134 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 March, 1919. 



of similar farms. These differences can be closely correlated with the 

 individual methods of the farmers. For instance, there are those who 

 have obtained an average gross return of £6 per acre for each acre 

 under wheat, as against those with the same plant and labour realizing 

 only £3 per acre. The reasons have already been referred to. The 

 same differences are observable between the returns obtained for oats, 

 tlie usual practice for seeding which is to sow it on a stubble, with little 

 preparation or manure. The average return from oats is little better 

 than £1 per acre, but there are some who have averaged over £3 per 

 acre, though the oats were also sown on stubble. In this latter case 

 the crop was given reasonable treatment. It is, perhaps, worthy of 

 note that it is the opinion of several of the farmers that it will pay 

 much better to grow it on fallow. 



Instances of Increased Eeturns from Tmpkovkd Temporary 



Pastures. 



The returns from sheep exhibit the same differences. The higher 

 returns are partly due to the better class of sheep kept, but are mainly 

 the result of attention to the provision of sheep feed. The great period 

 of feed scarcity in the Wimmera is in the autumn, and to alleviate 

 the shortage Messrs. Crouch Bros., of Kaniva, find it profitable to sow a 

 small quantity of oats on stubbles immediately after harvest. The 

 operation is accomplished with a minimum of cost and preparation. 

 About half a bushel of oats is simply drilled on the burnt stubbles with- 

 out manure or other preparation, and yet it is stated that the feed 

 carrying capacity is doubled at a cost of not more than 4s. iper acre. 

 The oats is sown dry, and there has never been a failure. The crop 

 is wholly sacrificed to the sheep. There are others, such as Mr. Chris. 

 Dahlenberg, of Nhill, who endeavour, with marked success, to increase 

 the feed in the paddocks being thrown out to grass. The plan followed 

 is to sow with the cereal crop and, therefore without extra labour, half 

 a pound 'of melilotus imrviflo7-a, and sometimes a few pounds of Italian 

 rye grass are added. The result in feed pays handsomely for the 

 trouble, and when the paddock is ultimately broken up the soil is 

 enriched by the ploughing under of the leguminous residues. 



In November the vn-iter visited the Minyip district, and was afforded 

 the opportunity of inspecting two paddocks, each several hundred acres 

 in extent, upon which a variety of rye grass, apparently differing from 

 either the Italian or English variety, had established itself. One of these 

 paddocks had been heavily stocked up till October, and was then shut 

 up for seed. On it there was a dense crop of the grass, probably aver- 

 aging 15 inches high. The grass, which at that stage possesses a 

 characteristic purplish-red stem, at any rate on the black soils at Min- 

 yip, was seeding heavily, and it was stated that an extremely payable 

 yield of seed had been obtained the year before by shutting it up and 

 stripping it. Another paddock of 196 acres, belonging to Messr?. 

 Barnes and Young, was being grazed by sheep. On it 300 ewes had been 

 lambed down, and a truck of the best lambs topped the market at 32s. 6d., 

 while the rest were sold as freezers at £1 per head. Owing to a second 

 mating, a second lot of 100 lambs were grazed in the paddock, which was 



