38 THE LAND WE LIVE ON 



etc., recently delivered as President of the section for agri- 

 culture of the Australasian Association for the Advancement 

 of Science held in Brisbane, largely touched on the same 

 question. 



Still the question is such an important one that it 

 cannot be brought too often before the public and before 

 our legislators, particularly if we bear in mind how much 

 still remains to be accoin.plislied. Although agriculture 

 has made great strides during the last 50 years, and 

 particularly of late, some startling and far-reaching dis- 

 coveries have been made, yet the Secretary of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture stated, quite recently, 

 that farming is still in its infancy, and that the present 

 productivity of farms is merely a forerunner of the 

 marvellous results w^iich will be obtained in the future. 



If there is any country in the world which strives to 

 do justice to the scientific advance of agriculture, it is 

 undoubtedly the United States of America, wath its numerous 

 Agricultural Colleges, Experimental Farms, wath large 

 staffs of scientists spi-ead all over the States, and at their 

 head tlie Bureau of Agriculture, with eminent men guiding 

 and controlling the whole. If agriculture is only in its 

 infancy there, how does agriculture stand in Australia ? 

 Is it born at all ? 



I myself have been connected wnth the Queensland 

 Department of Agriculture and Stock for some considerable 

 time, and must openly confess that agriculture in general 

 has not made the progress it ought to have made, although 

 a few^ branches, dairying for instance, have advanced 

 considerably. But a23parent progress is only toe apt to 

 make us satisfied and forget that it might have been possible 

 to do very much better. I cannot do better than quote 

 some of the remarks made by Mi'. J. M. Hunter, M.L.A., 

 who recently visited South Australia, and made some 

 of his impressions public in the Brisbane Courier {Nov. 17, 

 1908) : — " I do not regard it as part of my duty at this 

 juncture to blame or explain the acts of administration, 

 or the want of them, that is responsible for the state of 

 agriculture in Queensland to-day. I content myself by 

 stating an unpleasant but pertinent fact, which is that 

 while in the South and South-west .of Queensland we 

 possess a territory unequalled in any State of the Common- 



