642 Journal of AgricuHure, Victoria. [15 ^STov.. 1919. 



four years in tlieir history. The value of the Victorian Avheat crop 

 for the past four years exceeds £40,000,000. Truly, the wheat crop has 

 proved a veritable gold mine to the State — a mine richer and more per- 

 manent than those that were worked in the heyday of Victoria's mining- 

 prosperity. There is this difference between the gold mine and the 

 wheat-fieid: With an ordinary mine, the more wealth extracted the 

 less remains for the shareholders. AVith agriculture, if carried out in 

 conformity with the teachings of science, the more wealth won from 

 the soil by cropping, the more wealth remains to be divided amongst the 

 community, for with proper methods of culture, the soil must get richer 

 and more productive and wealth-producing as the years roll by. This 

 basic fact may be illustrated by considering the yields of the wheat 

 crop. 



The average yield of wheat per acre for the past ten years (including 

 the 1914 drought year) is 12^ bushels. The average yield for the 

 previous ten years was but 8-J bushels; hence, instead of the soil being 

 depleted, we are actually producing 50 per cent, more wheat per acre 

 now than we did ten years ago. 



The wheat-fields, the pastures, and stock are our greatest sources of 

 wealth. They yielded last year over 40 millions of money — two-thirds 

 of the total wealth produced in the State. This means that the farmers 

 of Victoria produce wealth at the rate of over £100,000 every 24 hours. 



The war is ended: the work of reconstruction begun: the war bill 

 has to be met : There is but one way out. The Prime Minister has 

 indicated it : Work and increased production ; and Avhen we say 

 increased production, we mean essentially primary production, for 

 primary production is and must remain our greatest source of wealth. 



ISTow that the war is over, there is a grand opportunity for Australia 

 to pour her surplus food products into Europe. They will all be 

 wanted, and wanted urgently. There is at present a huge food vacuum 

 in Europe. It will take the combined surpluses of America, Argentina, 

 Canada, and Australia to fill it. In fact, the British Food Controller 

 recently stated that the alleged world surplus of wheat was non-existent. 

 At the outset of the war, I published a series of articles on " Wheat 

 and the War." In those articles, an attempt was made to show the 

 effect of the great wars of the past on the prices of foodstuffs, particu- 

 larly wheat. During the past 150 years, the price of wheat reached its 

 highest levels immediately each war closed, and prices remained high 

 for at least two to three years after peace had been declared. During 

 the Eusso-Turkish war, wheat rose from 5s. to 9s. 6d. per bushel, and 

 remained at 9s. for three years. In the Franco-Prussian war, wheat 

 rose to 7s. 6d., and remained at that price for three years. Will history 

 repeat itself in this, the most disastrous cataclysm in history? I think 

 so, for two reasons : — 



1. Glance for a niomeut at little Koumania — a country considerably 

 smaller than Victoria, which produced nearly as much wheat as Austi-alia 

 did in ])re-war days. 



Roiunania was stripped and ravished by two years of enemy occupa- 

 tion, and despoiled even of household utensils, besides all fann imple- 

 ments, equipment, and animals necessary for the production of another 

 harvest. According to a census rocentlv taken bv the Government of 



