1 Fes., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 91 
This yielded 16 bushels of good sound wheat. This year I ploughed up 
fourteen acres of downs country adjacent to the bore stream. Hight acres 
were sown with wheat, and the remainder with oats for hay. Of the wheat 
area, four acres were ploughed five inches deep, and cross-ploughed, then 
harrowed and rolled. The other four acres were ploughed only once and 
harrowed once. The seed was AJlora Spring Wheat, sown at the rate of 10 
bushels to eight acres. Five bushels were from seed grown by me last year, and — 
five of fresh seed supplied by the Department. I intended to sow the wheat 
in May, but no rain coming I postponed the sowing until 8th June, when I 
irrigated the field, and the seed germinated. The method of irrigation was by 
plough furrows from the main drain. On a portion of the field the furrows _ 
were 21 yards apart, and the surface was saturated by the overflow. On the 
remainder of the field the furrows were made 5 feet apart, and the ground was 
irrigated by soakage through the subsoil. Shortly after the seed germinated, 
the young plants were helped forward by a fall of over 2 inches of rain. No 
more artificial moisture was applied until the wheat was coming into ear, 
when the ground was again thoroughly saturated. The rapidity of the 
growth of the wheat 1ather astonished me, as it was quite ripe the second 
week in October before the hot weather set in. I kept the best of the 
crop for grain, reaping 53 acres. The remainder was cut for hay, the 
method of harvesting by hand reaping and threshing with a flail being too 
expensive. Competent labourers cannot be obtained under 30s. a week and 
found, and the harvesting of this small field of grain cost £2 10s. per acre. 
The yield was twenty-nine bags. A portion of the field measured off for 
the purpose yielded 25 bushels per acre, and a small portion, where an 
extra application of water had been tried, gave nearly 380 bushels to the 
acre, The cost of irrigating is trifling, provided the water is already avail- 
able for other purposes. The bore on my grazing farm cost £700, but 
since that was put down the price of boring has decreased, so that a farmer 
for the expenditure of £500 in cash can have an artesian well of any depth 
down to 1,200 feet, cased from top to bottom, and available for immediate use. 
The drains are made simply with tank-plough and delver, and the irrigation 
furrows with ordinary plough. One man with a long-handled shovel. directs 
the water in to the furrows until the whole field is saturated.- A bore with a 
flow of 500,000 gallons per day should be sufficient to irrigate from 800 to 400 
acres. 1 may mention that up to the present time no sign of rust or other 
disease has put in an appearance, and the only enemies to be feared are the 
marsupials when the crop is green and the galah parrots when the wheat is in 
ear. ‘The grain is plump and heavy, and the samples I forwarded to the South 
were fayourably commented upon by the millers. An offer was made to buy 200 
bags at 4s. 6d. per bushel, delivered in Rockhampton, but, as flour is selling at 
£18 per ton in Barcaldine, farmers will expect a higher price than this for their 
wheat until the local demand is satisfied. Although labour is dear at present, 
horseflesh is cheap; and in ordinary seasons the working horses need no other 
food beyond what is supplied by the natural grasses on the Western Downs. 
WHEAT-GROWING AT ROMA. 
Comrna from the tropics (Barealdine being almost on the Tropic of Capricorn) 
to the more temperate district of Roma, some 180 miles further South, we find 
equally satisfactory results in wheat-growing. The centres of the industry 
around Roma are in the directions of north-west, west, and east of the town of 
Roma. A little wheat is also grown to the south of the town. Six thousand acres 
were under crop this season, of which 5,000 acres were haryested for grain and 
