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326 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1901. 
The Japanese keep a small stream of water running into the field continuously 
-and flowing out into an adjoining field—7z.e., they never allow stagnant water in 
a rice field. 
Some water must be added from time to time to keep up evaporation and 
‘absorption by the soil ; if this can be done by allowing a flow from one field to 
‘another, it will be found advisable to do so. 
Possibly a word should be added here about fertilising rice. On sandy 
loam soils it will be found profitable to use fertilisers. On our virgin soils, 
60 lb. to the acre appears to be sufficient. It may be sown with a drill 
attachment at the time of seeding, or it may be sown broadcast after seeding. 
On virgin soil, a fertiliser of raw bone and acid phosphate has shown excellent 
results. On old land, some nitrogenous fertiliser like cotton-seed meal should 
be added, and more fertiliser per acre used. Care should be taken, however, 
to have it sown before planting where considerable tertiliser is used, otherwise 
it might injure the germ. 
The low-lying lands on our coast are of various descriptions, from light 
sandy loam to heavy black soil and clay, whilst much of the swampy land is full 
of large knobs from 10 inches to 1 foot high. As Mr. Peek, in his excellent 
article on rice culture in the August issue of this Jowrne/, remarked, all lands 
are not suitable for rice-growing. People are apt to think that, because they 
own a large, shallow swamp, they have the ideal land for the purpose, but this 
is not always the case, and it would be well, before going in for an extensive 
area, to experiment on a small plot, or to have the soil analysed. The lands 
mentioned in the American journal are, of course, such as are suited to the 
cultivation of the varieties of rice known as “ Aman” and “ Boro,” or swam 
rice, and are necessarily so situated that they can easily be flooded and drain 
dry. In the Pimpama and Northern districts the White Java upland rice is 
grown. ‘This does not require to be flooded, and thus is more suitable to the 
means of the farmers. It does not, however, by any means follow that the 
swamp rice will never be grown in Queensland. On the contrary, as the 
country grows richer, and with more population, it is quite within the bounds 
of probability that the swamp rice will be extensively grown where plenty of 
water is available, and where the land is so situated that it can be inundated and 
dried off at pleasure. The Southern farmers deserve every credit for their 
enterprise in this industry, seeing what an enormous demand there is in 
the world for rice, since it forms the principal food of at least one-half of the 
people on the earth. The Chinese Empire contains 402,000,000 people; the 
British possessions in Asia, 291,000,000; Japan, 43,000,000; and other rice- 
eating nations, 90,000,000; a grand total of 826,000,000 people, of whose food 
rice constitutes at least one-half. 
There are 1,400 varieties of rice known. It was first cultivated by Sir 
William Berkley, in Virginia, in 1647. Two hundred years later the rice grown 
in Georgia and in the two Carolinas amounted to 115,000,000 lb. Then 
Louisiana commenced the industry after the great Civil War, and in 1880 
produced 86,000,000 lb. The highest production was 237,000,000 lb. in 1893, 
and since 1887 the average crop in that State has been 145,000,000 lb. annually, 
and 350,000,000 lb. for all the States. In Japan 7,000,000 acres of rice 
support about 43,000,000 people, giving to each person about 44 bushels, or 
150 lb. of milled rice, per year. The Japanese and other rice-eating nations 
vary their rice diet with highly nitrogenous foods such as rye, barley, peas, 
beans, millet, buckwheat, rape, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes. The rice 
grown in Japan and South Carolina is the richest in fats, and consequently 
ranks highest in flavour and nutrition. 
Queensland imports about 9,500,000 lb. of yrice annually, of a value of 
£51,400. ; 
If Queensland growers extend their cultivation in the same way as the 
farmers of the Southern States of North America, it will not be long before 
they will be in a position to supply the local demand and begin to export to 
the Southern States. 
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