1 Dec., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 587 
Some more across these again. On this a small armful of blady grass, cane 
trash, or leafy bushes will give sufficient shade. ‘The shade is only to keep off 
the direct heat of the sun and not rain, so it. need not be thick. Watering must 
be carried out regularly. If the weather is dry and hot, water twice a day; and. 
if cool and cloudy, a hight watering once a day will be sufficient; if rainy, not 
at all. 
In watering, avoid doing so while the sun is on the bed, or the seedlings 
will sicken and die. If possible, do the waterin g before sunrise and after 
- Sunset. Plants will need watering all the time they are in this bed, and algo 
possibly while in the nursery, but will need less onee they are above ground. 
Avoid over-watering, or seedlings will rot just above the soil, and die rapidly. 
Seedlings will appear above ground in from’ three to four weeks—longer if in a 
colder climate—and will open their seed leaves in a week or ten days after that. 
During this time the nursery proper must be prepared, and, as soon as they have 
opened their first or seed leaves fully, they must be carefully pulled up with 
the finger and thumb, and pricked out into the nursery beds. My next article 
will deal with their treatment in the nursery, and of the preparation of the 
latter, as well as of “wild seedlings,” seedlings from under old trees, “ stump ” 
plants, &e. 
The germinating bed may be made in a portion of the area set aside for the 
nursery or close to the house, the area necessary being so small that. almost any 
well-protected corner may be utilised. Seed is sometimes sown in rows or 
drills, but this is unnecessary, takes more time, and has not been found 
generally to give as good results. The pricking out of seed at 3, 4, or 5 inches 
apart straight mto the nursery is to be deprecated. Many think it a saving of 
trouble and work, but it is really the reverse. In pricking out like this it is 
difficult to avoid planting too deep; the full extent of the nursery has to be 
prepared, and the whole area weeded and watered for five to eight weeks longer 
than necessary. In the small germinating bed the watering is a very small 
item, and if properly prepared this bed needs little or no weeding before the 
plants are ready to leave it. In pricking out seed, moreover, each failure means 
the watering, shading, and cultivating of so much space for nothing, while the 
opportunity of selecting and discarding bent or twisted seedlings is put off 
until a considerable amount of time and money has already been spent on them. 
The plants gain rather than lose by the transplantation from the germinating 
bed. 
THE BRAZILIAN COFFEE CROP. 
Havive commenced a month earlier than usual, the Brazilian coffee crop may 
be expected to end sooner. Present estimates put the total for Santos and Rio 
at about 10,000,000 bags, barring, of course (says the Brazilian Review), the 
possibilities of a fall of prices preventing the coffee from being marketed. 
4 
QUEENSLAND RICE, 
Tne Annual Report “of the Department of Agriculture says:—Rice, being a 
crop more especially adapted to the North, did not come under the ban that was 
placed upon the grain crops that are grown in the South, and was favoured with a 
good season. This is becoming a staple grain crop in that part of Queensland, 
the area for 1898 showing an increase of 418 acres over 1897, that for the 
former year being 863 acres, with a yield of 38,133 bushels, or an average of 
44:19 bushels to the acre, as against 29:19 for 1897. Hitherto rice has been in 
the experimental stage, has been grown in many parts of the colony, and has 
fluctuated in area as success or non-success has heen met with. It 1s, however, 
now settling down to be the property of the Northern district, and it is to that 
part that the future supply may be looked for, for it behoyes the farmers to be 
