1 Dec., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 415 
most critical market. The excellent size, colour, shape, aroma, and flavour of the 
better samples already place it well up in the list of high-grade qualities ; its strength 
compares very favourably also with first-class coffees, and with further improvement, 
which is taking place, it will have nothing to fear in competition. 
For medium grades, of which there is always some produced and in demand, the 
+ requirements are somewhat different. Where “ body’ is not so urgently required to 
tone up the coarser admixtures or adulterants, size, grading, colour, &c., are looked 
- for, and in this direction there is room for some improvements in the Queensland 
staple of this class. 
Great improvement in the condition of the estates that are being systematically 
worked is noticeable, especially so in Mackay, Maryborough, Lower Russell, and 
Daintree River districts, 2 number of estates in these localities being now in a fair 
way to do really well. 
Tn very many instances my previous statements with regard to crop-bearing and 
the reduced amount of field work that becomes necessary (especially weeding) as the 
age of the plantations increases have been pointedly borne out. 
The general curing as well as manufacture of coffee is improving steadily, and 
the difference between the samples of three seasons ago and those of to-day seem 
almost incredible even to the growers themselves. oa 
New and cheap machinery manufactured in the country is available for growers, 
and capable of treating coffee in all its stages, a circumstance that it is trusted will be 
taken full advantage of; for small, cheap, and yet good machinery of sufficient 
capacity, for each and almost every separate estate and aroun, under circumstances 
that prohibit co-operation or curing on any central mill system, becomes the only 
alternative to the production of a poor and badly cured staple. 
The only too common ordinary pests and plant diseases of orchard and farm 
remain still conspicuous by their absence in the coffee estates, but a careful watch is 
being kept to note, and, if necessary and possible, to nip in the bud anything of this 
nature that may look as though it might eventually prove troublesome if neglected. 
For this reason Mr. H. Tryon, the Government Plant Pathologist, was asked to come 
up, and he toured in the Cairns and Daintree districts in August last. 
The season for coffee in the North began, somewhat unfsrtunately for a few 
growers, with a frost early in July, 1901. The frost was severe where experienced, 
and some seven or eight of the smaller, and one of the larger, estates were damaged. 
The effect of this frost would not have been so great had it not been followed up by 
an unusually cold wind that kept the trees from naturally thawing till the sunshine 
fell on them in the mornmg. ‘This proved somewhat of a disaster, coming as iv did, at 
a time when the growers were just beginning to make headway after two or three 
years, and in some cases more, of patient waiting, and the discouragement was, by a 
few, so keenly felt that they decided to abandon their small estates entirely. ‘The 
crop was fortunately, in most cases, nearly all in, and consequently not much wags 
frost-bitten, and with methods of treating dry cherry at hand, even this small portion 
of the crop on the trees was not lost. ‘The effect on the trees was to denude them 
of leaves and woods that would ordinarily be bearing this season and at about the 
present time. ‘The results may possibly show in the statistical returns for the year. 
It was especially noticeable that several estates within the zone of frost that had 
a favourable aspect and fall-away for the cold air, or were protected from the 
subsequent winds, quite escaped damage. ‘Though unfortunate and impossible to 
anticipate as it 1s, damage by frost is by no means permanent. ‘The trees were not 
killed out and speedily recovered. Some are already covering as much ground as 
before, but. of course, the wood is too young and has come too late in the season to 
bear a crop this year. The frost was not sufficiently severe to affect the ground, and 
most of the affected areas will eventually really benefit by the enforced rest from crop- 
bearing, and there is certainly no doubt that the result will be a heavier crop than 
ever before on most of them, especially those that have been kept clean throughout. 
One point expecially has been brought prominently forward in the locality thus 
affected, and this is the advantage of, and consequently the necessity for, new comers 
paying due attention to the choice of a favourable aspect. 
None of the estates below the Range, in the Cairns district, further North or 
further South, were affected by frost, however, and the season generally has been 
favourable and the returns fairly good. 
29 
