T» Journal of Agriculture. [ii Jan., Jpop. 



THE PROBLEM OF oril l\\rUODLUTlVE LAN])8. 



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

 The Necessity for Scientific Farming. 



There is no doubt but that the problem of the utilization of our unpro- 

 ductive lands is of the greatest importance at tlie present moment. Nearly 

 all the remaining Crown lands are, in then" natural condition, ot much lower 

 value than those already alienated. Vet it is on these lands that we must 

 look for a great proportion of the new settlement in the immediate future. 

 In addition, a great deal of the redgum and box country which has already 

 been taken up — country which carries perhaps a sheep to the acre on the 

 natural grasses — is susceptible of rapid improvement when proper metiiods 

 are adopted. 



The total area of these lands in Victoria is very considerable, compris- 

 ing, first, approximately 4 million acres of the inferior and poor parts of 

 the Mallee ; second, at least double that area of hilly country forming the 

 main part of the great Dividing Range and its northern and southern 

 spurs; and third, perhaps three million acres of the sandy land along the 

 coast. The total area is at least one-fourth of the entire extent of 

 Victoria. The quality of this land of course varies, but it is all charac- 

 terized bv producing little vegetation of food \alue in its natural state, and 

 when cleared, the scrub and native plants show a great tendency to 

 re-establish them.selves. In the coastal areas the timber is mostly stunted 

 stringybark and peppermint with scrubs of dwarf sheoak and grevillias. 

 Grass' trees are not uncommon, and the smaller plants are largely heaths 

 and cutting grass. In the Mallee, a dwarf variety of this eucalypt grows 

 in much of this area, heath and grass trees are also found, and the place 

 of the cutting giass of the South is graduall\ taken by splnifex or 

 porcupine grass. 



The hill country comprises most of the slopes and upper parts of the 

 hills, consisting of slaty or granite formation, with considerable quantities 

 of quartz and hard sandstone rock. In the soil, which .is usually covered 

 by a small varietv of ironbark, stringybark and peppermint, the essential 

 plant foods exist in considerable quantities, but the difificultv is that they 

 are for the most part found in forms that are unavailable for the plant. 

 That is, some change must take place before they can be utilized by the 

 plant as food. On such poor lands one characteristic of Australian soils 

 is exaggerated — namely that there is very little difference between the sur- 

 face soil and the subsoil. Another fact which has been brought into pro- 

 minence by the work of the Department of Agriculture, is the fact that 

 such soils rarely require anything except phosphoric acid to be added in 

 the form of artificial manures. Nitrogen is generally fairlv abundant, 

 while it is very easy to rapidly increase the amount by growing peas, 

 clover, lucerne, and similar leguminous plants and by adding to the soi} 

 the residues of each year's crops after thcv have served as food for farm 

 animals. In other words it is essential on such soils to feed all the 

 produce to live stock, and the ])rofit must come not directiv from thp crop 

 but indirectlv from the animal. Potash is \ery altundanf in tlie Mallee, 

 and present in large quantities in ;)11 the clavs that are deri\ed from the 

 decomposition of the gold-fields slates nnd granites. Sufficient is generallv 

 available for all the requirements of ordinarv crops, but it is now a well- 

 established fact that anv additional amount mav be set free In tl'e act'on 



