AUSTRALIAN PEANUTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18020, 20 February 1922, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN PEANUTS.

CULTIVATION IN QUEENSLAND.

The growing importance of the peanut as a source of oil has induced enterprising Australians to look round for suitableareas of cultivation, and no better ground has yet been found than in the Cooktown district of Queensland, says the North Queensland Register. At present Australia imports annually about 2000 tons of peanuts and 250,000 gallons of peanut oil from the East, but all that will eoou be changed. The Cooktown area is rich in volcanic formation, the soil in some places being twenty feet deep. Being 600 ft. above sea, the district is removed from the coastal belt, the climate of which is extremely trying, though not positively unhealthy. The climate in the uplands is equable and comparatively cool, is free from frost, and has an abundant rainfall. Experiments already made in this district have produced samples of peanuts with an oil content of 51 per cent., equal to anything in the world, and better than the results achieved in many places where the growing of these nuU is a largely developed industry. This initial success is to be followed up by_ operations on a larger and more systematic scalo. Two varieties are to be grown—the large Chhm-e sort and the red - Spanish. The first-grade nuts will be put up for ordinary edible purposes and for use in confectionery, while the second and third grade will be crushed for oil. 1