os de a S's! - . aN, G 1 
VOL. I, PART 1.] 
Some Things we Need. 
Wirn the publication of this, the first number of the Queensland 
Agricultural Journal, the Department enters upon a work which, it is 
- hoped, will prove of great assistance to all those engaged in production from 
the soil. The occasion seems a fitting one for a short review of the present 
position of agriculture in Queensland, a sketch of the aims and objects of the 
Department, and some reference to the means by which the fulfilment of these 
aims and objects may be promoted. 
_ In such branches as sugar and bananas, we are exporters to other colonies, 
where we have to meet the competition of other countries. The output of | 
sugar has not yet quite reached Australasian consumption. Bananas are still 
imported to the southern colonies from Fiji and other places in the Pacific. 
In both those products we have had to meet a fall in prices, which are now 
very much lower than growers were receiving when they had only sufficient, or 
less than sufficient, for local requirements. In sugar especially, the competition 
is now very keen, and in order to exclude Javanese sugar from Australia, the 
prices offered for Queensland sugar have been depressed to a point which 
makes the future of that industry, under present conditions, a matter of some 
anxiety, and the time has certainly come when the strictest economy will have 
_ to be enforced in every direction in order to secure the safety of the industry, 
In most other farm products we are, or have until very recently been, 
importers to a considerable extent. The local market, aided by Customs 
duties, is generally favourable to the producer. But to make this a great 
agricultural country, such as its soil, climate, and other advantages have fitted 
it to become, producers must ere long prepare to face competition with other 
countries in the markets of the world, and they must also regard present local 
ices as unsafe guides for calculating probable returns in the near future. 
n wheat, for instance, in spite of the high average yield per acre, and of the high 
price realised as compared with the yield and price obtained in other countries, 
we are far from meeting our own requirements. ‘There is now an influx of 
experienced farmers from elsewhere, and the volume ot wheat production bids 
fair to increase greatly. And the time is not far off when the growers of, 
wheat, as well as of many other products, will have to carefully study questions 
of very strict econoiny indeed in order to secure for themselves a margin of 
profit as remuneration for their work. 
In all products which we now only partially supply to ourselves, agricul- 
ture is in a transition stage, or on the eve of it; and it behoves us to look well 
ahead, and prepare now for the completion of the process of change which will 
assuredly test to the utmost the capacity of the country and its people to resist 
‘strong competition. ate 
Tf we take stock of our materials, we have nothing to fear in point of soil 
or climate. On the contrary, these two important factors are as favourable to 
us as can be desired, and they are of extreme value. ‘There is no better soil 
anywhere than we have lying at our hands largely unoccupied, and under our 
favourable climate two good crops each year can generally be obtained. 
The full utilisation of these advantages depends upon our farmers and on 
the means they employ. 
But there are farmers and farmers. It would be invidious here to single 
out any individuals as representatives of the type of skilled and successful 
farmers. The skilled farmer who studies his surroundings, and by means of 
his skill and experience overcomes all difficulties in the way of his success, is 
