1 Jury, 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 79 
the farmers want it, it is not unreasonable to ask them to pay what these people 
are able to get. It seems painful to see products which would be so useful 
here going to New Zealand. But that is not the fault of the people who sell 
the manure. It seems a want of enterprise on the part of ourselves. If it is 
worth while to take manuresfrom Queensland to New Zealand it seems to me 
that it would be desirable were our farmers to purchase substances which are so 
valuable. With reference to the disposal of nightsoil, it must be remembered 
that if we ask municipalities to go to a large expense in converting it into a 
portable fertiliser, some one or other will be called upon to pay that extra 
expense. These are little practical difficulties that have always to be taken into 
consideration. 
Mr. T. Bureess, of Forest Hill, then read an essay on— 
THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURE. 
The influence of climate on agriculture in Queensland is perhaps greater than it 
is in slower, colder, or less tropical climates, and all of us who are engaged in the _ 
somewhat precarious industry of agriculture in Queensland, know how largely our 
interests are affected for better or worse by the ever-varying climatic conditions under 
which we live. In this short paper I intend to deal with two or three aspects of 
agricultural life which I consider are largely influenced by the climate under which we 
live, which, perhaps, in the minds of many have never been attributed to climatic 
influences. ‘The first aspect at which I will glance is to me a most important one— 
namely, the influence of climate on the moral character of agriculture. There may 
be some liere who will at once say, What on earth has climate to do with moral 
character, and what in the name of common sense has moral character to do with 
agriculture ? I answer, A very great deal, far more, perhaps, than what appears at first 
glance. No one will deny but that the Queensland climate is capable of producing 
and developing a splendid physique in persons; and the class of men springing from 
agricultural environments and the atmosphere of Queensland will rank among the 
first of the world. They are capable of taking up the battle of human life and 
conquering in the fight with the first of the sons of men. Our agricultural industry, 
with its healthy surroundings, its green fields, its bracing atmosphere, its morning 
dews, its fresh air, its ripening grains, its beautiful harvests—all these influences being 
operated upon by our Queensland climate with its beautiful sunrises and glorious 
sunsets, when the king of the heavens, setting like a ball of burnished gold, touches 
the clouds into mantles of glory and throws his shafts of light away into mid-heavens 
—is capable of calling up allthat is best in the life of our Queensland youths and 
fitting them to take a first place among the nations of the world. Our agricultural 
industry produces men more akin to nature than does any other calling; and the more 
oung life is fed on the home-made bread of natural and healthful surroundings the 
ess they have to do with city snobbery and the confectionery stuff many of our town 
lads grow on—the more resourceful and_ self-reliant do they become; and 
when once our young Queenslanders begin to think for themselves, and 
depend on themselves, their success in life is assured and their future is 
safe, because in them, thanks to our liberal laws, our large sense of freedom, our 
splendid bracing climate, our absence to a large extent from formality and 
ceremony, we learn early in life to place both feet on the ground, 
to swing both arms when we walk, to breathe with both lungs, to drink in the 
moral lessons which nature (the best teacher) so liberally teaches us in Queensland ; 
and the result of it all will be that the Queensland climate, operating on agricultural 
conditions, will yet produce some of the finest men—mentally, morally, and physically— 
that the world has yet produced. The history of the men of the old countries will yet 
be eclipsed by the glorious history of the new. I do not consider this pieture of 
agricultural life in Queensland and the possibilities of our Queensland youths in the 
least overdrawn, I have every confidence in Queensland’s sons, and am perfectly 
sure they are capable of becoming leaders of thought and makers of history. Of 
course, we are yet in our infancy, and the process of evolution must yet do much for 
us, but our climate produces the raw material, and time will do the rest. I readily 
admit there is a large amount of thoughtlessness, disrespect, and irreverence (too 
much so) in our Queensland youths, which is largely due to climatic conditions and 
influences. Foreigners pick up certain bad habits very quickly when they reach our 
shores, and I once heard a man say that when he landed in Queensland he learned to 
swear before he learned to speak English. I do not pretend to know what language 
he considered swearing, but our failings are largely surface failings; the strong 
independent manhood is there all right, and its development in the right direction is 
