

THe JOURNAL 



Tfie department of M^nculture 



VICTORIA. 



Vol. X. Part 8. lOth August, 1912. 



WHEAT AND ITS CULTIVATION, 



{Continued from page JjS.) New vn 



Xo. 6.— METHODS OF CrLTIVATIOX. 



By A. E. V. Ricliardson, M.A.. B.Sc. {Agric), 

 AgrieuliKral Superintendent. 



In the preceding article, consideration was given to the practice of 

 continuous crojjping with wheat, and to the practice of baref allowing. 

 L'ontinuous cropping with wheat year after year stands condemned, both 

 by theory and by practice. Under pioneering conditions it may be justi- 

 fiable as a temporary expedient, but under normal conditions of cultivation 

 it should be abandoned. Under pioneering conditions, land is usually 

 cheap, whilst capital and labour are comparatively dear, and the pioneer, 

 therefore, substitutes the cheaper factors of production for the more costly. 

 Hence the initial system of farming is invariably extensive, for as much 

 land and as little labour and capital as possible are used in production. 

 The individual areas are relativelv large, and the average yield relatively 

 small. Continuous cropping is commonly resorted to. and the soil is of 

 isuch virgin richness that it will produce large crops in spite of the com- 

 paratively crude methods of cultivation. When the soil begins to show 

 signs of diminished fertility and production, the pioneer frequently 

 wanders further afield, and leaves the problem of soil improvement to 

 others than himself. 



The Hill River Estate, in 1875, as shown in the accompanying illus- 

 trations, is a typical example of the extensive methods of cultivation 

 Tira'tised in the pioneering days. In 1875. the estate was 60,000 acres in 

 exte:.:. and carried 50,000 sheep. The cultivated land was in large fields, 

 ^one of which was 3 miles long, and contained, in 1873, no less than 

 '4,250 acres of wheat in one block. According to Harcus" " History of 

 South Australia (1876).'' the ploughing was ])erformed. in 1874, by "Thirty 

 f'^ur-horse teams drawing a double plough, and five single ploughs striking 

 cut. The seed, which was of several kinds, to ascertain the best, was sown 



8805. I' 





