II Jan., 1909. J Problem of our Unproductive Lo-uds. 23 



to animals will inevitably lead to a steady increase in the 

 fertility of the lana. So much for theory. To indicate 

 the extent to which this theory is borne out by practical 

 rc^sults I would refer to a few well-known localities. Much 

 of the market garden area near Melbourne — the land lying 

 between Dandenong, Brighton and Cheltenham is represen- 

 tative of the poorer parts of the sandy coastal plain. 

 Specimens taken from virgin paddocks indicate that 

 all three constituents of plant food are very low, yet this 

 land is being readily sold at an average of jQio per acre, 

 and converted into market gardens. The market gardeners 

 make a success of it by carting loads of stable manure and 

 by using 4 or 5 cwt. of bone-dust or superphosphate to the 

 acre. There is therefore ample proof that the transforma- 

 tion is easily brought about. The question is whether it 

 will pay for the ordinary farmer to attempt to do it. We 

 shall see this a little later on. 



To the south of Geelong there are large areas of the cutting 

 grass country representative of an immense portion of the 

 3,000,000 acres in the south of Victoria. In the old days 

 it carried a sheep to four or five acres. Since the advent of 

 the disc plo'Ugh and phosphatic manures it has been brought 

 under cultivation chiefly for crops of hay. The faxm-yard 

 manure is furnished by the grazing of sheep on the stubble, 

 and in some cases grazing down the crop during the winter 

 months. The fact that large areas of this land are being 

 leased at from 6s. to 8s. per acre per a.nnum is an indica- 

 tion of what can be done by such methods. 

 3. All through the coastal area of the hilly country we meet with 

 flourishing orchards. Sometimes specially good spots are 

 selected, but on the other hand in many cases the top of a 

 sandy ridge is occupied by the fruit trees. Such orchards 

 often have peas or other leguminous plants grown as winter 

 crops to be ploughed in early in spring. The market price 

 of orchard land of this character in the neighbourhood of 

 Doncaster is sufficiently proved to show that the venture 

 has turned out a practical success. 



It will be seen from the foregoing examples that in many cases the 

 reclamation of the poorer lands in Victoria has already been successfully 

 accomplished. It may be argued that the market gardeners who have 

 made a most conspicuous success of this method have merely been trans- 

 porting the fertility from the Melbourne stables on to the land. This is 

 certainly true, but it must be remembexed that the same end may be 

 obtained by grazing off with sheep or by w^orking the holding as a dairy 

 farm. Naturally the climatic conditions are more favorable for sheep in 

 the northexn parts of Victoria and fox dairy farming in the southern. 

 In the case of sheep, the land is brought under cultivation and the first 

 crop grown with the assistance of superphosphate. Wheat, oats, rape 

 and peas can all be grown in areas where the rainfall is 20 inches or 

 upwards. In the course of a few years part of the farm may be laid 

 down to lucerne in many localities, while there are a number of successful 

 examples throughout all the wheat-growing areas of the adoption of a 

 rotation system of crop, grazing and fallow with the substitution, to some 

 extent at least, of a green fallow of rape over a portion of the bare 

 fallow usually adopted. 



