TH6 JOUHNAb 



OF 



T^fie department of Hgricufture. 



Vol. VI. Part 1. 8th January, 1908. 



NHILL FARM COMPETITION, VM)]. 



F. R. Lee, Agricultural Superintcudciit. 

 Report to the Secretary, Nhill Agricultural -Society. 



Lib 



(iAKl*B 



I have much pleasure in forwarding my report and awards in con- 

 nexion with the Farm Competition recenilv carried out under the auspices 

 of your Society. It has been most interesting to me, for the third time, 

 to have the opportunity of witnessing the agricultural progress of the 

 Nhill district, and it mav be of some service to your farmers to have 

 an independent criticism of their methods and practice. 



I can congratulate your Society in having, through the medium of 

 these Farm Competitions, brought about a most commendable spirit of 

 emulation between land-owners, which is reflected everv vear in the 

 building of more commodious homesteads, and a general improvement in 

 stock and implements. One other excellent feature made prominent by 

 the Competition is the demonstration of methods wherebv the sandy 

 Mallee country is being subdued and made productive. It would be 

 hard to overestimate the value to the State, of the solution of these 

 and allied problems, and there is little doubt that much at present un- 

 occupied country in northern Victoria will e\'entuallv be ])opulously 

 settled by the methods of treatment prartised by some of your more 

 progressive farmers. 



Although the number of competitors in the section for Large Farms 

 is not as large as it might be, a considerable amount of interest has 

 been evinced, and the following detailed comments may Le of interest: — 



Best Farms of over 640 Acres. 



{a) The best system of cultivation and rotation pursued — 7 5 points. — 

 The practice in this connexion varies verv little in the Wimmera and 

 might be termed the usual five years' rotation of the combined wheat and 

 sheep farmer, viz., wheat, oats, two or three years' grass, fallow and 

 crop again. On new land it is not uncommon to take two successive 

 crops of wheat, but the necessity for sheep feed generally regulates 

 matters in this direction. It cannot be said that much enterprise has been 



1,5930. A 



