i)isc. 1, 1902.] 
THE ITvOPlCAL 
AGRICULTUElSt. 
3^9 
almost pay him to blacken his face ! The Leap 
mail ihaa dropped his letters and nesvspapers into 
the respective fost boxes nailed ou trees by the 
roai side. The Leap is a high mountain and 
projecting rock where an Australian "Gin" or 
native woman took a leap and passed into the 
next world when the Police were in pursuit of her 
Imsbaud. There is an Hotel and Post otlice but an 
exceedingly dead place— healthy situation, but no 
excitement butKaiigarooshootino; andan occasional 
visit from Swa^'men and poor fellows on the Wal- 
laby, Mrs Hunter at the Leap hotel and Mr and 
Mrs Hill of the Post-office have been there many 
years, but are not making a fortune. '• Shank's 
Mare " carried your correspondent to Mount Jukes. 
We met a mounted bush man rounding in cattle 
now and again and saw a small patch of sugar- 
cane here and there with a humpy or leaf hut. 
Gum trees— Gum trees— nothing but, gum-trees ? 
No water tit to drink in the creeks, a dried up- 
country and very uninteresting. We passed one 
good shaded creek where some ladies were pick- 
uic-ing and overtook me before reaching Mount 
Jukes, ^\e were tired and coveied with ticks on 
arrival in the house of the Manager of the Mount 
Jukes Oompauy. The same evening arrived at my 
destination "luglenook," Mount Jukes another 
small coffee plantation opened up by Mr. H. F. 
Blaxland who had sent for me on a tliree months' 
engagement on £1 per week and found in every- 
thing. Here I found very good coffee four years 
old. 
THIS COFFEE 
had been planted under dense shade, but 
not found to answer and the shade trees were 
"barkringed" and the coffee bushes are bear- 
ing better this year in consequence. For 
two months I opened the centres and handled 
the trees and when engaged at the upper fields 
carried my lunch to the held after breakfast and 
a billycan of tea. The crop ripened in June, 
July and August, and we were gathering crop in 
September. Australian white boys catheriug for 
five shillings per week and their " tucker " they 
gathered an average of 100 lb of cherry and had 
picked six thousand pounds of cherry up to the 
6th of September when my engagement came to 
an e«id. Taking a cheque for £12 12s Od for 
thirteen weeks, 1 waited in Mackay for a steamer 
to take me to Cairns where 1 was in hopes of 
finding another coffee planting engagement, but 
was disappointed alter the expense of travelling 
long distances in visiting small coffee plantations. 
The train took me to the Barron Falls, a distance 
of 20 miles through 15 tunnels and a line view of 
the Barron Falls and the fall of Stoney Creek. 
There was little water tumbling over the falls, but 
the scenery was wild and picturesque, the land 
too steep for planting pui poses, only one very 
email coifee plantation situated upon the fulls, the 
property of iMr. Alfred Street and worked by 
himself and three sons. The coffee had just given 
7 tons from 10 acres and there were 4 acres more 
that gave less crop— 10 cwts. per acre was very 
fair and the coffee was a good sample though only 
valued at 5id per lb. Mr. Street could offer me 
nothing iu the way of eniployuieut as he said 
HIS COFFEE PLANTATION 
only just paid its way working it with his family 
and a few natives to gather the crop, one sou 
looking after the picking and ploughing between 
(b« rows of cott'ee plaated 10 x 10 feet apart, 
Another son dried the parchment pulped by a 
Gordon-brest-Pulper, the parcliment was being 
dried like tea on trays over a slow fire (rather a 
new modus operandi) in curing coffee formaiket, 
after hulling, it is roasted and ground and put up 
in tins. Mr. Street put me over the Barron river 
in his punt and we lunched at the Hotel near the 
Kurunda station, the train left at 4 p.m. to Cairns. 
Next day I took the steam tram to Hamilden 
plantation, chiefly sugar with a central mill. 
SUGAR— COFFEE— TEA. 
Dr. Reed, the Manager, advised me to go on to 
Hillville Sugar Plantation to see Mr De Moleyens 
and Mr Butter, but both were away from home 
and I had the trudge to Hillville through the bush 
for nothing. Mr De Moleyens was at the Cairns 
Hotel and told me it was no use going out to his 
coifee plantation as they were reducing expendi- 
ture and looking after the coloured labour them- 
selves — so here I am in Gsraldton, anothsr 
Northern Port of Queensland, Under these cir- 
cumstances I would strongly advise Ceylon men to 
stay away from Queensland for there is no hos- 
pitality as in Ceylon for a planter looking for a 
berth, long experience goes for nothing. 
A small patch of five acres of coffee on the Com- 
pany's place was handed over to a ChinamaR 
because it would not pay working expenditure. 
In leaving Cairns for Geraldton seems to be "jump- 
ing out of the frying pan into the fire" for here 
the Banana gardens are worked by Chinese pro- 
prietors and there is no coifee worth mentioning 
Gera'.dton is the only place where there is a 
good rainfall — 120 inches iu a year, just the 
climate for tea, but no one has ventured on its 
culture, and there is no experimental Government 
plantation. Mr Howard Newport from India 
lives at Redlyncli near Cairns, and is the "Gov- 
ernment Coffee Expert " — up to date he seems to 
have made a very poor show in the advance of 
the coffee enterprise. 
We had a couple of days Agri-Horticultural 
Show last week, and I saw a sample of tea made 
from the bushes grown at Cairns, but it seemed 
poor stuff. I believe the bushes are to be kept 
for seed- bearers. 
BAD INVESTMENTS. 
Now, to give your readers some idea of wUa 
has been done in coffee iu Northern Queensland 
the only coffee plantation worth mentioning in 
Cdirns, has cost four thousand pounds to open 
and does not pay. The Mount Jukes coffee planta- 
tion has got about five acres of good cott'ee to 
show for six thousand pounds expended ; another 
little patch of 50§ trees called the Blackwood 
Coifee Plantation, cost £1,500 and gave 65 lb of 
coffee in cherry ! Two other cottee plantations iu 
Mackay are abandoned after leaving a heavy loss 
and Mr Wood, a book-seller in Mackay, offered me 
one "selection" for £200 (two hundred acres of 
bush with a Cottage, the cotlee was burnt by a 
bush fire). 
The above report by an old Ceylon planter may 
prevent Ceylon and Indian planters from making 
mistakes, otherwise, easily made by reading 
magazine articles written by tourists and globe- 
trotters who make up a " Hash in the pan" article. 
I hope my next letter will be more encouraging 
to intending visitors to Australia who want tg 
commence de 7iovQt 
