Dec, ], 1899.] THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
3T3 
and so unexpensive that they are within the reach 
of all." It mast have ocoured to those who have 
followed these articles from the beginning that it is 
not necessary for every grower to erect a mill for 
the own crop. One mill in each district is ample 
for all purposes, as coffee in the parchment state 
will stand holding for an indefinite period, provided 
it has been sufficiently dried nor need the farmer 
apprehend that such delay will cause depreciation 
in its value, for the contrary is the case. The farmer in 
Queensland can choose his own time for sending his 
parchment to the mill, where could either sell for 
cash, or have the article cured, packed, and shipped 
for him. The same principle is carried out in most 
of the coffee-growing countries, and should answer 
equally well here." Of the great profits to the small 
grower there seems to be no room for two opinions. 
If, as before observed, he has a family of active 
children, he needs but little paid labour in the berry- 
pickiog season. On this point, Mr. T. A. Bromley, 
Pialba, in a paper read before an agricultural con- 
ference held at Rockhampton last year, said : — '• I 
have five acres under coffee, and the reason I have 
not more is that I am testing coffee-growing experi- 
mentally on approved lines. . . . Now, about 
labour, and that is a great point. My quiver is full, 
and I have a big little family. When it comes to 
picking with the assistance of a few children from 
round about, I can slip through the job very well. 
Children are by far the best pickers." In giving an 
estimate of the money return that might be expected 
from coffee-growing, he continued:— " I?y taking the 
price mentioned as a basis (lOd. per lb ) the net re- 
turn per acre would be over £50. Of course, it would 
not do to consider that a state estimate, as ia practice 
you might get a long way below it. However, I am 
satiFfied there is no other crop will pay so well, not 
even sugar."' Dr. Thomatis, of Caravonica Park, 
Cairns, who has been growing coffee for years, and 
■who, eight months ago, was awarded a special prize 
for his coffee at the Marseilles Exhibition, is very 
emphatic on the subject of profits. In a paper he 
read at the agricultural conference held in June last 
at Mackay he said : — " A sniill farmer with a growing 
family can grow a few acres of coffee with the 
certainty of realising from £311 to £40 per acre, without 
the necessary of employing labour outside his own 
family." 
As very lUtle is generally known about coffee grow- 
ing, I will here give an idea of what amount of 
capital a man would require arriving in Queensland 
prepared to embark in the industry for the purpose 
of making a living out of it. The cost of securing the 
land would very considerably, according to the con- 
ditions under which it was taken up — as a homestead 
selection, agricultural farm, or freehold land purchased 
outright. There is land coast open for selection all 
along the Queensland coast. The Brisbane Land 
Commissioner informed me a short time ago that 
there were 50,000 acres of scrub land on the Blackall 
Range, within 50 miles of Biisbane, suitable for coffee 
or fruit growing, and open to selection at 2s Od an 
acre as homestead leases to the first persons that 
came along. A few miles back from the coast at 
Mackay, Cairns, and other northern ports, freehold 
land may be purchased from £2 an acre upwards. 
Excellent sites sheltered from the strong winds which 
prevail at certain periods of the year can be chosen 
on the slopes of the coast hills which, from their 
irregular conformation, are unsuitable for general 
agriculture, but which are all that could ba decided 
for coffee culture. Taking the case of the site chosenj 
being freehold land, it may be put down as a general 
average that £3 an acre would be the cost of pur- 
chase. The cost of cutting and burning off the scrub 
would not exceed £4 an acre. To grub out the 
heaviest stLitnpa might take £3 or £4 more an acre, 
but this operation, to a man of limited means, is 
o a certain extent unnecessary, as the stumps may 
e allowed to rot away, as they will do in time, 
ne of the illustrations shows the dead timber still 
anding in the plantation. Digging holes for the 
auta woald increase the outlay by an other £i. Xhe 
whole cost of preparing the plantation would ba 
about i;i2 an acre. Taking for instance a planta- 
tion of 30 acres the expenditure would be something 
like the following : — 
Cost of land, about £^q q q 
Clearing (if heavily timbered) and planting, 
about '360 0 0 
Farming appliances, say .. 30 0 0 
Fencing, say 60 0 0 
Total cost of planting 30 acres . . , . 640 0 0 
There would be other contingent expenses ; a dwell 
ing-house, &c , a couple of horses, and other itema 
the cost of which would depend largely on the set- 
tler's taste and disposition ; and the expense of living, 
keeping down weeds, and tending the young trees 
for three years until they began to bear v?ould also 
have to be taken into consideration. Of course if 
he has been accustomed to manual labour much of 
the above outlay would be avoidable with the help 
of one or two kanakas or a couple of sons fit for 
field work. Opinions differ as to how many trees 
should be planted to the acre ; the estimates range 
from 700 to 1,100. Experienced planters state that 
1,000 are not too many where the soil is rich, the 
land well cleared, and economy of space has to be 
considered. At the end of three years the first 
berries appear, yielding approximately oae-fonrth of 
a full crop. In the fourth season about a half-crop 
may be expected, and in the fifth year the trees are 
in full bearing. Eeach three will yield 2 lb. of parch- 
ment coffee, which means for 1,000 trees 2,0001b. 
of parchment. Taking the mean between the various 
estimated costs it may be set down that the coat 
of picking will amount to |d per lb, of.beiry from tha 
tree, or to 3d, per lb. of parchment coffee. During 
the past few years the selling price of the coffee 
locally has ranged from 7Jd to 12d. per lb ; as im- 
porters pay 9d per lb. on the average for inferior 
coffee from Fiji, it seems a fair average to estimate 
9d as the ruling price of the local product, and at 
that figure European merchants have offered to buy 
Cairns and Mackay coffee in unlimited quantity. This 
would leave balance of 6d per lb. to the producer, 
which, at a yield of 2,000 lb per acre is £50. Out of 
this return all incidental expensies would have to be 
deducted. Discounting all the estimates, disregarding 
the fact that growers in North Queensland have 
netted from £40 to £60 per acre, fallowing for an 
increase in the expenditure, a fall in the price of 
coffee, and setting the net gain as low as ^£"20 per 
acre, then the owner of a 30-acre plantation would 
find himself at the end of five years in receipt of an 
income of £600 a year. One ceases to wonder at the 
enormous fortunes Indian and Brazalian planters have 
made. 
Last year Queensland grew only about one-fifth 
of the coffee consumed in the colony, so that the 
intending planter has not only the balance of the 
home consumption to supply, but he has open to 
him the whole Australasian market. There ia a big 
future ahead of the industry in Queensland. The 
local conditions cannot be surpassed anywhere, and 
there is plenty of available cheap land. The trees 
bear earlier and heavier crops than in other coffee- 
growing countries ; the foreign planter opens his eyea 
in astonishment — it is not in his experience : and 
the plant so far has been free from the dreaded leaf 
disease which has played havoc with the plantations 
in India, Brazil, Arabia, Ceylon, and other countries. 
The growth of the plant in Australia gives new ex- 
perience owing to its adaptability to soils and cli- 
mates to which in the previous history of the tree 
no parallel can be shown. Finally, the climate is 
healthy ; yellow fever and other epidemics common 
in other countries are unknown ; and the planter 
lives in the midst of British civilisation BorrOQilcled 
by his own countrymen.— Ci/t^ney Mail, 
