Oct. 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W, 687 



However, during the twenty-two years the Department has been en- 

 deavouring to solve the problems of the west much has been learned, and 

 although the cultivation of wheat for grain cannot be recommended, the 

 position for the growth of hay has certainly been made safer by the data 

 supplied from the results of the experiments which have been conducted. 

 Of the many factors which tend to the successful growth of crops the three 

 main ones which are humanly controllable are : — 



1. Fallowing and suitable preparation of the land. 



2. Suitable varieties. 



3. Light seeding. 



If these three factors bo duly recognised and strictly employed, then the 

 battle against adverse agents is turned in our favour, and success assured in 

 a great measure. 



Tiiat there will be failures in very dry seasons with the most approved 

 methods is only to be expected, seeing that our safe districts suder likewise, 

 and unless sufficient moisture falls it is impossible to grow crops, but when 

 rains do come in sufficient quantity it must be our care to conserve them 

 in the soil. This is the ait of good farming. The results here (juoted 

 show the possibilities of such farming at Nyngan. 



In addition to the crops that can be harvested and conserved as fodder in 

 the form of hay or silage, there are also the grazing crops, chief of which up 

 to the present has been rape, and it is worthy of note that only in 1918 was 

 rape an absolute failure. On s(!veral occasions it failed to germinate imme- 

 diately when planted, owing to lack of moisture in the soil, but it eventually 

 did so when sufficient rain came, and in many cases produced heavy crops 

 which made sutHcient growth on which to graze as many as ten sheep to the 

 acre for a period of two months. 



The value of rape is generally recognised as a rotation crop with wheat, both 

 as a fodder for stock and as a soil renovator in keeping up the humus content 

 of the soil and aerating and sweetening the subsoil by its deep-rooted habit of 

 growth. Its value as fodder is increased by the fact that the expenses of 

 harvesting are unnecessary. 



Other fodder crops have been tried, and sorghum and Sudan grass have 

 been fairly successful, but further trials are necessary before their growth 

 can be recommended. 



For those who intend to make it their home, the west can be made more 

 secure against droughts by the growth and conservation of ibdder as a reserve 

 to carry them through the lean years which periodically occur, and it is more 

 than probable that greater advances will be made in this direction in the 

 future than have been in the past. As one who has been intimately con- 

 nected with the development of this work since its inception twenty-two 

 years ago, I look forward with confidence to the time when the stout-hearted 

 dwellers of that gieat expanse of country shall be enabled, by the adoption 

 of scientific methods of agriculture, to withstand to a much greater degree 

 their most formidable enemy. 



