24 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Jury, 1898. 
distribution, had failed in England. The co-operative producer, unlike the 
co-operative distributor, had declined to pay. for men equal in intellect to those 
against whom he was competing. Some co-operative boot factories had failed 
in England for that very reason. Sympathy with the producer or with the 
man working in a factory was very good, but it would not give bread and 
butter and something more to either of them. ‘The question of marketing 
had been dealt with, and Mr. Bytheway’s remarks about the advantages of 
improvement in the getting up of produce for market were worthy of earnest 
consideration. Other gentlemen had pointed out that a few farmers were not 
absolutely honest; that bulk lots were not always equal to samples; but, for 
his own part, he could say that, in the agricultural districts with which he was 
well acquainted, one could depend on getting from most farmers what he 
asked for, or what the farmer said he would supply without personally 
inspecting, and it should not be passed unnoticed that all the farmers of the 
colony appeared to be recognising that honesty was the best policy. The 
advantages of a good reputation in this connection could not be over-estimated. 
With it a man is able to sell his produce at once and get the highest price for 
it, while another man has difficulty in even finding a market. Mr. Chataway 
then announced the business for the following day, and concluded by inviting 
the delegates to a picnic at Emu Park on Saturday. 
In reply to Mr. Sandrock, Mr. P. McLean stated that the Agricultural’ 
Department had introduced the Canaigre into the colony, and if any gentle- 
man wished to try it by applying to the Department roots for planting would 
be sent him at the proper season. There was seed in the hands of the Depart- 
‘ment at the present time, but it was difficult to get Canaigre seed to grow. 
The roots, however, struck readily, and the plant throve in Queensland. It 
was a valuable tanning plant, and there was said to be an excellent market for 
it in Great Britain. The question of export at present was a difficult one, and 
so far as could be learned the best way to dispose of it was in the form of 
liquid extract. . 
The Conference then adjourned for lunch. 
THIRD SESSION. 
Tuurspay AFTERNOON, 12TH May, 1898,.2°15 p.at. 
WHEATGROWING IN THE CENTRAL DISTRICT. 
Mr. W. H. Campsern (Barcaldine) said the Under Secretary for Agri- 
culture had done him the honour of asking him to read a paper on wheat- 
growing in the Central Division, and he should like to say that he did not 
know anything about wheat-raising on the coast or of the experiments that had 
been carried out by the Department of Agriculture in the Peak Downs district. 
It might appear presumptuous on his part to come before a number of experi- 
enced farmers who had grown old in the industry, while the people of Central 
Queensland were only little toddlers who would have many a tall, but who 
hoped to progress and become big rivals of the great Darling Downs district, 
Mr. Campbell then read the following paper :— 
The traveller by train, for the first time crossing our great Western plains, cannot 
fail to be impressed with the vast potentialities of this favoured country. Standing 
on the platform of the railway car, he sees before him an ocean of waving grass 
stretching out to the horizon with only here and there an isolated tree or small clump 
of timber to break the undulating line where earth and sky appear to meet. Where 
a landslip is visible in the banks of some small watercourse, or where a lengthsman 
with pick and shovel has been at work excayating earth to build up the permanent 
way, the quality and depth of the soil are revealed, while the luxuriant growth of 
' indigenous grasses on the surface proclaims the wonderful richness of our Western 
lands when stimulated by the rain necessary to quicken the dormant vegetation into 
renewed existence. Here, the traveller might well exclaim, is an ideal wheat country. 
In the mallee districts of Victoria, in the box flats of the selections in New South 
Wales, on the scrub lands in some parts of Queensland, the farmer has to confront 
