L Apri, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 275 
QUEENSLAND CHILLIES. 
The ease with which chillies and capsicums can be grown in this State of 
diversified climates is amply demonstrated in all the Northern districts, where 
chillies of various kinds have become a weed, and may be seen growing on the 
roadsides for miles, loaded with red chillies which would be received in London 
and elsewhere with a responsive cheque. The plant thrives admirably all about 
the South Coast districts. It even grows in parts of the Southern’ tableland 
where heavy frosts occur. ‘What use do we make of our chillies ? Practically, 
none. Commercially, certainly none. Now, let us see what trade in these 
spices we are throwing away. An officer of the Department of Agriculture, in 
response to a letter of inquiry from a person at Cairns, made inquiries at 
Messrs. J. H. Harrison and Co. and Messrs. Robert Harper and Co., of Brisbane, 
relative to the market for chillies. The former are pickle-makers, are large 
buyers of fresh chillies, and give 3d. per Ib. for good, plump berries 1} 
inches long. 
Messrs. Robert Harper and Co. import, in connection with their business 
as pepper manufacturers, Bird’s-eye chillies and a few capsicums from the 
West Indies in a dried state, and pay 63d. per Ib. for them, or at the rate of 
£60 13s. 4d. per ton. It strikes us as a most extraordinary thing that we hear 
of people struggling with large families to make both ends meet in some parts 
of the North, who are yet at the same time in the midst of a crop which requires 
no cultivation, and only demands picking and packing to bring grist to the mill. 
Meanwhile our local manufacturers have to import chillies from the West 
Indies. Twelve months ago we put up a quantity of chillies in a jar of salt and 
water to test their keeping qualities. They have retained their plump, fresh, 
red appearance and all their pungent qualities to the present day, thus proving 
that they can be exported to any distance in a fresh state. 
It seems impossible for us to get beyond the old groove. With the 
wonderful climate and soil of Queensland, there should be no difficulty in 
owing many products which are in great demand both in the Southern 
States and in European countries, and they could be grown at a profit. Let us 
hope that intelligent farmers will try to add a few of these products to their 
general output, and so make a considerable addition to their incomes. 
CANE-FARMING IN TRINIDAD. 
From a report to Mr, Chamberlain by the Acting Colonial Secretary of 
Trinidad, Mr. H. Clarence Bourne, we extract the following item on cane- 
farming in that island :— 
Sugar, if not the chief product, is the chief manufacture of the colony. A 
hundred years ago the boiling-house was a mere adjunct to the canefields; but 
the modern usine represents an amount of capital exceeding the value of the 
land from which it is supplied with canes. ‘To give an illustration: The usine 
of St. Augustine with its groups of estates, comprising about 4,500 acres, lying 
near the old capital of St. Joseph, was closed last year; and though the usine 
contained machinery which had cost, apart from buildings and tramways, 
£30,000, yet, as there was no demand for it as a going concern, the Govern- 
ment was able to acquire the whole property for £9,100. Improvements in 
the process of manufacture and the development of machinery have led to 
concentration of capital, a reduction in the number of factories, and the con- 
solidation of estates. Though last year sugar was made at twenty-six factories, 
thirteen manufactured less than 1,000 tons. One usine was closed last year, 
and one this. Though the so-called planter has long been primarily a manu- 
facturer, his factory has, until recent years, been fed entirely from his own 
estates. Under this system the losses suffered in bad seasons have fallen on a 
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