1 Szpr., 1901. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 327 
It takes 13 tons of “‘ paddy” to produce 1 ton of marketable rice. Putting 
the return at 15 ewt. per acre of clean rice, ready for market, it would require 
an area of 5,655 acres to meet the requirements of Queensland alone. Thus, 
there need be no fears on the score of a local market for some years to come. 
Will it pay the farmer to grow rice? Mr. Peek says it will pay well. He puts 
‘down the crop at 40 bushels per acre, that is to say of paddy, which can be sold 
at the mill for from 4s. to 5s. per bushel. At the lower rate, the return would 
amount to £8, but if the rice were milled for the farmer he could sell the 
produce of 1 acre for £13. So it would appear that there is more profit in rice 
than in maize, to which some 120,000 acres are devoted, or wheat on 55,000 
acres. It does not follow that a farmer should devote the whole of his attention 
to arice crop. There are other crops, such as lucerne, maize, potatoes, barley, 
and oats, which may all be grown in conjunction with rice. It is by the exclusive 
growing of one crop that an industry often perishes, because one bad season, or 
at most two, causes the single-crop farmer such a heavy loss that he declares 
such and such a crop will not pay. If he had other crops to fall back upon he 
would not be dismayed by the failure of one, but would give it another trial, 
and then would probably be successful. 
COTTON-GROWING IN RUSSTA. 
The total consumption of cotton in Russia amounts to 270,000 tons per 
annum, of which quantity 120,000 tons are produced by Russian growers in 
Central Asia and ‘frans-Caucasia. The cotton scarcity of 1900 gave a great 
Eepetus to the native industry, and efforts are being made to render Russia 
independent of outside supplies. Very high prices have been obtained for the 
home-grown fibre during the past year, the spot price having risen from 
7 roubles (15s. 7d.) to 11 roubles (£1 4s. 6d.) per poud (36 lb.), or from a 
little under 53d. per Ib. to a fraction over 81d. per lb. If such a price were 
obtainable by Queensland growers, doubtless sugar, coffee, rice, and other 
tropical products, now occupying the attention of the Central and Northern 
farmers, would receive scant attention. 
The average cost of producing, ginning, and marketing an acre of cotton 
in this State may be set down at £4 12s. 2d. On the basis of 1,000 Ib. of seed 
cotton as the produce of an acre, the net profit at the Russian price would be 
£8 19s. 8d. per acre. With a crop of 500 lb. of clean cotton per acre, the profit 
would be £12 7s. 8d. To this must be added the value of the seed and hulls 
or, where machinery is available, of the hulls, oil, and oileake. The wages in 
Russia range in wheat harvest time as high as 2s. per day for men and 1s. to 
1s. 8d. for women. 
In view of the possible rise in the price of raw cotton, owing to the 
increase of cotton-mills in the United States, and to the large demand for 
cotton in Japan, which last year imported over £6,000,000 worth, it would pay 
the Queensland farmers to put in areas of from 2 to 10 acres, which they could 
cultivate with no extra labour on the farm, and which could be picked either by 
contract or by the help of their families. 
We are too apt, in this State, to put all our eggs into one basket; and when, 
as sometimes happens, the bottom falls out of the basket, the eggs are smashed 
and we call on Jupiter to help us. when we might all along have been helping 
ourselves by planting a diversity of crops. 
THE CULTIVATION OF CACAO IN THE WEST INDIA 
ISLANDS. 
The following account of the cultivation of cacao (or cocoa as it is usually 
called) in the West Indies, which we take from the Scientific American, will 
be of interest to our Northern readers. It is said to be the most inviting of 
agricultural pursuits. The island of Trinadad produces cocoa of a quality 
second to none and only equalled by that grown in the vicinity of Caracas 
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