1 Ave., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 139 
we have been confining our attention solely to cow peas. Yesterday I stated 
that we were growing chiefly the Mauritius bean, which is a heavier cropper than 
the cow pea, and, in fact, I have heard it said that you can grow 14 tons to the 
acre and plough that in. It is undoubtedly a fact that if a heavy crop of green 
manure is allowed to rot in the soil, it has the effect of pulverising and making 
it more easily workable. 
Mr. J. C. Brunntcn (Agricultural Chemist): I have tried, in connection 
with green-manuring experiments in the Mackay district, rape, clovers, sun- 
flower, mustard, &c. Undoubtedly for certain’ crops other green manures 
may be used; but where nitrogen is the object aimed at, leguminous 
crops are necessary. Green manuring represents a rotation of crops. 
The great disadvantage of the cane is that there is always the same 
crop on the land, and it is for this reason that green manuring’ is peculiarly 
beneficial in connection with cane farming. It was recommended here some 
time ago to use sorghum or maize as a green manure, and there is not the 
slightest doubt but that you get the most prolific crops therefrom. From a 
scientific point of view, however, it cannot be recommended, because maize and 
cane are so much akin, and it is therefore more advisable to use a crop like the 
cow pea. You will always find that the largest amount of nitrogen is present 
just when the pods begin to form, and you can say, when the green manure 
is in proper flower, that that is the time to plough it in. However, if you take 
off the crop completely, the ground will still be benefited by it, owing to the 
rotation of crops, and, furthermore, the mechanicalimprovement to the soil is 
yery considerable. The cow pea is a yery deep rooter, and there is not the 
slightest, doubt that our soils require aeration. Deep cultivation is necessary, 
and the cow pea really does bring about deep cultivation. A gentleman asks if 
good manurial results would be secured if a crop of cow peas were taken off a 
piece of land for fodder purposes, and the succeeding crop that springs up 
ploughed in; and I must reply in the affirmative. 
Mr. J. E. Noakes: Is the Mauritius bean good for fodder ? 
_ Mr. B. O. Brookes (Johnstone River): I can answer that to some extent. 
We have never used it for fodder purposes, as we have had no oceasion so to do, 
but horses are very fond of it when it is green. 
In reply to another question, Mr. Caraway said that coffee is growing 
about Brisbane and bearing well, but commercially the industry was, of course, 
only in its infancy in Queensland. 
Dr. Tuomatts (Cairns), in reply to a question, said: Rice can be threshed 
in the same way as wheat or any other grain. In Cairns we have a kind of 
portable box, across the top of which a sort of ladder is placed, against which 
the rice heads are knocked, and the paddy falls to the bottom of the box. You 
may think this a slow process, but if you keep at it all day long you can get a 
lot threshed. The advantage of it is that you can get the box shifted from place 
to place, and you are not compelled to remove the straw. Of course it can be 
threshed, as is done in Italy, by the machine. Another method that has been 
tried at Cairns is by spreading it out and beating it with the flail, but in my 
experience with the box method nothing is lost, the grain is kept clean, and the 
straw has not to be carried. 
- Mr. F. W. Peek, of Loganholme, then read the following paper on— 
OUR FARMING AND IN DUSTRIAL ASSOCIATIONS, SOCIALLY AND 
ECONOMICALLY CONSIDERED. | 
Since the first issue of the Queensland Agricultural Journal by the Department 
of Agriculture, which appeared in July, 1897 (and simultaneously with the inauguration 
of these conferences), several articles have a ypeared in its pages at various times 
pointing out and otherwise showing the great benefits to be disseral by our farming 
community and producers in forming unions or associations—combining together to 
better their nal Pest and to assist in developing the resources of the district 
represented by such organisation in a more perfect and systematic manner ; and it is 
also pleasing to note the steady increase of such institutions in this colony, judging by 
the nae published in the early numbers of the Agricultwral Journal and in the present 
month's issue, : 
