1 Ava,1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 109 
With reference to condensed milk, some difficulty was at first experienced 
in this business ; but the enterprising owners of a factory which has long been 
struggling, having sent their manager to America and expended a large sum in 
having him taught the trade, are now assured of success, and it will not be long 
before the 1,500,000 lb. of condensed milk, of the value’ of £30,090, now 
imported, is manufactured locally. 
F TOBACCO, 
The tobacco industry of the colony may be said to be progressing, each 
year seeing an increased consumption of the home-grown leaf. The bulk of 
this tobacco is grown in the Texas district and is bringing satisfactory prices— 
from 6d. to 8d. per lb. This district grows a good’ quality of heavy tobacco, and 
will eventually displace the American of this type, when the growers have fully 
learned the approved methods of growing and curing; and in this they are 
making progress. North Queensland gives promise of growing a very superior 
quality of cigar tobacco, and it will probably become an important industry, as 
some of the leading farmers are proposing to take up tobacco-growing. Here- 
tofore this industry has suffered for the want of a market, but with the 
assurance that this trouble can be overcome, they are disposed to again take it 
up. Samples of tobacco grown in the Cairns district haye been valued in 
London at 2s. 6d. per lb. 
PASTORAL INDUSTRY, 
There is a considerably brighter outlook for the pastoral industry now than 
appeared twelve months ago. It is true our flocks and herds do not show an 
increase, but the decrease 1s so slight as to cause no alarm, and indeed is largely 
accounted for by the increasing output from our works. 
Wool.—The recent change of fashion in favour of merino, as against cross- 
bred wool, has to meet a very precarious supply. Our largest competitor, 
Argentina, has gone in for crossbreeding, and the supply of merino from there 
is very small. ‘The Cape clip is so comparatively small that it exercises very 
little influence on the market. The losses in sheep in New South Wales from 
drought have been enormous. From 61,000,000 a few years ago, the sheep 
dwindled down to 40,000,000 at the end of last year, while during the present 
year the loss from drought is estimated to further reduce the number to between 
25,000,000 and 30,000,000. Our losses up to date have not exceeded 1} per 
cent., so that we may confidently expect a further rise in the price of our staple 
product. re 
Meat Trade.—The export meat trade has now settled down to cif. orders 
from England, instead of companies freezing on owners’ account, and is not now 
of a speculative and hazardous nature as formerly. This mode of conducting 
the business has two very great advantages—first, in owners selling for cash here, 
and second, in not running the risk of an overstocked market in England. The 
opening up of regular foreign markets will steady prices, and the almost com- 
plete depletion of the New South Wales fattening paddocks must create a very 
keen demand for our store cattle on the breaking up of the drought. 
At last year’s Conference I pointed out that, on the whole, it would be far 
more profitable to Queensland if our cattle-owners were able to dispose of their 
produce locally instead of sending them over to the other colonies by methods 
which are both expensive and wasteful. The erection of new works and the 
increased capacity of those already existing have now put us in the position of 
being able to deal with the greater part of the annual cast from our herds. A. 
few stations are so situated that Adelaide will always be their natural market. 
Chilled meat trade is being successfully established with New South Wales, and, 
in spite of the heavy tariff, some shipments to Melbourne have not been entirely 
unremunerative. ‘The stock tax and the tariff on meat, which now press so 
hardly on the Victorian consumer, are almost doomed, and, if I may judge from 
the debates during the last session of Parliament in Melbourne, they cannot be 
maintained much longer. 
