1 Ava., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 129 
they have the trees down to 2 feet, and put from 1,000 to 1,600 trees into an 
acre. That, of course, would make a difference in the yield per tree. Coffee 
ripened in the cool part of the year. ‘The beans could be planted in the places 
where the trees were to be, but although they would not rot in the ground it 
might be several months before they showed above. Jf rain did not come at 
the right time, the seed remained dormant in the soil. If the seeds, on the 
other hand, were planted in a nursery, the grower was sure of them. He 
always sowed three times more seed than he required plants. It should be remem- 
bered that there was always a best, and with a nursery, the planter was able 
to secure that best. As for the value of coffee: Coffee in bond was worth 
11d. per lb. in Queensland, and to this he believed another 4d. had to be 
added for duty. Coffee lost from 12 to 18 per cent. of its weight in roasting. 
Notwithstanding this and the cost of the roasting, it was ground, labelled, and 
marketed, and sold at 1s. per lb.! These were facts, and anyone could make 
his own deductions. With regard to varieties, he was growing two sub- 
varieties of the Arabian. He had tried the Liberian, having obtained seed 
from Messrs. Cutler Bros., of Clump Point, Townsville; at the time the seed 
did not look much, but he managed to secure 120 young plants fromit. He 
kept them for some time under cover, but on the very first breath of cold air 
they perished. He therefore concluded the Liberian was too tropical for 
Queensland, but in any event it had other qualities which did not commend 
themselves to his eyes, and amongst these was uneven ripening. At present 
he was growing the ordinary Ceylon variety, and also a kind grown from 
seed obtained from Coorg, in India. He had great faith in this Coorg 
variety, as it was very robust, stood drought and rain well, and was an 
excellent cropper. It had a thick-fleshed leaf. Up to the present he had not 
observed any pest or disease injuring his coffee. There was nothing the 
matter with the leaf, only that he had headed-in the trees very severely. In 
doing this, for want of experience, he had probably headed-in at a wrong stage 
of growth; as a consequence the trees bore very heavily right up to their tops. 
Then followed ten weeks of dry weather. Next time the cherry carried well, 
but all from about 2 feet from the ground to the top of the tree was only light 
drift stuff. All the trees he did not top carried well, and gaye full berries. So 
he concluded the heading should only go down into the brown bark and not 
into the green. His place was just within sight of the sea, and he was about 
a mile and a-quarter from the beach. The aspect was easterly and round to 
north-east, some of the plantation having a northerly aspect. In the 
particular spot he was, however, he did not like the northerly aspect, as a 
strong reflection from the ocean was thrown on to the trees. He would 
always avoid the west. The texture of his soil was all the same as far as he 
had gone down—about from 8 to 10 feet. 
Mr. Caraway thanked Mr. Bromiley for the valuable information he 
had supplied. Already within his own knowledge, on a very small area of 
country, something over 100,000 coffee-trees had been planted. Even further 
North, at Cairns, a good deal of land had been put under coffee, and a great 
deal of interest was generally being taken in the industry. Mr. Bromiley’s 
paper would bring the matter prominently before the Southern end of the 
colony, and would probably do a lot of good. 
Mr. H. EH. Wymay, of Ipswich, then read the following paper on— 
NOXIOUS WEEDS AND THE NECESSITY FOR THEIR ERADICATION. 
Under the heading of “Noxious Weeds’ may reasonably be classed Lantana, 
Noogoora burr, Bathurst burr, Prickly-pear, Sida retusa, Nut-grass, and others. Jam 
sure I need offer no apology for introducing soimportant a subject to this Conference, 
for, as practical and observant men, you must be well aware of the extensive area of 
land that has become practically useless through the spread of these noxious weeds, 
every year making it more and more difficult to cope with. Every day it is becoming 
more apparent that, if the pest is to be effectively dealt with, some different method 
must be adopted in the future thun in the past. Whether such action should be by 
joint action of the local authorities or by the Government is a question for future 
