March i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



703 



THE QUEENSLAND SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



The fast-growing importance of the sugar industry 

 must be evident to every person who watches the 

 progress of this colony. Still the aid of official figures 

 is useful in ascertaining what the rate of progress iu 

 this particular has actually been. A return prepared 

 from official sources by Mr. Hume Black, M.L.A,, 

 aud laid before the Legislative Assembly as a par- 

 liamentary paper just before the close of the session, 

 contains a large quantity of information in a small 

 space, which enables the reader at a glance to make 

 instructive comparisons. 



For example, fourteen years ago there were only si.x 

 sugar mills in the colony, by which 168 tons of sugar 

 appear to huve been manufactured. Seven years later 

 the number of mills had increased to 66, and the 

 quantity of sugar manufactured to 7,987 tons. Still 

 seven years later^that is, in 1881 — the mills had in- 

 creased to 103, and the production of sugar to 19,011 

 tons. At £25 per ton, this means that an industry 

 which fourteen years ago produced manufactures worth 

 ie4,200, last year gave a return of £471), 275. Adding 

 to this the value of the subsidiary products, rum and 

 molasses, the sugar industry brought to the colony in 

 1881 a return considerably exceeding half-a-million 

 sterling, or more than one-half the total value of the 

 gold raised, twice the value of the live stock exported, 

 five times the value of the hides and skins, three times 

 the value of the tallow, aud nearly one-half the value 

 of the wool. Sugar is now, therefore, the third industry 

 of the colony, and its progress has been so rapid that 

 it is likely to soon obtain at least the second place. 



The first year in which sugar was exported was 

 1871, when the total quantity sent out of the colony 

 was 550 tons valued at £16,238, or 0'65 per cent of 

 the total exports. In eleven years the annual value 

 of sugar sent out of Queensland has risen lo ^207,210, 

 or 6'29 per cent of the total exports of the colony. 

 Take again the area of laud under cultivation. In 

 1867 the area of land under crop was 31,559 

 acres, of which only 1,995 acres was under cane. Seven 

 years afterwards the total area under crop had rathet 

 more than doubled, it being then 64,218 acres. As 

 that time the area under cane was l<i,495, seven time, 

 as much as in 1807, and over one-fourth of the total 

 area under cultivation iu 1873. In 1881 the total area 

 under crop was 119,979 acres, while the area under 

 sugar, being 28,026 acres, had again doubled in the 

 seven years' term. It may here be remarked, in passing 

 as satisfactory, that the total area of land under crop 

 had iuoreased by nearly 20 per cent during the two 

 years ending 1881. Daring the same term the area 

 under sugar-cane had nearly doubled. The fact that 

 the progress of cane cultivation has been only in the 

 same ratio as the total cultivation during the last 

 seven years' period is explained by the comparative 

 stagnation which occurred between the ye.^r3 1872 aud 

 1877. In 1875 and 1876, for instance, the area under 

 cane showed au actual reduction as compared with 

 1873 and 1874. In the nonprogressive years the 

 paralysis was caused by the occurrence of rust disease, 

 which has since happily disappeared. Should the rate 

 of progress during the last two years be continued till 

 the close of 1883, the area under cane will then 

 be about 50,000 acres, and the total quantity 

 of sugar made about 30,000 tons, worth, at £25 per 

 ton, over three-quarters of a million sterling. At the 

 same rate of progress the sugar produced will be quite 

 equal in value to the wool now raised, and largely in 

 excess of the present yield of gold. 



These figures, with the facts disolospd by them, are 

 worthy of thoughtful consideration by every well-wisher 

 of the colony. It is evidently for the public interest 

 that uothiug should be done, either by the Legislature 



or the Government, to embarrass or cripple the men 

 engaged in sii industry which promises .so rapidly to 

 assume the front rank, and prove permanent source of a 

 wealth to the colony. — Queenslaiuler. 



Coffee.— Th#Neth8rl»Bd8 market will have to do 

 without a lar^ portion »t the coffee produced in Java. 

 According to a letter in a mercantile periodical, another 

 of the planters in Java who grow coffee on a large 

 scale intends to send his produce in the shell no longer 

 to Holland, -but to Marseilles because the exjiense of 

 consigning even prepared coffee there is too great "— 

 Soui'abaya Courant. 



COFPF.E IN Brazil.— A private letter to the Gi-uzeirc 

 from .S. Isabel do Rio Preto says that the coming 

 coffee crop iu that locality will be very small, not sufhci- 

 ent in many cases, throush low prices, to pay planta- 

 tion expenses. The diminished crop is ascribed to 

 the age of many of the orchards, which of course are 

 never fertilized and only superficially cultivaied. — Pri- 

 vate letters from Minas Geraes state that the 1883 

 coffee crop in that province and in pirt of Rio lie 

 Janeiro will be small in comparison with the pieot-diu" 

 year. — Rio News, Dec. 15th. 



Mandrfs and Soils.— Mr. Fuller's report on the 

 Cawupore Farm Experiments has been severely criticised 

 by professed experts in the Indian AgricuUurist. The 

 January number of that journal contains two articles on 

 the subject, which are principally occupied with the dis- 

 cussion of two strictures on Mr. Fuller's report. The 

 first is a postulate claimed to be discovered by Mr. 

 Fuller from the Cawnpore experiments, viz., "it is 

 nitrogen alone that is deficient in Indian soil.'' The 

 writer iu the ImVuin Agriculturist remarks on this : — 

 "The Cawupore Farm experiments are in their infancy, 

 and must pass through the initial stages to adultism 

 with the usual ordeals of measles, coughs, aud convul- 

 sions. About forty or more years ago there was a craze 

 among European farmers about nitrogenous manures. 

 It died away when their true value was known ; it will 

 disappear at Cawnpore under similar eulightennient." 

 The comparisons drawn up by Mr. Fuller of ihe crops 

 yielded by mnnured and unmanured plots are denounced 

 as of no value whatever, — except as warnings against 

 hasty generalisation. — Pioneer. 



CiNCUONA. — The Java Bode of the 3rd January quotes 

 from a planting ijeriodical there the followingobservations 

 on the prospects of cinchona cultivation iu Java : — 

 In a previous number we mentioned that the prices 

 of quinine continued steady, notwithstanding heavy 

 importntious of bark and brisk transactions iu the same 

 at very low quotations. Large supplies on the part of 

 the quinine manufacturers were to be expected, un- 

 less they all had to carry out important orders under 

 contract. This seems not yet to be the case, for the 

 German nianufaoiurers have offered to furnish supplies 

 at a considenble discount, an example speedily fol- 

 lowed in other countries. The wellknown brand of 

 Howard, the quotation of whicli we lately announced 

 as being ten shillings, is quoted by last advices at Sj 

 shillings. The French manufacturers offer to supply 

 quiniue at 8 shillings, the Milanese at 7i, and the 

 German now at even 7 shillings. Our cinchona plant- 

 ers need not be disquieted abo\-.t it. A year ago 

 many persona advocated a great reduction in the prices 

 of quinine, because their being soliighhad very much 

 checked consumption. For the growers of valuable 

 cinAona varieties, the sooner the quinine manufacturers 

 turn to ac;,,niU tHieir immense stocks of inferior Ameri- 

 can barks, and by selling the proiluct at much lower 

 rates, ensure its increasing consumption in the remotest 

 quarters before any considerable incre.ase of the importa- 

 tions from Java, the better. In that case, an nbundant 

 supply of superior cinchona barke will soon diminish 

 the importation of inferior ouea. 



