322 Journal op the Department op Agriculture. 



WHEAT AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



Extracts from Bulletin No. 22 of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Victoria, Australia, with Notes concerning their 



APPLICABILITY TO WhEAT-GROWING IN SoUTH AfRICA, WITH 



Special Eeference to the South-western Wheat Areas of 

 THE Cape, by E. Parish, B.Sc, Department of Agriculture. 



Bulletin No. 22 of the Department of Agriculture, Victoria, on 

 " Wheat and its Cultivation," by A. E. V. Eichardson, M.A., B.Sc, 

 contains in 160 pages a remarkable collection of information con- 

 cerning wheat cultivation in Australia. Chapters full of interesting 

 and valuable detail are given on seeding operations, methods of 

 cultivation, manurial problems, wheat improvement, wheat varieties, 

 seed wheat and its treatment, and a summary of essential factors 

 in successful wheat cultivation. Since the climate in Victoria is 

 somewdiat similar to that of the south-western area of the Cape, much 

 of the information to be found in this bulletin is directly applicable 

 to wheat growing in these parts. Moreover, no complete collection 

 of information on this subject in South Africa has hitherto been 

 published. It is thought, therefore, that the publication of the 

 Victoria bulletin in the following abridged form by selecting certain 

 extracts considered applicable to wheat growing in South Africa, with 

 the addition of remarks and information based on South African 

 experience, will be of direct benefit at this season to the wheat 

 growers of the south-west Cape. For fuller detail and information 

 the bulletin should be obtained from the Department of Agriculture, 

 Victoria. 



Information, conceiniihg Victoria. — The rainfall of the dry-land 

 wheat areas of Victoria is in the neighbourhood of 20 inches or less, 

 and is largely distributed over the months of April to October, being 

 therefore almost identical with the rainfall of the south-west area of 

 the Cape. The wheat production — average of the four years 

 1915-1918 — amounts to roughly 15,000,000 muids, compared with 

 South Africa's ^i, 000, 000 muids. The average yield per acre during 

 the same period was 4.4 muids, compared with 3.3 muids for the 

 Cape and 2.6 muids per acre for Malmesbury, 3.9 for Caledon, and 

 2.7 for Piquetberg. Moreover, the rainfall in Victoria is even more 

 irregular and unreliable than in the south-western Cape, and its yields 

 of wheat have varied in two consecutive years from 0.4 muids to 4.7 

 muids per acre from this cause. There is, therefore, sufficiently 

 close similarity between the two areas to make the methods of wheat 

 growing in the one area directly applicable to the other. 



Seeding Operations. — " Wheat growers in the drier districts have 

 learned, from long experience, that in the great majority of seasons 

 the ultimate success of the crop depends very largely on getting the 

 seed sown on soil in good physical condition at the right time — within 

 what may be called the norma] seeding period, which under most 

 favourable conditions extends over some six to eight weeks. When, 



