49^ Jour>ial of Agriculture. [lo Aug., 1909. 



stuff was sold for cart grease; but, undaunted by this failure, he made a verv 

 successful shipment in November, 1881. The butter was consigned in the s.s'. 

 Protos, which sailed in December of that year. It was made up in prints, and sold 

 at 138s. per cwt. in I>ondon. There were 38 tons of other dairy butter in the same 

 boat, which was disposed of at Sd. per lb., against Mr. Wilson's return of 143d." 



According to Mr. Wilson ".s evidence, eighteen years prior to the date on 

 which it was given, would carry the earliest shipment back to 1868. The 

 document in question, however, takes us to 1865 — three years previous. 



Reference to the disco\ery of the report was made in the daily press, 

 and .since then I have received the following interesting letter from Mr. 

 William Collins, "Glenlee," Colac : — 



I read with great interest the account of the first shipment of butter from- 

 Victoria, more particularly so as my mother was one of the competitors. We were 

 then living at Cowie's Creek, and I wed remember the keg in which the butter 

 went to England and back. It was branded " C.B." The keg was in my father's 

 possession until 1901, th^ time of his death, and I think it is still in existence. 

 I intend making inquiries about it, as it would be an interesting relic to possess. 

 At the present time I have a part of the brand , '^ed to mark the tub. 



It may interest you to know that my motlu 1 came from Devonshire, and- 

 thoroughly understood the principle of scalding i.iilk. I remember my father 

 stating that all the milk that went to make the butter in question was scalded, as 

 there was a weed growing at Cowie's Creek which otherwise gave the butter a 

 bitter flavour. I think the butter was used by us after it came back from Eng- 

 land. 



DAIRYING POSSIBILITIES IN THE SWAN HILL 



DISTRICT. 



E. A. R viand, Dairy Supervisor. 



'J'hat there is a large amount of land in the Swan Hill district unider 

 irrigation, as well as a still larger area capable or being brought under this 

 system of agriculture, is not generally known to the holders or seekers 

 after land in this State. The Shire as a whole comprises 2,170,8^0 acres, 

 the largest portion of which (aboat 2,100,000 acres) is mallee land cul- 

 tivated, if at all, for the prcduction of wheat only. A total of 200 farms 

 are devoted, more or less, to the dairying industry, but the milking term 

 on mallee land is shortened to an average of five months in the year by 

 an excessive dryne.ss during the eail\ spring and summer months. On 

 mallee land, therefore, it may be sa'd that such dair\ing as is carried on 

 is at present a winter occupation only. 



The remainder of the dairy farms are so situated that their conditions 

 comj>are very favorably with those in any other part of Victoria. Here, 

 on a stretch of land with a frontage of 25 miles to the Murrav River and 

 varying to 4 miles in width, are situated some 29,000 acres of land, which 

 with the combination of summer heat and irrigation facilities onlv requires 

 systematic working to make it inten.selv productive. Nevertheless, as often 

 happens, though these exceptionally favorable facilities might be turnetl 

 to very profitable account by those who are fortunate enough to possess 

 them, in many cases the only res'.dt noticeable is a less progressive sy.stem 

 of farming. The almost complete absence of subdivision of these large 

 areas also tends to minimise the results which rovld be obtained if .smaller 

 areas were properly farmed. Even where irrigntion possibilities aie made 

 use of, the returns are .seldom as sat'sfactory as thev should l3e, on account 

 of practically no attention l-eing given to s"bdivisinn .md to the proper 

 preparation of the land for the purpose of watering artinciallv. 



