234: QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [L Ava., 1901, 
successfully with an automatic seeder. By this method, about 35 to 40 Ib. seed t0 
the acre are required. 1+ ensures the crop being more even and not so patchy as 
when sown broadcast, and allowsa better chance of going through the crop with hoe 
or cultivator to remove any weeds that may have made their appearance before 
the rice has got fairly started. The system of planting in nursery beds and 
transplanting outis adopted chiefly in planting swamp rice or the “ Aman” 
variety ; but, as this system of planting entails a lot of labour, I do not think if 
will ever come into active operation in this State. The mode of operations with 
this variety is briefly as follows :—Beds are prepared according to the area to be 
planted ; a bed about 20 feet long and 6 feet wide will be amply large enough to 
grow plants for a quarter of an acre, the beds being well made and enriched, 
‘So as to produce vigorous plants. “Sow the seed and rake in carefully, watering 
at certain intervals. Care must be taken to keep the plants growing. Whet 
the plants are about 6 inches high they are ready for transplanting to theit 
permanent beds, which is done by making holes about 10 inches to 1 foot apart 
in the rows and 2 feet 6 inches between the rows. But, as before pointed outs 
this is a most tedious and costly mode of planting, and the labour involved is @ 
serious item for consideration. You might as well try to transplant a field of 
oats or wheat, and expect to get a profit. So that it will be easily seen the 
planting in drills is at once the most economical and systematic, besides 
being the one most generally adopted. 
HARVESTING THE CROP. 
This was a difficult matter to undertake with the rice formerly planted in 
the Logan district, the China and some of the Japan varieties being so brittle 
that when ripe the least touch caused the grains to drop off with a consequent 
loss of seed. This has been happily overcome to a certain extent by the better 
variety planted. Not only does the White Java give better facility for 
harvesting, but the straw is of a better colour and quality, of a good length, 
averaging from 4: feet to 5 feet, and in good land even 6 feet is no unusual 
length ; and no more fairer or gratifying sight to the farmer’s eyes can be 
imagined than the rich appearance of a rice-field ready for harvesting : this is 
whilst the stalks have still a bronze-green appearance, the heads have turned a 
golden brown, about half-way down, and appear what a wheat farmer or an 
inexperienced person would deem three-parts ripe. The heads of rice, heavy 
with grain, have a graceful, drooping appearance; as many as thirty to forty 
heads have been produced from a single grain planted—the product weighing 
from 10 oz. to 14.0z. By cutting some varieties of rice in this state, the loss is 
not so great as with over-ripe grain. The cutting is begun in the morning as 
soon as the dew is off, the rice being bound up into very small bundles, ready 
to be threshed as soon as possible (which will be exp ained, later on). Rice is 
never left stooked in the field, but is treated as quickly as possible. 
The usual method pursued in harvesting is to cut with the ordinary sickle 
or reaping-hook, although where large areas are now being planted it is thought 
that the latest inventions of wheat-harvesting machinery could be used most 
effectively. A slight alteration in the reaper and binder might be required in 
the way of lighter and broader wheels on the rich soft rice lands, but otherwise 
I see no difficulty in the harvesting. At all events, it is the intention of the 
writer to induce some firm to make a trial at next harvesting as an experiment, 
and if successful a machine will doubtless be obtained on co-operative lines for 
the use of the district. After cutting with the sickle, the rice is gathered into 
bundles and carted into the barn or shed, or, if not sufficiently dry, is left for a 
day or so to ripen; but this is not often the case, experience having taught our 
farmers the right time to cut, and it is generally taken to the barn at onee for 
stripping or threshing. es 
: THRESHING THE RICE. 
Where there are large quantities, this ean be done with the ordinary flail 
on a threshing-floor, but other systems are in vogue where only small 
quantities are grown. One plan of threshing is by driving four forks into the: 
