THe JOURNAL 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YOkK 

 BOTANICAL 



tiAKDeN. 



OF 



Yfie ©eparfmenf of H^gricurture. 



Vol. VII. Part 8. 



10th Aug-ust, 1909. 



RECEXT PROGRESS AXD DEVELOPMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN VICTORIA.* 



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



In dealing with the Recent Progress and Development of Agricultural 

 Production in Victoria, the title which was selected by your Committee as 

 the subject of my address to-day, three conditions must be recognised. 



First. Progress in nearly every department of the producing industries has 

 been more or less of a fitful character. While on the whole substantial progress 

 has been made, there has not been the steady expansion which might have 

 been realised with a proper employment of existing conditions of soil and 

 climate, of capital and knowledge. 



Second. Many districts, some of them most favoured as far as soil and 

 climate are concerned, have shown retrogression instead of progress. 



Third. There is a vast tract of Victoria, representing one-third of the 

 entire State, with a rainfall of from 20 to 30 inches in which progress has- 

 been extremely slow, and agricultural interests in many respects have been 

 lying dormant. 



With regard to total production, cultivation had reached an area of 

 1,500,000 acres in 1880. It had reached 2,000,000 acres by 1890, and 

 3,000,000 acres by 1900. The area has increased from the latter figure 

 to 3,232,000 acres, and, in addition, about 1,000,000 acres are under 

 fallow every year. The unsatisfactory part of this return is the fact that 

 the area under crop reached its maximum in 1903, and has fallen slightly 

 since that year. Of the total area under crop, 57 per cent, was wheait, 

 21 per cent, hay, 12 per cent, oats, and 10 per cent, miscellaneous crops, 

 including potatoes, barley, vineyards, and orchards. The most satisfactory 

 part of the return is the steadilv increasing yield per acre due to im- 

 proved methods of farming. The use of phosphatic manures has become 

 almost universal, and the axea grown on fallowed ground each year is in- 

 creasing. Taking the wheat yield as indicating results obtained from the 

 country districts lowest in rainfall, we find that for each five yearly 

 periods since 1885 the average has been as follows : — • 



1885-9 9-2 



>4 



1895-y 

 1 900-4 

 1905-9 



10.9 

 6.7 



10.2 



^^ * Address delivered at the Seventh Conv 

 ^-'^ Bendjgo, July, 1909. 



§ 847.^;. 



ention of the Victorian Chamber of Agriculture, held'at 



