94 INTRODUCTION OF ECONOMIC PLANTS 



Maranta evidently did not carry on the work of 

 growing it commercially, for we find that the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture found it necessary to import it 

 again when the Kamerunga State Nursery was formed 

 about twenty years ago. 



Cassava (Manihot Aipi, the Sweet, and M. utilissima, the 

 Bitter). 

 J. Archer presented plants to the Brisbane Botanic 

 Gardens in 1864. and they Avere growing at Bowen 

 Park in 1866. 



Wheat {Triticum vulgare). 



In the year 1828 there was an area under this crop 

 at Tpswich, and in the year 1856, Mr. Childs had a 

 good crop from about 50 acres at Bulimba, In the 

 year 1859, M. Thozet obtained some seed from wheat- 

 straw found floating in the Fitzroy River, and culti- 

 vated some excellent wheat from it near Rcckhamp- 

 ton. For several years prior to 1862, J. Fleming 

 and a few others cultivated wheat near Ipswich. It 

 was well on in the fifties before wheat was grown on 

 the Downs, and according to a record of 1862, " At 

 Warwick, a flour-mill to be driven by steam power 

 is in course of erection." In 1877, the Acclimatisation 

 Society distributed several varieties of Mexican 

 wheats received from Angas Mackay, and in 1880 

 introduced a numbcT- of Indian varieties on the 

 suggestion of Dr. Joseph Bancroft. Since 1889 the 

 Department of Agriculture has made frequent 

 importations of ncAv varieties. The average area 

 under cultivation for the ten years ended 1908 was 

 90,729 acres, and the average production 1,223.599 

 bushels. 



Maize (Zea Mays). 



Maize has always been our principal cereal crop, and 

 was one of the earliest grown, for we find that about 

 1827 there was a good area under cultivation at the 

 penal settlements about New Farm, Bulimba, and 

 also at Ij)swich in 1828. In 1867, a trial was 

 made at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens with a large 

 number of imported varieties, but none equalled 

 those already growing in the Colony. The 

 Department of Agriculture, since 1889, has made 



