372 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Noy., 1898, 
that given last year, which was only £15,000. These factories and refineries 
employed 8,715 hands, as against 3,796 in the previous year. Jn addition to 
the foregoing we know that 8,000 coloured men were employed in field work, 
and the increased acreage under cane points to an augmentation of the number 
of over 2,000 farmers engaged in cane-growing. Every year the number 
dependent upon the sugar industry increases, until it becoines safer to await 
the census than attempt to hazard guesses. In the following table appears a 
summary of the more important figures, compiled from official sources :— 
| SUGAR-MILIS, DISTILLERTES 
' Me 
f ; A f | Quantity of oe Quantity of Z8 st Quantity of 
So | Acres o antity ag antity o S ie ity 
a= pate under’ sigar-cane Sugar yee cae Mfalaeecn a8 & 2 Spirits 
on aa Crushed. | factured. | = |Manufaciured. ae AS | Distilled, 
é $e Eis a 
a <{ 
Acres, Tons. Ton. Gallons. Proof Gal. 
1889—89 | 106 47,340 30,821 34,0224 | 1:07 722,162 be 10 73,068 ‘1 
1889—90 | 125 49,741 31,2393 44,4113 1°36 942,837 “e 11 129,228 
1890—91 | 110 | 50,922 | 39,435 | 69,9831 | 1-69/ 1,640,002 | * 9 | 177,347-7 
1891—92 | 68a | 50,948 36,821 51,219 1°39 a # 9 192,051 
1892—93 | 72a | 55,8150 40,572 61,368 1°51 1,343,281 | 2,543 9 181,302°2 
1893—94 | 61a | 59,667¢ 43,670 76,146 1°74 269,169 | 3,169 ‘| 187,302°2 
1894—95 | 62a 71,818 49,839 91,712 1°84 956,276 | 3,846 6 102,679 
1895—96 | 64a | 77,247 55,771 86,255 1°55 1,780,591 | 3,557 5 111,034 
1896—97 | 8la | 83,093 66,640 100,774 151 2,195,470 | 3,796 5 105,826 
897—98 | S8la | 98,641 65,4382 97,916 1°50 2,364,020 | 3,715 5 101,763 
*Not ascertained, a Mills for crushing cane only, excluded. 4 Including 295 acres for green food. ¢ Including 
416 acres for green food, 
—Mackay Sugar Journal. 
THE BETZONICK TESTER. 
A corrEsponvENt, writing to the Sugar Journal on the Betzonick Tester, 
says :— 
In the last issue of your journal I see a letter signed “J. Y. B.,” dealing 
with the use of the cane-tester, and, as it seems to indicate that some misunder- 
standing prevails as to the real object of such instrument, I would ask you to 
kindly oblige me by publishing the following remarks in your August issue. 
‘The apparatus is intended to be a guide for ascertaining the approximate 
quality of sugar-cane, and is also supposed to help in improving the education 
of the growers in this particular branch, as the figures obtained thereby 
(through the proper method of ape: as directed) and in connection with 
the experienced eye indicate, with quite sufficient correctness, all that iy 
required to enable the grower to obtain—for all practical purposes—as reliable 
an opinion as possible. 
The readings of the saccharometer, which may be worked out by anybody 
without any particular knowledge, will form an index to a more thorough 
investigation of quality in general—vyarious varieties—proper cutting time, 
selection of plants, cane grown on various soils, &c., &c.; and thus it will help 
to train the grower and perhaps afterwards open up the road to a more 
advanced chemical knowledge. 
I quite agree with “J. Y. B.” that cane often varies in the same field, but 
does not this also influence the mill-roller sample? Is it not quite possible 
that several early obtained samples in the field may form just as reliable an 
idea of quality, at least for all practical purposes. 
The C.S.R. Company would scarcely use and recommend the instrument 
to the growers had they not first convinced themselves as to its reliablo work ; 
and as the price may be rather much for one farmer to invest for such purposes, 
two or three may easily join together and share the cost, 
