. 
248 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Arrin, 1899. 
IMPORTED AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE. 
Do our agriculturists—that is comprehensively, the planters, farmers, 
orcbardists, and horticulturists generally—realise what large sums of money 
are sent out of this colony to the southern colonies, New Zealand, and 
Tasmania, not to speak of America and the United Kingdom, for the purchase 
of agricultural produce which Queensland can raise from her own broad acres, 
and by so doing retain this money for distribution amongst themselves? If 
the question is asked: ‘ What can Queensland produce?” the reply is: “The 
colony can produce all those articles, the products of the soil, which are 
required for the sustenance of a population numbering only 500,000 souls.” 
But when we come to the question: ‘What does Queensland produce in 
quantities sufficient for the requirements of the people?” we are at once con- 
fronted by a question which can only be answered by an appeal to the official 
returns of the imports of agricultural produce from beyond her borders. 
Taking the wheat production as the first item, the colony produced in 
1897 some 1,009,293 bushels of wheat from 59,875 acres, an average of nearly 
17 bushels per acre; and in the Jast season 600,000 bushels. ‘The requirements 
for the colony amount to 2,800,000 bushels annually. Given good seasons and 
absence of rust, there is not the slightest reason why the average instead of 
the exceptional yield of wheat should not rise to 80 or even 40 bushels per 
aere on the splendid wheat lands owned by the Western farmers. 
Even with a yield of 20 bushels, 140,000 acres would supply our present 
needs. That is to say that a little over double the acreage now sown would be 
equal to furnishing the colony’s requirements in this respect. Six hundred 
farmers, each laying down an area of 250 acres of wheat, could meet the demand. 
Already, in 1897, our agriculturists planted maize on 109,721 acres. Of this 
much was cut for green fodder, yet the yield of grain reached 2,803,172 bushels 
yalued at £300,000. Much of the land under maize-crops, however, being on 
the coast below the table-land, would not be suitable for wheat, but there are 
thousands of acres above the Range, from the southern border to the Central 
districts about Emerald, that are entirely adapted for wheat culture, and, as @ 
matter of fact, every year sees many additional acres placed under the plough 
for this purpose. 
It being conceded that we have the right class of farmers in the colony, 
that we have the land, and, as a rule, fair seasons, how does it happen that in 
one month alone (December, 1898) Queensland imported 26,457 bushels of 
wheat, of a value of £4,229, and that she must import during the year £300,009 
worth, every penny of which might easily go into the pockets of the Queens- 
land farmers? Now let us turn to maize. In the same year there were 
109,721 acres under this cereal. The yield ranged from 40 to 100 bushels 
er acre, yet we obtained in the same month (December, 1898) 38,780 bushels, 
worth £6,969, from the southern colonies. It is the same with all other 
cereals, also with almost every product of the farm. 
We grow 50 acres of onions, and we import 180 tons a month, ‘The 
shortage in potatoes amounts to over £2,000 per month. With 391 acres of 
arrowroot we yet have to depend largely on foreign imports, whilst 311 acres 
of coffee Jeave us in the position of importing more than £7,000 worth yearly. 
Fruit presents even greater anomalies. In round numbers 13,000 acres 
are planted withvarious kinds of fruit, yetthe Customs returns for December last 
show thatinthat month Queensland was indebted to the south for 31,654 cases of 
green fruit and 89,047 Ib. of dried fruits, the former being worth £5,798 and 
the latter £649, : f 
Rice grows to perfection on our Northern rivers. Up to the present there 
are only between 400 and 500 acres sown annually, but our imports come to 
something like £8,000 per annum. 
We ask the farmers, planters, and orchardists to study the statistics 
presented below, and they will then be in a position to realise what large sums 
which we pay to our southern neighbours and to foreign countries for produce 
which can and should be produced within our own borders. 
