422 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Junz, 1902; 
As I shall have to return to this place on my way to Mareeba, and wish 
to record my ideas on the coffee areas of the district, I will take the reader 
back to Cairns, and set out for the Mulgrave by what is designated a tramway, 
but what, in reality, is a railway owned by the Cairns Divisional Board. The 
gauge being the same as that of the Government lines, the engines and carriages 
can be used on them as well. The line passes through very fertile country, 
mostly under sugar-cane. At the Mulgrave Central Mill the directors kindly 
placed an engine and tram trolly at our disposal, and we were taken through 
several miles of fertile country, on which the cane was thriving well notwith- 
standing the dry season and the presence of the pestilential grub. The work 
of this insect is easily seen in the appearance of the cane plants, all affected 
patches having the appearance of having been badly frosted. The sugar-mill is a, 
very fine building replete with modern machinery equal to turning out a crop 
of 6,000 tons of sugar during the crushing season. 
From the Mulgrave to Aloomba much the same class of country is passed 
over, large areas are in a high state of cultivation, mainly under sugar, coffee, 
and maize. It is rather disheartening to hear the prognostications of evil times 
to come for the sugar-planter when the kanaka shall no longer be available. 
Still there are many hopeful planters who decline to cross the bridge till they 
come to it, and hope for the best. 
At Aloomba, horses were kindly provided by Mr. P. Petersen, and I, 
accompanied by Mr. H. Newport, Instructor in Coffee Culture, rode to Hillville 
on Babinda Creek, a tributary of the Lower Russell, the property of Messrs. 
De Moleyns and Butter, a distance of about 26 miles. The estate is most 
beautifully situated between Mounts Bellenden-Ker and Bartle Frére. The 
house is picturesquely placed on an eminence overlooking the Russell River, 
which is here fairly wide and ripples in a clear stream over a pebbly bed, 
affording a perfect counterpart of a European mountain stream. Here there 
are some 118 acres under coffee at various stages of growth, much of it bearing 
for the first time, and some being seven years old and bearing heavily. Most 
of the trees I examined were laden from the crown to the ground with ripening 
fruit, all the lateral branches being closely packed with the cherry. There was not 
the slightest sign of disease, all the trees having a healthy brightgreen appearance. 
The land, which consists of a sandy, loamy, granitic soil, is very undulating, 
some of the trees being planted on steep slopes. Evidently the soil’ is well 
adapted to the production of coffee. Naturally drained, no stagnant water can 
remain to injure the plants, yet there appeared to be plenty of moisture to 
keep the trees in vigorous growth. They are all topped to a convenient height 
for picking, and this work was going on at the time of my visit, the principal 
pickers being aboriginal blacks, who had a large camp pitched in the bed of the 
river on a dry sand-bar. They perform the work very well, and stick to it 
steadily. The price paid is a 1d. for 3 lb. of cherry, and as the pickers can 
average from 60 to 100 lb. a day, they and their pickaninnies earn what may be 
considered very fair wages for such light work. I gathered, from conversation 
with several coffee-growers, that they did not view with great alarm the 
threatened cessation of black labour so far as coffee-picking is concerned, as 
the work can be performed by whites as well as native blacks. Add to this 
that the crop is harvested during the cool weather of March, April, and May, 
and it will be understood that there is no such hardship in doing this work as 
in trashing cane during the hot months of the year. 
__ Water-power is here made use of for driving the necessary machinery. 
The mill is built on a hill-side, and water is brought by pipes to a large water- 
wheel, which drives pulpers, hullers, winnowers, roasters, and grinding mills. 
Everything is done by gravitation, so that there is very little handling of the 
coffee. The finished article is made up in neatly labelled 1-lb. tins, which find 
their way all over the Southern States. Two varieties of coffee are made up 
for sale. One is absolutely pure, containing no admixture of chicory; the 
other contains from 6 to 9 per cent. of chicory, many peers not being as 
yet educated to drinking the pure article. When the whole of this estate is in 
