Allora 135 years ago Part 2

Deborah Wheeler editor@thedailyjournal.ink

Our newspapers have been asked to again print the second and final article ‘Some wheat farms’ by Christophus which appeared in the Brisbane Courier on 18th February 1888. Many people who were at the recent Allora Show, commented on how different things are today. Allora is a thriving small township and it is great when you can see how hard the early settler of the district worked leaving the way open to the community of today to move forward and prosper. Thank you to our readers for their positive feedback on this series of articles. Enjoy.

It is not, however, with the Forest Plain that this paper would deal. It was to visit some of the wheat farms at Mount Pleasant which are situated just beyond the boundary of the Exchange lands I set forth. Mount Pleasant stands amongst the wooded ranges at the head of the Forest Plain. In the old days when the surrounding land formed part of Goomburra run Mount Pleasant was one of the out-stations, and it is on the sites of many of those old sheep camps that homesteads have been made. The country is very broken about here, heavily timbered, and traversed in places by deep gullies which show the great depth of the soil. It is probable that twenty years ago many of these gullies were not in existence but have been gradually worn down to their present depth by the water finding channels down dray tracks. The formation is evidently basaltic and some of the alluvial deposits on the slopes and small flats are very rich and deep. I noticed that on some of the ridges the soil was red in colour, somewhat resembling the Toowoomba soil but more gravelly, whilst on the flats and slopes the colour was a deep black. The first two farms I visited belonged to Messrs. Tickle and Chard respectively. They are small in area, consisting of about 100 acres, but a great deal of work has been done in the way of clearing, &c. Mr. Tickle, on his farm Beulah, has cleared about 50 acres of what was originally thick forest of gum, ironbark, and box. The house is prettily situated on the summit of a high ridge more than 200ft. above Goomburra, and commands a fine view of swelling purple ridges and stretches of yellow plain bright with cultivation - a view typically Australian - sombre but bountiful. I saw here peach, apple, fig, quince, apricot, nectarine, plum, and mulberry trees all doing well. The ground was well stirred round the trees, and each tree matched with stockyard manure. Some young vines put in last year were thriving vigorously, but the orange tree does not do at all well, probably on account of westerly winds in winter. The situation is well suited for an orchard. Mr. Chard has cleared about the same area of ground as his neighbour, and has had to contend with the same difficulties. Those farmers have been generally successful in wheat growing, very rarely having a failure in fact, the year before last was the first time the crop had absolute- ly failed, and even then some of them saved their seed. No doubt the reason of their success may be attributed to the proximity of the land to the Main Range. Those high ridges catch the showers that do not extend to the low-lying country beneath, and it has been generally in a dry year that they have had good returns sometimes eight bags per acre when there has been no wheat on the flats. I should think the soil would prove too strong in wet seasons, letting the cross run too much to flag and straw. The lie of the land is very suitable for wheat growing, consisting of well-drained slopes, and the clearing has added to the effectiveness of the drainage but the situation is liable to hailstorms.

All the farmers just round here strip their wheat, and say it is the cheapest method. In fact, the reaper and binder would not work comfortably on this description of country, and the thrashing machine would have great difficulty in reaching the spot. As far as I could see, the strippers had been very wasteful, as in some of the paddock where the straw had been burnt off the ground was covered with baked grain. Mr. Chard told me the wheat had been lying down in some places to such an extent that the machine could not touch it, and a considerable percentage was lost. I asked Mr. Chard how the wheat did on the places where the heaps of burnt timber had stood, and he informed me that the ashes had to be well scattered, otherwise the growth was too strong in wet seasons and too stunted in dry. The wheat chiefly grown has been Purple Straw and Talavera, both very subject to rust, but good milling wheats. Defiance seems to be the favourite now, and on all sides I heard it well spoken of. Mr. Chard’s theory is that the quality of the wheat is affected by the description of soil it has been grown in. As a case in point he mentioned that some Defiance from the same seed was raised in one case on gravelly soil and in another on black. When taken to the mill they were mistaken by the author for different varieties, the grain grown in the black soil being greatly superior. Farmers around here are great believers in seeding down the crop when it grows too strong. Three years ago, Mr. Chard informed me he fed his paddock down five times with sheep, and ultimately stripped eight bags per acre from it. From personal experience I can vouch for the effectiveness of feeding the crop down, as the stock firm the ground well round the plants and when the wheat gets a fresh start it is rarely laid afterwards. About six bags per acre has been stripped off these farms, but much has been lost by the stripper. These holdings are almost entirely given up to wheat growing. After the crop is stripped, the straw is burnt and the land ploughed. It then lies fallow for some months and receives another ploughing. As a proof of the inexhaustible character of the soil it may be mentioned that wheat has been taken off these slopes year after year for the last eight seasons, the soil receiving no manure except the potash of the burnt straw. By CHRISTOPHUS, in the Queenslander.

Source: Brisbane Courier, 18 Feb 1888

TRACTORS & SLASHERS: - 2013

John Deere 4720 4wd tractor 4 in 1 bucket & forks 2540 hrs, Massey Ferguson GC 2300 4wd tractor 60-inch deck cut 3ptl, Howard 5ft 3ptl slasher

VEHICLES: - 2016 Range Rover Sport

Wagon diesel 198,000 km reg

HAY EQUIPMENT: - Welger AP 530 baler, mower conditioner, Hayline 94-6 accumulator, Hayline 17-7 grab

QUAD BIKES: - Kawasaki Workhorse 4wd quad bike & trailer 1683 hrs 8900 km

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HORSE FLOATS: - 2009 PBL 4 horse angle load float interior lights reg, CUB 4 horse straight load reg

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HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE: - house full of furniture

SPORTING MEMORABILIA: - signed Sir Donald Bradman cricket bat in frame, signed Wallaby jersey Geoff Paul & Peter McLean, State of Origin jersey, State of Origin framed poster, Battle of Codes signed framed plaque AFL & NRL PLUS MUCH MUCH MORE

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