JO Aug., 1909.] Agricidtii\ral Production in Victoria. 



489 



^rown for sheep without any difficulty. Maize, millet, sorghum, and rape 

 may all be sown during October, and will give a profitable crop for green 

 fodder in the following January and February. I am concerned now only 

 with these crops so far as they are fed to sheep, and therefore do not 

 claim that the same weight per acre can be produced as when the cop is 

 sown in drills and kept cultivated during the .summer months, as is usual I v 

 done by the dairy farmer. The latter system will certainly give a \erv 

 much heavier yield pex acre. The quality of the resulting crop is also 

 better, and it can all be profitably made into silage, and fed to sheep or 

 cattle. This, however, involves additional labour, and although the extra 

 labour will undoubtedly pay, and pay handsomely, still what I want to 

 point out is that enormous advances can be made in exploiting the area of 

 Victoria in which the rainfall is between 20 to 30 inches without the labour 

 problem presenting inisuperable difficulties. In addition, lucerne can be 

 grown over the greater part of the area in question. The chief difficulty 

 in establishing this variety of plant is not the lack of sufficient rainfall In 

 the summer, but the superabundance of rain in the winter, which keeps 

 the soil too wet to allow lucerne to do its best. 



AFTER DINNER. 



I see no reason why Victoria should not carry as many sheep, and 

 make as much out of them as New Zealand does. Yet, on the average,' New 

 Zealand carries twice as many sheep as Victoria, and the exports of meat 

 and wool usually exceed ours by ^4,000,000 per amium. It is true their 

 area is .somewhat greater, but it is questionable whether this is not more 

 than discounted by the immen.se and rugged mountain ranges which occupy 

 so large a_ proportion of the territory of the Dominion. The chief ex- 

 planation is to be found in the difference which obtains with regard to 

 the area under rape, swedes_ and artificial grasses in New Zealand. If the 

 18,000,000 acres of Victoria which we are considering were worked on 

 the same lines, I have no doubt that production could easilv be increased 

 to the extent of over /^i per acre, or in other words the cultivation and 

 grazing production in Victoria could at once be doubled. 



