1 June, 1898. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. A5T 
of issuing another edict, hence it need not be surprising to the trade to learn 
at any time that exportations have been practically prohibited. State Depart- 
ment officials are inclined to believe that no such action will be taken by 
Blanco at the present time in view of the hostile construction that would be 
put upon such an Act by the American peopie, whose temper has been brougiit 
to a severe tension by the incident of the disaster to the ‘* Maine.” Importers 
will do well +o keep in close touch with representatives in the island, and to 
remember that, in the event of the preclamation of another edict, the State 
Department, in the absence of actual hostilities, would probably be able to 
secure the exportation from Cuba of any tobacco actually contracted for prior 
to the date of the new “ bando.” 
“ 
WHEAT-GROWING AT EMERALD. 
Tue Under Secretary for Agriculture, Mr. P. McLean, after attending the late 
Pastoral and Agricultural Conference at Rockhampton, paid a visit to the new 
Gindi Experiment I’arm, thirteen miles from Emerald. ‘The farm is under the 
charge of Mr. Alex. Watt, a well-known farmer and sugar planter from the 
Logan district. Mr. McLean states that operations on the farm are proceeding 
in a most satisfactory manner. T'orty acres of land have been broken up, and 
will, by the time this number of the Journal appears, have been sown with 
wheat. The site of the farm has been judiciously chosen, and in a very short 
time the Department of Agriculture will be able to demonstrate that wheat 
can be satisfactorily and profitably grown in the Ceéntral districts. Of this, 
Mr. McLean has never had any doubt since he first saw the land many years 
ago. He expresses himself confident of a great future in agriculture, and 
especially in wheat-growing, for these districts. Mr. Lamb, a delegate from 
Warwick to the Conference, expressed the same opinion; and as Mr. Lamb 
has had large experience in wheat-growing on the Darling Downs, his opinion 
should carry much weight. The Hon. J. V. Chataway, Minister for Agriculture, 
also inspected the farm, and was quite satisfied that good work is being done,. 
and that the farm will be of great service to the farmers of the Central districts 
by directing their operations in the right channel. : 
THE WAR AND WHEAT. 
AUSTRALIAN wheatgrowers are in luck’s way just now. A month or six weeks 
back everything pointed to a disastrous “slump” in wheat. The Sydney 
market became very ‘‘sick,’ and millers finding it difficult 1o sell their flour - 
were very sparing buyers of wheat. ‘The export demand alone postponed the 
eyil day. Now, however, the outbreak of war has quite reversed the picture. 
Still, though circumstances have changed yery materially in the interval, we again 
advise farmers to sell. We do not say sell all, but lighten your stocks. Had 
farmers not freely met the export inquiry during the last three or four months, 
the present rise would not have been possible. And now that the market is up. 
it is as well to review the altered state of affairs. Spain has not got any sort 
of a fleet worth talking about, and she cannot afford to spread her vessels all 
over the known seas. Therefore American grain ships are more likely to be 
interfered with when they near Europe than anywhere else. Between ’ Frisco 
and Sydney there’s little risk. So the tendency will be for wheat to come this. 
way rather than to Liverpool or Antwerp. California may haye a poor crop 
this season. They have had a bad drought, and it looks like a diminished yield. 
Still even with a crop that is looked upon as a failure the exportable surplus is. 
still enormous. When once the ’Irisco markets recover from the war scare, 
and stocks begin to accumulate, they will forage round for the nearest and 
safest market. Sydney is not unlikely to receive their kind attention, and 
‘ 
