VOL. I., PART 2.] [AUGUST. 
The Agricultural Possibilities of Western (Queensland. 
By HENRY A. TARDENT, 
Manager, Westbrook Experimental Farm. 
Tne work on the Experimental Farm being yet, so to say, in an incipient 
stage, the writer intends to dwell for the present on various crops which he 
has grown successfuily for many years in the interior of the colony. But 
before entering into details about any special crop, he would like to offer the 
reader a general idea of farming in the West as it appeared to him during a 
somewhat lengthy residence there and after some reflection on the subject. 
As is well known, Queensland is now just emerging from arather severe and 
protracted drought, a circumstance standing somewhat in the way of a man trying 
to show the agricultural advantages of a region known to, be possessed of a rather 
limited rainfall. Still, as Nature will not change her immutable laws to satisfy 
our desire—or our fancy—it is our duty to try and do our best with what she 
has given us. In that respect it may be of some use to see whether, perhaps, 
other nations have not been elsewhere placed in circumstances somewhat 
similar to ours. Their example may be either an inducement or a warning 
to us. From many examples supplied by history, none perhaps is more 
striking than that of the United States of America, Those acquainted with 
the history and economical circumstances of the North American continent tell 
us that for many score of years it was thought there that agriculture could be 
carried on successfully only on the eastern slope of the continent. The centre 
and west were a desert, the undisputed abode of the Indian tribes and of a few 
scattered pelt-hunters. Yet there came a time when that energetic and enter- 
prising mixture of all nations, knownas the Yankee, felt a desire to explore that 
west, to settle on it, and to see whether there was not perchance something 
in it. Numerous were the warnings given to intended emigrants. The Indian 
tribes were hostile and warlike, the droughts frequent and protracted, the 
winters abnormally long and severe, the land not seldom poor and 
shallow, and the markets for producee—nowhere! Still they went on. What 
were their motives, it is difficult to say ; but it seems there is in human nature, 
as well as in certain species of the animal kingdom, a kind of instinct pushing 
them on at certain times irresistibly in a certain direction. Of course many 
were ruined, many became a prey to disease, others died from fatigue and 
exhaustion, others, again, fell under the arrows and bullets of the Indians. 
Thus was made a kind of natural selection, which left only the fittest alive— 
the fittest, who went on like an invading army and fulfilled to the letter the 
divine commandment, ‘‘ Conquer the earth and subdue it.’ And now, after 
less than a century has elapsed, what do we see? ‘The greatest agricultural 
centres of the United States are no more on the coast. They are in the west, 
in the very heart of the continent. The western farmer has called science to 
his help; he has dotted the whole country with agricultural colleges and 
experimental farms. The oid obsolete ways of tilling the soil he has replaced 
with improved machinery and implements which have increased 100 and some- 
times 1,000 fold his working power. He has made provision against the 
droughts ; he has made provision against the protracted winters ; and last, but 
by no means least, he has created his own markets by giving birth to such 
immense cities as Denver, Salt Lake City (Utah), Chicago, &c.; and now we 
may safely say that the whole world, including Australia, is to a certain extent 
his market. ~ 
