4 3: 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1881 
ance,* the wages of white men is 20s to 25s per 
week, with lodging and rations. If the resources 
of tropical Queensland and Australia generally are to be 
developed, Indian coolies must, be introduced. It was 
very amusing to see an experienced Kaneka drayman 
pushing his "new chum" countrymen out of the way 
with an emphatic "Get out of that, will you?!" 
As far as I could see the black labourers are treated 
well and work heartily here. But more labour is 
wanted, so that instead of the "trash," withered 
leaves, &c , being removed from the field, it is often 
set on fire on dewy nights. The agents, one of a 
French sugar machinery company, the other of an 
English firm, who are travelling with me, did not 
approve of this and of other expedients, but good 
sugar is turned out and it pays. Mr. Davidson, who 
had experience in the West Indies, told me it \^ as a 
great thing here to have no prejudices to contend 
with. He said this pointing to a plough with three 
horses ploughing earth up to the rows of sugar. 
He said if he ventured to substitute plough for hoe 
in the West Indies the negroes would say : " Me have 
grow him sugar ! my father he grow sugar ; my grand- 
father he grow sugar. When you larn grow sugar?" 
The agents for improved sugar machinery, by which 
it is alleged a large additional percentage of sugar 
can he obtained, now say that. Mr. Davidson himself is 
likewise prejudiced. But people have to be cautious. 
They have before them the "dreadful example" of 
Mr. Tooth (brother of the ritualist clergyman), who 
ruined himself by buying every new machine he 
read of. Mr. Van de Velde, the agent of the Lille 
firm, tells me there is a machine for separating the 
fibres of sugarcane before it is pressed between the 
rollers, which ensures a large additional percentage of 
juice. The difficulty with the cane in its ordinary state 
is that it has a siliceous skin and knots a good deal 
like the bamboo (one cane is called the " rose bam- 
boo"), and it ;has, much of it, to be passed twice 
under the rollers. Most of the estates, ranging 
about 5,000 acres each,t have been made from 
"open forest" land — park-like expanses of rich 
alluvial land of a rich black colour, deposited by 
the river but owing its origin to volcanic mountains. 
Others have been opened or are now opening on 
what is strangely called "scrub laud," really what 
we would call forest in Ceylon. On such land the 
cane will yield a first crop and six ratoon crops 
without renewal. The canes are at first rank and 
yield juice largely in proportion to sutjar. The weight 
of cane per acre decreases, but the percentage of 
saccharine matter increases as time goes on. That was 
the experience of a planter who had taken eight crops 
off the same land. Manuring is not entirely neglecWl, 
but most of the '•megass" (exhausted cane) is used 
for fuel, with coal and wood. The latter is already 
scarce, and firewood in Mackay is very expensive. % 
The average yield of cane is over a ton an acre, say. 
up to 30 cwts , and 15 tons cane give 1 ton sugar. 
1£ ton per acre is a fair average, and the sugar can 
be sold at Mackay for £22 10s per ton. Many small 
planters, who cannot afford the very expensive machine- 
ry necessary for the manufacture of sugar, sell eane 
to the mill owners, at 11/ per ton on the field, the 
purchaser cutting and carting it to his mill. At a 
large estate called Yengarie, in another district, 
the" small growers crush their cane in common mills, 
and the juice, which is paid for by strength, goes 5 
miles in pipes to the central factory. Mr. Van de 
Velde tells us that in Belgium beet juice is thus 
conveyed for a distance of 45 miles ! Mr. Jeff ray has 
* Passages both ways also paid. 
+ But none fully cultivated. 
% As arc most other things, for little besides sugar- 
is grown. 
got a most complete set of machinery for a new 
estate, The Palms, and amidst this machinery, and 
no doubt to inaugurate the great mill, the ball was 
given, to which Mr. Jeffray procured invitations for 
me and my companions. Nothing could exceed the 
kindness of the Davidsons. Mr. Davidson, the leader 
of the sugar planters here, is a fine energetic fellow : 
I told him that the joke in the Highlands 
when I was a boy was that Tulloch spent the 
money which his brother Henry Davidson, the 
London merchant (father of our host), made. 
I heard Mr. Jeffray say that from one estate he 
did not expect a shilling of return until he had spent 
£40,000 ; but, then he looked for a minimum return 
of 20 per cent. Mr. Mackinnon asked Mr. Paton 
yesterday what a set of best machinery to take in 
2,000 tons of sugar per annum would be. The 
answer was £25,000, with 15 per cent added for freight. 
What with setting up and all, I suppose the cost 
would be £30,000 to £35,000, so you will see that only 
men of capital can set up large mills, and small ones 
won't pay so well. There is room, however, for wen 
who only grow the cane and sell it. At Pioneer 
estate, where I went yesterday with the purchaser, 
Mr. Mackinnon, Mr. Brandon, the banker, told me 
that Mr. Spiller, the pioneer sugar planter of the 
district, who in consequence of bad health had sold 
this magnificent estate for £95,000, began with £35, 
aud gradually added to his machinery as he got on. 
Mr. Jaffrey having introduced me to Mr. Davidson, 
the latter most kindly made out a map of the district, 
laid out three days' drives, and gave us letters of in- 
troduction, four of us going. On the fourth day 
(yesterday) Mackinnon drove me to and over his 
magnificent estate, and up the Pioneer till we came 
to scenery like that on the Findhorn river. The] 
visit to this district has been a most enjoyable one, 
and as I telegraphed to Albuny the success of sugar 
is certain and great. But there is only one experi- 
ment with coffee about 15 miles off. That I cannot 
manage to see, but I 've had a long talk with Mr. 
Costello, a candid, sensible Irishman, who said hei 
was not responsible for the over-sanguine statements 
which appeared in the Mackay Standard and were 
copied into the Observer, The result has been one| 
letter bo the editor, Mr. Black, whom I have met, 
and another to Costello, from Ceylon. The latter 
was from a Ceylon planter who proposed to come atl 
once with his coolies. Costello advised him to coma| 
and see first. He tells me he will persevere, bnfc,; 
the thing has never yet paid. He is troubled with, 
borer in the stems, and trees are dying from the 
small fungus, so fatal in Maskeliya, etc. But the:, 
terrible expense is in weeding : six times a year at 
£1 per acre each time. Higher up on the mountains 
and nearer the equator coffee may yet do well. But 
if any man brings coolies to the Mackay district and 
is a wise man he will employ coolies and cash on 
what is known to pay— sugar. It has had it troubles 
in the aspect of sugar and coffee estates. Some of 
the Mackay sugar estates are on low hills, and I 
was much interested by travelling over a hard wood 
railway of 3 miles extent on the Cedars estate which 
cost only £120 per mile. But instead of one expanse 
of perennial green as in the case of a coffee estate, 
a sugar plantation is, like a corn farm, in all stages 
of growth, from a few inches to a dozen feet high, 
while whole fields are bare and lying fallow or being 
ploughed. But most of the estates here are on 
perfectly flat land, and these, no doubt, are the cheapestl 
to work. On one of the estates we saw " the firstl 
locomotive in Mackay," one of Fowler's in connections 
with his portable narrow-gauge railway. Most of thelj 
carriage is done in carts and drays, pulled by from! 
one horse to six or eight, while eight pairs of bullocksh 
in a dray are quite common. On a large sugar! 
