10 March, 1917..] Xhill Agricidtunil Sncieti/, dkc. Competitions. 169 



NIIILL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY ANNUAL CROP AND 

 FALLOW C0MPl'7riTI0NS, 19 IC. 



Report of the Chitf fiihl Officer, Mr. Temple A. J. Smith. 



The President, 



Nhill Agricultural Society, 

 Nhill. 

 Dear Sir, 



111 submitting my report on the Crop and Fallow Competitions for 

 1916, I would lil^e to congratulate your Society on the fact that your 

 district has been favoured by such an excellent season as that just 

 experienced. It speaks well for the soundness of your .portion of the 

 Wimmera when it is possible to state that with the exceptional rainfall 

 and generally favorable weather for the development of fungoid diseases, 

 such as rust, take-all, and smut, the crops have, in 90 per cent, of 

 cases, escaped injury and though traces of all these diseases were found 

 to be fairly plentiful, the bulk of the crops inspected will produce 

 fine, plump, clean seed, and there appears every prospect of reccrd 

 yields being obtained in several cases. Oat crops were not as fine as 

 last year's, though many good crops were seen, and the difficulty in 

 getting them off at the right stage of ripeness, owing to the surplus 

 moisture in the ground, will affect returns from this cereal. The 

 Barley crop is only a side issue in the Wimmera, and a very small 

 area was to be noticed growing; this crop has also been affected by 

 the protracted wet season. There is, however, an abundance of grass 

 and wild oats, the greater part of which will ]irobably be wasted instead 

 of being cut for hay and stored for future use in times of drought. 

 The very fact that hay made from self-sown stuff is practically immune 

 from attack by mice, and is so relished by stock, appears an argument 

 in favour of its being utilized to a greater extent than is at .present 

 the case; and when, in addition to these advantages, the actual cutting 

 of the wild oats on the green side is an advantage in rendering the 

 ground cleaner for future crops it is somewhat remarkable that the 

 practice of making larger quantities of self-sown hay is not more 

 generally adopted. 



Previous Suggestions Acted Upon. 



Perhaps one of the most pleasing features noticeable on this occasion 

 was the adoption of several suggestions made on previous visits. It is 

 an old, but trenchant, saying, "that the onlooker sees the best of the 

 game," and it is quite possible that a newcomer may see fresh fields 

 for development which might escape the local resident. 



Tests have been made with early summer fallow as against late fal- 

 lowing, and results prove that the former system should be more 

 generally practised. Over a radius of some 40 miles on various kinds 

 of soil, early summer fallow was found to produce cleaner and heavier 

 crops, and also much greater freedom from disease. Take-all and Dead- 

 heads showed to a far greater extent on stubble laud and late fallow, 

 and the additional labour involved in early fallowing is more than 

 compensated for in the additional cro,p harvested. 



Tests carried out by the Deparlment of Agriculture disclose excel- 

 lent reasons for these beneficial results; early fallowing induces much 

 larger supplies of nitrogen in the right form (the nitrate). The addi- 

 tional working of the soil releases a greater amount of phosphoric acid 



