Vol. XIII, No. 330. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



401 



crops, green manuring, the adoption of other crops, 

 matters rehiting to stock and stock feeding, etc., are 

 continually being urged by agricultural officers. 



In the past the tendency on many estates has 

 been to keep the smallest number of cattle with which 

 the estate cin be worked, while the advice is repeatedly 

 given to increase the number to the gi-eatest that can 

 be maintained, and by a careful system of providing 

 sufficient amounts of suitable coarse fodder, to maintain 

 these animals in the highest state of efficiency. 



This means better agi-iculture, more manure, and 

 an independence of the effect of drought on the ques- 

 tion of stock foods, that must result in profit to the 

 estate that carries out the progi-ainnie successfully. 



In agriculture, contrary to the rule obtaining in 

 many other lines, popular demand arises subsequent to 

 the proffering of official instruction and advice. Those 

 who are charged with the advancement of agricultural 

 interests must be content to carry out trials, and to give 

 advice, which do not seem to be wanted at the time by 

 those for whom they are intended. But in time these 

 efforts bear fruit: the trials sh(nv the way to the successful 

 adoption of new methods or crops, or they demonstrate 

 their futility, thus saving planters the expense and 

 disappointment of making unprofitable trials. 



Wliile much of the work of the agricultural officers 

 relating to new methods or new .crops is based on 

 work done and experience gained in other countries, 

 and so has a foundation on the e.xperience of others, 

 requiring onlj' a demonstration as to local applicability, 

 it must be recognized that some of their work is of 

 a pioneering nature, requiring time and accumulated 

 experience to demonstrate whether it may or may not 

 possess valuable features for general application. 



Due recognition must be given also to the fact 

 that the individual workers are theiiiselves but human, 

 and that in their work, which is new and of a pioneer 

 kind, their ideas and suggestions in these matters are 

 subject to revision and readjustment. from time to time. 

 The fact, however, may be emphasized, that in the more 

 settled questions of agi-icultural practice, the advice of 

 the body of skilled workers associated with the Botanic 

 and Experiment Stations is likely to be sound and 

 valuable. It merits the consideration that is accorded 

 to it in most progressive colonies, and it has materially 

 advanced the interests of those communities and 

 individuals who have availed themselves of it incoimex- 

 ion with practical affairs. 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



THE QUEENSLAND SUGAR FACTORY 



SYSTEM. 



An interesting letter from Brisbane in the- 

 Louisiana Planter, November 14, 1914, states that 

 to assist the sugar industry the Government of Queens- 

 laud has, in the last twenty-one years, invested no less 

 than £(535,000 in central factories. Of this, the sum 

 of £32-2,000 has been repaid, leaving £343,000 still 

 outstanding. 



This central factory .scheme was designed to develop 

 the cane-groTOiig districts of Queensland, by assisting groups 

 of small owners to erect mills capable of turning out a pro- 

 duct suitable to modern requirements. Owing to the large co.st 

 of the machinery of a modern sugar mill — £100,000 or 

 more — planters were unable to erect one without GovernmenC 

 help. In all, fourteen mills have been erected with Govern- 

 ment assistance, while tiro more are now being built. These 

 last will be of the most modern type, and they will be very 

 powerful, making between 10,000 and 20,000 tons of sugar 

 per year each. 



The idea in view with all these mills was that thej^ 

 should gradually pay ofi' to tie Government the capital cost, 

 and become the property of the men who mortgaged their 

 properties in order to get the factories. Only four mills now 

 remain in the hands of the Government, the State having 

 been compelled in these cases, through failure in meeting 

 their obligations, to step in as mortgagee and manage the 

 concerns. 



In the returns of these government-aided factories, as . 

 given in an official report just published, there are great 

 variations. The success of a .sugar mill depends on varicHis 

 things, but mainly on a large and continuous supply of cane. 

 To get the best results from the costly and intricate 

 machinery it must be worked as nearly full t'me as possible. 

 Where this is done the best results are usually shown. The 

 greater the quantity of cane put through, the smaller the 

 proportionate cost of treatment. The more efficient the 

 machinery, the greater the amount of sugar content 

 extracted, and the better the return. The difference in 

 the cost of manufacture in these Queensland factories, 

 per ton of cane, ranges from 2s Id. to 7s. 7d. The- 

 difference also in the amount of canes needed to make 

 a ton of sugar is from less than 8 to more than 

 10 tons. The total amount of cane crushed during the 

 last .season was 427,000 tons, producing nearly 48,000 tons 

 of sugar. 



The government-aided central factory system has done 

 much for the sugar industry in Queensland, but it has not 

 attained the ideal success hoped for. In the later movements 

 for establishing new mills, efforts have been made to obviate 

 defects, and remedy abuses. 



The value of the sugar-cane industry not only to 

 Queen.sland, but to the whole Commonwealth of Australia, is 

 very great. It seems to afford the best means of populating 

 the immense tropical districts of North Queenslaud. 



