490 



Journal of Agriculture. [lo Aug., 190J 



A FARM IN THE MAKING. 



The Geelong Harbor Trust's Farm, Sparrovale, Geelong. 

 y. S. McFadzean, Dairy Supervisor. 



The wealth of a nation depends primarily on the fertility of its land. 

 A country rich in minerals may become opulent through possessing the 

 wherewithal to buy largely of another nation's food products, and thus for 

 a time hide its own deficiencies ; but its position is dependent on an 

 unknown and unstable quantity. All necessaries of life are produced from 

 the soil; and the more highly developed a country's agricultural resources 

 are, the greater is its self-contained wealth. Farming is the one original 

 and fundamental occupation ; all other businesses and professions are either 

 its offshoots or its parasites. Every one whose labours are directed towards 

 increasing the productiveness of the soil is permanently raising the 

 commercial prosperity of that country in a degree corresponding with the 

 success of his efforts. A man may engage in trading, and should his 

 venture not be a financial success, he may go out of the business again, 

 leaving the world at large neither better nor worse for the time spent, for 

 he has been but a medium of exchange; but every tree felled or furrow 

 turned marks an advancement in the development of the world's food 

 supply. 



With the opening up of any district for agricultural purposes, those 

 portions that are the most easily brought under the plough are generally 

 the first dealt with, as they admit of a more speedy return being obtained 

 from the work ; and, when working capital is limited, a small quick return 

 is more useful than one larger, but longer in coming to hand. This is 

 often the cause of highly-productive areas, which are heavily timbered 

 or otherwise difficult to bring under cultivation, being left practically 

 idle for long periods, while poorer country more easily opened up is being 

 worked ; till later, when individual effort has succeeded sufficiently to 

 allow for the initial cost of the undertaking, or by united effort in the 

 form of a partnership or company, these richer areas are taken in hand 

 and worked successfully. 



Reclamation of Useless Land. 

 Something of this character has taken place on the lower reaches of the 

 Barwon River, about five miles south of Geelong. In that locality, which 

 IS known as Connewarre, there is a large area of several thousands of acres 

 of low-lying ground that was apparently at one time a shallow bay 

 into which the river emptied itself ; but which, silting up gradually, has 

 eventually been formed into swamps, through which the river slowly finds 

 its way to the sea. On either bank is water-logged land over which there 

 is a slight tidal flow excepting when the river is in flood. Bordering 

 on this are farms of various sizes that have been .settled for quite a number 

 of years. Some larger areas have been held by municipal and other 

 corporations, and, at the northern end where a breakwater was constructed 

 against the tide in 1841, there are .several mills and factories treating 

 such raw products as wool, hides, bark and the like. At various times, 

 there has been talk of opening up this waterway from the sea to some 

 point close to the Town of Geelong, .suflficiently to permit of the carriage of 

 merchandise; but it has been generally considered that the time was not 

 yet ripe for such a large undertaking. The inevitable silting up of the 



