328 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1902. 
talked about glibly enough, but what-is done? It is suggested that the 
Government should provide grain elevators. For what? The last harvest, a 
really good one, may total 1,500,000, or we will even hazard a guess of 2,000,000 
bushels. How long would it take a grain elevator to deal with 2,000,000 bushels of 
wheat? At the port of Novo Rossiesk and Odessa there are immense grain houses, 
having a capacity of 65,000 tons of grain, built by one single railway company. 
At the former port 2,000 tons of wheat are shipped within twenty-four hours. 
Our crop of, say, 2,000,000 bushels would be equal to 53,574 tons. The latest 
grain elevators would dispose’ of this in three weeks so far as shipping is 
concerned. What is wanted is storage room, so that farmers need not be 
compelled to sell owing to want of barn space. When that storage room is 
supplied the farmer can rest assured that he will not be “had” by the middle- 
man. He can afford to wait. It is possible for him to get an advance on his 
crop once it is stored, especially as the Agricultural Bank is now an assured 
institution. 
As with cereals, so it is with many other crops. Want of storage is the 
great drawback. Farmers cannot afford to build large stores in which to hold their 
produce for amarket. But by co-operation they could easily do so without haying 
to ask any Government help. We have so often pointed out the benefits of 
co-operation that we feel disinclined to advocate it any longer. Surely in every 
farming district there are scores of intelligent men who cannot be ignorant of 
the simple fact that if Jones buys 1 ton of seed potatoes for £5—Tom, Bill, 
and Harry combining to buy 3 tons or 30 tons will get them for probably £4. 
per ton or less. Why farmers in every district will not combine to get their 
seed potatoes, seed corn, provisions, and even clothes and furniture at an: 
enormous discount is one of those things that “no feller can understand,” and. 
we leave the problem to the farmers themselves. 
MANURING MANGELS. 
The following experiment in manuring mangels, tried in England, will) 
certainly be of interest to Queensland farmers :— 
A piece of land was treated with farm-yard manure, and when the mangels. 
were singled out they were top dressed with 1 cwt. nitrate of soda per acre. 
Soil, gravelly sand. The sort grown was Yellow Fleshed Golden Tankard. 
Two plots were marked out and dressed in addition to the above; Plot 1, 
nitrate, 2 cwt. per acre; Plot 2, 2 ewt. muriate of potash per acre. 
The leaves on Plot 1 were bigger and better colour after being dressed 
with the nitrate, but, quite contrary to my expectation, Plot 2, dressed with: 
muriate of potash, gave nearly 10 tons per acre more; the cost of dressing 
would be about the same in each case. 
It appears from the above that it is not so beneficial to use all one sort of” 
manure, but the right combination seems to answer best. 
ONIONS. 
Those who took time by the forelock and sowed onions in April and May,. 
will, provided they have got good seed, and have had sufficient moisture, haye a 
good show for a crop. Much now depends upon careful cultivation. When 
six weeks old they are large enough to be thinned out, say, to 6 inches apart 
for the Barletta and 4 inches for Flat Red. Fill up any gaps there may be in 
the rows by transplanting, but choose a calm day or a day when a southerly or 
easterly wind is blowing. Westerly winds are fatal to young onions, which 
will perish quicker before them than under a hot sun. Take the machine hoe- 
and straddle the rows. One hoeing every three weeks will suffice to keep the- 
ground open and sweet. Take out all weeds in the rows by hand, By 
