3S 



Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Jan., 1916. 



rainfall. Now, the graph shows that the past 24 seasons may be 

 divided conveniently into two periods of twelve years, each culminating 

 in a disastrous drought. Curiously enough, the composite average 

 winter rainfall for the first period is approximately the same as the 

 composite average winter rainfall for the second period, namely, 9.5 

 inches and 9.8 inches respectively; but whereas the average yield per 

 acre during the first jieriod culminating in the 1902 drought was 7.4 

 bushels, the average yield for the second period culminating in last 

 year's record drought was 10.88 bushels. Or, expressing the same facts 

 in another way, whilst during the first period for every inch of winter 

 rainfall our farmers secured .77 bushels of wheat per acre, in the 

 second period they secured 1.12 bushels per acre for every inch of 

 winter rainfall. 



In other words, with similar soil and similar rainfall the farmers 

 of the latter period secured 46 per cent, more wheat per acre than those 

 of the former period. 



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16 I I I t I I I ' I I I ' I I I I I I ' i I I I ' ■! — t- 16 



Graph showing Relationship between the Average Wheat Yield and the 



Winter Rainfall. 



And the graph shows this unmistakably. ]^ote the relative 

 positions of the dotted line representing the winter rainfall with the 

 continuous line representing Victoria's average yield. For the twelve 

 years prior to and including 1902 the rainfall line is consistently above 

 the line representing yield per acre. In other words, during no single 

 year during the first period did our farmers secure anything like an 

 average yield of 1 bushel of wheat per acre for each inch of rain. But 

 the drought of 1902 had its lessons. It synchronized with the intro- 

 duction of superphosphates, the more general adoption of bare-fallo^ving, 

 and more thorough methods of cultivation. 1903-1907 was the transition 

 period when the value of the new jDractices that were revolutionizing 

 wheat growing was being demonstrated. From 1907 onwards, with 

 the single exception of 1914 — the most disastrous drought within living 

 memory — the line representing yield per acre is regularly above the 



