488 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Nov., 1899. 
Of course, the great feature at Barcaldine is the bore water. Three or 
four bores are now in use, giving an ample supply to the townspeople and stock, 
and avery great blessing they must be to the place. Without such a water 
supply this particular country would, I should say, be a curious and rather 
undesirable We to live in at times; with the supply, the whole situation is 
completely altered. Not only is there an unlimited supply for ordinary house- 
hold purposes, but one can keep the flower and vegetable gardens up to the 
mark without the least trouble. Things grow, too, in rare style in the apparently 
poor sand. As to actual results in fruitgrowing, | cannot say much as yet, 
simply because things are young; but this I can say: That right in the town I 
saw remarkably heavy crops of the best quality of lemons of the Lisbon type 
that I ever saw in my life. Some lines—peaches, for instance—don’t appear to 
hold out long about the town, though outside, on somewhat different land, they 
may do better. Most of the citrus family promise well, also figs and persimmons. 
One gets a better idea of possibilities in fruit work by a visit to the Alice River 
Settlement. Here more pronounced work has been done, and things have 
reached a stage in their development where judgment may pretty safely be 
formed. ‘This place consists of the real desert country, in some respects very 
different from the sand about the town. A fine bore is at work here giving an 
ample supply of water, and proying what a revolution is going to be worked in 
that part of the colony. I found that grapes had been grown extensively, and 
very profitably. Citrus fruits had done well, lemons especially ; other lines of 
fruit also gave promise of good return, and general farm crops had proved well 
worth growing—all this, of course, with the aid of irrigation. What I saw at 
Emerald, at Bogantungan, and lastky at Barcaldine and the Alice, has pretty well 
convinced me that this part of the country has one great opportunity before it— 
that is in the working up of a good lemon trade. ’ 
If these parts of the district can go on producing on a large scale (and for 
- the life of me I cannot see what is to stop them) such lemons as I actually 
saw and sampled, it will be the fault of the people themselves if they do not 
make a big ane of it. 
Here we are importing pretty well all the year round both from the south 
and from the Mediterranean an enormous quantity of lemons, and paying very 
often top prices for them too, up to 24s. per case of 300 for Messinas ; our people 
want them, and must have the supply; our coast country is incapable of 
growing a good lemon in large quantities, as they grow too rank. Out in the 
country I have been writing of, there are thousands of acres, which ean produce 
quality equal to anything else in the world, waiting to be utilised; and why 
our own people should not rise to the occasion, I do not know. Another thing : 
The Western air is dry, and the climate is a most convenient one for “ curing K 
lemons in the way that is needed for storage or long shipment. This process 
was touched upon by me in my work, and, should production increase to decent 
dimensions, actual demonstration will be given by officers of this Department 
amongst the growers. ‘The benefit of such a method is that not only can the 
fruit be sent long distances, but it can also be stored, if necessary, to wait for 
such a time when the article is scarce and the price high. We ought to stop 
the importation, and we may possibly find something to do even beyond that. 
Olives will very likely come in for considerable attention out there some 
day. There is any amount of room, and they will grow all right. 
Wheat has already received some attention in the Barcaldine country, both 
on the plains and on the desert; and there is no question about it, if it proves 
a success, there is unlimited scope for the further exercise of both energy and 
capital. Take the plains for example, where one might pretty well start out 
after breakfast with one plough furrow, and come home in the afternoon with 
another, and never touch a bit of inferior soil the whole time. On the other 
hand, the desert country is available in hundreds of thousands of acres, but, of 
course, it has to be cleared of what scrub is on it—not a wonderfully difficult 
matter if one goes the right way about it. I may be pardoned if I mention 
here the names of the gentlemen.who are doing laudable experimental work in 
the matter of wheatgrowing in this Western country. 
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