1 June, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 475 
through broken rock and pebbles, and passes into the dams clear, cool, and 
tasting as good as fresh tank water. From what we saw of the results of this 
large expenditure, running into something like £40,000, it must be clear to even 
the average mind that it is going to turn outa highly profitable investment, 
and should prove an incentive to others, who can afford it, to follow suit. 
Indeed, one or two planters said they were quite prepared to invest their 
money in irrigation, but for the fiat which has gone forth concerning the 
kanaka labour. It would take one season to get the plant ready, a second to 
irrigate the crop, and after the third year the labour question will arise. This 
is what gives capitalists pause. Were the conditions otherwise, most of the 
Bundaberg plantations would go in for irrigation, and, as a consequence, the 
Burnett City would rise to the premier position amongst the sugar capitals of 
the North. - 
It is through the courteous invitation of Messrs. Gibson and Howes and 
that of the president of the Bundaberg Chamber of Commerce, who kindly 
invited the writer to proceed to Bingera in a special train chartered to convey 
some 150 visitors to the plantation, that we are enabled to give this short 
account of this great enterprise. All who, on the 1st of May, were conducted 
by Mr. Gibson through the irrigated fields, were filled with astonishment at the 
magnificence of the crops—crops of the same age as the hopelessly withered, 
stunted cane shown in our illustration. 
The crucial test, however, will, after all, be in the determination of the 
sugar content of the canes when they are ready for the mill. If the crop 
reaches 50 or 60 tons of cane per acre, and a ton of sugar can be made from 
8 tons of cane, a slight calculation will serve to illustrate the great value of 
scientific cultivation, irrigation, and manufacture. 
SUGAR IN JAMAICA. 
Tn his annual report of 1901 Dr. W. Fawcett, B.Sc., director of the 
public gardens and plantations of the Island of Jamaica, discourses thus about 
the prospects of sugar in that island, in happier times the principal producer of 
gugar and rum in the West Indies :— 
Last year 34 acres, containing some sixty-two varieties of cane, obtained 
from various parts of the world, were obtained for the purpose of supplying 
tops to planters ; but it was considered advisable, when the newly-appointed 
Government chemist arrived, to stop the distribution of tops, and replant with 
a view to making a thorough comparative test of all the varieties ; twelve holes 
of each have therefore been planted out at a distance of 4 by 6 feet apart, and 
are doing well. In addition to these old varieties tops of thirty-six new 
varieties from Demerara and eight from Barbados have been planted out, and 
are ina thriving condition, with the exception of four of the varieties from 
Demerara, which died shortly after arrival. During the arrowing season 
attempts were made to cross-fertilise some of the best varieties, with a view to 
producing a cane Pesseseie the several good qualities of the parents, but we 
were not successful. 
The seedlings that were raised at Hope last year have received careful 
attention, and are now ratooning; one of them, a seedling from D. 95, looks 
promising. 
This year, seeds of D. 61, D. 99, D. 49, and D. 95, were sown, resulting 
in a batch of seventy plants. These have been potted into bamboo pots, and 
will be planted out as soon as they are large enough. 
There is a general awakening throughout the island to the belief that sugar 
should again be made our most important crop. The cost of cultivation is less 
