1 June, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 431 
As Mr. Peek is proceeding shortly to Cairns on business, he will make a _ 
point of seeing the Messrs. Clacherty, and will discuss the question of their 
removing the mill to the South. ‘Che mill can deal with 5 tons of paddy a day, 
and with new machinery, which would be introduced, the same quantity can be 
got through in an hour. 
As proof that rice-growing will pay, Mr. Clacherty told me that one China- 
man at Fresh Water Creek realised £17 for his crop. The Cairns mountain 
rice has been sold at £30 per ton. Such returns should be good encouragement 
to the rice-growers of the State. 
The banana trade is very lively, and large consignments come from 
Geraldton and from plantations along the railway line. The Geraldton bananas 
do not seem to suffer so much from the attacks ot the fruit fly, or from the 
disease known as ‘‘ black-heart,” as those grown in the immediate neighbour- 
hood of Cairns. I was present for a short time at the inspection of some 
dozen truck loads of magnificent bunches of bananas on the Adelaide Steam- 
ship Company’s wharf at Cairns. A remarkable circumstance was pointed out 
to me by Mr. Macpherson, the fruit inspector. The greatest damage done by 
the fruit fly is invariably on one side of the bunch, the other side being 
scarcely injured. There was no explanation of this, but possibly it may be 
that the pest prefers the lee side of the bunch as being more protected from 
‘the wind, and perhaps he thinks he can carry on his nefarious work in greater 
security and with greater secrecy than if he worked on the weather side. The 
examination of bananas is no child’s play when some 10,000 bunches have to 
be separately and carefully inspected. I noticed several hundred bunches 
rejected which to the eye of the uninitiated appeared quite healthy, yet over 
half of every bunch so thrown out was maggotty or black-hearted. Fifteen 
thousand bunches were passed and shipped in a few hours in a southern steamer, 
and this quantity is often exceeded. ‘T'wo or three times a week the steamers 
going south are laden with bananas for the southern capitals. 
As time goes on, however, the steamers’ holds will undoubtedly be largely 
occupied with coffee and cotton in addition to the usual cargoes of sugar, 
timber, and bananas. E 
In conclusion, I have merely to reiterate what I have already written, that 
the climate, soil, rainfall, and means of communication at Cairns, the Mulgrave, 
Lower Russell, Atherton, and Herberton are such as should enable energetic 
young farmers to make comfortable homes for themselves. Below the range 
the climate in summer is undoubtedly hot and steamy, consequently the work 
in the cane-fields is extremely harassing, and not such as would commend 
itself to the white working man, except where ploughing or mere carting is 
concerned. The kanaka or coloured labour of some kind is an absolute 
necessity if the sugar industry is to survive. What the loss to Queensland 
generally will be if it goes down is incalculable, as the ramifications of the 
business extend to all the States and. to all classes of business. Thousands of 
white men have comfortable homes now which will be lost to them when the 
kanaka goes. 
QUEENSLAND WHEAT HARVEST. 
In the early part of the year we set down the probable yield of wheat for 
the harvest of 1901 at 1,500,000 bushels, and the average yield per acre at 
20 bushels. The report of the Registrar-General just to hand gives 1,692,222 
bushels as the actual quantity of grain threshed, the average yield per acre 
_ amounting to 19°40 bushels. The latter is the greatest average yield per acre 
for the last ten years, except in 1894, when the yield was 19:48 bushels per 
acre with a crop of 545,185 bushels from 27,991 acres. Last year 96,951 acres 
were under wheat, of which 9,719 acres were mown for hay, and 87,232 acres 
reaped for grain. Notwithstanding the drought the failures have been com- 
paratively few. In the Central district, at Springsure, the heaviest failures 
occurred, only 4 acres being reaped out of 263 acres sown. In the Allora 
