650 Jourual of Agriculture, Victoria. [IS Nov., 1911>. 



Last jear the Department of Agriculture secured over 2s. per lb. 

 for tlie tobacco raised on experimental plots at Gapsted. Two acres of 

 tobacco produced over i ton of cured tobacco leaf, which realized £110 — 

 a very fine return from 2 acres. 



The industry has an opportunity for great expansion. The British 

 and American companies operating here want Australian flue-cured 

 tobacco leaf, and are prepared to pay good prices for it. They have 

 offered, through the Board of Trade, to purchase 2,000,000 lbs. of Aus- 

 tralian-grown flue-cured leaf for a period of three years. For the 

 lemon-coloured cigarette leaf they are prepared to give 23. 6d. per lb. 

 for 250,000 lbs., and 23. per lb.' for 750,000 lbs. of bright flue-cured 

 tobacco. These prices are highl,y satisfactory, and should act as an 

 incentive to the establishment of the industry on a sound basis. 



These are a few of the directions in which Victorian Agriculture may 

 be developed. I have not referred to political factors, which influence 

 agriculture as a Avhole — transportation problems, efficient railways, good 

 roads, liberal system of land settlement, conservation of water, opening 

 up of new markets abroad, installation of bulk-handling for our wheat 

 crop. These are political questions, and the farmers will shortly have 

 an opportunity of discussing these with our masters — the politicians. 

 The farmers have the power — and they are beginning to see it and 

 organize for it — to direct public attention on right lines towards these 

 important questions. They hold the key to the political citadel. 



A NEW NOXIOUS WEED EXTERMINATOR. 



Farmers throughout the Dominion will be interested to hear that 

 both gorse and blackberry have at last been conquered. For some time 

 past the Agricultural Department, as well as many well-known farmers, 

 have been testing the claims made by the New Zealand Coal Tar Pro- 

 ducts, Limited, for their weed exterminator knoAvn as "Dominion Weed 

 Destroyer." This new product has a deadly efl^ect on gorse, blackberry, 

 and Californian thistle. The Agricultural Department have carried 

 out several experiments around Wanganui with excellent results. These 

 experiments wore carried out on gorse patches of various ages. Old 

 l)lants 5 and 6 feet in height were killed in a few days, while the yonngei- 

 growth was apparently dead in as many hours. " Dominion \y('('(! 

 Destroyer " is a product of coal tar, and is something quite new for this 

 purpose. It is simply diluted with water and sprayed on with an ordi- 

 nary garden spray. It is non-poisonous to stock, and eventually acts as a 

 fertilizer to the soil. Grass may be sown a few weeks after the spraying 

 without any ill effects on the germination of the seed. 



— New Zealand Dairyman. 



