THe JOURNAL 



OF 



^fie department of Mgricufture 



OF 



VICTORIA. 



Vol. XVII. Part 11. 15th November, 1919. 



SOME DIRECTIONS IN WHICH VICTORIAN 

 AGRICULTURE MAY BE DEVELOPED. 



Address given at the Melbourne Royal Agricultural- Society's Show, 

 September, 1919, by A. E. Y. RicJiardsoji, M.A., B.Sc, Agricul- 

 tural Superintendent. 



Victoria holds a unique position in Australian agriculture. The 

 State occupies only 3 per cent, of the continent, yet the volume anu 

 variety of its purely agricultural production exceeds that of any other 

 State. It is by far the most densely populated State in the Common- 

 wealth, and has made more progress towards intensive and diversified 

 agriculture than any of the others. Strangely enough, it owes its 

 pre-eminence in this regard largely to mining. 



Sixty-eight years ago, the attention of the world was riveted to the 

 remarkably rich gold discoveries in Victoria. In the ten years between 

 1851 and 1861, the population increased from 97,000 to 541,000, an 

 increase in one decade of nearly half-a-million souls. The immigrants 

 drawn from all parts of the world were lured by the extraordinary 

 wealth that Avas being won from the soil. These ten years were the 

 most fruitful and prosperous in the history of mining in Australia — 

 perhaps in the world. 



The total wealth won in this decade was nearly £100,000,000 — an 

 average of £10,000,000 per annum. Since then, the mining industry 

 has steadily declined, until to-day its value is approximately one and 

 a half millions sterling. It was, however, the gold mining industry that 

 was responsible for the rapid settlement and development of the State, 

 and it laid the foundations of permanent prosperity. 



These sources of wealth have practically dried up. But to-day we 

 have in our agricultural industries sources of wealth which, unlike 

 mining, will never dry up, and which are already yielding more than 

 four times the wealth that mining gave in its palmiest days. 



During the past four years, we have reaped from our wheat-fields 

 alone more wealth than was ever dug out of Victorian mines during any 



17045. 



