328 Journal op the Department of Agriculture. 



eft'ects of a loose, oi)en, non-consolidated seed-bed than wheat, and 

 if it is intended to give deep tillage, care must be taken to see that 

 the fallowing is started early in the season. As a general principle, 

 land should be left in the rough during the winter in a wot district, 

 whilst in the very dry areas the sooner the land is woikcd down the 

 l>clter." 



Summer Cultivation. — " Under no circumstances should a hard 

 crust be allowed to form on the surface. A loose crumbling layer of 

 soil will act as a mulch and reduce the losses by evaporation to a 

 minimum. Frequently summer cultivation is overdone." 



Means of Adding Organic Matter to Soil necessary when 

 Alternate Bare Fallowing is practised. — " There are three general 

 wajs of supplying the soil with the organic matter necessary to 

 maintain its fertility : (1) by the application of farmyard manure ; 

 (2) by pasturing and by rest; (3) by green manuring." 



Rotation Systems for Wheat. — " In the wheat areas proper, the 

 growing of summer crops is more or less risky and uncertain, and for 

 securing suitable crops for rotation with wheat we are driven back 

 to the use of winter-growing forages or cereals. A very widely 

 practised rotation in the wheat areas is that of wheat, pasture, bare 

 fallow. This practice enables but one crop in three years to be taken 

 off a given piece of land. One-third of the farm area is devoted to 

 pasture for sheep and lambs, whilst the remainder, for a portion of 

 the year, is under bare fallow. vSince but one crop is taken off in 

 three years, and the crop is followed by a year of pasture, the sj'stem 

 is not exhausting, and with careful working one would expect a suc- 

 cession of heavy crops for many years. The important point about 

 this j'otation is that it requires a minimum of labour, and is well 

 adapted for a district in which holdings are large and land is 

 relatively cheap, and the rainfall scanty. 



"A modification of this rotation is largely practised in the 

 Wimmera and consists of wheat, oats (for pasture), pasture, bare 

 fallow. The wheat is sown in well-prepared bare fallow, 

 and, after the wheat is harvested, oats aie disced in the 

 autumn on the stubbles, and utilized for pasture. After oats, the 

 paddock is depastured for sheep and lambs, and the rotation brought 

 to a close by a season of bare fallow. Under this scheme of rotation 

 there can be little doubt that the organic content of the soil may be 

 maintained, as two years of pasture are given for every year of crop. 

 As will be shown later, however, the nitrogen content of the soil is 

 not likely to increase unless legumes, such as trefoil and clover, 

 regularly appear in the pasture. 



" From time to time various forage crops, such as peas, rape, 

 rye, vetches, barley, etc., have been groAvn in more or less 

 regular rotation with wheat and bare fallow in the drier areas, and 

 the results have been such as to render it extremely probable thai 

 these croi)s will play an important part in the future of wheat grow- 

 ing, more especially as the lamb industrj^ is now fiimly established. 

 It is only when the soil is rich in organic matter that the highest 

 yields may be obtained from bare fallowing, and the feeding off of 

 forage crops, grown in systematic rotation with wheat, provides the 

 grower with a means of preventing the depletion of the organic 

 content of his soil. The restoration of organic matter to the soil 



