176 AyricuUural Gazette of X.S.W. [Mar. 2,[1920. 



Effects of a Crop Competition in Victoria. 



Extract from the report of the judge (Mr. A. H. Mullet, B.Ag.Sc, Chief 

 Field Officer, Victorian Department of Agriculture) on the Nhill Crop and 

 Fallow Com[)etition, 1919 :^— 



" Except for a break of one year during the 1914 drought, this competition 



has been held annually for twenty successive years, and it now ranks as one 



of the established agricultural institutions of the State. The benefits that 



have been conferred by it locally are widely recognised, and the view is 



.generalh' accepted that such competitions are most valuable in encouraging 



the spread of the best farming practices 



"At Nhill the competition has developed much further than a mere contest 

 for a prize. It takes the form of an annual public investigation on the spot 

 into the methods by which the best crops of the year in the district have 

 been grown. It even goes further than that. Prior to the war, in one 

 section of the competition the whole of the farm — home, garden, buildings 

 • and their arrangement, subdivision, fencing, water supply, plant and imple- 

 ments, horses, sheep and cattle — were judged as well. The effect has been 

 most noteworthy, and to-day on th" average there is nn district in the wheat 

 belt where the farms aie so well improved or l)etter managed than at Nhill." 



Wheat on Heavy Black Soil. 



" I HAVE a 14:0-acre paddock of very heavy black and chocolate soil. AVheat 

 has failed on it three out of five years, and I am advised to plant oats. I 

 want to plough and sow early, and I think oats can be sown earlier than 

 wheat. "What can you advise ? What ahout broadcasting and ploughing in ? " 



Rej^lymg to this question from the Merry goen district, the Chief Inspector 

 of Agciculture recently wrote as follows : — " Crops are only giown success- 

 fully on this class of land when the rainfall is fairly favourable. From the 

 results which we have obtained from similar soil, we consider that wheat is 

 just as likely to succeed as oats — as a matter of fact, some oi the early wheats 

 rgive a better return than oats, as they reach maturity at an earlier stage, 

 and are not affected by drought to the same extent. 



" With this class of land, broadcasting the seed gives excellent results, 

 and is apparently quite as good as drilling the seed in. We recommend 

 early planting, say about April, as the crop then comes to maturity before 

 the hot weather of the following spring, which is a mo.st critical time with 

 crops when grown on black soil."' 



"Cheap" Banana Suckers are SoMiiTiMES Costly. 



It is pointed out by the Assistant Fruit Expert stationed at Mur\\T[llumbah, 

 that in the cultivation of bananas much dei)ends upon the selection of the 

 young suckers. He lays great stress on the necessity of obtaining these 

 ifrom healthy plants, and especially warns new growers not to purchase 

 their slips simply because they are cheap. It would be to the advantage 

 of such growers to have the suckers examined and selected by the Depart- 

 ment.— W. J. Allen. 



