146 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Fex., 1902. 
DOES SUGAR-CANE EXHAUST THE SOIL? 
Cane-Pianver, Nerang.— 
Question.—For some years my land (scrub) has produced good crops of 
cane, but of late the crops have been almost too light to pay for 
cutting and loading. Yet I can get very good crops of corn of 
potatoes off the same land. Has the cane exhausted the soil ? 
Answer.—There is practically no such thing as an exhausted soil, but the 
available plant food near the surface may have been exhausted. In 
your scrub soil there is plenty more of the plant food which sugar 
cane requires, but it is out of reach of the roots, and requires to be 
brought up either by subsoiling or by growing nitrogen-producing 
plants Again, the soil cannot be exhausted, as you say you call — 
get good crops of corn and potatoes from the land. It is the plant 
food needful for cane which has been carried off year by year till 
little is left. A glance at the following table will at once show you 
the reason for the failure of cane-crops. 
Crops remove from the soil plant food in the following 
proportion :— 
Nitrogen. Phosphoric Potash. Lime. 
4 Acid. 
Sugar-cane As, a ey 44, 298 71 
Wheat .... bee a agrees 43 23 36 16 
Barley ... = a 47 28 54 11 
Maize: fn fees 61 31 66 14 
Rice m nes on 41 26 68 10 
Potatoes yt “0 26 13 48 2 
Cotton ... 54 19 4.0 25 
From this, you can at once see that sugar-cane extracts from 
the soil about five times as much nitrogen, three times as much _ 
phosphoric acid, and six times as much potash as do potatoes. 
CURING BACON. 
PiG-BrEEDER, Murwillumba, N.S.W.— 
Question.— Will you kindly give me a good recipe for curing bacon ? 
Answer.—We have already given half-a-dozen recipes in the Journal, 
and. in the December issue of 1901 we described the process of bacon- 
curing in Yorkshire. As you have only taken the Journal since the 
New Year, we once more furnish what should be a good Tecipet aaa 
Cover the pork with salt and lay it on stone flags. For each stone 
of pork allow 1 oz. of saltpetre, 4 oz. of coarse sugar, and 1 Ib. of 
salt. Rub both sides of the flitch with the sugar and saltpetre, then 
warm the salt and rub part of that in; lay it on a flagged floor or 
stone sconce, and turn and rub every few days, adding more salt 
each time till it is all used. In two or three weeks the bacon will 
have absorbed as much salt as it can, and is ready to be hung in a 
dry, cool room, through which there isa good draught. Leave there 
till the salt dries and crystallises. The bacon 1s now cured, and may 
be hung where most convenient in a dry place ; or, if not be used at 
once, may be packed in a thick layer of dry straw. “Good old 
recipes’ usually include smoking, which is not always possible in 
modern houses. 
DISEASE IN YOUNG PIGs. 
P. F. Evans, Warwick.—The matter you write about has been investigated 
by an officer of the Stock Wepartment. ‘As the last death occurred about a 
month before the inspector's arrival on the scene, and no other pigs are affected, 
it is too late to do anything in the matter. Report at once to the inspector 
should any further mortality occur. 
