778 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Nov. 2, 1920. 



which is larger than for many years. "■ The average crop on this river should 

 be 40 tons per acre for plant crop, and 30 tons for ratoon crop/' said an 

 officer of the company lately, " but owing to the presence of diseases and 

 bad drainage it only ranges, according to the season, from 17 to 30 tons." 



The Tweed River Districts. 



Turning to the Tweed River, wliere the climate is warmer and 

 the rainfall much greater than on either of the other rivers, we find that 

 sugar cane is still grown to some extent on the alluvial soils along the banks 

 of the river, but by far the largest Srea devoted to the crop is located 

 on undulating land with deep red volcanic soil of very fertile tiuality, 

 situated a mile or two from the sea and perhaps 100 feet or so above sea- 

 level. The frost question on the Tweed is thus settled either by proximity 

 to the river or by a sufficient elevation between the sea and the river. The 

 prospects of extension on this river are by no means negligible. The river 

 banks themselves may well contribute a good many acres, even though frost 

 marked the limit pretty clearly in other years. On the Cudgen area, too, 

 the available area is still capable of expansion, and it may even be expected 

 that some land i^lanted in late years to bananas will presently revert to 

 sugar cane. But the principal development on this river 'is likely to be on an 

 extensive area of peaty, low-lying land at Mooball, some miles south of the 

 river, but close to the sea. Here there are hundreds of acres of deep peaty 

 soil from which the heavier timber has already been removed, and which 

 only requires cleaning up and systematic drainage to become highly produc- 

 tive. One has only to mention the name of this area on the Tweed to be 

 assured that it will in a few years be carrying many acres of heavy crops 

 of cane. 



The bulk of the present production of cane on this river, however, is on 

 the Cudgen area. Here the rich volcanic soil is for the most part thickly 

 strewn with stones of all sizes. A number of farmers have cleared their land 

 of the larger stones at an expense varying from £20 to £30 per acre, and 

 consider the outlay fully justified by the fact that they can now cultivate 

 their land with horse-power instead of by hand. There are those, on the 

 other hand, who declare that the stones prevent the evaporation of the 

 moisture from the land, and actually contribute plant-food by yielding 

 necessary elements in solution to the soil; the heavy crops growai, the ease 

 with which the seed is mattocked into the ground between the stones, and 

 the saving of labour in that practically no cultivation is necessary, certainly 

 do offset in part the advantages that would be gained by clearing the land of 

 the stones. 



How productive is the land on this area one has only to see to realise. 

 Recent years have seen an extension of cane on to certain lands for years 

 devoted to dairying, and the 60 and 70-ton crops that the purchasers have 

 since harvested have enabled them to pay off in a very short time the £30 

 per acre they paid for their farms. Certainly they would not get the land 

 to-day for the same money. 



