April 2, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



8-3 



A OEYLON PLANTER IN QUEENSLAND. 



Brisbane, Jany, 8th, 1882. 

 There can be no doubt about Queensland being a fine 

 country and better than other colonies as regards tropical 

 agriculture ; for anything will grow and thrive here, and 

 although Brisbane is out of the tropics, the few coffee 

 trees in the garden here are very fine, and the crop 

 on them now ripe would make a good many in Ceylon 

 look pleasant at such a crop. I have .seen this patch 

 of coffee now since the end of February, when it was 

 covered with blossom, and, when it set, you woidd have 

 put it down at 15 ewt. or at that rate per acre ; but 

 a short time afterwards a lot of it went off with some- 

 thing like white bug. I am sure that now ripe there 

 is quite 8 cwts. to be picked. Bri.sbane, however, is too 

 far south for coffee. At " Mackay " some 5(10 miles north 

 from this, there is a small field of very fine coffee owned 

 by a German, but they know nothing about it, either 

 how to cure the crop or prune, or anything else. I 

 did not see it, but two Ceylon men were at Mackay 



before they came here and told me aliout it. One F 



from Maturata went on to Fiji, the other R went 



back to Mackay in May to take up land on his own 

 account. There is no leaf-disease on the coffee here or 

 any sign of it, and as soon as the difficulty about coolies 

 is got over, this field of coffee would be a good speck 

 for seed, and I believe could be got cheap. Northern 

 l,!ueensland is bound to be a coffee comitry before long. 

 1 was prepared to go in for it, as I understand there 

 is a lot of rough land suitable for coffee and cinchona, 

 and not suitable for sugar-cane. 



The first they have heard about cinchona was only a 



few months ago. A , that was on wood sent over 



1 lb. of officinalis seed to the Courier office, and a good 

 many have been asking me about it. I have no doubt 

 there will be a good openmg in the North for both coffee 

 and cinchona, though there will no doubt be a good 

 many difficulties to contend against. Labour is the principal 

 one. The law of the country makes it free to any one 

 to bring cooUes at their own expense, at present, but 

 that would be the difficidt part of it. As soon as the 

 new law about coolies is passed, assistance will be got, 

 and the B. I. steamer Company are about to start another 

 line of coast steamers to start from Calcutta, calling at 

 Madras and Colombo, and all the ports down the Queens- 

 land coast, and as far as Sydney. Thi,s will give a chance 

 of bi-iuging coolies at a cheaper rate. " Rama Samy," I 

 have little doubt, would like the country well enough 

 as the climate would suit. It is not so wet as Ceylon ; 

 he could grow ever>-thiug ; get a cheap cow or a sheep ; 

 but cocoanuts would have to be got for him and rice. 

 At the price of laml, gardens could be easily given him, 

 paddy grows well, but it wants some one "to cultivate 

 it; a white labom-er would not care to puddle a paddy 

 Held. The " Kanakas," South Sea Islanders, at present 

 employeil on the sugar estates are fair workers but you 

 would not hke the ugly brutes after the coolies. 



The new bill about the regulations with the Indian 

 Government for the importation of coolies is e-xpected 

 to be settled this session ; only the labouring class here 

 are very much against coolies coming here. A start has, 

 however, been made, T hear. 25 Singhalese came in the 

 Scotland for Normanton on the AVest Coast of Queensland 

 at the Gulf of Carpentaria. The first thing to be done 

 however, is to select land. The largest select on one 

 man can take up is 1,280 acres, but had one the money 

 he could take up some for each of his sons. Any number 

 can do this or take up half that amount for each, paying 

 2s. per acre for ten years when the land is your own, 

 provided the conditions are fulfiUed ; that is, you have 

 to spend an equal amomit on improving the land, build- 

 ings, &c. In consequence, I see accounts of people getting 

 old men from poor-hou.ses to take land out in their name 

 and ha%'ing it all transferred before the old chaps die ; 

 and then they hold the lot at the end of ten years. Land 

 can be openeil very easily by growing sugar on the flat 

 laud and selling the cane till you can put up machine- 

 ry. You get a return from sugar in 12 or 15 months 

 from the time you commence that mil double the outlay. 

 I know a man here who cleared 12 acres and, in the 

 above length of time, cleared all he had then paid out 

 for survey and rent on the whole selection. About opening 

 103 



I believe Chinamen can be got to clear the land by 

 contract, at about Ceylon rates, and on scrub land you 

 can get a contractor with a team of bullocks to plough 

 it up twice for about the same rate, £,2 to £2 10s. an 

 acre. Cane cuttings for planting ai'e not very expensive. 

 I have not got the books beside me now, as, I had to 

 return them, but the figures are, as near as I can re- 

 member, — the return from the first crop of sugar up North 

 is about two tons to the acre, worth at the ship's side 

 from £25 to £30 per ton, and sometimes as much as 

 £32. Selling cane realizes only about half and at 10s. 

 and 12s. a ton comes to about half the price of the 

 sugar; but in the meantime on the rough land coffee 

 and cinchona would be coming on. 



The figures I have from an estate on the Mary River 

 just about the Tropical line and considerably further south 

 than Mackay. From this estate 14,900 acres were planti-<l ; 

 the cuttings of 525 acres of cane, crushed, gave 756 tons 

 of sugar, t)2,0C3 gallons of molas.ses, 4,257 gallons of rum, 

 32 overproof. The average yield at Mackay is one ton 

 8J cwts. of sugar alone. This leaves a profit, without i-uni, 

 &c., of from £5 to £8 an acre. Something can also be 

 made out of the untouched land by fencing and putting 

 on cattle and horses, to find there own liWng as they 

 require nothing. You can have your own beef, mutton, 

 and poultry as stock of all kinds do well, so that one 

 has only to buy flour, tea, sugar, &c. Stock for this 

 woidd cost very httle— store cattle about £2 to £2 10s. ; 

 horses depend on the class, but ordinary hacks don't 

 cost much. — " Ceylon Times." 



COLLECTION AND STORAGE OF SEED. 



CoHectioii.— Seeds may be obtained either by collecting 

 dii-ectly, or tlu-ough contractors, or by pui'chase in the mar- 

 ket, or by exchauge. Owing to the backwardness of forest 

 culture in Ini.Ua, the third source scarcely exists for us, and 

 the fourth is ahnost as limited. This is, however, no great 

 disadvantage, as seeds collected directly or through con- 

 tractors must necessarily belong to the latest crop, and are 

 more hkely to bo fertile and sounder than those obtained 

 otherwise and not ordy this, but they can be more thoroughly 

 tested. The best seeds are produced by full fertile, healthy, 

 vigorous trees growing not too close together in a favorable 

 soil and situation. Very young trees usually furuisli a 

 large proportion of barren seed, while very old or weakly 

 trees yield seeds which are not only di'flioult to keep 

 but also produce weak plants. Deformities in ti-ees are 

 often inherited, as for instance twisted fibre, a squat habit, 

 &c. Twisted fibre can be easily detected in trees jioss- 

 essing a cracked bark or rhytidome, as the cracks follow the 

 twist. 



Seeds ought to be collected only when they are completely 

 ripe : .such as are not fully ripe when taken off the ti-ee do 

 not po.sses8 the genninative faculty in the same degree 

 as ripe seed.s and, moreover, lose that faculty much sooner. 

 The ripe fruit of some species persist on the ti-ees for a more 

 or less consiilcr;ible time; e.i/., of teak, Termhialia toweutoxa, 

 Tterocurpiis Marxnpiam, sissoo, ire. Such fruit one need 

 be in no hurry to harvest. But tliere are other species, 

 the majority of the seeds of which, with or vrithont the 

 rest of the ft-uit, are shed aa soon as, or soon after, 

 this ripens; c.y., sal, deodar, Qiirrcus semceurpi folia and 

 djhitatii, Abiex Jfi/j/iiioin, birch jMiierstyirniiri piirriflora, 

 Schn-bii-n xii-ietciiiohles, &c. The collection of such 'seeds 

 evidently admits of no delay. Bainy weather ought, when- 

 ever possible, to be avoided for the collection of seed 

 especially of such as are small, n:., of Aiioi/ei.isii.i, bu-ch, 

 Adiiiit cordifo/Ut, Stcplieijiiiie parrifoliit, ice. ; but this prolii- 

 bition obviously does not extend to such seeds as are to 

 be sown at once, or, which comes to the same thing, as 

 caimot under any circumstances be preserved, c. i/., sal, 

 Querent seniecarpifoHfi, kc. 



According to the various species, seeds must be collected in 

 different ways. The fi-uit may (i.) be hand-plucked off 

 standmg tr-ees, or (ii.) off felled trees, or (iii.) be gathered 

 off the ground after they have fallen naturally, or lastly 

 (iv.) be broken off with a hook from standing h-ees. 



(i.) H.VN-D-PLUCKING OFF STA>JDi.\'0 TEEES.— This method 

 is the most costly of the four, but is tlu' only one appHcable 

 in the case of small or light fruit, y. //., Ptrrociirpm 

 MiirfnipiiiiH, Oiii/iiiim dalhirijtoiilen, Aiioffiuin'iis, khair, sissoo, 



