478 Journal of Agriculture. [8 August, 1907. 



FIFTH CONVENTION OF THE VICTORIAN CHAMBER 

 OF AGRICULTURE, JUNE, 1907. 



I. PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURE. 



T. Cherry, M.D., M.S., Director of Agriculture. 



The Department of Agriculture of Victoria enters perhaps more fully 

 into the every dav acti^'ities of the farmer than that of any of the other 

 Australian States.' We attempt not only to control many of the conditions 

 of the farm bv means of inspectors, but we take the responsibility of ad- 

 vising farmers what to do from season to season, and try to get our very 

 definite ideas about successful farm management put into practice. In a 

 word, I hold that what is most necessary at the present day is not the 

 discovery of new scientific facts, but a general levelling up of farm practice 

 so as to bring the average up to what we know is capable of being accom- 

 plished by a man of average industry and common sense. Hence I am 

 very glad of this opportunity of placing some of the ideas wdiich guide 

 the policy of the Department before your convention. 



Now, there can be no question about the general prosperity of the 

 Victorian farmer. The value of farm land can be best judged by the 

 numbers of live stock that it carries. In two years there has been an all- 

 round increase of 17 per cent, in the numbers of live stock carried in 

 Victoria. At this rate the number will be doubled in less than nine years. 

 At the same time the average returns from each head of cattle and sheep 

 are steadily improving. Anv business which is in such a position is un- 

 doubtedly healthv and prosperous. What w^e aim at doing is to hurry up 

 the process and to place it on the soundest possible basis. We hold that 

 the three great factors in increasing the fertility of Victorian lands are 

 live stock, cultivation, and phosphoric acid. We are on surer ground in 

 being dogmatic in this respect than ever before. Indeed, the matter is 

 now removed from the region of doubt and speculation to one of certainty. 



The Secrets of Progress. 



There are three points on which we are able now to make definite 

 statements which clearly explain the reasons for some of the oldest and 

 best-established lines of farm practice. First, it has been known for ages 

 that the crop which follows one of the pod-bearing plants is on the average 

 more than usually prolific. In some way the pod-bearing or leguminous 

 crop has left something behind it which has increased the fertility of the 

 soil. Nowadays we can say definitely that the pod-bearers have the power 

 of taking hold of the nitrogen of the atmosphere, changing it into some- 

 thing equivalent to nitric acid, and leaving this with the stubble in the 

 soil to serve as food for the next series of plants that grow on the same 

 soil. Hence the importance of peas, beans, lucerne, clover and trefoil. 

 Further, such crops not only enrich the soil, but they supply the most 

 valuable food for live stock that can be raised on the farm. Second, as 

 to phosphoric acid. The experiments of the Department continued from 

 year to year go to show that phosphoric acid is the one dominant require- 

 ment of Victorian soils, and that for northern land the best results with 

 wheat were obtained by using 56 lbs. of 20 per cent, super, to the acre. 

 Then again we can make a broad generalization which with a few trifling 



