34 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jaw., 1902. 
there are only about ten men in Victoria able to do this, including ourselves. 
Anyone, however, taking a personal interest in the work could master all the 
principol features in a month, which would enable him to go on, and with care 
and discretion allow him to turn out good fibre successfully. One competent 
and practical man is sufficient to work a mill. In any circumstances we would 
advise farmers not to attempt the manufacture of fibre without first making the 
fullest inquiries from the men already in the industry. This will save a great 
deal of worry and money. The address of all flaxgrowers can always be 
obtained from Mr. Miller, rope and twine maufacturer. 
ONIONS. 
We have received from Mr. Henry Richards, of Radley Farm, Warra, a 
sample of the finest onions of the White Spanish variety that we ever 
remember to have seen in Queensland. They might well be called the 
Champions of Australia. Those sent to us were a fair average sample of the 
whole crop. They sealed 2 1b. 4 0z. each, and had a circumference of from 18 
to 19 inches. The flavour whether eaten raw or cooked is excellent, there 
being an almost entire absence of the strong, biting principle in them. Mr. 
Richards describes the appearance of the crop as being like a field of large 
Swede turnips. 
The seed was sown during the first week of April last year, in drills 14. 
inches apart, with the Planet Junior, and the land was cultivated four times on 
account of much wet weather. We have no information about the description 
of soil they were grown in, but whatever it was it must be admirably adapted 
to onion-growing. The crop is expected to reach 8 tons per acre, notwith- 
standing the loss of about half the crop owing to various causes. 
After seven years’ experience of onion-growing, Mr. Richards considers 
that he has now secured a variety which is especially suitable for the Dalby 
climate. This success should cheer the hearts of the farmers of that district, 
for onions are a good paying crop, and what one man can do by exercising care 
and intelligence others can. 
The value of onions from a medicinal point of view cannot be over-esti- 
mated. They are not only « most wholesome vegetable either in the raw state 
or boiled, stewed, or fried, but they act on the kidneys, increasing their action ; 
they increase the secretive and expulsive work of the cutaneous glands ; they 
tone up the stomach and assist the digestive organs; they calm the nerves and 
mduce sleep. They are not only very easily digested themselves, but they 
assist in digesting other food. In hot weather the virtues of the onion should 
be availed of to a far greater extent than is the case at present. Some people 
cannot bear the strong flavour, but much of this objectionable feature 
may be eliminated by boiliug, stewing, or roasting. Yet pee will not 
hesitate to take quantities of medicines far more nauseating than the strongest 
ef strong onions. Onions, eschalots, apples, celery, parsnips, and many other 
vegetables and fruits if eaten regularly will keep the body in better health than 
half the drugs in a chemist’s shop. 
ROOTS OF THE MAIZE PLANT. 
The advantages of maize as a fodder crop in a dry season is shown by some 
mteresting experiments carried out a few years ago at the North Dakota 
Agricultural College, in order to ascertain the distance to which the root 
penetrated the soil to procure its nourishment. For this purpose an iron 
frame was constructed in the shape of a cube 5 or 6 feet in each of its dimen- 
sions. and was filled with shelves of wire-netting placed one above the other, 
with intervening spaces of about 2 inches. These frames were sunk in the 
