Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales Volume 4, No. 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt: ... There is abundance of tobacco land within a radius of 25 miles of Dungog, and if a steady market could be found for the leaf at anything over 5d. per lb., most of the farmers would plant a few acres every year. Gresford. It is claimed that this district was the cradle of the tobacco iudustry and that in the early days every homestead had its tobacco curing-house, every village its factory, and Alloynbrook, Halton, Bandon Grove, Underbank, Salisbury, Eccleston, and Upper Chichester grew and manufactured tobacco for half the Colony. For the last five years, however, tobacco-growing has practically ceased and this state of affairs is attributed by farmers and manufacturers alike to the imposition of the excise duty. The report points out that while the quantity of colonial leaf consumed has decreased 7 per cent, notwithstanding the increase of the population, the imports of foreign tobacco have steadily increased. The manufacturers explain that this is caused by the poor quality of the home-grown leaf, but, as was previously explained, their action in paying the one price for good and bad leaf was probably the immediate cause of carelessness on the part of growers who found that their efforts to supply a superior leaf were useless. The explanations of the proposals of the Department to grow experimental crops to test the English markets did not meet with much appreciation although one grower gave a half-hearted promise to undertake an experiment. Cross-breds for Freezing and Export. The Chief Inspector of Stock, Mr. Alexander Bruce, recommended to the Minister for Mines and Agriculture some time ago the importance of sheepowners ascertaining which is the best description of English ram for our merino, ewes for the production of cross-breds for freezing and ex...