1 Junx, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 42/7 
When once the plough gets properly to work in this district, there will be 
a great future before the farmers. With large lucerne fields, silos, and good 
breeds of dairy cattle and pigs, there is not the slightest reason why they 
should not become as prosperous as their brethren in many parts of the South, 
especially as they have a good stand-by in the timber trade. 
The cattle tick has certainly committed ravages here, but cattle may be 
rendered immune, as we are told by authorities on the subject of tick fever. 
Besides, there is a remedy which could be easily applied to a few head of tick-- 
infested dairy stock. By turning them into a field of lucerne, the ticks will 
drop off and die. In the Argentine the great cattle-breeders lay down 100 
square miles in lucerne or alfalfa, as they call it in that country. The cattle 
are allowed to gather ticks from the natural forest grasses, then they are put 
on to the lucerne, the ticks disappear, and the cattle gradually become immune. 
A desire was expressed by several of the farmers that they might be 
supplied with a bull by the Department of Agriculture. With every desire to 
do all in its power to advance the interests of the farmers, this is a matter 
which, for two reasons, cannot at present be complied with. One is, that the 
principle of supplying group bulls has not yet been adopted, and the other is 
that there are actually no bulls available. At the same time, the claims of the 
Atherton farmers for assistance would undoubtedly be cordially entertained 
whenever practicable, special consideration being given to the fact that they 
are too far distant from centres of production to provide for themselves as easily 
as the Southern farmers. ‘They may rest assured that their difficulties and 
disabilities are not overlooked by the Department, which is at all times ready 
to advise and assist to any reasonable extent. 
I should think that cotton-growing could be profitably carried on in the 
district, more particularly when the line towards Herberton is completed. 
Tobacco-growing is another industry which would pay well, provided the class 
of tobacco were grown which Mr. Nevill, the tobacco’ expert, advised when 
visiting the district. Very excellent coffee is now grown and manufactured on 
the spot, and doubtless more land will be placed under this crop in the near 
future, Mr. Newport, the instructor in coffee, having already visited the farmers 
and advised them as to its cultivation. 
With regard to the perpetuation of the timber supplies, I made minute 
inquiries into the estimated quantity of available timber, and the general opinion 
seemed to be that there was timber enough of the kinds already mentioned to 
keep all the saw-mills in the district, and many more, going for a couple of 
generations, not reckoning that sent South. This is all very pleasant hearing 
to the present generation, but what about the supplies fifty years hence ? 
Teeming as.the scrubs now are with fine timber, it must come to an end unless 
measures are taken to protect and perpetuate it. 
What is to be done to prevent its extinction? Nature is. only too willing 
to repair the ravages of man. This is clearly apparent even along the road- 
sides, which are thickly lined with young cedar-trees. But Nature requires to 
be assisted. Wherever the young cedars are springing up, they are choked 
with a mass of quicker-growing vegetation. Consequently, man ought to step 
in and promote the growth of the trees by slightly clearing round them, taking 
out a certain number where they are too crowded and planting them elsewhere. 
Air and light being thus admitted, the young trees would make rapid growth. 
In a few years they would top the scrub, and within twelve years would attain 
an added diameter of from 8 to 10 inches. Think what an heirloom this would 
- be for our children and children’s children. We have in this timber one of the 
greatest gifts of Nature, and we should not look upon its immediate commercial 
value only, but upon the possibility of keeping up that commercial value for 
ever. Consider the value of ‘a crop of pine 9 feet in girth, or a crop of cedar 
24 feet in girth from 50 to 80 feet in height. What crop can possibly be grown 
which will equal such timber crops in value? If only twenty such trees as [ 
have described could be cut annually per acre, the owner need grow nothing 
else. With pine at 5s. 6d. per 100 and cedar at £1—there is more money in 
