488 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Noy., 1901. 
grown in this State, is as easy to grow and to harvest as wheat, and far less: 
trouble than maize. But rice makes a second growth and yields two or three 
months’ excellent pasturage for stock. Wheat harvested by the stripper gives. 
little value in the straw. ‘The aftermath of rice and the straw of the threshed- 
out crops give excellent fodder and hay superior to wheaten straw. 
Wheat, rye, barley, and all cereals except oats, may be cut, bound, and 
stacked practically at one and the same time, for when the grain is ripe the 
straw is dry and dead. But when rice is ready for harvesting the stalks are 
green and the roots are alive and ready to shoot out again as soon as the grain 
crop has been taken off, and hence the superior value of rice straw over that of 
any other cereal except oats (because oats require sun-drying in the swath). 
The rice requires to be harvested the moment the heads are matured, first, 
because the greener the straw the better the forage when cured ; and second, 
because the earlier it is cut the better will be the aftermath. 
When rice has been harvested the threshing should be delayed. It should 
be stacked for a fortnight. ‘Then it undergoes a beneficial “sweat” which 
hardens and whitens the grain. In Florida, old rice-planters leave their rice: 
stacked from two to four weeks before threshing. 
SISAL HEMP AGAIN. 
It is as yet too soon to obtain a report of results from the Sisal hemp- 
growers who last year obtained parcels of plants from the Department of 
Agriculture, as it takes at least three years before the plants are old enough 
to yield the first crop of leaves. We have advocated the growing of this 
valuable fibre, for the reason that poor land not adapted for cereal or root 
crops can be utilised profitably at very small expense. Some have hesitated to 
plant, owing to the fear that expensive machinery would be needed for 
preparing the fibre; others because such a large water supply is needed. In 
view of these objections, we place before our readers the statements of 
Mr. Quennel, in the journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society. That gentle- 
man says— 
I have seen, with a deep regret, some persons rejecting at first the idea of 
cultivating fibre plants in Trinidad as requiring too much capital and too costly 
machinery. 
This is a great mistake. Yukatan is there as a proof of it, because the 
Indians of that country export now more than 100,000 tons, prepared with a 
yery rough machine called “ raspador,” a, wheel of 4 feet diameter, working at 
160 revolutions a minute. The cost of it cannot be, with horse gear, above 150 
dollars. That machine is easy to move from one place to another. It wastes 
a certain amount of material, and is slow at work; but itis not the first time 
that the primitive appliance of the peasantry has succeeded better than costly 
machines and big capital, with their heavy interests and annuities. The 
raspador gives net 334 lb. in ten hours. A machine for working three-quarters 
of a ton would cost, with steam-engine and the buildings to correspond, £1,200 
at least, when five raspadores would not cost more than £150. 
A steam-engine would not be moveable and could not be economically 
established where the area under cultivation would be less than 1,000 acres. 
I take my data from various reports from Dr. Morris, Imperial Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture, Barbados, and from Mr. Richard Dodge, of the Wash- 
ington Fibre Investigation Committee on account of the Government of the 
United States. 
rom them I come to the conclusion that the fibre plant gives a hemp of a 
yalue of £30 a ton in London, which I reduce to £14 a ton after allowing for 
discount, commission, and freight, and also for cultivation and packing. This 
is less than the amount given in the reports referred to. 
mite 
