Vol. XIX. Part 11. NOVEMBER 2, 1908. 



Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales. 



Electricity and Agriculture. 



W. H. P. CHERRY, 

 Department of Agriculture. 



A FEW years ago Sir William Crooke in a Presidential Address to the 

 British Association prophesied that the day was drawing nigh when resort 

 to the aid of chemical science for the purpose of increasing the productivity 

 of the soil and maintaining the supply of wheat would become necessary. 

 Last year Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson declared that a shortage of 

 wheat is already imminent. The available territory, at the present rate of 

 production and consumption, he estimates as sufficient for 666 millions of 

 people, and by the end of 1910 he reckons we shall have a wheat-consuming 

 jjopulation equal to that number. 



It may fairly be urged that Ijoth these scientists take a pessimistic view. 

 Not only have they failed to recognise the vast possibilities of the Australian 

 ■continent and other countries which so far have but little developed, but 

 the gauging of these possibilities is at the best a matter of rough conjecture. 

 The Commonwealth potentialities are great now, but with the achieve- 

 ment, for instance, of the projected inland sea, who can say how extensively 

 they would be enhanced ? That there are conflicting opinions regarding this 

 scheme is of course admitted. 



Furthermore, it remains to be seen what effect changed conditions of 

 holding land will bring about, Ijoth in old and in new countries. The ti*ena 

 of modern legislation in connection with the question of the best disposal of 

 the land in the interests of the whole community, instead of for the advan- 

 tage of a grasping few, cannot fail to have an influence on the general food 

 sujoply. In the dictum of the famous scientist (Crooke), that " starvation 

 may be averted through the laboratory," and, presumably, only through that 

 -channel, there is a somewhat gratuitous assumption that all other means are 

 practically exhausted. It is the province of that class of social economist 

 who looks more to the fuller utilisation of the existing circumstances, to 

 show that we ought still to be a long way from the absolute necessity/ for 

 adopting the scientific methods advocated for increasing natural production. 



Nevertheless, while not a matter of sheer necessity, it may still be recog- 

 nised as a very desirable course to pursue. The application of such methods 

 may be more advantageous than cultivating larger areas of land. In the 

 advance of science it is possible, for instance, that the application of elec- 

 tricity, chemistry, or other scientific treatment, to an area of 1,000 acres of 

 wheat, might be more profitable, and entail considerably less labour than the 

 ordinary cultivation of an additional 500 acres, which would thus remain 

 available for other use. In this connection the .scope of the present article 

 is to collate the information bearing on the recent developments of electricity 

 as applied to agriculture, both directly and indirectly. 



