92 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1898. 
wheat. The next season I planted one bag of seed, and gathered from it 22 
bags of grain. I can say from personal knowledge that it will withstand more 
hardships than any other variety known to me. ‘The first season was wet, but the 
Budd's Warly resisted the moisture without sprouting, whereas nearly everyone of the 
other sorts were growing in the stooks. The next season Budd’s Early resisted the 
rust, whereas most of the other sorts were more or less sriously affected by the 
scourge. Among the vegetable pests with which wheatgrowers on the Downs 
have to contend are a plant called by farmers yellow-blossomed clover and a 
weed locally known as China burr. These “scent” or perfume the grain, and grain 
so affected gives a twang to the flour, rendering it unfit for market. Consequently 
millers will not touch “scented” grain, and it is necessary to adopt means to rid the 
wheatfields of these weeds. The Queensland wheat crop in 1896 totalled 605,000 
bushels, and in 1897 well on to 850,000 bushels were grown. This year the total is 
likely, for the first time, to be carried over the million-bushel line. ‘The average yield 
in Queensland is much higher than in any of the other colonies. The future of the 
industry is encouraging. In this connection a word of recognition is due to the 
Department of Agriculture for efforts made in the past—which it is hoped will be 
continued in the future—to find varieties possessing rust-resisting qualities and 
otherwise adapted to our soils and climate. There is one variety of wheat that I 
hope will be a leading line in all wheatgrowing on the Downs. That is Budd’s Early. 
I Beieve it will be one of the best wheats we have got. I will now give you an 
estimate of the cost of wheatgrowing :—- 
Estimate of Growing an Acre of Wheat. 
Dr. £s. d. 
Rent per acre tr: 010 0 
First ploughing ... 040 
Second ploughing... 0 3 0 
First harrowing ... 009 
Drilling a 010 
Second harrowing... 00 9 
Rolling os 2h: OF OM9 
Reaping and binding 08 0 
Stooking ... Ey 010 
Stacking . 030 
Threshing ... on 05 6 
Carting to market... 018 
Bags... ot 02 6 
Seed ... oe 04 0 
Balance... 24 1 
£410 0 
Cr. 
Value of wheat—20 bushels, at 4s. per bushel 40 0 
Value of straw... of ar ha! ores 0.5 0 
Value of chickwheat 05 0 
£410 0 
==(A pplause.) 
COW PEA, THE COMING CROP FOR CENTRAL QUEENSLAND. 
[By E. Apams, Rockhampton.] 
As I do not wish to take up too much of the time of this Conference with my 
paper, and as there has been a large number of essays on this subject from different 
ens, I intend to place my ideas on the matter before you as briefly as possible. 
ealing with the name first, [ consider it is its most objectionable feature. I should 
be very pleased to see a more sensible name adopted. Though it is said there is 
nothing in a name, I am sure that if a rose were called spinach or artichoke, none of 
our daughters would be called afterit. As to the manurial value of cow pea, Mr. 
Briinnich at the last Conference estimated its value at £5 per acre. He may be right 
speaking as a chemist; but I should like to know the crop to grow by which I could 
make the price of the labour I put on plus the £5 manurial value. But I can say 
from experience that the crops planted after cow pea thrive better than when the 
land has been left fallow. I do not wish to say much aboutits value as a manure, as 
its value for that purpose is everywhere acknowledged. It is its value as a fodder 
plant for the Central Division of Queensland that I particularly wish to place before 
you. We have to grow the pea before we can make fodder of it; and as I have had 
several years’ experience in growing it, I will give you my methods. In the first place 
