1 Ave., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 125 
berry should not have to turn over in the soil, I planted the flat side down. I 
then considered the seed was planted. It happened to bea dry year, and I 
had to repeatedly water, making a point of never letting it dry and never 
having it wet, just keeping in a moist state. It seemed to me an unconscion- 
ably long time before the berries came up, and I think I was watering those 
beds for six weeks before any sign of the young trees appeared. Hven- 
tually they all seemed to come up at once, and start away vigorously. 
I left them there until the right time for planting—the spring 
of the year, about July. JI then raised the plants, and by that 
time they had attained a height of from 6 to 7 or 8 inches. Holes had been 
prepared—it was new scrub land—about 15 inches square and 18 inches deep. 
These holes had been prepared about a month before I was ready to plant and 
the soil left out of the hole. In returning the soil to the hole I did what a 
good fruitgrower would do—put the subsoil in first, and the surface soil on 
top. When placing the trees in the holes I took care that the taproot, in cases 
where it had been injured in any way, was very carefully cut with a sharp 
knife. Those that had not been cut seemed to do best. ‘Vhen we filled in the 
soil very carefully, but we did not pay very much attention to the laterals. 
In some cases where the earth had fallen away altogether we took a little care 
to straighten out the laterals. We then filled in to the collar of the plant 
with loose soil, and then, instead of stamping and pressing in, as I would have 
done had I known better, I had a man who poured water in round the tree so 
as to grout it right in. Then I filled in a little more of the soil and gave it a 
little more water. I then covered it with a little dry soil and left the plant. 
T then had some shingles split, and put three or four broad ones on the after- 
noon sun side of the plant—on the west side and a little round to the north. 
I found it was necessary to keep these shingles there for twelve months. The 
plants throve all the better for it, as the afternoon sun, you know, on most 
plants is very trying, particularly on coffee. Some plants that I had neglected 
to attend to in this way suffered a good deal. At the end of twelve months 
they were 18 inches high. In another twelve months they were up to 2 feet 
G inches and 4 feet high. I had then to get stakes. I catch the northerly winds, 
as well as some others, but the scrub is felled in such a way that the plants 
are not very much exposed. J tried them first with strands of manila, but 
found that these afterwards were very unsuitable, as they used to rot in wet 
weather and in the dry weather they would stretch. The result was they gave 
the plants too much play. Our worst time is the season of south-easterly gales. 
T have tried an experiment which has sueceeded with me very well. I obtained 
several small coils of No. 18 galvanised wire; there is a swamp not very far 
from me, and I stripped some thick tea-tree bark. I cut this bark into nice 
convenient pieces, and drew them round the trank; then with two separate 
wires I aitached the trees to the stakes. I twisted the wire on the stake in 
such a way that it would not slip down. ‘This answered very well indeed. “At 
two years there were a few flowers and a few berries, but not many. I think 
it would have been better had I taken them off. However, I left them. At 
three years I got what I should consider a fairly good crop, and I took off 
what averaged to me all over my 100 trees 1 1b. of berry* to the tree, for 
which [ obtained 1s. 3d. per lb. cleaned and ready for market. In the fourth 
year off the same 100 trees I got 275 1b. of merchantable berry, which, I 
think, from all I have read, was an exceedingly good return. J may here say 
I was now extending the plantation, as £ was satisfied it was going to bea 
paying crop. The 275 lb. I also disposed of at 1s. 8d. per lb. Now I was met 
with a difficulty. 1 had not very much money, and [ did not want to spend 
money in expensive machinery until I had thoroughly tested the crop. A 
difficulty arose about a pulper, so I just set to work and made one. I made a 
pulper on the lines known in Ceylon as a rattle trap. By it a man and a boy 
could put through per day 30 ewt. of cherry, and it has answered up to this 
* The word “‘ berry,” according to Mr. J. Dansey, manager of the Mackay Coffee Estate 
Company, means ‘‘ripe fruit.” Bean is the term for marketable coffee. One pound of berry 
would be a poor return from a three-year-old tree.—Hd, Q.4.J, 
