1 Aprit, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRIOULTURAL JOURNAL. 249 
is, however, difficult here to distinguish between the sane and the insane. It 
would seem that a man is mad only when he behaves differently to his 
neighbours. 
Finally, then, we come to the 
DISADVANTAGES OF LUCERNE-GROWING. 
There is no doubt that the initial outlay required for properly laying down 
permanent lucerne fields of any extent is considerably heavier than_ that 
required for ordinary cereal-growing. This feature about lucerne-growing is 
erhaps, in the strict sense of the term, not a disadvantage, yet it would have 
the effect of deterring the farmer of limited means from taking up lucerne- 
growing. As in the case of fruit orchards, the lucerne-grower who has just 
started must be prepared to wait a year or two for a return upon his outlay. 
Lucerne fields yield very little the first year, and not much the second. 
From the second year onward lucerne becomes profitable, although it is said 
not to be fully matured until about the fifth year. Most Karroo farmers cannot 
afford to wait for a year or two for a return upon outlay, and prefer to con- 
tinue ploughing for cereals year after year, even if five out of ten years they 
are only feeding locusts and rust spores. 
Yet it is precisely the farmer of limited means who stands most in need. of 
utilising to the very best advantage the means at his disposal for extending his 
limited capital. The advantages of lucerne-growing are, therefore, of more 
importance to the farmer of limited capital than the well-to-do farmer.— First 
Prize Essay, B. anv O. Evans. 
WHEAT CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 
Every operation connected with the wheat industry in America is done 
on an enormous scale and almost entirely by machinery. There are 
immense areas under wheat in the Pacific States, California, Washington, 
Oregon, and Idaho (between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000 acres, producing from 
70,000,000 to 80,000,000 bushels). The fields are ploughed by ploughs set in 
gangs of from four to fourteen drawn by traction engines or by teams of mules, 
to a depth of 3 inches. The broadcast seeder is attached to the plough and 
the harrow to the rear of the seeder, so that where the Queensland farmer 
goes three times over his field before completing the work, the Californian 
does the whole in one operation, and, instead of 2 or 3 acres a day, he gets 
over from 10 to 15 acres, and only one man is required for the work. 
In Bulletin 20, Miscellaneous Series, issued by the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, the wheat-growing in the Pacific States is graphically 
described. 
The period of growth for crops in California is during the winter season, 
and the months in which the crop ordinarily grows in the eastern States are 
in this region the months of suspended animation. There is a long, mild 
winter, during which the plant has ample chance to grow, and the plant is 
practically mature before the hot sun of June has an opportunity of doing 
more than adding the final touches to the ripening and drying of the grain. 
It is this peculiar hot drying effect of June and July which makes it possible 
to use the combined harvester and thresher, which could not be used success- 
fully on a grain which was not perfectly dry as well as ripe. 
The use of machinery of great capacity, which means an economy of 
human labour, but often a waste of grain, is another distinctive feature, 
particularly of the great Californian valleys. Ploughs are set in gangs, reapers 
and headers are built with cutting bars of unusual length, and every effort is 
made to combine several operations in one, thus enabling one man to plough 
and cultivate the greatest possible area with as many horses as he can control. 
