ; the effects thus produced by blending and harmonising of colours can never be equally successful when planted apart. Besides, plants such as azalea and camellia will not bear such disturbance at their roots as the ordinary mixed borders require. The time of planting or transplanting is regulated by the circulation of the sap. With plants of a tropical nature, the best time to plant, either by removal or from pots, is in spring, when the sap is rising. The small fibrous roots are then ready to work, and if helped in dry weather with water they establish the plant without interruption, whereas if planted just before winter, when root action is slower or nil, the fibrous roots rot with cold and wet, and are unable to supply even the moisture lost by evaporation. March and April are the best months for transplanting large shrubs, especially those of a not too tropical nature, as then the strain from evaporation is not too severe and the temperature of the soil is sufficiently warm to establish activity in the roots before winter. In all such cases the evaporating. 170 FLOWER GARDENING. wood, generally about December or January, although the period varies according to the season. The stock should be stripped of its leaves and twigs near the ground and a cut made lengthwise about one or one and a-half inch, with a cross-cut made at the top to half the circumference of the shoot, and at right angles both ways to the long cut, using the end of the budding knife, or, better still, the thumb nail to raise the bark along both sides of the up- right cut. In selecting the bud of the variety to be used, half-ripened wood should be taken. The knife should be inserted about 1 in. below the bud, in an upright direction, to slightly farther than 1 in. above the bud, removing the wood to half the diameter of the shoot. The greater length of bark cut off above the bud enables it to be held between the fingers without injuring the vital part. Then the wood can be extracted from the bud, great care being taken not to tear out the eye. The bud must immediately be moistened in water, or, better still, in the mouth, saliva acting more favourably than water. It should then be inserted downwards from the cross-cut on the stock, under the raised bark. When in position the excess of bark above the bud should be cut away exactly in the cross-cut, so that the bark of the bud shall be exactly continuous with the bark of the stock. The exact fitting is very important, because it is at this point that union takes place. It is the sap descending through the bark, not that ascending through the woody tissue, which forms wood. When the bud is in position it should be tied above or below, not too tightly, with cotton or worsted, which will rot by the time a union has taken place. The knife used should be very sharp, as a clean cut heals more quickly than a rough one. Grafting can best be done in winter. “Hedge” and “whip" grafting are the generally adopted methods. Hedge grafting should not be used for hard-wooded plants, but it is a safe and quick method for such as roses. The grafts should be of well-ripened wood, and at least from 4 inches to 6 inches in length, cut wedge-shape with a slope of about 2 inches. The stock should be cut off a little below the level of the soil, and split down to 2 inches to receive the wedge graft. The soil should be removed a little lower to allow the work to be done cleanly. Whip-grafting differs FLOWER GARDENING. 171 from wedge-grafting only in having one side of the graft and stock cut obliquely. If, in both methods, the grafts and stocks are of equal thickness so much the better. If not, the barks of each should fit on one side, as it is at this point of junction of the barks that union takes place. In both methods also a bud should be left on the grafts near the bottom and not tied over, for probably the strongest shoot will start from the lowest bud. After tying firmly in position, the grafts should be rubbed over with well- worked clay, and have the soil brought back, covering the whole graft so as to exclude air. A light mulch of litter will very much benefit the buds when they start, and as soon as possible the energy of the stock should be gradually concentrated into the new growth by rubbing off superfluous shoots. Pruning is one of the most important works of a garden, and a thorough understanding of its objects, as well as the laws governing it, is very desirable. The main object of pruning is to maintain a healthy balance between the roots and branches, whereby the greatest return of flower and fruit can be got. There are three principal methods to this end: First, by disbudding-i.e., by rubbing off in the early growth all superfluous shoots, not desirable either from the danger of overcrowding or, as likely to be, too great a strain on the plant; also by pinching out the growing points of too strong shoots, so as to distribute the energy laterally. This method is prefer- able, as the greatest possible economy is practised in allowing only necessary growth. Second, by removing or reducing matured wood. This should always be done when the sap is rising, for if shoots are removed from decidu- ous trees at any other time when the leaves are off the sap escapes by bleeding, there being no leaves to elaborate it. All wounds should be cleanly cut, and should be of the least possible size to facilitate healing. This pruning should be done so as to remove, first, all dead and sickly growth, and then the shoots reduced or cut away so as to balance the plant, and to admit the greatest amount of light and air through the plant. All branches which injure by crossing should be removed, but large limbs should be cut off sparingly so as not to disarrange the flow of sap, and should be smoothed over so as to heal 176 RICE. Like all other crops, rice has its enemies and diseases. A kind of rust appeared in some places last year, and there are some grubs which feed on the roots; and a good deal of harm was occasioned last year from both these causes. The rust has also appeared again this year, and it is feared the crops around Port Douglas will be a failure. There must be many other varieties of seed rice which have not yet been tried, and the sort most suitable to this country has probably not yet been found. As much as 700 acres of rice were planted last year about Port Douglas, and though in some places the returns were very good, on the whole, owing to the abovementioned causes, the crops were a failure. Only about 300 acres have been put under rice in the same district this year, and only a few acres in the Cairns District. In the Cairns District the Carolina upland rice has been planted, but it is too soon yet to form a decided opinion as to its value. The largest mill yet put up in the Colony has been erected in Cairns by Mr. Behan, and is capable of turning out one ton of dressed rice a day. The cost of a rice mill capable of turning out about one ton a day is about £600 including erection. The price paid by the mill-owner in Cairns for "paddy rice” is £8 10s. per ton, but in Port Douglas as much as £9 to £10 has been paid. The rice when dressed, after having been put through the mill, is worth about £17. It is probable that rice will become one of the best paying semi-tropical crops as soon as experience has taught what seed to plant, and how to avoid the rust to which it is subject; but intending growers are advised to put only small areas under crop until the cultivation of this grain has advanced beyond its present experimental stage. C. A. COLLARD. TOBACCO CUITIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. CHOICE OF LAND.—For the purpose of growing tobacco a good piece of country fronting on a river or any per- manent water is desirable ; failing this, a spot where water may be obtained easily by sinking. Tools, ETC., REQUIRED.--A farmer intending to grow tobacco, and having to commence on bush land, should be on his ground early in April, and would require two horses. a dray or cart, one light two-horse plough, and the ordinary kit of bush tools-viz., an axe, adze, handsaw, crosscut saw, maulrings and wedges, spade, pick or mattock, and shovel. This is assuming the intending grower to be an able- bodied man, and of ordinary intelligence, capable of doing most kinds of work such as ploughing, fencing, clearing, and rough carpentering. HUT TO BE ERECTED. — He must now commence operations at once, and erect himself (supposing he is a bachelor) a hut, one 10 feet by 12 feet; walls 6 feet 6 inches high would be sufficient, and could be made of round stuff and bark. If a married man, one 20 feet by 12 feet, walls 6 feet 6 inches, divided into two rooms, with verandah in front 4 feet wide, and fireplace in one end. These huts to be put up by contract would cost £5 and £12. . CLEARING THE GROUND. — The hut being inished, he should now start clearing the ground required for his cultivation, say five acres; whatever is cleared must be grubbed out to a depth of at least one foot from the surface, and the roots all run to that depth; the logs, branches, &c., all burnt on the ground, or hauled off, the former way the best. PLOUGHING. — When cleared, the ground should be ploughed to a depth of about four inches, left lie for at least a month, then barrowed well so as to draw out and kill the grass ; then plough a second time before planting out the tobacco, this time to a depth of from six inches to - - N 178 TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. eight inches, the deeper the better; then harrow twice, or oftener if necessary, to make ground fine. Cost of each ploughing usually 25s. per acre. FENCING.-Fence in the cultivation with a fence of split posts, put every 8 feet with four No. 8 wires run through. Five acres will require 30 chains of fencing to enclose it; number of posts required for 30 chains, 245; usual contract price, 20s. per 100. The posts should be put 20 inches, in the ground, and bored for the wire to run through, and a round post for straining the wire to every 100 yards. This post should be 3 feet in the ground and stayed. Four No. 8 wires are quite sufficient to keep out stock. Weight of wire required for 30 chains, 5 cwt. 2 qrs. To keep out sheep, six wires would be required. The cost of this fence by contract should not exceed 12s. 6d. per chain. Cheaper kinds of fence could be used such as dog-leg, cockatoo, &c., but the above is a good, sufficient, lasting, and quickly erected fence. SEED BEDS.—Tobacco seed should be sown in July for an early crop, but one crop may be obtained from seed sown as late as December. The beds may be made any- where, and may be made before the clearing is finished or the ground ploughed. Where a log has been burnt in the bush is a good place, as the young plants will come up free from weeds, and the burning does the ground good; ashes mixed with the ground is also good. As the seed is very fine it is better to mix it with ashes or fine earth before sowing, so as not to sow too thickly ; about half an ounce of seed should be sown for each acre intended to be planted out. The seed-beds should be about 2 feet 6 inches wide-not wider-so as to be able to weed from the side without treading on the bed, and may be any length. The mould at the outer edges of the beds should be slightly ridged to prevent the water from running off when watering. The ground should be well and carefully worked, and worked very fine before sowing. The beds must be covered so as to protect them from the frost. The usual covering used here is long grass laid over the bed, through which the watering is done. This plan is, I think, liable to make the plants delicate, and inclined to generate blue mould. The best covering is calico or TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. 181 SECOND CROP.-After cutting, the roots will start to grow again for the second crop. Only one sucker must be allowed to grow, and this must be treated and trimmed exactly as described for first crop. This crop will arrive at maturity, that is, the leaf will be ripe in about eight weeks in a fair season, and is generally the best crop. THIRD CROP.- After the second crop is cut it is possible to obtain a third if the season is good and the tobacco has been planted out early. This is treated in the same manner as the second crop, but should be cut before frosts set in, for frost will turn the leaf black and render it unfit for market. PLANTS REQUIRED FOR SSED. — Plants required for seed must be allowed to grow from the first planting out; the second crop will not do. One plant will yield about lb. seed. The leaves must be stripped off the plant as they ripen and taken to the shed." The stalk with the head of seed should be tied to a stake driven in the ground for support. The seed pods must be taken off as they ripen. After the last crop has been taken off, the ground should be ploughed and allowed to lie fallow till time to plough for next season's crop. DRYING SHED.-A drying shed of sufficient size to dry the crop off 5 acres would require to he at least 60 feet by 36 feet, made as follows:-Main part of shed, 60 feet by 20 feet; height to top of wall-plate, 12 feet 6 inches. On each side of main shed a skillion 8 feet wide; height of skillion plate 8 feet 6 inches. Post of main shed to be every 10 feet; also a row of posts 10 feet apart running down centre of main shed; the skillion posts must also be 10 feet apart. The posts of the main shed morticed as slip- rail posts, running lengthways of the shed, one mortise to be 4 feet from top of wall-plate, and another mortise to be 8 feet from top of wall-plate. The skillion posts to be mortised 4 feet from top of skillion-plate. Rails can then be put in these mortise holes. These rails are to support light poles on which the tobacco is hung, thus giving three lengths for drying tobacco in the main shed, viz., on the wall plates, and a plate that must be run along the centre line of posts, on the rails is mortises 4 feet from the plates, TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. 183 To DRY TOBACCO LIGHT.-If the leaf is required to be dried light of a bright colour, poles should be arranged about 3 feet from the ground and 10 feet apart on forks or post: put in the ground in the open air outside the shed. The light poles with the tobacco on should be taken from the shed and placed on these poles for a few hours each day in the sunshine, and taken back into the shed at night, or should rain come up, for it must not be allowed to get wet either by dew or rain. This should be continued for a week or ten days, after that it can remain in the shed till dry. For dark tobacco, after once hanging it is left till dry enough to hand up. If placed reasonably apart so that the plants press lightly against each other, and the calico sides are left up during the day, it will dry in from six to eight weeks in summer time; in cooler and wintry weather it takes longer. Should much wet weather occur while the drying is going on the leaf is liable to go mouldy; to prevent this a few slow fires should be lighted in different parts of the shed in holes dug just below the level of the floor. The fires should not be allowed to burn high, and the tobacco should be moved from their immediate vicinity to avoid the possibilty of its taking fire. If tobacco is dried in a close shed and hung closely it will dry dark; if dried in an open shed it will dry lighter coloured. HANDING-UP.- When the leaf is sufficiently dry, which is known by the green sap having left the stem of the leaf, it should be handed-up—that is, the tobacco should be taken down and stripped off the stalk by hand, and made up into small bundles of about 1 dozen leaves; these leaves are placed with their stems even and bound together at the stem end by another leaf being twisted round and the end doubled in amongst the leaves. These bundles are called “hands." While handing-up, the tobacco should be classed according to quality and colour. Handing-up can- not take place in dry weather as the leaves are generally too brittle; it must be done either of a dewy morning or during rainy weather. STACKING.–After handing-up, the tobacco must be stacked, on bark or boards laid on the ground, or, better, raised a few inches from the ground. Place the hands when stacking with their stems outwards, only two in 184 TOBACCO CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. width, with the tips of the leaves slightly overlapping in the centre. The stack may be made any length, and will stand to about six feet high. It should be closely covered with calico, bagging, or canvas, and poles or slabs laid on the top to weight it; the covering kept as close as possible to keep out the air. The stack should be tried occasionally to see that it does not heat; this is done by pushing the hand into it. If the heat is considerable the stack should be taken down and re-stacked : the fact of moving it and letting the air in is quite sufficient to arrest heating. If it again heats the same course must be adopted. It is best to make several stacks, leaving room to pass easily between. Stacks, unless the leaf is very short, should not be made wider than the two hands. There is little danger of the tobacco heating unless it is too green or wet when stacked. The drying and handing-up applies to all crops alike. BALING-UP.–After the tobacco has been stacked for a month or six weeks it should be fit to bale up, but should not be baled up if damp, as then it would be likely to heat and go mouldy in the bale; neither should it be too dry, as then the pressing would cause considerable breakage the leaves being brittle. The leaf should be tough and pliable so that it can be handled without breaking. Damp weather should be chosen for pressing and baling. PRESSING.–For pressing, an ordinary box lever press is suitable as no great pressure is required. A box made strongly, with frame outside so that one side can be removed ; size of press 3 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 3 feet high; no bottom is required. The bales can be made of calico or hessian, which is quite strong enough to hold the tobacco together, and should be placed inside the press the tobacco being packed inside them for pressing. Bales contain from 2 cwt. to 3 cwt. of tobacco. The tobacco should be baled up according to its quality, and the bales marked accordingly. VARIETIES OF TOBACCO. The most useful and market- able kinds of tobacco are Virginian and Kentucky. They are good heavy bearers and pay the grower well. Havana is good tobacco for cigars, but yields a very light crop. This kind may be planted 3 feet apart each way in the field, as it does not grow to any great size. 188 NOTES ON THE BANANA. large and remunerative return for the culture. There can be no doubt of the value of the meal as an article of food, and of the benefit of preparing it wherever the fruit is produced in larger quantities than can be consumed. The other mode of preserving bananas closely resembles that employed in the preparation of other dried fruits. When the fruit has become thoroughly ripe it is placed on wire sieves and exposed to the sun tiil the skin begins to shrink. The skin is then taken off and the fruit again exposed until a white mealy substance appears on the surface. The fruit is then pressed and packed in small boxes. Experiments on both these methods were successfully made in Brisbane in 1869, and samples were exhibited at the Intercolonial Exhibitions held in Sydney in 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1873, and were highly commended by skilful practical men. With the increase of population and steam com- munication to and from the newly formed townships on the Queensland coast, the cultivation of the banana has extended enormously and proved remunerative both to the grower and merchant. The demand for this fruit is still good, and the extension of the railway from towns on the coast to those in the interior will still further increase the demand and offer inducements to the cultivator to extend the culture of the banana plant to supply the increasing population of the interior. WALTER HILL. FORESTRY. THE conservation and extension of our forests is properly a function of the State, but before it can be efficiently per- formed it is indispensible that an enlightened public opinion should prevail on the subject. Although there may be but few in position to render direct and practical service to the cause here advocated, everybody is able to help in diffusing correct views, so as to create in time such a drift of public opinion as may overrule the clamour of the vested interests that have grown up at the expense of this branch of the people's inheritance, and which interests would, if permitted, soon leave the Colony destitute of the last trace of forest vegetation. While forest conservancy and culture on an effective scale are only attainable under State supervision, there is no settler, however limited his holding, who cannot render yeoman's service in striving to avert the consequences of the wanton and indiscriminate de- struction everywhere in progress. If nothing more, he can at least impress on all his dependants, both by precept and example, the high economic value of forests to any com. munity; the exceeding slow growth of the more valuable timbers—so quickly destroyed and so difficult to replace; the alarming rate at which those once abundant are disap- pearing under the hearer's very eye. He can point to tracts, once umbrageous with pine, cedar, silky oak, yellow- wood, and other high-priced trees, whose very aspect the children of the present generation have no knowledge of save from hearsay, so completely have they disappeared from the face of creation. He can enlarge on the beneficial influence of forests in averting bleak or parching winds, protecting the crops in their vicinity from frost, attracting and regulating rainfall, promoting the absorption of moisture by the soil, and checking excess of drainage and evaporation, and thus maintaining at an average level the supply of water from springs, lagoons, and creeks ; and having thus conclusively shown that the mysterious opera- tion attributed to forests in modifying and improving the 190 FORESTRY. climate of a country is founded on facts within the personal observation of all, he may fitly denounce the felling of even one immature and well-grown tree, unless an equivalent be rendered in cultivation or some other genuine improve. ment. Thus, although forestry in its wider sense may be outside the sphere of most farmers, all have it in their power to preserve, and induce others to preserve, a portion of the fair and fast-waning dowry that nature has bestowed on the land. This dowry is a sacred trust, not to be wantonly squandered in mere caprice, but jealously guarded in the interests of coming generations, and sparingly and reluctantly encroached on only when the paramount claims of agriculture justify such a course. The fortunate owner of scrub land, on which cedar, pine, or other valu- able timbers are growing, should think twice before making a complete clearance of them, however great the demand, and however tempting the offers he may receive. If in the course of clearing for cultivation their removal become absolutely necessary, a few well-grown, and if possible still immature, specimens should be left in positions where they will not interefere with the plough or the hoe--if for no other purpose, at least as a source of seed supply: The properly ripened seed of most of our more valuable timbers is becoming more and more difficult, in places almost impossible to obtain, and wherever this is the case natural reproduction of such trees by means of spontaneous seed. lings is quite out of the question, and the obstacles in the way of forming nurseries are proportionately increased. In clearing scrub land it is an excellent plan to leave untouched a belt of standing timber, from half-a-chain to a chain in width, all round the land to be put under crop. Such a belt-which is in fact a forest reserve in miniature -serves as a protection against keen or parching, winus and excess of rain or sun, as well as being capable of ben used, by the improving settler, as an experimental nu for young indigenous trees, many of which will only my in the semi-darkness of the natural jungle. It is to me remarked that a strip of limited width is more, any watched, cleaned, replanted, and otherwise improve a compact block, the seeming vastness of whic instead of inviting the band of labour. The cedar eeming vastness of which repels 194 FORESTRY. piece of reed, with the seeding it has nourished, to be slipped in without further ado. Whatever fashion is adopted the plantlet suffers no check provided the weather be favourable, the rootlets forthwith expanding in their native element and assimilating the nourishment it affords. It is, of course, desirable to observe some caution in removing the seedlings to the place where they are intended to remain. The best plan is to wheel or carry the whole box without disturbing its contents until the spot is reached, when the sides should be cautiously wrenched asunder and the reeds taken out one by one, or in faggots of a dozen or more, as convenience may dictate. No more should be pulled asunder than can be conveniently planted the same day, and. with due care to prevent the evaporation of moisture or exposure to sunshine, those that have been allowed to remain intact will take no harm. At this point it is proper to warn intending planters that no success need be expected if cattle are allowed to have access to the reserved belts or patches. There is no more deadly enemy to jungle timber, even of mature growth, than the constant poaching and consolidating of the ground above the roots by stray cattle. Any patch into which they can manage to force their way for habitual resort is speedily doomed. First, the after-growth dis- appears ; constant nibbling and trampling soon makes havoc of the seedlings that were destined in the course of nature to take the place of the adult and decaying trees, and there is an end to reproduction. Next the under- growth of bushy shrubs and climbers suffers, that protected the boles and trunks from too rapid atmospheric changes and helped to maintain that perfect calm and equable warmth which is so striking a feature of the virgin scrub. As these disappear their place is taken by the omnivorous lantana and other exotic weeds, and imperceptibly tree after tree dwindles and chokes in their pernicious embrace until not a trace of the original vegetation is left. All timber belts, then, must be rigidly fenced oil, not only while young but in all stages of their growth. Since it is to the interest of all to foster liberal and ws on the subject of forest conservancy, it is suggested that agricultural associations thr the Colony might fairly devote a part of the fun devote a part of the funds at their 196 FORESTRI. green, then to trickle, and finally to flow copiously from one brimming pool to the next. Cultivation, never before attempted, began to extend with fair success, and where only a few years previously the endeavour to establish an orchard would have been merely money thrown away, abundance of fruit of excellent quality is now grown. In & word, a district measuring some sixty square miles in extent has been transformed from a hideous desert into a blooming garden by the simple expedient of planting all waste tracts with shade trees. In all parts of Australia the diffusion of a taste for forestry would soon open a new and valuable resource to the small farmer. In all countries where the people have become alive to the utility of forests and necessity of preserving and extending them planting soon becomes one of the most cherished pursuits. of every class, from the big landowner who measures his estates by the hundred thousand acres to the suburban cottar on his half-acre lot. Under such circumstances the demand for seedlings is always far ahead of the supply, and the cultivation of saplings for planting out develops into an important branch of rural industry. It is hardly possible to conceive a more interesting, instructive, and in every respect suitable occupation for the younger branches of a farmer's family than this. Not the least recommendation is its high educational value; for thus, and thus only, can there be instilled into the coming generation, through the medium of personal observation and experience, an intelligent regard for the beauty and utility of those umbrageous woodlands which impart to our Colony nearly all its attractions and no mean proportion of its wealth, CHAS. H. BARTON. THE GRAPE-VINE AND ITS CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. With Rudimentary Notes on Wine-making. The grape vine (Vitis vinifera) is supposed to be a native of the shores of the Caspian Sea, about S. latitude 40 degrees to 45 degrees, and is extensively cultivated in Europe between the latitudes of 30 degrees to 45 degrees S. Experience has already proved that many parts of Southern Queensland, particularly the Mitchell and Roma, on the Maranoa, and the Darling Downs, are well suited for the cultivation of the vine and manufacture of wine. Besides the V. vinifera, which includes all the European varieties, there are other species of vitis, and some of them deserving of more extensive cultivation, notably V. Labrusca, of which Isabella, Catawba, Delaware, &c., are familiar examples. The names of the most desirable sorts of these, and also the European varieties, will be found at the end of this paper. Australian wine has already made a favourable impression in the English and other markets outside of Australia, and much of the wine now made in Queensland only requires age and proper handling to be saleable in any quantity at remunerative prices. There are many vignerons in different parts of Queensland who are pre- pared to buy the produce of small growers who do not care to make wine, and the demand in the northern districts for good table grapes far exceeds the supply. In choosing a site for a vineyard the two principal things to be considered are aspect and the nature of the soil. The best aspect is undoubtedly an eastern one, because the morning sun is favourable to the ripening of fruit and is also inimical to the growth of parasites such as oidium and other fungoids. N.E.N. and S.E. are the next best ; avoid a western aspect if possible. 204 THE GRAPE-VINE AND treatment in the preparation of the ground before planting, and if not done before planting no after cultivation will entirely remedy this defect, although after-cultivation will materially affect the productiveness and longevity of the vine. And when it is considered that a vineyard once planted in well prepared ground and properly cared for afterwards will continue to produce good crops for 100 years—(J. C. London, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., &c., in his “Encyclopædia of Plants,” page 175, says “* * * * a vineyard once planted will last two or three centuries") it will be understood that the preparation of the ground is of the utmost importance. As bearing on this subject, I might instance the fact of several acres of vines being planted in Victoria in accordance with the recommendations of a prize essay on the planting of vineyards. Thirty years ago the then Government of Victoria offered a prize for the best essay, as above; the one that obtained the prize, recommended that the ground should be simply ploughed and the vines planted without further pre- paration : those who adopted that system found that their vines grew promisingly for the first few years, but when they had attained to an age when they ought to be doing their best the produce began to decrease and the vines began to languish and they became unprofitable ; and it was found that one acre of vines planted in well prepared ground was worth six acres planted as recommended in the prize essay. The operation of trenching is so generally understood that any remarks on the subject may seem superfluous; it may not be so generally known, however, that the vine does the best when the soil at 12 to 18 inches below the surface is richer than that at the surface; therefore in trenching for vines it is better to completely reverse the natural state of the soil, unless the subsoil be a clay, in which case it would be better to leave it at the bottom. But, as before remarked, this kind of soil is unsuitable for vineyard purposes. If, however, there be only a few inches of such subsoil, and that of the nature of a marly clay, this will be better on the top, as the weather acting on it would arate and pulverise it and quite alter its nature, and such soil would not encourage a growth of weeds such as a better soil would. This latter remark 212 THE GRAPE-VINE AND TABLE GRAPES.— “Black Hamburg” is the black grape par excellence, and does well almost anywhere. The Frontienans, both red and black, are also very desir- able sorts, but very much subject to oidium. The same applies to the several Muscat grapes, all of which are splendid table grapes. The “ White Syrian” does not do well in the rich deep soil, but for either of the soils named under the head of a soils” except volcanic it has proved a good and profitable grape. “Royal Ascot,” “Dutch Hambro,” “Golden Hamburg,” “Chasselas,” and “Foster's Seedling,” of the European varieties, are desirable sorts to plant. Of the American sorts, I can recommend the following—“Gæthe” (a most excellent table grape), “ Aidriondac,” “ Wilder,” “Delaware,” “Rebecca," “Diana,” “ Iona,” and “Maxatawny,” as those with less of the foxy taste than others, such as “ Catawba,” “Isabella,” &c.: these two latter are good bearers, and especially the lastnamed, and both of them make a good wine. Farther south from Toowoomba- twenty to thirty miles-in' soils similar to those recommended, the writer has found the “ White Syrian," “ Tokay,” and “ White Malvaison” to do well and bear abundantly; also “Black Morocco” and “Black Prince,” neither of which seem to do well in many parts of Toowoomba and its vicinity ; although those sorts recommended for that district do equally well farther south. Very full lists of names of grapes both table and wine will be found in any of the nurserymen's catalogues so that those who desire to try the qualities of sorts not named herein can do so. My advice is to plant known and tried sorts largely, and experiment with other sorts out of the profits. Also to plant the several sorts by them- selves, leaving space to extend the area of any one sort if desired, without having the different sorts mixed together, except in the case of table grapes, which is not of so much importance. WINE MAKING.—It will be impossible to give this sub- ject justice in the space at my disposal, therefore the infor- mation given will be merely rudimental. Before commenc- ing to make wine it is essential that one should know something of the conditions necessary to transform the juice of the grape into wine. The juice of grapes is not wine but it is converted into wine by fermentation-i.e., ITS CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. 213 alcoholic fermentation ; but if the fermentation is kept up too long the organic character changes to acetous fermen- tation, and the wine is spoilt and will only make vinegar. Ferments are living organisms which in growing assimilate a portion of the saccharine matter, converting it into car- bonic acid gas, which escapes into the air, and into alcohol and other substances which remain in a fluid state in the wine. Alcoholic fermentation begins the phenomena essen- tial to the transforming the juice into wine. The condi- tions essential to the process are--1, Juice containing sugar in solution; 2, exposure of juice to the air; 3, some kind of ferment, or certain nitrogenous substances (always present in juice of ripe grapes); and 4, a moderately warm atmosphere. The juice of ripe grapes contains from 14 to 25 per cent. of sugar; and in the case of very ripe grapes in a dry and hot year, as much as 30 per cent. Sugar is the essential part of the “must," and upon the quantity of sugar in the “must” depends the alcoholic strength of the wine. But there are other substances contained, not in the juice alone, but in the seeds, skins, and stalks, which contri- bute to the production of certain good qualities in the wine as the result of fermentation. The seeds contribute the tannin, indispensible to the keeping of wine, especially red wines; the stalks contain tannic acid, which in excess would be injurious to the wine. PLANT AND UTENSILS.-The ordinary plant for wine- making on a small scale consist of a press, tubs (and one perforated at the bottom, in which the grapes are crushed by treading or other process; this is generally placed over another tub which receives the juice as it is expressed by crushing); vats open at one end, and a hole near the bottom in which is fitted a tap. Over the hole on the inside there should be a straw bottle-envelope tacked, so as to prevent the seeds and skins coming through when running off the liquor. All utensils should be of wood and kept constantly clean, and when put by for a day or more in damp weather should have a sulphur match burnt in them and be washed again before using. I need not describe the press, as the reader will have opportunities of seeing one or more before he is ready to start wine making. Buckets, dippers, and funnels should all be of wood if possible. The casks to receive the wine, if new, ITS CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND. 215 over the top of the vats, and kept there as long as it is in the vats. When ready, the wine is run off and put into casks, which should not be filled quite full; the skins are placed in the press, and subjected to as great a pressure as can be given them ; the wine that is pressed out should be mixed with the rest, and in the case of more than one cask being filled, each cask should get its share of the pressed wine, which invariably contains some properties to a greater degree than that that was simply run off by the tap. The wine will now be in a state of active ferment, in which state it will continue for a week or ten days, during which time it will rid itself of many of its impurities, throwing these off by the bung-hole, which should be encouraged by keeping the casks sufficiently full. After the abovenamed period the fermentation will gradually subside, till by placing the ear close to the bung-holeno more hissing will be heard, when the bung should be put in tightly and only removed once a week just long enough to fill up the casks. I omitted to mention above, that after the active fermenta- tion is over, the bungs should be put in loosely, but not so that by swelling they will become firm and tight, or the accu- mulation of carbonic acid gas will cause a vent somewhere. During fine clear weather about two months after the vintage it will be necessary to rack off the wine from the lees into clean casks, run off as clear as possible, and any at the last of each cask which is not quite clear should be put together into a separate cask or keg, which after being fined will do for filling up the casks as they require it, which they will do every 2 or 3 weeks. After racking off, the wine should be fined (see " Fining”), which process will take from 1 to 4 weeks according to the kind of finings used, after which it must be again racked off. FINING.–This is accomplished by means of filtration, differing from the filtration of water in that water has to go through a filter but the filter goes through the wine. White wines are fined by isinglass, or gelatine, and red wine by the white of eggs. A drachm of isinglass, or a half- ounce of gelatine, or the whites of 3 eggs, will be found . a fair proportion for a quarter-cask (28 or 30 gallons) of wine, less or more according to the clearness or turbidity of the wine. Isinglass is prepared by kneading it up with a little water till dissolved, then mixing with a small guantit SUGAR-CANE. SUGAR-CANE first came into general cultivation as a farmer's crop in Queensland about twenty years ago.. Until that time maize and potatoes had been the main crops cultivated, but the production had so far overrun the consumption that the prices obtainable left little margin for profit. Cane had been grown for several years, but the manufacture of sugar from it had not until then been successful, but this difficulty having been overcome, and the profits of the cultivation and manufacture of sugar appearing very great, a very large quantity of the land hitherto cropped with maize and potatoes was planted with cane. Difficulties connected with manufacture soon developed. Small mills were tried with but indifferent success, and ultimately where cane continued to be cultivated it was sold to mill- owners or crushed by them upon terms. Crushing upon terms was soon abandoned. The suspicions of unfair dealing, naturally arising out of the different results obtained from canes appearing to the growers to be equal in quality, making the system unsatisfactory both to grower and mill-owner, and the practice since has been to purchase the cane at so much per ton, according to the density of the liquor contained in them. In some portions of the Maryborough and Bundaberg districts the liquor is purchased by Yengarie and Millaquin refineries at per 2,240 gallons, * and is pumped through pipes from the grower's plantation, where it is crushed, direct to the refinery. The density is ascertained by an instrument called a saccharometer, which is placed in the juice of the cane, and by rising higher out of the liquor, according as the density is greater, shows on a scale the degree of density of the juice; 9° to 10° Beaumé is a very good density where there is a good flow of liquor. If this density * The price paid last year was, we understand, £12 per 2,240 gallons. This is lower than any preceding year, but as each ton of cane should yield 120 to 125 gallons of liquor the price is very remunerative to the grower. 220 SUGAR-CANE AND MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR. point to each other in one case and away from each other in the next, giving a great variation when the plants are: growing. Scrub land recently cleared can readily be planted with cane by making holes with the hoe and planting the cane in them. Cover only very lightly with soil. The best way is to gently push the plant under the loose soil in the bottom of the drill, taking care that the soil is in contact with every part. One inch to lz inch is quite sufficient on the top of the plant, and it will grow more rapidly than if planted. deeper. After a few days, if the weather be warm and moist, rootlets will be found springing from the joint surrounding the bud, and in from ten to twenty-one days the buds will appear above ground. All the cultivation afterwards required will be to keep the ground open and clear of weeds as long as the horse-hoe can be got through, after which it may safely be left until crushing season. This varies in different districts of the colony, as does also the period of planting, but in most the periods are coincident, so that tops for planting may generally be cheaply obtained from fields cut in the district. Cutting is done in several ways, according to the opinion of the grower. Some cut with a knife, the cane being trimmed and topped while in the hand, while others cut with a sharp hoe, and the trimming and topping are done by others with knives following after. When the cane is light upon the ground or stands erect the former mode seems most economical, but where it is very heavy the latter is better. In either case care should be taken to cut the cane close to the ground, as the ratoon will spring from the highest bud on the cane root left, and if this is not below the surface the ratoon will not have the support it would otherwise get, and will be apt to break down under a high wind. Cane will remain several years in the ground yielding crops every year without re-planting. It must, however, be carefully worked between the rows after cutting, and the ground thoroughly loosened. Ratoon crops are not, as a rule, so heavy as plant cane. The weight of crop varies very much, as much as seventy or eighty tons having been taken from some rich scrub lands in the North. A very 222 SUGAR-CANE AND MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR. ture when the pressure of the atmosphere is reduced than under ordinary pressure, is made use of to enable concentra- tion to be made at lower temperature than could otherwise be possible—is now general. In the vacuum pan there is to be seen as violent ebullition at from 140° to 150° temperature as would be seen in the tache with the same density liquor at 240°. The saving by the use of the vacuum pan from the old process under similar conditions of skill would probably be about one-third more sugar, and what is made worth about £5 per ton extra value. The economical appliances and processes in the most recent mills are:- Double Crushing. The most powerful crushing fails to get out the whole of the liqour by one operation in con- sequence of re-absorption after passing the rollers, and of the cohesiveness of the liquor; if the cane be of high density the amount of sugar left in the cane would be very great, to obviate this the megass is moistened with water after passing the first crushing, and as the water dissolves the juice left and permits the liquor to come away more readily under the second crushing the sugar saved from passing away in the megass is very con- siderable. The cost of mill-power, with all modern appliances, ranges between £300 and £400 per ton of capacity of weekly out- put. GEO. GRIMES. By Authority: JAMES C. BEAL, Government Printer, Brisbane. LISRARY LEDE OF AC 'LTURE 28 L ' 89047193594 b89047193594 a