These, at least, were the figures which applied previous to the war. Taking an average of the yield of all the plantations of the island for that time, the yield was about 10,000 or 12,000 tons of sugar per annum. But now the average will not exceed 2,000 or 2,500 tons each.-Louisiana Planter.

THE FIRST PIG IN SCOTLAND.

THE Scotchman eats less pork than the Englishman. The first pig known to Scotland was a gift to a gentleman in Dumfrieshire. He was named Gudeman o' the Brow. One day he got out [the pig, not the gentleman], stayed out over night and scared the whole parish of Carlavroe nearly out of their senses. They prayed for mercy, and thought Old Nick had come to town. He rooted around quietly unmindful of the consternation he was spreading. Then the Scot turned on him, chased him to a standstill and hay-forked him to death. This was in 1720. Hogs are not taken so seriously now, and not eaten much.

AMERICAN BACON AND CATTLE IN ENGLAND. MR. LATHROP, United States Consul in Bristol, England, in a report to the United States Department, says :—

The United Kingdom imported, in 1897, 5,000,000 cwt. (560,000,000 lb.) of bacon, of which 1,000,000 cwt. came from Denmark and 3,500,000 cwt. from the United States. For our great share in this enormous business, we were content to accept from 4 to 6 dollars per cwt. less than was paid for English, Danish, or Canadian bacon. This great loss was due to the inferior quality of our product and unsuitability to consumer's taste, and it seems to me that it would be worth somebody's while to cater specially for the British market. It will not pay the farmer in the corn belt to do this,; it will not pay the great packer, who throws his surplus across the ocean to bring what it can; but why it will not pay in Wisconsin or Minnesota or New York or New England, I cannot understand. If Canada can get 15 dollars per cwt., why should not we, instead of 8 or 9 dollars? They only ship 300,000 cwt. per year from Canada, but they get top prices for that. Let us see how. In the first place, their packers demand a hog that costs more to produce than ours; so they pay more for it, paying a premium on the best-say 4.75 dollars (per 100 lb.) for a pig under 160 lb., and 4 dollars for one over that weight. These hogs are fed mostly on peas, which make as firm and fat flesh as the usual English food, barley meal or miller's offal; and even a small ration of corn is objected to. Canadian packers regret that the Canadian Government has put corn on the free list, as they say that the temptation to feed a small ration of corn is now almost irresistible, and that the result is deterioration in the bacon. With the right hog once secured, the basis of success is reached, and it is astounding how soon, in Canada and Denmark, the proper hog appears after the establishment of the packing-house.

The next matter of importance is the mode of cutting up, and this is not so simple as it seems. I know of one Canadian house, whose brand is now well and firmly established in England, who made mistakes until an expert crossed the water and showed them how to cut a Wiltshire singed side."

66

COCKY CHAFF.

COCKY chaff, by which is meant the husks of wheat after threshing out the grain, contains a considerable amount of nutriment, and hence possesses a certain feeding value for stock; in fact, there is very little difference between the nutriment contained in wheaten straw and that contained in the husks. According to analyses made by Mr. A. N. Pearson, Government Chemist for Agriculture in South Australia, oaten straw contains 25 per cent. more nutriment than either cocky chaff or wheaten straw in the way of heat and fat production, and is nearly four times as rich in digestible flesh-formers.

DEPTH FOR SOWING SEEDS.

PROFESSOR VOLLNY recommends the following as the outside depths at which certain seeds should be sown :-For wheat, rye, barley, oats, &c., from 1 inch to 2 inches; for millets, from -inch to 14 inches; for maize, from 1 inch to 2 inches. If the plants germinate from a greater depth, they are more liable to be attacked by fungoid diseases.

PANICUM COLONUM.

MR. H. FITTELL, of Eel Creek, Gympie, writing on the subject of Panicum colonum mentioned by Mr. H. Tardent, and described by the Government Botanist, Mr. F. M. Bailey, in Vol. IV. (p. 364) of the Journal, has kindly supplied the following further information about this fodder plant. He says:"I wish to inform you that I have plenty of the same kind of grass on my farm. It came first with the lucerne about 5 years ago, and grows very luxuriantly on rich sand. I have seen it 4 or 5 feet high. It makes good fodder, coming next to Prairie grass in my opinion. I have a small stack of it now, and the cattle are very fond of it. It will yield two cuttings-one in March, and a second in May. I cut mine in March; but the weather has been very dry ever since, so that it is very short this time, but still full of seed. I have about 10 lb. of seed on hand. It should be mentioned that the grass will stand any amount of water on it."

[This confirms Mr. Bailey's account of the grass. He said, “It would require a good and probably damp soil."―Ed. Q.A.J.]

HONEY FROM CANE-JUICE.

WILL it be believed by our beet-men that honey derived from pure cane-juice is unsaleable? Yet such is the statement made in the California Fruitgrower. The bees in Cuba (the paradise of beekeepers) have been making honey from the burnt cane plantations, which is nothing more than evaporated cane-juice. The plantations were burnt, and the canes broken. From the cracks the juice exuded and candied in lumps. The rains softened this thickened sap so that the bees could secure it, and they filled their hives with it. A certain individual secured 700 gallons of this pure cane-honey, and it was so pure, and its purity so evident, that he could find no sale for it. The Cuban bees extract honey from the bell flower, which is really the most delicious product of the bee made anywhere, but the stand-by of the Cuban beekeeper is the royal palm, which blooms every day in the year, and almost drips nectar. This the bees gather all the year, except for about 90 days during the rainy season, when the honey is washed out of the flowers, and the bees must be fed. This honey is about the colour of molasses, and not much better to eat.

FORESTRY IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

THERE are numerous timber reserves in Western Australia, the areas containing both jarrah and karri. These areas cover between 30,000 and 40,000 square miles. The jarrah timber predominates. It has been calculated that there are 60,000,000 loads of timber in these forests of a value of £120,000,000 sterling. They are under the supervision of a properly organised Forest Department, at the head of which is a Conservator of Forests, whose duty is to protect the forests from spoilation. In all workable districts there are forest rangers, and great care is exercised in cutting the timber, and no forest lands are to be alienated from the Crown. The timber is shipped from the ports of Albany, Augusta, Bamelin, Busselton, Bunbury, and Fremantle.

allowed

The timber lands taken up by the settlers under lease from the Government total 1,052,426 acres, chiefly in the south-western district.

Over 300,000 trees were planted in various localities in 1898, and one or two sandalwood plantations are progressing satisfactorily in spite of many

initial weather trouble. In one district 48,000 wattle-trees have been planted out permanently (within the railway reserve, near Spencer's Brook), and several other wattle plantations are projected for the coming season.

It will thus be seen that the Government of Western Australia is fully alive, not only to the value of forest conservancy, but to forest planting, at least of such useful timbers as sandalwood, and of those of economic value such as the wattle.

THERE are

LIVE STOCK IN THE UNITED STATES.

in the United States, according to the latest official returns, 43,948,370 cattle, 38,651,631 pigs, and 39,114,153 sheep. The population of the United States is set down at 63,000,000 of people. The area of the States is 3,500,000 square miles. This would give 12 head of horned cattle, 11 pigs, and a little over 11 sheep per square mile; or to each 100 persons in the States, 70 cattle, 61 pigs, and 62 sheep.

Let us compare the Queensland statistics with these. We have in this colony 7,000,000 cattle, 23,000,000 sheep, 120,000 pigs. The population of Queensland is about 370,000. The area of Queensland is 668,497 square miles. This would give 10 head of cattle, one-fifth of a pig, and nearly 35 sheep per square mile; or to each 100 persons in the colony, 1,891 head of cattle, 324 pigs, and 6,216 sheep.

THE PHILIPPINE SUGAR INDUSTRY.

IN Professor Knapp's report to the United States Department of Agriculture, giving the results of his agricultural explorations in the far East, he gives some interesting data in regard to the sugar industry of the Philippines. His opportunities for investigating in the islands were somewhat restricted by the state of the war, but as his visit was made in December he had some good opportunities to examine into the cane sugar industry. He says the rich clay-loam soil of San Fernando is well adapted to sugar-cane. In the island of Luzon the methods of sugar farming are quite different from those practised in the United States. The cane is allowed to ratoon, but is also planted annually. At the time of cutting the cane for the mill, the immature portion of the stock is planted in a field previously prepared. Very little cultivation is done. The cane matures in 12 months from planting, and is harvested before the rainy season commences in May. The sugar factories in Luzon are the crudest conceivable. The mills are not better than farm sorghum-mills. The kettles are simply wooden tubs with cast-iron bottoms; the sugar is drained upon the open-kettle plan. The proprietor furnishes land and factory; and the tenant furnishes seed, does all the work in the field, delivers the cane to the mill, and supplies most of the hands for making the sugar. The proprietor receives one-half the sugar and all the molasses. The tenant, in theory, is allowed the remainder, but in practice he usually receives about two-fifths of the sugar. Dr. Knapp was informed that in the islands of Panay, Negros, and Cebu the sugar farms and factories are much more improved than in Luzon. Sugar lands produce from 3,000 to 8,000 lb. per acre, depending upon the cultivation and the factory.-Louisiana Planter.

POULTRY SHIPMENTS.

THE first shipment of ducklings from Sydney to London this year, sent by the Board of Exports, realised 6s. net profit per pair. Though the salesmen do not hold out hopes of always realising such rates, they state that there is an unlimited demand for ducklings, chickens, and rabbits between January and May in London.

PRESERVE THE FORESTS.

AUSTRALIAN hardwood is fast superseding Swedish timber for paving the Loudon streets. Our hardwood forests, if properly managed, will prove as much a source of wealth in the future as the jarrah and karri forests of Western Australia.

G

A GOAT STATION.

1T is perhaps not generally known that kid gloves are made from goatskins. The term "kid," as applied to gloves, appears to have no affinity to the term "goat" in the public mind. Be that as it may, millions of pairs of gloves of all shades and thicknesses are the product of the destructive goat.

A gentleman from London, Mr. C. A. Cox, who visited Australia last year, has taken up a selection of 340 square miles, some 40 miles west of Charlotte Waters, South Australia, with a view of stocking it with goats, for the purpose of utilising the skins for glove-making. Mr. Cox's representative has left Adelaide lately for the station to make arrangements for stocking the

country.

Here we have another industry which might be advantageously entered upon in Queensland. We look upon goats as a nuisance. So they undoubtedly are in towns and suburbs, but there are many hundreds, indeed thousands, of square miles in this colony which could be utilised for goat-farming, and which would well repay the pioneer goat-farmer. Take the rough broken country of the eastern side of the Main Range or the coastlands, which are useless for farming or cattle and sheep raising. Goats will thrive well on these lands. They do not require large stockyards or fences or stockmen. They are thoroughly domesticated animals, and can be looked after by the small boys and girls of the family, and, in addition to their value as skin-producers, they furnish rich milk and cheese, not to speak of their flesh, which is excellent food if the animal is killed young.

Goat-skins are worth in the Brisbane market from 1s. to 2s. 8d. each; and as goats-that is, the ordinary goats we find about the towns-are only worth from 1s. 6d. to 5s. a head, there should be a large margin of profit to be obtained from them, as they require no expensive food, generally foraging for themselves.

In a work entitled "The Angora Goat," by S. G. Crounright Schreiner, published under the auspices of the South African Angora Goat Breeders' Association, portions of which work are reproduced by Garden and Field, we find the following on

THE ANGORA GOAT AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA. He says: "It was, I believe, from Cape Colony that Australia first obtained her Merino sheep; and it is indirectly due to the same country that she was induced to experiment with the Angora. Her phenomenal success in the one is not more pronounced than her failure in the other." The first seven were imported by Mr. Sechel, of Melbourne, in 1857, from Asia Minor, and found their way to the Melbourne Zoo. Particulars of later importations and attempts at establishing the industry are given by Mr. Schreiner, who specially refers to those of Sir Samuel Wilson in Victoria, who published a pamphlet, "The Angora Goat," in 1873; and Mr. Price Maurice, at Kastamboul, in this colony from 1869 to 1873. The Angora goat industry has not thriven in Australia, and the author concludes that the country is not suited to the animal.

IS HE CORRECT?-Kastamboul is in the Mount Lofty Ranges, about 12 miles from Adelaide, adjacent to Montacute and Highercombe. It is overlooked by the vice-regal residence at Marble Hill. Much of the country is rough and hilly, but is thickly timbered, and the dense scrub is of a very different character to that of Angora. The climate in winter is wet, and, although snow rarely falls, is cold. The rainfall is over 30 inches. The precipitous hills are separated by narrow valleys, with permanent watercourses and small swamps, which, when drained, are among the richest and most productive spots in the world. According to Mr. Schreiner this is altogether an unsuitable locality for the somewhat delicate highly-bred Angora goats. The conclusion forced upon us after studying the book is that the attempts made to introduce the Angora goat into Australia have failed because the localities selected have been unsuitabletoo rich or too wet. Had Mr. Price Maurice's efforts been expended on dry arid northern hilly, north-north-west, or north-east shrubby, hilly country, the