1 May, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. ~ 339 
article loose in sacks, not put up in 3-lb. or 1-lb. packets. The sample tin of 
arrowroot you have sent us has been received, and we have examined same. 
It is very good quality, but when made, the colour is not nearly so white as 
the Queensland, with which it would have to compete. The fault lies in the 
washing, which has not been thoroughly done. We estimate the mar'et value 
of arrowroot the same as your sample about £14 per ton, delivered in Sydney. 
We are sending you a sample of the best Queensland arrowroot, and if you 
take this sample, also yours, and compare the two, you will at once notice the 
better quality of the Queensland.” 
THE VALUE OF MANURE. 
By S.C. VOLLER 
- A worp of advice will not be out of place for many of our settlers on the 
coast country who, in conjunction with farming and dairying, are growing more 
or less of citrus fruits. The advice is that they take more care than is now 
done in many cases in the matter of saving the manure and other material 
kicking about their establishments, and which will prove of very great value if 
used on their orchards. e 
We have a good many thrifty and careful folk among our settlers, who 
make the best of the conditions under which they have to live and work; but 
we also have a number who, for want of a little system, and, perhaps, for want 
of a little more energy also, lose far more than they are aware of in the way 
of results. ; 
Time after time in travelling about the country do we see places where 
what might be a paying patch of trees is just an eyesore—ill-kept, half-starved, 
languishing. : 
There is no reason why farming and dairying, as carried on in many 
places, should not dovetail in very nicely with a bit of fruit-growing, and pay 
all the better for it. The settler generally has all the implements and horses 
at work in the one line that are required for cultivation in the other, and the 
prospect of a good return from the trees should at once settle the question of 
devoting the necessary time to the work. As it is, many are doing it, but often 
in such a way.as to attain poor results and little satisfaction. 
But, granted that the ordinary cultivation is fairly well attended to and 
that the trees are bearing, how are they to keep on giving the best returns 
without proper support? and then the question comes as to how the supply of 
nourishment is to be obtained. Not every settler can afford to buy expensive 
manures, although under certain circumstances, and under proper management, 
it pays to do that; but every settler can make use of what he has about him, 
and this is what we want to get at. If the farmer has a herd of milkers—even 
only a few—by a liberal use of the rough grass, which is nearly always 
obtainable, he can make these cows all the more comfortable with a good bed, 
and gain enormously in the growth of his stock of manure. 
In the matter of manure alone it will be found to pay to give every cow 
and horse a stall to itself with plenty of -bedding, constantly cleaned out and 
renewed. The pigs again help by being supplied with corn husks, rubbish, and 
litter off the farm, too often burnt to get rid of it. Corn stalks, cane trash, 
and a heap of other stuff can be either put through as bedding or brought in 
and worked into a compost heap. It is not good enough to gather now and 
then afew barrow loads of sundried manure, tip it under an orange tree, and 
then expect that tree to come up smiling witha goodcrop. Even good manure 
will prove of little value applied that way, as the weather simply takes all the 
good out of it. The better way is, after saving all that can possibly be 
utilised in the manure heap, and having your land in clean order, to put the 
manure evenly over the surface, and turn it in lightly. Let the trees be fed 
regularly in this way and kept free from scale pests, and our farmer will find 
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