PRODUCTS WE MIGHT GROW. 10 1 



or cane for sugar, make drills 3 to 4 feet apart ; scatter in 

 the seed so that plants may be obtained about three inches 

 apart when thinned out. When well cultivated, this crop 

 grows very rapidly, and in the course of four months from 

 planting, assumes the form of canes from one to two inches 

 in diameter, and from 6 to 12 feet in height. The canes 

 become brownish as they ripen, and a heavy mass of seed 

 is borne on the top of each. If seed is the object, it is 

 allowed to become dry and hard on the plant. If for 

 sugar, the sap is at its best (from 7 to 9 in density) 

 while the seed is forming. 



Broom corn is a variety of this family, grown much 

 the same as the others, and cut while the seed is young, 

 and before the branching head that supports it becomes 

 brown. This head makes capital brooms, whisks, &c. The 

 crop is dealt with in Chapter XL, with fibre yielders. 



X. PRODUCTS WE MIGHT GROW. 



SILK COTTON TEA COFFEE GINGER CHICORY RICE. 



OIL AND FIBRE YIELDERS. They might come within 

 the list of crops for which the climate and soil are suitable. 

 And, as explained in the chapter on rotations, they have 

 the additional merit of taking but little from the soil. 



SILK. During many years the production of silk has 

 been an attraction in the colonies one after another. 

 Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, 

 have each made efforts to include silk in their products 

 upon a large scale. New South Wales is making efforts in 

 that direction by private and public effort, and Queensland 

 has been exporting cocoons in quantity sufficient to test 

 their real value in the great silk markets of the world. In 

 the production of silk the first consideration should l>e the 

 cultivation of proper food for the insect from which it is 

 obtained. Next, that there is sufficient and suitable help 

 available. The silk-worm is a caterpillar which grows 



