THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



457 



produce, and some new objects of industry, have grown 

 into importance; for instance, the preparation of 

 timber, and tho growth of fruit and vegetables for tlic 

 markets of the neighbouring colonics. 



In no part of the world is wlieat raised with greater 

 facility, or of more excellent quality. Among the Tas- 

 manian produce on show at the Crystal Palace is a sam- 

 ple of wheat weighing 701bs. per bushel. [Samples 

 sent to the London Exhibition in 1851, and to Paris in 

 1355, were pronounced to be of first-rate quality, and 

 obtained medals. In some districts of the island 50 

 bushels to the acre have been reaped; but the average 

 return over the island is scarcely Iialf that quantity. 

 But the reasons for this are, the slovenly system of 

 general culture, by over-cropping continuously with 

 wheat without the application of any manure, and the 

 selection of land free from timber, or nearly, which is 

 generally the poorest soil, and ought to have fertilizers 

 applied. Tlie great advantages which the Tasmanian 

 farmer enjoys in the fine weather of winter for his out- 

 door labours, of spring for his seedtime, and of autumn 

 for his harvest — as it relieves him of all anxiety — 

 might well reconcile him even to a comparatively light 

 return ; but it is not right tliat a deficiency arising out 

 of defective farming should l)e attributed to the soil. 



Within the last twenty years wheat has been sold in 

 Ilobart Town as low as 3s. 3d. per bushel ; but the ave- 

 rage price for the same period may be fixed at 6s. to 

 7s., a rate which, under the ordinary circumstances of 

 wages, &c., pays the farmer well. According to the 

 latest returns there were about 209,000 acres under 

 culture with wheat in the colony. The exports in 1859 

 were 100,405 bushels, valued at ^'92,861, and of flour 

 £105,128. The last Tasmanian advices report prime 

 samples of wheat selling at 7s. to 7s. 3d. per bushel. 

 The condition of the Melbourne market rules the price 

 of wheat in Tasmania, as in most of the other colonies. 

 About 36,000 acres are under cultivation with oats, 

 yielding 918,881 bushels; it was selling, at the latest 

 dates, at 3s. per bushel. Barley is not a favourite crop 

 with farmers in Tasmania. The potatoes raised are ex- 

 cellent — quite equal, in point of dryness, to the best 

 grown in England, and preferred for flavour. The 

 average yield of the whole colony is 5 tons to the acre, 

 but 7, 8, and in some cases 10 tons to the acre are ob- 

 tained. English grasses are cultivated rather exten- 

 sively for hay, and yield a fair return, hoi'se-provender 

 being always in demand in the colony, as well as in 

 Melbourne. The price in December, 1860, was £4: 

 and £G per ton. 



Passing to live stock, we find that there were in the 

 island, in 1859, 20,559 horses. The gold of Victoria has 

 now effected a transfer of much of the horse-flesh of 

 Tasmania to the opposite shores. The cattle introduced 

 into the colony are the Durham or shorthorn, the Here- 

 ford, the Ayrshire, the West Highland, and the Devon. 

 These have all, at one time or other, and to a greater 

 or less extent, been crossed with an original coarse 

 long-horned variety, betraying Indian lineage or con- 

 nection, and derived probably from New South Wales 

 in the very earliest times of the colony. The Durham 

 is the favourite breed, but it carries a frame and carcase 

 too large for the natural pastures, save in exceptional 

 localitiee, and it is too delicate in constitution ; the 

 Ayrshire maintains in the colony its high reputation as 

 a milch cow, but the Devon is by far the best adapted 

 in frame, constitution, and kindly feeding properties, 

 for the natural pastures of the island, and it is decidedly 

 a comely animal. The kyloe, promises to yield a cross 

 extremely well suited for the wild, warm, and humid 

 feeding-grounds to the westward. The number of 

 horned cattle in the island, in 1859, appeal's, by 

 Government tables, to have been 79,950, 



Pigs are extensively cultivated by farmers of every 

 degree. 



From the very commencement of the colony to tlic 

 present time the work of clearing ai.d cropping the 

 land has gone hand in hand with the culture of live 

 stock. Thousands and thousands of sheep are de- 

 pastured over tlie high table-land of the interior, a.s 

 there is found here a most ample supply of verdant 

 pasturage at seasons when, on account of continued 

 sunshine and drought, it is very scarce upon the low- 

 lying sheep-runs to the eastward. Hence has arisen 

 the practice amongst flock-owners of holding stations 

 both on the lower and higher lands ; the former for 

 winter, and tlie latter for summer pastui'age : a custom 

 which lias added vastly to the capabilities of the colony 

 for depasturing sheep. 



Sheep farming, from the earliest times of the Aut;- 

 tralian settlements as the resort of free colonists, has 

 been regarded as the most profitable mode of investing 

 capital. The capabilities and suitability of Tasmania 

 for the production of wool of the finest fibre and 

 highest value for the purposes of the nianul'acturer is 

 well known. The high prices commanded in the Eng- 

 lish market by wool from the flocks of Messrs. Kermode, 

 Smith, Maclanachan, and others, practically attest the 

 fact. Its character was acknowledged to be of the 

 highest order at the London Exhibition of 1851, and 

 at Paris in 1855. The capacity of the island for main- 

 taining a much larger number of sheep than are at 

 present depastured there, can scarcely be doubted. For 

 a long time sheep-owners in Tasmania cultivated fine- 

 ness and softness of fibre exclusively, and the result 

 was a delicate animal and comparatively light carcase ; 

 but a change took place with the rise in tlie value of 

 animal food, and for many years past it has been the 

 aim of flock-owners to combine length of ^taple with 

 fineness of fibre to the utmost extent which tliey can 

 command, a course by which they obtain a much 

 heavier fleece, and a larger and probably haixlier 

 animal. With this view the highly improved merinos 

 have been crossed with tho Leicester, New Leicester, 

 and South Down bi'eeds, and in many instances with 

 great success. 



The number of sheep in the colony has about 

 doubled in the last twenty years. In 1839 the 

 number returned was 898,590, and in 18-59 1,097,199. 

 There appears to have been a falling off since 

 1854, but on closely examining tlie returns we find 

 the weight of wool exported in 1854 to have been 

 4,419,276 lbs. : in 1859 6,107,903 lbs. ; and as there is 

 a nearly corresponding difference in the value, it may 

 be concluded that small sheep, of short wool and light 

 fleece, had been replaced to some extent with slieep of 

 larger frame and longer and heavier wool. Upon arti- 

 ficial pastures, along the north and north-west coast, 

 where the climate is humid as well as warm, the Lei- 

 cesters attain a size and weight little short of tho prize 

 animals exhibited at cattle shows in England, but they 

 are not calculated to thrive on the comparatively thin 

 natural pasturage. The Cheviots have been introduced, 

 and, as might have been expected, arc found to thrive 

 prodigiously, and to increase rapidly ; but it is a question- 

 able proceeding to replace the merino crossed with 

 Leicester blood, yielding a fleece of fine wool of rather 

 long staple, for a breed that, however hardy, is remark- 

 able for the vulgai-ily of quality in the wool throughout 

 its fleece, and which scarcely bears a fleece heavier 

 than that of the animal it supersedes. 



The amount of increase realized from breeding flocks 

 in Tasmania is dependent to a great extent upon the 

 condition as to flesh, and health of the ewes, upon tlie 

 nature of the pastures as to the abundance of grass, or 

 the reverse, and upon the nature of (lie weather at that 



