232 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAN. [1 Ava., 1901. 
eenleigh, thence by well-formed roads for a distance of 12 miles crossing the 
Opn, ¥, “ A ; i 5D 
Albert River and skirting round the base of Mount Stapylton or what is known 
locally as Yellowwood Mountain, which presents to the visitor’s gaze one of the 
prettiest views in the Logan district, dotted from base to summit with its settlers 
homes and splendidly laid out farms. The dark-green patches of sugar-cane 
8] “green : g e, 
ananas, maize, and other crops, strongly contrasting with the rich red voleanie 
. “! x . 5 . . 5 . . 
soil visible here and there, make a picture of agricultural industry both pleasing 
and effective, and one of which the district is justly proud. 
What is known as “ Pimpama Island” is the land lying between the Logan, 
Albert, and Pimpama Rivers, which are connected by a series of creeks and 
swamps with a long frontage to the Pacific Ocean or Moreton Bay, containing 
several thousand acres of rich coastal land, interspersed with large areas of 
ti-tree swamps, the water of which is brackish and undrinkable. The soil 
cultivated, and which has proved itself best adapted to the growth of rice, is of 
a sandy, loamy nature in appearance, but containing in a remarkable degree the 
constituents most suited to the nature and requirements of the plant, bein 
easy of working, although slightly tenacious in wet or showery weather, but of 
very shallow depth in some places. Layers of decomposed marine shells are 
found in rather large quantities, pointing out that the lands were once ocean- 
washed, and the receding waters have left valuable deposits of lime and other 
constituents in the soil, which, together with the rich humus formed by the 
decaying foliage of scrub vines, palms, ferns, &e., of rank tropical growth, 
have left these patches of soil of varying area between the swamps most 
suitable for rice culture. ; 
' 
The value of the land averages from £2 10s. to £6 per acre without 
improvement, and very little, if any, remains unalienated, it being so close to 
Brisbane, and the Logan district being one of the first settled districts of the 
colony. All the best lands were early availed of for cultivation. Who first 
introduced the rice seed of commercial value to Queensland appears to be 
undecided ; but our State Botanist, Mr. F. M. Bailey, has described a species 
of wild rice (Oryza sativa), a native plant of North Queensland, growing in the 
swampy lands there, as being indigenous to this State ; also, the Chinese have 
grown rice rather extensively on the North Queensland river banks, particularly 
near Cairns, in patches for many years past, and which has met with a ready 
sale when placed on the market. 
But it is to Mr. A. J. Boyd, the present editor of the Queensland 
Agricultural Journal, that the credit is due of the introduction, in 1869, of 
rice-growing in the Logan district—he having procured the seed and planted 
it as an experimental crop at his sugar plantation, Ormeau, which he then had 
at Pimpama. The seed was one of the Japan varieties, with which he met 
fair success as regards the growth and result. Since that time, from the 
seed Mr. Boyd raised and distributed, other settlers have taken up the matter of 
rice-growing at various times and in a fitful manner, the largest local planter 
some fifteen years ago being Claus Lahrs, an enterprising German settler, who 
planted at Pimpama Island two or three varieties of the China and Japan rices, 
but, owing to the seed not being tested or acclimatised, he met with but . 
indifferent success. He even went so far as to incur the expense of erecting 
a mill for dressing the paddy (as rice in husk is termed), but after a few years 
he gave it up, partly because of the machinery, not being of the best description 
for dressing the rice, doing its work imperfectly, but also because the rice 
grown was not the best variety for table use or suitable for the home market. 
So the industry, so far as the manufacture was concerned, was allowed to 
lapse. The farmers since then have still kept on planting the rice, which they 
have cut and used for fodder for their horses and stock, using the seed saved 
from the crop reaped for re-sowing the land. The consequence has 
naturally been that the crop had deteriorated with successive plantings, 
through the same seed being used without change. But three things 
of great importance had been learned. These were: Ist. The suitability of the 
