lo Aug.. 1909.] Agricultural Production in Victoria. 485 



the average for the State, while the lowest yield of 20 bushels is 

 double the lowest average of the State, namely, 10 bushels. Similar facis 

 appear with regard to both hay and potatoes, so that there is no reason 

 to suppose that the falling off in cultivatioin in these counties is due to 

 conditions more unfavorable than the average with regard to either soil 

 or climate. 



As far as live stock are concerned, these three counties show a slight 

 increase in all classes during the past ten years, but the increase is not 

 much greater than that of the State generally. Turning now to the map 

 exhibiting the distribution of the rainfall in the agricultural districts in 

 Victoria, it will be seen that the greater pajt of the Mallee is north of the 

 line of 15 inches rainfall. Between 15 and 20 inches, we have the southern 

 portion of the Wimmera and the southern parts of the counties of Kara 

 Kara, Gladstone, Bendigo, Rodney, and INIoira, the contour line entering 

 the State about 25 miles south of Serviceton, and .running through Goroke 

 and Stawell to Maryborough, then curving north to Bendigo, and thence 

 north-east through Rushworth, Shepparton, and Yarrawonga. The shaded 

 portions of the map indicate the parts of the State receiving from 20 to 

 25 inches (lightlv shaded) and 25 to 30 inches (heavily shaded). The un- 

 shaded portions included in these a.reas are the mountain ranges and parts 

 of the southern coast of South Gippsland and East Gippsland receiving 

 over 30 inches per annum. Now, the remarkable thing is that nearly the 

 whole of the cultivation in Victoria is in the areas receiving less than 20 

 inches of rain, for 3,000,000 out of 4,150,000 acres under the plough are 

 comprised in this area. Of cultivated land in the shaded portions of tne 

 map nearly the whole is found in the areas receiving from 20 to 25 inches. 

 The shaded portions represent nearly 18,000,000 acres, or nearly one-third 

 of the total area of Victoria, yet the total cultivation is approximately 

 1,000,000 acres, o,r less than one- third of the cultivation carried out in 

 the drier regions of the north. As we have seen from an analysis of the 

 retuims in the three typical counties — Villiers, Dalhousie, and Delatite, 

 the return.s per acre for all kinds of crops in the region of heavier rainfall 

 are much greater than those in the drier north, and in addition to this a 

 partial failure is never so disastrous as on the northern plains and INLallee. 

 Yet we are faced with the anomalous fact that cultivation has diminished 

 and farmers are depending more and more on the smaller profits to be de- 

 rived from grazing. Such a state of affairs is highlv unsatisfactory, for 

 to my mind it indicates that progress, if possible at all, will be an ex- 

 ceedingly slow process. By far the larger portion of the cultivation in this 

 area is comprised in the newly developed land around Melton, Werribee. 

 and Lara, the wheat-growing areas in Grenville and Ripon, and similar 

 areas in the south of the county of ^loira. Nearly all the cultivation is 

 comprised between the limits of 20 and 25 inches rainfall. 



The area under question comprises what is undoubtedly the richest land 

 in the best rainfall districts of Victoria. Production per acre should be 

 vastly greater than any other portion of the State, yet farmers have given 

 over cultivation, and are resting on their oars. Thev are depending upon 

 grazing alone, and hence are at the mercy of every dry season or of an\- 

 similar unfavorable influence. No conclusion I think is more certain than 

 that the grazing capacity of even the best of the Victorian lands is strictly 

 limited. For instance, in the pick of the western district, a farm realizing 

 ;^5o per acre will seldom carry more than one cow to three acres all 



