66 



Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Feb., 1919. 



better living, and if we are to encourage that, we must in the future 

 appeal to the farm competition proper, when the farms themselves, the 

 farm home and its surroundings, will be considered in addition to crops 

 and fallow. 



RESULTS IJSr THE j^HILL DISTRICT. 



It is in encouraging improved farming and business methods, and 

 particularly in raising the standard of living, that the farm compe- 

 titions have been so successful in the Nhill district, where they have 

 been held every year except during 1914 for the past seventeen years. 



On the agricultural side, a penisal of the records shows that the 

 successive competitions have stimulated and maintained a live interest, 

 first of all in manurial and in cultural problems such as the better work- 

 ing of the fallows, for instance, in 1903 the judge was pleading for the 

 introduction of superphosphate, and, later, attention was insistently 

 directed to the care and attention to seed. Finally, as the result of 

 air this work, modern scientific knowledge concerning wheat-growing in 

 the Wimmera has been crystallized under the following heads:— 



(1) Early fallowing. 



(2) Careful working of the fallow. 



(3) Manuring with superphosphate. 



(4) Rotation of ci'ops, including oats and use of sheep. 



(5) The use of selected graded seed of prolific variety. 



The following table, which has been prepared from each judge's 

 estimate of the yields of the crops exhibited for the past seventeen years 

 at ISThill, shows that during this period there has been a marked increase 

 in the average yields of the whole of the competitors; thus, for the five 

 years, 1903-7, it was 18 bushels, while for the years 1912-7, excluding 

 the drought, it was no less than 28 bushels per acre, i.e., an increase of 

 10 bushels per acre. And while it is too much to say that this note- 

 worthy advance is due solely to the competitions, yet it is certain that 

 they have in no small measure contributed to it. The average yields 

 of wheat of the whole of the competitors over the entire period is just 

 double the average for the district, showing that there is a wide field 

 for still further improvement : — 



