REVIEWS 475 



est amendment also provides that payments under this section may be 

 deferred for five years if the land be over 12}4 miles from the railway. 

 The scheme requires residence for six months of each of the first five 

 years, either by owner, wife, parent or child over 16. Improvements 

 during the first ten years must in the aggregate equal the purchase 

 money (but need not exceed $4.87 per acre), at the rate of one-fifth of 

 the purchase money every two years from date of occupation. Im- 

 provements include that one-half of the land must be fenced within 

 five years and the whole within ten years. Half the cost of exterior 

 fencing is credited as improvements. 



Conditional Piirchase Without Residence. — -One thousand acres of 

 cultivable land can be selected without conditions of residence. It is 

 provided that the total value of the improvements during ten years 

 shall be 50 per cent over and above the amount of purchase money, 

 but need not exceed $7.30 per acre. The occupier of an adjoining 

 farm under residential conditions may also select under this section, 

 which may give him a total holding of 2,000 acres. 



Conditional Purchase by Direct Payment. — A similar area of land, 

 at a similar price to that of the two preceding sections, may be acquired 

 by direct payments during the first twelve months. The purchaser 

 must within three years ring-fence the whole of his land, and within 

 seven years expend in prescribed improvements, in addition to the 

 exterior fencing, an amount equal to $2.43 per acre. In practice this 

 section of the Act is little availed of. 



Area of Wheat Farms. — The minimum area of land taken up in 

 the wheat-growing districts is usually 1,000 acres. The calculation is 

 that one man and team can work from 250 to 390 acres of crop in one 

 year. With one team the wheat can then be worked in rotation with 

 fallow and sheep — a system which only takes one crop from the same 

 land every two or three years. The year of fallow in districts below 

 the 15-degree rainfall level is most desirable in order to store up soil 

 moisture; fallowing, moreover, permits the work of ploughing and 

 preparing the land for the next crop to be performed while the present 

 crop is growing. It also, and particularly with a three years' rotation 

 carrying sheep, enables the stubble or straw left standing by the har- 

 vester to be plouged in and thus maintain the supply of humus ; other- 

 wise straw would be burnt oflf. Large farms in the wheat belt are on 

 these grounds encouraged as a matter of policy. While 2,000 acres of 

 cultivable land is the maximum allowed to one holder, under section 



