June i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTfJimr 



9'5 



of soil it will cue mirage frcsli roots and greatly assist 

 in stimulating the energies of the tree. Tins pruning 

 will chock rank growth anil consequently direct the en- 

 ergies of the tree to the formation of fruit-buds. 



Trees on walls must be done from one side only, re- 

 moving all downward-stretching roots quite back to the 

 wall. Trees that produce nothing but bloom are easier 

 doalt with : Tear trees especially are liable to get into 

 that state; they make no wood, nor in my opinion do 

 they perfect their fruit-buds. The best way to operate 

 upon them is to thin out the head of the tree about a 

 third of its branches if a standard, and to give it a 

 dressing of rich manure. Trees treated in tins way, and 

 which have not hao any fruit for years previously, fruited 

 well the next year. A great deal of good can be done 

 to trained trees by the removal of spurs, thereby causing 

 fresh ones to push. In the case of some sorts it is 

 necessary to cut them all back to the main shoot, and 

 the trees of some kinds refuse to bear fruit on old spurs 

 or limbs; pertinaciously obstinate is Hansel's Bergamot 

 Pear, and some others that fruit best on a system of 

 moderate extension. This is work that can be carried on 

 at almost any time from the beginning of September 

 until the end of February, frosty weather expected.— A 

 Waterman, Preston Hall Gardens.— Garfaner? Chronicle. 



QUEENSLAND: 



ITS SUGAR AND AGRICULTURAL 

 INTERESTS. 



The following extracts are taken from a recent letter 

 of a practical and experienced colonist, who has spent 

 upwards of twonty-two years in Queensland : — 



Mackay, Dec. 28, 1SS4. 



I am glad to learn from your last letter that you think 

 the sugar planters will come out of the present struggle 

 with low prices better than the beet growers; but my» 

 opinion is that the cane growers are losing quite as heavily 

 as the beet growers, notwithstanding the higher percent- 

 age of sugar in the canes. It is more the cost of pro- 

 duction thau the existence of a higher percentage of sugar 

 in the raw material. At any rate land is being thrown 

 out of cultivation here, and in a couple of years the in- 

 dustry in this country will be dead, or very near it. 



In Queensland we have, unfortunately, a government 

 that is hostile to capital, no matter in which way it may 

 be attempted to be used ; thus, in the case, of sugar, 

 where black labour is specially useful and economical, the 

 Government have exercised their hostility to the industry, 

 by pasing vexatious regulations, which have practically cut 

 off our available labour supply. 



The result of the last election has been that ten mil- 

 lions are to be borrowed and spent in making what have 

 boon dubbed political railways in various directions, and 

 the interest on this large sum is to be obtained by means 

 ill ii new land bill, whereby the squatters are to be made 

 to contribute this money. 



Thus it is intended to resume one-half of the runs, 

 and cut them up into 20,000 acre blocks, with a rental 

 four times as great as the squatters have hitherto been 

 paying. By this plan it is hoped that young men from 

 the old country may be induced to come out and invest 

 their little capital. God help them if they do. I euclose 

 a speech of Mr. Stevenson in the House during the debate 

 on this land bill, which will give you an idea what chance 

 these young men will have. 



Under the provision of this new bill certain districts will 

 be set apart for agriculture, in which a man may take up 

 900 acres at 3d. per acre, and he must live on it for ten 

 years before he cau purchase some, and then only by pay- 

 ing £ 1 per acre. The thing is so ridiculous, because, sub- 

 ject as this country is to periods and seasons of long 

 drought, it is quite possible that at the end of ten years, 

 or half that time, the poor farmer would not have as many 

 shillings as acres in his hands. 



The amount of capital required to take up a grazing 

 area of 20,000 acres, and carry out the conditious of the 

 Act, is £7,000, and no one can see how any interest can be 

 paid on it ; of course, the rent is something to go by, but 

 tho probable sales must guide the investor. 



Fancy 3d. per acre as rent per annum for agricultural 

 and ! surely it must be worth more or not worth takiug 



up at ally It would bo useless to attempt to give all the 

 absurdities of the bill, but I may mention that the hold- 

 ers of land are to he blocked in overv way from making 

 the most of their property, or in disposing of it as they 

 may desire after their death. If A. dies and leaves his 

 farm to B., who owns a farm already, then B. must sell 

 one of his farms within a given time, otherwise he must 

 forfeit one. Again, in selling one of these farms, he must 

 sell to some one who does not already own a farm, so 

 that his chances of selling well are reduced very considerably. 



Never was a Christmas time spent in this district when 

 the prospects of the future were so much clouded. In 

 the town everybody in business is looking aud feeling 

 queer. It is supposed that our population is not much 

 more than half what it was last year ; this means, of 

 course, ruin to business men. Crushing is over, aud thu 

 sugar returns not much more than half what they used 

 to be ; this is the result of the drought last year when 

 the canes were young. The young plants for next crush- 

 ing have had a better chance and give promise of a 

 better crop, but the cry all round is, how are we to 

 get the canes off the land now that we have no labour ? 

 We must hope for the best, and in the meantime I am 

 throwing all my other land out of cultivation. At any 

 rate, I should be sorry to see young men coming out 

 here with their little fortunes and investing the same 

 in what we know, from experience, must lead to their 

 ruin. Young Englishmen are so apt to ;think the advant- 

 ages here are greater than they really are. They com- 

 pare them with existing conditions in England, but thoro 

 really is no comparison whatever between them. — bit/ J. 



♦ 



OUR SUGAR LANDS : THE CLARENCE RIVER DIS- 

 TRIOT, NEW SOUTH WALES. 



From the Clarence Heads to Grafton is one long 

 panorama of picturesque scenery. The broad stream with 

 its numerous fleet of crafts would alone furnish interest 

 to the visitor as he passed up between its banks bright 

 with cane, dotted with quaint looking mills, and chequered 

 every few miles by clusters of white houses and tiny 

 wharfs, where miniature shipping depots have been formed. 

 Here aud there one sees a plantation of bananas, then 

 a long fringe of cane, and passing round a projecting 

 point, a township on the bank comes in view. And so 

 on for miles. Then the little steamer, with its load of 

 well-to-do looking farmers, their buxom wives, and pretty 

 daughters, puffs busily past one of the beautiful islands 

 that stud the river — Chatsworth, Woodford, Brushgrove, 

 and many others — each ono, as the impression of tho 

 last fades from the mind, apparently more picturesque 

 than its fellow. The steamer's course is most erratic — 

 now it steers to this shore, now the other; picking up 

 pisseugers at little jetties along the route. Then a drogher, 

 with a great punt laden with caue on either side, comes 

 s.lowly down stream, the little vessel almost lost to sight 

 between its big unwieldy companions. A minute after- 

 wards we pass an ocean-going steamer, trim and neat, 

 its passengers waving their handkerchiefs to the launches 

 as they pass. It is bound from Grafton to Sydney. At 

 each township where our boat touches there are passengers 

 coming and going, and all with the same prosperous 

 appearance in their attire and there are chubby children 

 everywhere, some playing at mud-pies near the wharfs, 

 others gathered to see the boat come in, others with 

 books strapped together bound for school. I cannot help 

 thinking I have reached '• the happy land" at last. " And 

 is this all the effeet of sugar?" I ask a companion, lie 

 smiles, and gravely shakes his head. '• Then, if not, 

 what is the cause of all this bright cheerful air of 

 comfort and content 'i " He utters but one word. It is 

 " corn." And then he tells me that as a whole the 

 farmers — the growers of produce, not the manufacturers 

 of sugar — are in an excellent position, the good price for 

 corn during pretty well the past three years having lined 

 their pockets well. " Far more of this prosperity you 

 see is due to corn than sugar," so he said. Aud then I 

 , remembered that, standing hy the river side, I had asked 

 an old resident, a grizzled fellow, with many grey 

 hairs and few sound teeth, who had lamented over the 

 'failing fortunes of sugar-making, what it was that kept 

 the district going, and he answered with the air of an 

 I oracle, " It's the corn as does it." 



