120 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ava., 1898. 
a canefield they would last a good time, and when they were worn out the 
adjacent scrub was in all probability cleared, so that that particular field was 
in no further danger of trouble from wallabies. There were few more serious 
pests to cane-farmers than grubs, as anyone could easily understand who had read 
of the destruction they had been causing in the North. Some patches of land 
were absolutely destroyed, and through grubsthe capabilities of land werereduced 
25 per cent. This was the bottom of the non-fertility of much of the land that 
was now under cane around Bundaberg. As instancing the number of these 
grubs, he mentioned that frequently a kerosene-tin full of them could be picked 
up by a man walking along one furrow forty chains long. In many parts of 
the sugar districts enormous damage was being done by this pest, but nothing 
was being done by many to check it. The grub pest, he thought, was one of 
those few matters in which individual effort should be backed by Government 
subsidy. Endowment on money privately subscribed for the destruction of the 
beetles was of the greatest assistance in combating the pest. 
Mr. W. R. Twrxr (Wallumbilla) said that divisional boards in Queens- 
land, as a rule, did not appear to realise the seriousness of the flying-fox pest, 
and this at least was the position of affairs in his own division. There was 
certainly a good deal of migration in the flying-fox world, and he considered 
the best way to deal with the pest was to kill as many as possible of them. 
With regard to the introduction of bombs amongst them, he had noticed that 
in France dynamite had been used in the destruction of phyiloxera. Wallabies, 
in his (Mr. Twine’s) district, were a great nuisance, and when men had to sit 
up for nights together to protect their crops from these marsupials, they 
became worse than nuisances. A lot of remedies had been tried, but the only 
satisfactory ones were the paling or netting in of the holdings. Paling took a 
considerable amount of time, and netting was rather expensive. Netting was the 
best preventive of the attacks of wallabies, however, and he would be glad to see 
some scheme devised whereby farmers could get it cheap. Returning to the 
subject of flying-foxes, he mentioned he had seen lamps hung over the trees at 
night. Another pest was the caterpillar, and last season, in January, there 
were hundreds and thousands of acres which were cleared off by it. How this 
pest was to be got over he did not know, and this year it was attacking setaria 
and cori. Caterpillars were pretty serious in the Maranoa district this year. 
The fruit fly, however, had not troubled growers there much go far. 
Mr. E. Denman (Mackay), with regard to grubs, stated that in his 
district, the pest having become very severe, the farmers agreed to tax them- 
selves to the extent of 1s. per acre of cane grown. ‘The millowners subsidised 
this by a similar sum, and beetles were then bought at the rate of 6d. per lb. 
In 11b. there were about 250 beetles, and last year in the Mackay district there 
were something like 16 tons of beetles destroyed. He regretted to say, however, 
that there were still plenty left, and from the North there were very depressing 
accounts of the position of canegrowers through this pest. As for the flying- 
fox, he hardly looked upon him as an enemy now. He (Mr. Denman) had 
spent a lot of money in fruitgrowing, but it had not paid, and he had given it 
best. At present the foxes left more fruit than he couldsell. He had been 
troubled with rats also, especially with maizegrowing, and he had lost as much 
as 60 acres of this crop in one year through them. Grain poisoned with 
strychnine had proved an effectual remedy, and he had not been troubled with 
the pest since. Maize, however, had another enemy, and that was the aphis. 
In the North the speaker had grown maize in every month in the year, but 
nearly always found that that planted after the middle of March was spoilt by 
the aphis. 
Mr. M. Mrrtor (Gympie) said he thought there was a misunderstanding 
about the fund available for the destruction of flying-foxes. He believed that 
it was given on condition that the local authority gave pound for pound, but 
the feeling was that the local authorities had not the money to spend, nor did 
they think it was their business to do the work of destruction. In fact, he 
did not think it would be much use depending upon them to do it. A remedy 
