1 Man, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. QTL 
aa Some say, and will state publicly, that they would not venture in 
lah clive in coffee culture unless they can see prospects of a good supply of 
state veD that coffee culture in Queensland is impossible with the present 
lah ® of the labour supply, &c. The answer to the question, “ What about 
ur for your coffee 2” demands more consideration than would at first appear. 
eae under conditions obtaining elsewhere it has been considered necessary, 
4. 08 not follow that the 1,000 hands for the 1,000 acres, or one man per acre, 
indispensable here. 
the g, « Wuestion to be discussed is rather whether the conditions necessary to 
Stecessful cultivation of coffee, in this practically new locality, demand this 
Tendous supply of labour before we cry out against the inability to obtain it. 
if } oitee-growing would admittedly be practically impossible in Queensland 
ton ae to methods and conditions usually obtaining elsewhere. These 
ease ions, however, are, as I have already stated, very different in several 
Peel points. For instance, it is not necessary here to climb precipitous 
Rn: slopes to get the climate, or to go away back into the roadless, 
isp “Ss Jungles to get the soil, or the higher altitudes to get the rainfall. It 
with necessary here to avoid the lowland plains on account of poverty of soil, 
5 ere heat, or lack of rainfall; nor is it necessary to keep under eultivation 
hag UY hundreds of acres to make a livelihood. And the bearing that all this 
iRinney the labour question is often lost sight of and sometimes deliberately 
anda bere ul the necessary climatic conditions are obtainable on gently 
fo ating, almost level country, on soils in which manuring is quite unnecessary 
Other ‘ly years to come, and yields obtained four to five times as large ; or, in 
req Words, give an equal return from a quarter the area; where transport is 
red to a minimum, and appliances such as scufflers and cultivators can be 
eons, U8¢ of, it will be readily seen that the same amount of labour is not 
Qired, 
és a comparatively sparse population of this colony undoubtedly precludes. 
I thighs up, even by capitalists, of large areas. It will be generally admitted, 
Wars, that it is not so much the cost of the white labour, as compared to the 
a 8&8 of the Oriental, that would be felt, as the inability to obtain large gangs 
mom Tesent, especially for temporary work. Until Queensland is considerably 
ins Populated, the opening up of estates under coffee, in anything like the 
“ees we have become accustomed to hearing of, is very much restricted. 
and} © area here is practically limited to what each grower can for himself, 
exam) unself, keep in order and cultivate. To take a 10-acre block as an 
Moree *— hot necessarily thereby implying either that it is inadvisable to attempt 
Stile or that less would not pay. 1 think that the majority of farmers would 
dereg at the task of cultivating so little ; but to growers in other countries, 10 
iff vb rowing coffee, with never a “coolie” to cultivate, would seem a very 
the “ent thing. The weeding of such a block would mean, under our conditions, 
83 Ree Over it once in four to six weeks with a horse cultivator (a work of, 
ayy = ay) or with a den ore ator Cea en day 8), Bi a noe Gan em Buby 
0 Weeds 12 uring the dry weather ; and in the wet months the s g 
this} 8 before they seed would be still lighter. The handling and pruning of 
any wane at the same time is well within the scope of the owner to do, as also 
Dre: ct little work necessary to growing coffee. And these works will then 
tender Yy have cost what the growers In many countries how pay for superim- 
Biro @° alone, the difference being that in this country a white man— 
While “1—can work, and in working do a vast amount more than the Oriental, 
labo, M nearly every country where coffee has hitherto been cultivated manual 
o Y the white man isa physical impossibility. 
Outpt Ing it for granted that a farmer can work 10 acres, let us look at the 
Sony bave aletter before me quoting the average yield per acre in Coorg, 
Tay Ndia, at 23 cwt.; and if statistics were taken for the whole of South 
__? ¥eylon, Jaya, Honolulu, and all the high-grade coffee-producing centres 
