236 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1897. 
Rice in Northern ueensland. 
By E. COWLEY, 
Manager, Kamerunga State Nursery, Cairns. 
Tr would seem that it is not generally known Oryza sativa is a native of North 
Queensland as well as of many other tropical countries, but native rice Is 
described by our Colonial Botanist, and has been seen by the writer in its wild 
* form in this colony. - The enormous flocks of wild geese indigenous to North 
Queensland, build their nests in places adjacent to the depressions wherein the 
rice grows, and choose the time when the grain will be ready for their offspring 
to feed upon—that is, before the young can take wing, but are able to paddle 
about in the rather shallow water in which the rice grows, as it were, for their 
especial benefit. 
Rice, for commercial purposes, has also been grown by Chinese in North 
Queensland for many years past, and the output or harvest may be set down 
for this year at something like 200 tons. The Chinese do not appear to lay 
out: regular fields for its cultivation, but seem to be content with the odd 
corners or depressions on their holdings or in banana-fields; it is therefore 
almost impossible to obtain a correct or even approximate estimate of the 
acreage of land devoted to rice culture. A gentleman, however, who lives in 
our neighbourhood, and who himself cultivates rice, informs me that an acre of 
good land will produce a ton of rice, and it would appear that this is considered a 
good crop in other rice-growing countries. The mode of planting differs in all 
countries. Here, on dry lands, it is p!anted broadcast and raked or hoed into 
the soil, weeds being kept down by hand until the rice has the mastery of the 
plot. All varieties of rice that have been introduced are planted in the same 
way. Whether the parent rice was swamp or hill grown it would be perhaps 
impossible to ascertain, but it grows and seeds admirably in either case. It 
would seem, however, according to numerous writers on the subject, that rice 
grown in irrigated fields yields a vastly larger crop than that grown on higher 
ground. Be this as it may, North Queensland grown rice commands a ready 
sale, and uone, or very little, is grown in actual swamps. ‘To insure a good 
crop of rice, even in North Queensland, the planting and cultivating right up 
to harvest time must be done in or during the wet season, when the groun 
and atmosphere alike are gaturated with moisture. Like any other crop, 1t 
cannot resist total submergence for any great length of time, but it differs 
from many cereals, inasmuch as draining is not necessary. Simmons, when 
speaking of rice grown in Italy, says: “A clayey impervious soil, with a 
small proportion of sand near the surface, is found to be the best for rice.” 
Perhaps this is most suitable when irrigation can be made available, but in almost 
any form of soil found on North Queensland river banks or backward to the 
waterholes generally found behind rivers, rice will do well, if planted at the 
proper time and favoured with a normal season. Rice is a six months’ crop. 
‘With the Chinese, who are most unmerciful regarding their land, immediately 
after the rice is taken off and the rice stubs taken out, in goes a crop of corn 
—their land is never idle. They go on draining the bank until there is n0 
more money ; and then after about six years’ crops of rice and maize, Nature 
cries: ‘“‘ Hold! enough!” Ido not think our Government should allow this 
barefaced robbery of public wealth, but.so long as the landlords do not take 
any steps why should the Government trouble?* I feel quite sure the 
Chinese consider us quite idiotic in these particulars, but 1 refrain from 
further remarks on the subject. 
* Thisisa matter between landlord and tenant, with which the Government have no concert. 
The Chinese are quite awake to the value of manure.—Ed."Q.4.J., 
