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1 Sepr:, 1897. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 199 
Scrub Lands and How to Utilise Them. 
By A. J. BOYD, 
Queensland Agricultural Department. 
Ty my last paper I dealt with the question of scrubs, serub-felling, and the 
maize crop. ‘lo what I said on the felling of scrub I must add that, although 
in the early days it» was considered the correct thing to leave high stumps, 
to-day the practice is to cut low in order to permit of the passage of drays. 
‘A farmer who in former times did not lay his scrub so flat that the tops of the 
stumps were visible was considered to be a “new chum” at the work. The 
object of leaving high stumps was mainly to have good leverage power when 
the time came to stump the land. 
In some parts of the North the initial cultivation is done with picks. The 
land is lined with cane-rows, generally 4 feet 6 inches apart, and in these rows 
cane-holes are made 3 feet apart. The proper size for these holes is 15 inches 
long, 12 inches wide, and 10 inches deep, cleaning them out to this depth, then 
loosening the soil again in planting. 
This work, even with kanaka labour, is slow and rather expensive, but in 
the long run it has proved not only cheaper but much better than the system 
now generally adopted—viz., simply driving a pick or hoe into the soil and. 
putting the cane plant in. Good crops have been obtained by this method, but 
owing to the plant being put so near the surface, and to the natural tendency 
of the cane to grow upward, it does not ratoon either as often or nearly as 
well as by the holing plan. The latter was the method adopted on my own 
and all the neighbouring scrub plantations on the Southern rivers. 
To counteract the effect of the shallow planting, a system of hilling up is 
resorted to, which is actually injurious to the cane; and it seems impossible 
to make many farmers understand the difference between moulding cane and 
hilling it up. Iam aware that hilling-up is a common practice, but that does 
not make it either a right ora wise one. This is a subject which might well 
be dealt with in a separate paper. 
Tn hilly scrub country, such as I have seen at Mackay, where the hills are 
yery steep, shoots are used to carry the cane in places where carts cannot go 
in safety, and on some hills wire ropes have sbeen used and the cane sent to 
the bottom in bundles. But both these methods entail considerable expense, 
and with the present low price of sugar I doubt if it would pay to touch land 
requiring such methods. 
Of course, after the removal of the stumps, which have mostly become 
rotten after several crops have been taken off, the plough can be used, even on 
the hillsides, if not too steep. 
And this brings me to the question of stumping. It takes about three 
years for the general mass of stumps to rot. The smaller ones will have 
disappeared in less than two years, owing to constant cultivation and consequent 
destruction of the roots. Various plans have been adopted at different times 
to bring the land under the plough. Some farmers break up the whole of the 
land with the hoe, taking the stumps out ona face. Others merely take out 
the stumps without breaking up the land, and when stumps and roots are 
burnt off break the ground up with astrong bullock plough—a work which can 
easily be performed, as the tangled mass of roots is completely rotten by the 
end of three years. Once the plough can be set to work the cultivation differs ; 
yery little from that adopted on plain jands. 
The great depth of rich vegetable humus in most of the coast scrubs 
provides an almost inexhaustible supply of plant food, but there are climatic 
drawbacks which have to be considered. Periodical droughts occur of greater 
or lesser intensity, and this fact leads to the consideration of irrigation. 
Trrigation has its advocates and also its opponents. Whether cane will profit 
