PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.—SECTION G. 
(Economic Science and Agriculture. ) 
THAT IN OUR PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE THE 
DETERMINING INFLUENCE OF CLIMATIC CON- 
DITIONS IS NOT SUFFICIENTLY RECOGNISED. 
By PROFESSOR W. LOWROE, M.A., B.Sc. 
+o>r- = 
THe text gives extensive scope, but it is not proposed to dis- 
cuss the full range of it, for the sufficient reason that the ex 
perience of one man must necessarily be inadequate. I will con- 
fine attention to those extensive areas distributed over the 
southern half of the continent, which are spoken of popularly 
as the wheat-growing areas, where the rainfall is limited, and 
where the summer is prolonged, and severely dry. These con- 
ditions prevail over the greater part of the arable land of South 
Australia, and over considerable tracts in Victoria, New South 
Wales, and West Australia, and there we know that, in accord- 
ance with the maxim that climate is one of the determining fac- 
tors of agricultural practice, rural effort is directed more par- 
ticularly to the growth of cereals, the breeding of sheep, and the 
production of wine. I know no reason which would lead one 
to suggest the widening of this general practice. On the con- 
trary, I believe that development on these lines is likely to 
react to the general advantage of the community. Of course, 
local exigencies of market and other conditions will justify 
varied modifications, but such as I have indicated is the general 
trend, and it is well. 
It is to some of the operations in the course of cereal growing 
more especially that I wish to draw attention. Over the tracts 
of country that I have indicated the low rainfall—l1 in. to 
22 in., falling chiefly in the winter months—is a limiting factor 
very pronounced. It must be kept prominently in view in 
directing in detail the course of cultural operations. The early 
colonists practised lifting the land in autumn, and sowing 
thereon, but that practice has been almost generally abandoned 
in favour of fallow in the preceding winter and summer, and 
