November, 1909.] 



421 



Edible Products. 



land grubs will take the roots, but up to 

 the present the grub has not caused any 

 trouble in the Logan district. The rust 

 has yet to be dealt with, and I think 

 this will be accomplished by experiment- 

 ing with various kinds of rice seed till 

 we meet with a rust-resisting variety. 

 It is probable now, that under Feder- 

 ation the importance of rice culture will 

 receive the attention it is worth. A 

 large sum of money is annually ex- 

 pended in importing the product into 

 the Commonwealth States. I would 

 therefore advise all farmers to give rice 

 a fair trial, especially as we are growing 

 varieties that can now be classed as 

 fairly successful on our coast lands, and 

 where a fair average rainfall can be 

 partly depended upon. The value of 

 rice grown simply as fodder to cut green 

 is great for stock feed, the stalks being 

 sweet, juicy, and succulent, and giving 

 a good return per acre, aud all stock will 

 eat it with avidity. The question of 

 labour does not enter largely into rice 

 cultivation ; as I have pointed out, 

 although a tropical product there is 

 every facility for cultivation by preseut 

 mechanical methods— that is as far as 

 the Aus or upland rice is concerned ; the 

 Aman or Boro varieties being swamp 

 rices needing irrigation I have not yet 

 heard of as being grown to any great 

 extent, and they probably will not be 

 for some time, if at all, owing chiefly to 

 the heavy outlay required for a suitable 

 water supply and an irrigation plant, 

 which can be dispensed with in growing 

 the beforementioned varieties of upland 

 rice, which have proved most suitable 

 for existing conditions and our present 

 agricultural methods of cultivation and 

 harvesting. Of this I am certain, that 

 the lice is one of our coming crops which, 

 together with coffee, will prove of great 

 benefit to this State particularly, and a 

 further source of wealth to our pro- 

 ducers. The market for rice in Australia 

 is a growing one, and it will take years 

 before the supply overtakes the demand. 

 Our farmers need not fear to grow the 

 crop and invest in this industry, which 

 will return a fair amount of profit for 

 the labour and outlay required to pro- 

 duce an article which only requires care 

 in selecting and planting the varieties 

 to suit the market requirements. I am 

 sure the efforts or our producers will be 

 crowned with success, and 1 shall be 

 pleased with the part 1 have taken in 

 assisting the modern development of 

 rice cultivation in Queensland. 



Registrar-General's Statistics op 

 Rice Production and Importations 

 for the Year 1900. 



Total area planted in Queensland ... 319 acres 



„ quantity produced (paddy) .. 9.275 bushels 



,, average would equal of clean .lice .. 320,617 lb. 



The net imports of rice for 1899 were . .9,283,933 lb. 



Of the value of . . . . . . £5i',C99 



The above figures represent the posi- 

 tion as to production and consumption, 

 and would therefore be about 3"34 per 

 cent, of the total requirements of this 

 State only. 



[The total annual production of rice 

 in the United States of America, which, 

 in 1866, was 2,000,0001b., has now reached 

 350,000,000 lb. It will take 8,000 large 

 railway cars to handle the crop this 

 season. Rice lands have risen from £2 

 per acre to £8 per acre ; hundreds of 

 miles of irrigation canals have been 

 constructed. Rice has been the redemp- 

 tion of the prairie lands of Texas and 

 Louisiana. In ten years the worthless 

 lands of these two States will produce 

 the world's demand in rice. An acre 

 there produces 20 sacks, worth from 10s. 

 to 16s. per sack. Where are the Queens- 

 land farmers in the race ?— Ed. " Q.A.J."] 



THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMP- 

 TION OF CACAO. 



(From the Philippine Agricultural Re- 

 view, Vol. II., No. 5, May, 1909.) 



The " Gordian " has recently published 

 (July 23, 1908) some interesting statistics 

 regarding the production and consump- 

 tion of cacao during the past few years. 

 It appears that while the production for 

 1907 may be considered satisfactory, upon 

 the whole it is 400,000 kilograms less 

 than that of 1908 and 3,000,000 kilograms 

 less than that of 1901. This deficit is 

 due solely to a shortage in the produc- 

 tion in Ecuador and the Dominican Re- 

 public, the output of these countries 

 being 8,000,000 kilograms less in 1907 

 than in 1906. 



The table which we reproduce below 

 gives in kilograms the exportation of 

 cacao from the principal cacao-producing 

 countries for the years 1906 and 1907 : — 



Production. 



Country, 



Brazil 

 St. Thomas 

 Ecuador 

 Trinidad 

 Venezuela 

 English East Africa 

 Dominican Republic 

 Ceylon 



1906/ 

 Kilograms. 



25,135,000 

 24,619,560 

 23,426,897 

 12,983,467 

 12,864,609 

 9,738,964 

 14,312,992 

 2,509,622 



New Granada (Colombia) 4,931,530 



1907. 

 Kilograms. 



24,528,000 

 24,193,980 

 19,670,571 

 18,611,430 

 13,171,090 

 10,471,090 

 10,101,374 

 4,699,559 

 4,012,100 



One kilogram equals 2"20462 avoirdupois lbs, 



