1 Jury, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 25 
the task of first clearing his land before he can break up the soil. On the Western 
plains he can on one day select his 1,280 acres, and the next day the nose of the 
plough may be in the ground preparing it for its future destiny. Here, also, the intend- 
ing selector has the railway at his gate, ready to transport his material from port, 
or carry his products to the same place, at a moment’s notice. Yet, possessing 
these advantages, the Western plains have not attracted the wheatgrower from 
other colonies and other countries. ‘This may be due to an impression which 
prevails in the south that the climate of Central Queensland is unhealthy and oppres- 
sively enervating; to a disinclination to exchange familiar scenes and persons for 
strange surroundings; to natural unwillingness to invest capital in an undertaking 
which has not progressed beyond the experimental stage; and to dread of an 
insufficient and uncertain rainfall so fatal to the successful production of cereal crops. 
Those who have lived in Central Queensland for any number of years can smile at 
the first objection. With some pride we may point to the sturdy children and well- 
grown young men and women born and reared in the district, and to the freedom 
from disease enjoyed by the whole population as compared with localities that boast 
of a better climate and more favourable surroundings. Perhaps during the hottest 
months in the year from the beginning of December to the end of February, the heat 
of the sun may prove too severe for the farmer accustomed to the milder climates of 
Victoria or South Australia. But here the wheatgrower has a distinct advantage, 
as the crop, ripening so early in this dry climate, can be harvested in October, and 
the farmer may rest until February or March, for unless the early rains fall before 
that time the new ground is not ready for the plough. In mixed farming, of course, 
there is work all the year round; but for wheatgrowing only, the farmer may follow 
the example of the Western shearer, who puts down his tools in November and resumes 
them again in March, in the meantime spending his enforced vacation where he 
pleases. The disinclination to remove from old friends and familiar scenes is simply 
one of sentiment and all the more potent when the emigrant is asked to embark upon 
an uncertain undertaking in a strange land. But it is the uncertain rainfall exhibited 
so uncompromisingly in the meteorological records of the West which is the most 
pronounced factor in deterring the agriculturist from settling on the land. For the 
last twenty years the register of rainfall has been most admirably kept by the. 
successive telegraph masters at Barcaldine and Blackall. The results show that for 
three out of every five years the fall of rain has been too scanty or too unseasonable 
to ensure the ripening of a wheat crop. It has been said that in Kansas if, out of five 
crops sown, three are harvested, the grower is satisfied; but in Queensland he may 
strike the three bad seasons at the start, a contingency sufficient to deter any but the 
most sanguine from attempting the experiment. Then there is the extraordinary 
transformation in the appearance of the country after a copious fall of rain, which, ~ 
curiously enough, acts asa deterrent to agricultural operations, The celerity with 
which the barren plains are clothed with grass and the rapid putting on of condition. 
by the stock depastured there appeal to the selector in favour of grazing rather than 
tillage. ‘Lhe money he would require to expend in bringing 500 acres under cultivation 
is sufficient to improve and stock with sheep 10,000 acres of the same country. Inthe 
former prospect is opened up a vista of hard work and possible failure; in the other, 
no work, little risk, and the certainty of a large profit. It is no wonder then that the 
Western settler should prefer the simpler and safer process of non-interference with 
Nature’s products to the more laborious undertaking and uncertainty of profit which 
cultivation of the soil must necessitate. So far the experiments made in the vicinity 
of Barcaldine have only proved that unless rain falls in sufficient quantities at the 
right time wheatgrowing is likely to bea failure. The year 1894 witnessed copious 
rainfalls every month from February to June, with lighter rains again in July and 
September. A small patch of wheat sown on the Downs in April ripened in 
September. Tiwo acres of brown soil were prepared for seed in 1895, but no rain fell 
until July. The seed germinated, but the plants died away during the long spell of 
dry weather following. Ih 1896 the same 2 acres were ploughed again, and the seed 
sown in June, A moiety of this also germinated, and, helped by some rain in July, 
came into ear during the early part of September, but did not mature, being too far — 
away from any homestead to receive protection against the ravages of marsupials and 
grain-eating birds. In 1897 the season _was still more unfavourable for wheat- 
growing, as from January to July no rain fell in sufficient quantities to moisten 
the subsoil. Possibly by a method of tillage recently a opted in the arid 
districts of the western states of America, where the scanty rainfall has 
been conserved in the soil by deep subsoiling and subsequent disturbance of 
the surface during the growth of the crop, it will be discovered that wheat can be 
successfully produced in the West without resorting to the application of artificial 
