78 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Frr., 1900. 
WHEAT-GROWING AT LONGERENONG. 
Tue Longerenong Agricultural College, after having been somewhat of a white 
elephant for a time, has wakened up, and some valuable wheat experiment 
are now being conducted there under the eye of the manager, Mr. Nivel 
About 50 varieties have been grown. The results for the past two yeals 
would give the preference to the following varieties as the best for thé 
Wimmera:—Allora Spring, ‘Valavera, Hudson’s Purple Straw, Steinwede 
Quartz, King’s Jubilee, Zealand Basthoud, Sullivan’s Karly, and Queen’ 
Jubilee. The last-named is one of the most prolific wheats grown, am 
has held the best record for the last two seasons. ‘The experiments carried out 
by Mr. D. McAlpine, Government Pathologist, with respect to smut and rust 
have also been successful. Badly smutted wheat was sown iu May last, ant 
subjected to different treatments, some with bluestone and cold water, and some 
with bluestone and hot water. Smutty seed untreated all showed smut. Purple 
straw, which had been treated with hot water at a temperature of 130 degree® 
for six hours, grew without smut, but some of the heads were weak and irregular 
Queen's Jubilee badly smutted seed, treated with bluestone before planting: 
showed only one head of smut. Mr. Niven’s opinion is that the smut exist® 
in the seed, and lives with the life of the plant from the time of its sowing. The 
untreated smutty Purple Straw variety, sown and grown alongside the Queen) 
Jubilee, did not infect the latter, proving, Mr, Niven contends, that smut 18 
not infectious, and must come from the seed.— Farm and Dairy. 
THE GOOD OLD DAYS AND NOW. 
Ir is surprising how fond the good old farmers (and indeed many old 
people who are not farmers) are of sighing for the “good old days.” ‘The 
fact is that the good old days were very hard old days, and theenchantment of 
the retrospect is only lent by distance. It has been said that we never exhibit 
% grain of humour in our articles in this Jowrnal. Why should we? ‘The 
Journal is intended for the dissemination of instruction amongst the farming 
community, and we have reason to believe that it has amply fulfilled its destiny: 
However, we find in the South Australian Journal of Agriculture « humorous 
paper which carries a deal of truth and common sense in it, and we print 
with a recommendation to the grumblers to read, mark, learn, and be content 
with the goods the gods of the present day send them. 
The following shrewd, though very humorous, remarks were made by Mt 
Peter Allen at a conference of Northern Yorke’s Peninsula Branches of the 
Agricultural Bureau, held at Port Broughton in April, 1899 :— 
The cultivation of the soil is the most ancient, the most honourable, and 
the most indispensable occupation of man. ‘The first man of whom we hayé 
any record was engaged in this work, and from then right down through the 
ages there have always been tillers of the soil, and they have ever been, as now: 
the mainstay of the nations, and must continue so till the crack of doom, £0 
only by the produce of the earth, procured by its cultivation, can life b? 
sustained on this terrestrial ball. But old and tried as the occupation is, it ® 
yet but very imperfectly understood, except of course by those who have neve! 
tried it! The method and means of cultivation were simple and hard from the 
very beginning, and age after age the farmers seem to have worried along in the 
same old groove, apparently satisfied that the system or want of system followed | 
by their fore or five fathers was good enough for them. It is only within the 
‘ pase few years that scientific men have turned their attention to farming, aD 
ave thereby largely assisted in bringing it to its present state of imperfectiol 
Probably more progress and improvement has been made in the method 
and means of cultivation during the past 50 years than in all the preceding — 
centuries. Experimental farms are now maintained by the State as objet 
lessons, where professors who have made a life study of agriculture ate 
