518 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Nov., 1899. 
temperature of December, the mean of which is 73 degrees. It would be 
interesting to copy the table of temperatures and rainfalls given at the com- 
mencement of these papers and consult it from time to time, which can be done 
all the more readily if it is hung in a convenient place. As this is written, we 
are passing through a time very trying to vegetable life, owing to the lack of 
rain or of humidity in the atmosphere. There is a great temptation for those 
who can command large supplies of water at such a time to administer it without 
judgment, and in this way a good deal of harm is done in the endeavour to come 
to the rescue of our plants. When there is drought in the land, Nature attunes 
herself to the condition of affairs, and, so far as a garden is concerned, more 
harm is often done at such a time by overwatering than by not watering 
at all. Quite often you see plants stimulated into growth for a little 
time by copious supplies of artificially applied water, and then abandoned to 
their fate, which is the particularly miserable one of death from drought. As 
little water as will keep the plant going should be applied when the air is hot 
and sultry, and that should not be slopped all over the plant, but applied to 
the ground near the roots. It should be supplied sufficient at a time, and not 
often, and as soon as the land becomes slightly dry the ground should be gone 
over with the hoe or cultivator to produce a layer of pulverised soil between 
the moist earth below and the thirsty atmosphere above. Good cultivation in a 
great measure supplies the place of watering in weather like this. I do not 
mean the kind of cultivation which consists in allowing the roots to take 
possession of the surface soil, and then running a cultivator through it, tearing 
the tender rootlets and depriving the plants of so many mouths at one fell 
swoop, but of the steadily carried-out cultivation which never allows the surface 
soil to become consolidated, and which always keeps the surface of the ground 
in such a condition that you can turn it up with the toe of your boot quite 
easily. It would be a grand object lesson to a young man. commencing 
agriculture to take two plots, and cultivate one with regularity and allow the 
other to be cultivated only at long intervals or irregularly. lt may seem a 
' simple thing to harp upon, but I have abundant reason for believing that the 
immense importance of always maintaining a loose surface on land does not 
receive half the attention it deserves. 
. In watering, it is, of course, best to do so in the early morning, or, even still 
better, very late in the afternoon. With the aid of irrigatioa—constant judicious 
irrigation—immense crops can be raised from plots of land which our selectors 
and farmers, with lordly ideas begotten of huge areas, would laugh at. Ihaveseen 
ten times as much produce, both in quantity and value, taken off a piece of land 
which you could almost crack a stoeckwhip over than is taken off some farms in 
this colony where it is a morning’s journey from one end of the cultivation to 
_ the other. ‘True cultivation means the getting of the most money’s worth off 
the smallest area of land with the minimum of expense in proportion to the 
crop. Ina country liable to irregularity of water supply, more than in any 
other country, concentration of effort over as limited an area as possible should 
be seen to in the cultivation of such products as are likely to demand close 
attention at any period of their growth, because every rod which the cultivator 
has to walk unnecessarily is not only a loss so far as his personal exertion is 
concerned, but bears compound interest in the loss entailed in want of attention 
to his crop. Ihave in my mind’s eye, at this moment, farms where there is 
water ever present, which the most elementary engineering, backed with a little 
“ elbow grease,” would send in cooling, vivifying streams over a parched land; 
and yet the cultivation is scattered here and there, and 20 acres produce what 
could be produced by one if attention were only concentrated on it. ; 
Last month a good many tropical palms, &c., were planted out here, and 
these we will find it necessary to supply with water, but not so much as to force 
them into unnatural growth. It is well to have all such plants in a condition 
to take full advantage of the ¢lose warm weather which is coming, and so we 
shall just keep them alive until the ram and muggy atmosphere force them into 
nas and then we shall let Nature take the work in hand, and, beyond 
