1 June, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 435 
exercised in the buying of manures. But, asa matter of fact, it was not so. It 
was within his knowledge that manures were at present being bought in this 
county, and, he presumed, also in other counties in Scotland, at 50 per cent. 
over their current market value. That was to say, that manures that were 
worth £4 per ton were being sold and bought at £6 per ton, or thereabouts, 
which was a very unnecessary, unjustifiable extravagance, and was also an 
injustice to those firms of manure merchants who were offering their manures 
at reasonable market values. It was not to be expected that all farmers should 
be accurately informed of the exact market price for every ingredient used in 
manures, but valuable assistance was given to them by the Highland Society, 
which, among the many services it had rendered to agriculture, had rendered 
not the least in the publication in its annual volume of Transactions of a guide 
to the commercial value of manures. Each of the volumes contained a state- 
ment of the price that should be paid for each of the valuable ingredients in 
manures to which he had already referred, and he thought it was as much the 
business of the farmer to make himself familiar with this table of prices as it 
was his business to study the ordinary weekly reports of the market fluctuations 
in cheese and grain and mutton and beef. 
(Lo be continued.) 
MAIZE EXPERIMENTS AT WESTBROOK STATE FARM. 
By C, ROSS. - 
The following are a few particulars of an experiment with maize during 
the past season. The land, which was divided into plots, may be classed as 
fairly good brown alluvial, overlying rotten rock ; reefs of this rock cropping out 
in various parts of the field. The soil was nowhere deep. The land had 
previously borne a crop of cow-peas, and before the seed maize was put in had 
been brought into a first-class state of cultivation by plough and cultivator. 
The areas were marked off from 4 of an acre to 1; acres. The seed was 
lanted by the “ Molisse”’ one-horse corn-planter, about 18 inches apart and 4 
eet between the rows, by the end of October, the soil at the time being quite 
dry near the surface, but with nice moisture below. This moisture, in addition 
to the little rain that fell, was kept conserved by continued cultivation between 
the rows, and in consequence the plants remained healthy until nearly the end 
of the year, although only a little over half-an-inch of rain fell up to this time. 
The whole crop began to wilt previous to the January rains, which then were 
too patchy and light to expect anything like a fair yield. Considering, however, 
that the rainfall from the time of sowing to the maturing of even the longest 
growing varieties was only 4 inches, it may be regarded as satisfactory to know 
which varieties do best under such conditions, thorough cultivation always 
being taken into consideration, and the fact that early sorts are usually the 
surest croppers in a dry season. 
I may say here that maize crops generally have been a failure in the 
district this season. 
The seed from which these crops were obtained was imported from 
America, and I may say that the seed now available for distribution may not be 
the largest of their several types, but is a much better sample all round than 
the original. The cobs have all been very carefully hand-picked, and every 
possible care has been taken to obtain the varieties pure. 
The appended notes and observations may be of interest. 
The seed is now ready for distribution, and intending purchasers can 
obtain full particulars as to variety and price from the manager of Westbrook 
State Farm. 
