10 Jan., 1919.] America and Australia Compared. 5 



agricultural belt must be housed and hand-fed for at least four months 

 of the year. 



At Winnipeg, a typical Canadian town, the average winter tempera- 

 ture is 26 deg. below freezing, and further west the temperatures fall to 

 .50 and 60 deg. below freezing. ISTothing could be drearier than the 

 landscape of the Middle West and the prairies of Canada in winter — 

 flat, treeless, snow-covered plains. 



In the farm homes an artificial heating system has to be installed 

 to make life tolerable in winter, and costly barns have to be built to 

 house all forms of stock during the winter months. This climatic 

 disadvantage has compelled the farmer to provide large reserves of 

 food for the use of his stock in winter months. The system of hand- 

 feeding, necessitated by the climate, has proved a blessing in disguise, 

 for it has led the farmer to appreciate the value of hand feeding, and 

 to regularly supplement the pastures in summer and autumn by the 

 liberal use of hay, silage, and concentrates. 



Transportation. 



One of the most important factors in developing the agriculture of 

 a country is the provision of an adequate system of transportation. 



It has been accepted as an axiom that the prosperity of a country 

 is closely bound up in the adequacy of its railway communcation. 

 When good lands are available the surest way of encouraging the settler 

 is for railways to precede settlement. Instead of deferring the building 

 of a railway until there is ample prospect of the new line paying interest 

 on capital from the commencement, the policy in the United States and 

 Canada has invariably been to precede settlement with developmental 

 railways. This policy led to the opening up of the immense areas of 

 prairie lands in Canada, and more than any other factor has led to the 

 remarkable development of cereal production in Canada during the 

 past twenty years. 



American agriculture has been greatly aided by the railways. The 

 value of the American railways is considerably more than twice as 

 much as all the industrial and agricultural machinery of the country 

 combined. 



The freight rates on agricultural production are extremely low, the 

 average cost of haulage, according to the Inter-State Commission, being 

 |d. per ton per mile. On this basis the average cost of haulage of aU 

 produce from our furthest railway station — Mildura — would be 10s. 6d. 

 per ton. 



The American railways, from whatever stand-point they are con- 

 sidered, are marvels of organization and efficiency. To save cost is an 

 ever-pressing problem; but it is grappled with and partly solved. The 

 expenditure of half-a-million is not reckoned with if an ultimate saving 

 of a million can be effected. 



Moreover, the American Railway Companies are enterprising in 

 their efforts to build up agriculture. California is over 2,000 miles by 

 rail from the crowded centres of the east. Yet in the fruit season, 

 peaches, apricots, tomatoes, strawberries, rock melons, and vegetables are 

 hauled from California to the eastern markets over elevations of 5,000 

 feet in the Rockies, and across 1,000 miles of desert. The whole train 

 is preoooled before starting, and carries refrigerated cars which are 

 regularly iced throughout the journey. This feat might be compared 



