1 Ave., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 225 
before the association will be in actual operation. Nothing can illustrate the 
necessity of the organisation better than the difficulty which must be experienced 
by Dr. Maxwellin making the report upon the sugar industry which he has under- 
taken to supply Mr. Barton, the Commonwealth Prime Minister. The infor- 
mation required to make that report complete should really be gathered by an 
organised body, for the thousand and one details necessary to a full and 
comprehensive grasp of the whole question are not easily obtainable by any 
single individual. It cannot be expected that Dr. Maxwell will go from district 
to district, and from farm to farm, collecting all the minute facts that go to 
make up the whole of the information dealing with the industry, and by so 
much must the task he has undertaken be the more difficult. At the 
same time, even after the report has been made there are still 
all the facts required to enable the work of the sugar  experi- 
ment stations to be carried out along lines which will do the greatest 
amount of good. There is also the information on sugar matters, the result 
of experiments, and the particular problems awaiting solution which must be 
known both to Dr. Maxwell and to the cane-growers and sugar manufacturers. 
We believe it is safe to say that every intelligent man connected with the 
sugar industry has considerable, if not unbounded, faith in Dr. Maxwell and 
the work he is undertaking, but to make that work of value, to put a crown of 
effectiveness upon it, there is an absolute necessity for the sugar experiment 
stations, their organiser and his staff, to be brought into close and easy com- 
munication with the people spread up and down the scattered districts along 
our seaboard. It would be well if those engaged in the industry recognised 
this, and at once took active steps in the direction which has been indicated. 
We are well within the mark when we venture to assert that Dr. Maxwell him- 
self is not too sanguine of success attending the work if the people do not 
back him up by forming the organisation which he has declared to be necessary. 
We shall await the results of the June conference with the keenest interest. 
Upon it will largely depend all further efforts to promote the establishment of 
a sugar association, embracing the whole State. In the election of officers 
to control that association the broadest-minded men we have should be chosen, 
while it should be recognised that reasonable representation must be given to each 
district in the general control of the executive of the body. That this will 
be done we have every hope, and, as stated above, it rests now with the 
manufacturers and farmers to do their share of the work in sending delegates 
to Bundaberg, not to talk only, but with power to act on behalf of their 
respective districts at the June conference. 
BANANA. FIBRE. 
About a year ago we received a sample of banana fibre from the Cairns 
district. It struck us that it would be well to obtain a valuation of it from 
some firm in London engaged in the fibre trade. The sample was, therefore, 
sent to a gentleman in London, who now forwards a report upon it by Messrs. 
Henry Devitt and Co., Mincing lane, London. 
The brokers say :—‘ We have carefully examined the sample of hemp 
from Queensland ; it is Manila character, good strong fibre, but mixed lengths, 
some very short; value, about £25 per ton. We should, no doubt, be able to 
find an outlet, and would recommend a trial shipment.” 
The Manila hemp of commerce is derived from the plant known as J/usa 
textilis, but all the plantains and bananas yield an excellent fibre, especially 
Musa paradisiaca. Most people in Queensland know how easily bananas and 
plantains grow in this State. They are found in vast quantities in the N orthern 
serubs. These wild bananas produce a small fruit full of seeds. When 
cultivated, the seeds eventually disappear. Bananas require very little care, and 
on the rich coast lands throw up an abundance of stalks from the rhizomes. 
