370 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAN. [1 Noy., 1898. 
The method of smoking, though very primitive, enables 2 man to prepare 
ag much as 10 to 15 kilos in one hour. 
The good effects produced by the smoke of the Urucury nuts are probably 
due in part to the fact that the smoke is a dry smoke; but it seems probable 
that there is also some chemical reagent at work, the nature of which has not 
yet been ascertained. 
A machine, designed on the principle of a centrifugal cream separator, to 
separate the watery portion of the milk, has been tried, but without good 
results at present. 
A. feasible method would be to dissolve the rubber in some liquid that 
will not mix with water. Carbon bisulphide, for instance, if it could be 
sufficiently cheaply produced, might revolutionise the present somewhat 
primitive system.— Practical Hngineer. 
CULTIVATED LAND IN INDIA. 
To give an idea of the enormous areas with which the Indian Director-General 
of Statistics has to deal, the Tropical Agriculturist (Colombo) gives, first, the 
total net area of territory by professional survey, deducting teudatory and 
tributary States and areas for which no return exists. ‘That area amounts to 
537,000,000 of acres! Under forests, 64,000,000; not ayailable for cultivation, 
154,000,000 ; cultiyatable waste, 95,000,000; fallow land, 47,000,000; area 
from which crops were taken, 177,500,000; area irrigated, 29,000,000. Next 
we have the different crops: Rice covers 66,250,000 acres; wheat, over 
16,000,000, and the totalunder food grains was no Jess than 160,000,000 acres, 
Under oil seeds, 10,500,000 ; cotton, 9,500,000; jute, 2,250,000; other fibres, 
691,000 acres; sugar, 2,750,000; indigo, 1,500,000; tobacco, 1,000,000 ; 
fodder crops, 2,000,000 ; opium, 601,000 acres; coffee, 147,158 acres; tea, 
423,732 acres. Taking all India into account, there are 290,000 acres under 
coffee cultivation, and 470,000 under tea. 
If we consider the area under coffee and connect it with the exports of 
coffee for 1897-8, we must arrive at the conclusion that much of the land under 
coffee is unproductive, only 225,008 ewt. having been shipped. ‘This shows 
that the yield only reached about 86 lb. per acre. It is surmised, however, 
that there is a far larger local consumption of coffee in India that has hitherto 
been credited. The Tropical Agriculturist is inclined to put it down at 150,000 
ewt., but even then we should not get an average yield over all the coffee 
area of 1} cwt. per acre. 
It is interesting to compare the enormous areas of land in India with those 
of Queensland in their relation to tropical agriculture. In India there are 
537,000,000 acres, of which 257,000,000 are under crop ; in Queensland, roughly, 
448,000,000 acres. Of this area, 59,875 acres are under wheat; 2,067 under 
barley, and 1,884 acres under oats; 48,220 acres are devoted to hay crops, and 
19,903 acres to green fodder; sugar, 98,641 acres; coffee, 311 acres; tobacco, 
755 acres; rice, 445 acres; maize and grain crops, other than wheat, barley, 
and oats, 104,982 acres ; potatoes, 8,197 acres; vines, 1,881 acres; fruit trees, 
bananas, &c., 7,024acres; other crops (pineapples, small fruits, &c.), 8,197 
acres. ‘There are, besides, plantations of cocoanuts on various islands on the 
coast, carrying 2,560 trees, many of which are bearing. 
The total area under cultivation in Queensland is 886,259 acres, with 
14,402 acres in fallow and 15,643 acres under permanent grasses—a grand 
total of 416,304 acres ; or about ,5,th of the area cultivated in India. 
; When.we turn to the respective populations, we find that India, with her 
population of 295,000,000, has *8 (or #) of an acre of cultivated land per head; 
whilst Queensland, with 460,000 souls, shows nearly 1 acre cultivated per head 
of the population. 
Such statistics are interesting, as showing what can be accomplished by the 
British race in an almost tropical climate like the greater part of Queensland, 
