376 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [L May, 1902, 
at a cost of something more than 150,000 dollars. The boilers were produced 
in New York. They are of 6,000 horse-power, of the Babcock and Wilcox 
type, forty-tube boilers. The refinery plant was bought in Philadelphia, with 
the exception of one machine, which was proprietary, and had to be produced 
in Europe. The refinery plant consists of three 13-feet vacuum pans, two sets 
of triple effects, of the Lilly type, twenty-four crystallizers in motion, and 
twenty-four water-driven centrifugals. The capacity of the mills and refinery 
is 3,000 tons per day, and it is proposed to increase the plant at the earliest 
moment, as it will not be sufficient for the needs of the company another year. 
The company has several locomotives, and a complete transportation plant on 
the island already, which will be extended as the land is gradually brought 
into cultivation. The Deming system of clarification is to be used in the 
refinery, and the inventor of the system is now building the plant for the 
company at the Payne-Joubert works in New Orleans. This is the largest 
single consignment of machinery that has ever gone out of the city, and it is to 
be followed by more from the same source for the same company. Altogether 
it will constitute the largest sugar-cane crushing plant on a single plantation in 
the world.” 
THE COTTON INDUSTRY. 
By DANIEL JONES. 
The subject of increasing the agronomic possibilities of the State is one that 
our Agricultural Department sets in the forefront of its many activities. At 
the present time, when our territory, from one end of its vast confines to the 
other, is in the throes of one of the most disastrous droughts yet experienced, 
the matter of adding to our rural industries any crop that holds out promise of 
success well merits attention. Perhaps one lesson outlined by our colonial 
experience, and emphasised more than another, is the need to diversify our’ 
crops. Scientific agriculture ever makes this a prominent factor of its teaching. 
The promulgation of ideas involving rotation of crops in the interests of the 
farmer, and the advantage accruing to the soil thereby, is one of the chief points 
implied in following out the system. 
In Queensland as yet our selection of crops for rotation has been 
principally confined to hay, maize, tubers, and sugar-cane. These, no doubt, 
from the chemist’s point of view, are in themselves of value by way of change, 
and restful to some extent in the demand they make on soil constituents that 
have previously had too great a drain made upon them by reason of growing 
the same or allied crops on the land for successive years. It is sufficient for 
my purpose, while refraining from touching on the view the agricultural chemist 
may take of the subject, to point out that in general habit cotton is so diverse 
in its character from other crops as to leave no manner of doubt in the mind of 
the practical farmer that the merits of the cotton shrub for rotation are 
undeniable. 
T need scarcely remind many of our farmers that for a period of about 
fifteen years, in the sixties and seventies, so far as the Moreton districts 
were concerned, cotton was king. Why it was deposed from its regal altitude 
and suffered annihilation for a period is a matter of history, and is accounted 
for by many a good and sufficient reason needless to recount here. Neyver- 
theless, confidence is still retained in the value of this crop by many of our 
farmers. This is evidenced by the many inquiries made from time to time, and 
by questions asked as to how to procure seed, and requests for an opinion of 
the quality of cotton submitted. These inquiries cover a range of territory 
west of Roma and north of Cairns, from which places excellent samples of 
fibre have been received, grown even during so dry a season as we are now 
experiencing. 
In view of our more recent experience in the matter of cotton-growing in 
the West Moreton districts, and, from the cultural point of view, the unquali- 
fied success attending the vocation, I think this aspect of the industry hardly 
