106 AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



Silkworms' Eggs. The production of " grain," as it is 

 called, has led to more disappointment than can well be 

 imagined. The grain market in Italy is very variable. A 

 great deal depends, experience shows, not upon the actual 

 quality of what is sent, but upon its accredited reputation ; 

 and again, the time when sent is an essential element in 

 success. To sell grain profitably, it should leave here to 

 reach Italy by December, so that it may have the benefit 

 of the cold. Arriving later, it will run a chance of being 

 crowded out. In past seasons, good Japanese grain, coming 

 late into the market, could not be sold at more than 

 eighteen-pence an ounce, and hardly at that. From a variety 

 of sources of information concerning the silk market, it 

 would seem that really good grain may be expected to 

 fetch, as a permanent price, from 14s. to 15s. per ounce. 

 As to the reports of 24s., 2 (and we have even read of 6), 

 they are very doubtful. Exceptional seasons will, of 

 course, yield exceptional prices, and 20s. per ounce has been 

 paid for Queensland grain as a sample; but it would be 

 folly to reckon on a higher general rate than that quoted 

 above. 



COTTON. Large tracts of country have been found 

 suitable for this crop in Australia, and when the prices are 

 such as pay, enormous quantities can be produced. The 

 land available is still more extensive than that for sugar, 

 for cotton answers in cooler locations. Good corn land suits 

 it. Cotton is grown from seed, and the usual planting time 

 is August. The crop matures in from six to nine months, 

 and is either re-sown, or in districts where frost does not 

 prevail the plants are pruned close to the ground, and are 

 thus made to yield two, three, or more crops in succession. 

 Two leading varieties are grown, viz., uplands or woolly- 

 seed, and sea island. The latter seed is almost free from 

 wool, is of a dark brown colour, and runs into but few 

 varieties ; the longest and silkiest fibre is obtained from it, 

 but the variety is delicate. The woolly-seed has many 

 varieties ; it runs into sorts of greater or less strength, 

 length, and beauty of fibre wherever grown, and is capable 

 of indefinite improvement by selections from the best plants 

 iu the field. The average yield of cotton gives twice the 



