THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



185 



exports were the following items : bark £1,310, black 

 sand £6,930, boats £1,094, bones £5,135, boots and 

 shoes (mainly to New South Wales) £37,269, building 

 materials £11,501, candles £(!, 610, copper £34,385, 

 glue pieces £1,259, gold £9,122,037, guano £2,923, 

 gum £900, hides £135,650, horns and hoofs £7,202, 

 jewellery £3,473, leather £10,316, horned stock 

 £55,902, horses £77,053, sheep £25,799, specie 

 £1,304,992, silver £889, specimens of natural history 

 £2,443. Total value of the imports £15,622,891, of 

 which £10,263,468 was for British and £3,242,325 

 colonial goods. The exports were valued at a total of 

 £13,867,859, of which £11,282,319 represented tlie 

 produce of Victoria j from Great Britain imports were 

 received worth £9,176,528, and exports sent worth 

 £10,542,849. 



Manufactories of different kinds arc springing up in 

 the colony. Thus there are 59 saw-mills, 31 tanneries, 

 20 fcllinongeries, 48 coacli factories, 2 tobacco manu- 

 factories, 41 agricultural implement makers, 22 ma- 

 chinists, 3 bone-manure works, 46 breweries, 11 wine- 

 presses, 1 distillery, 6 biscuit manufactories, 18 soap 

 and candle works, and 97 flour-mills, of which 81 were 

 worked by steam, 14 by water, and 2 by wind and 

 horse power. On the gold fields there were 503 steam 

 engines, 6,447 puddling machines, and 144 quartz- 

 crushing machines. 



The revenue of the colony approximates to £3,000,000 

 a year, and of this large sums are being dispensed for 

 public works, railways, Government buildings, &c. 



The Houses of Parliament are estimated to cost 

 £400,000, a Custom House £93,000, a Treasury, 

 executive offices, post-office, lunatic asylum, and 

 museum to cost in the aggregate £384,000. All, how- 

 ever, is not expenditure. There is some thrift among 

 the colonists, for there were 8,854 depositors in savings 

 banks, with £468,778 at their credit, or nearly £53 to 

 each. The average paper currency in circulation was 

 nearly £2,000,000. The amount in coin is not 

 stated. 



Ship-building even occupies some degree of atten- 

 tion, although the coasting and general carrying trade 

 is conducted in vessels owned out of the colony. In 



1858 there were 6 vessels built of 178 tons, and 48 of 

 6,285 tons, added to those registered in the colony. In 



1859 a small steamer of 18 tons was built in the colony, 

 and 3 coasters ; 47 new vessels of 8,541 tons were also 

 registered in Melbourne. 



Looking at the general features of the colony — agri- 

 cultural and commercial — there is every element for 

 successful progress if speculation be avoided, and agri- 

 culture and pastoral operations be more steadily at- 

 tended to. The gold fields have been so far beneficial 

 that they have drawn public attention and immigrants 

 to the colony. But their yield is shown to be unreli- 

 able, while agricultural ijroduce is certain. The lesson 

 will not, we trust, be read in vain to the colonists, 

 who have hitherto too much neglected hay, corn, and 

 wool, for the yellow metal won by such hard toil and at 

 such sacrifice of every personal comfort. 



STAINDROP PLOUGHING MATCH. 



The thirteenth annual ploughing match, in connection 

 ■with the Staindrop Farmers' Club, came off on Tuesday, 

 Jan. 28 (having been pos'ponetl from the Tuesday previous, 

 in consequence of unfavourable weather) in a clover-ley be 

 longing to Thomas Sutton, Esq., of Alwent Farm, which is 

 situated close by the Darlington and Bamardcastle Eailway, 

 about midway between Staindrop and Winstone. Although 

 highly successful in every other respect, and well calculated 

 to give encouragement to the promoters, the entries were 

 not so numerous as on former occasions : this year tliere 

 were only thirteen entries — six for wheel ploughs, and seven 

 for s\Ying ploughs ; last year there were twenty-one. The 

 falling-off was doubtless owing, indirectl}', to that which 

 almost every ill-success in agriculture has during tlie past 

 year been ascribed — namely, the weather ; not that there was 

 any lack of fine weather on this particular day, for the sun 

 shone resplendently, but that farmers, having been thrown 

 considerably backward by the lengthened and excessive 

 frost — nowhere perhaps felt more keenly than in this neigh- 

 bourhood — are now exceedingly busy, making the most of 

 the open weather, which for the past fortnight or three 

 weeks has prevailed ; and under these circumstances they 

 are loath to part, even for a single day, with any of their 

 men, and more especially with their best men, who are the 



only persons that can hope to win in a competition which, 

 as regards the Staindrop match, comprises generally the 

 picked ploughmen of the country for miles round. The 

 ground was not in the best trim possible, being hard trod- 

 den ; but still it furnished a fair test of the competitors' in- 

 dividual skill. For wheel-ploughs, it perhaps could not 

 have been better ; but for swing-ploughs the work was very 

 heavy. The soil, of a strong nature, and not sufficiently 

 acted upon by the frost, fell not so freely from the mould- 

 board as could have been wished. The ploughing was six 

 inches deep by nine inches broad. The teams were only 

 equalled by the ploughmeu— strong and heavy, and in excel- 

 lent condition. 



There was a somewhat large and respectable company 

 on the ground. The judges were Mr. Wm. Eaine, of 

 Morton Tinmouth; and Mr. Wm. Trotter, Sledgwick. 

 Their awards were — Wheel-ploughs : to John Duck, servant 

 to Mr. Bulman, West Auckland, first prize, £2 ; second, Jl^ 

 John Dent, Streatham ; third, 10s., Joseph Harrison, with 

 Christopher Craddock, Esq., Hartforth. Swing-ploughs : 

 First, £'2, Joseph Hugginsou, with Mr. A. M'Kenzie, Arlow 

 Banks, Barnard Castle; second, ^1, Wm. Kipling, with 

 Mr. Samuel Nelson, Scaife House; tliird, 10s,, George 

 Tatterson, with ]\Ir. Balmau, West Auckland. 



