Section G (II.). 



AGRICULTURE. 



ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, 



THOMAS CHERRY, M.D., M.S., 



Director of Agriculture, Victoria. 



THE OUTLOOK FOR AGRICULTURE. 



In taking a survey of the agricultural outlook at the present time, 

 I wish first briefly to summarise some of the main facts which will 

 determine the future of Australian agriculture, then to take a glance 

 at the position of our leading products in the world's markets, and, 

 finally, to indicate the chief lines on which I think we can maintain 

 agriculture — the ultimate basis of a nation's prosperity — in a sound 

 and progressive condition. 



ALL AGRICULTURAL WEALTH FROM THE SOIL. 

 I need hardly remind you that the true measure of the fertility 

 ot the land is the readiness with which the plant food of the soil can 

 be made available for plants which serve as food for animals or man. 

 It is true that a certain amount of agricultural wealth consists of timber 

 trees and fibre plants, but, on the whole, these form accessory rather 

 than staple products. The plant uses the energy of the sun to build up 

 comparatively simple chemical substances into the much more complex 

 compounds necessary to maintain the life of the animal. The energy 

 of the animal is derived from the breaking dovnx of those complex 

 substances into simpler ones, which ultimately are returned to the earth 

 and atmosphere. Sooner or later they all undergo such changes that 

 they may once more serve as food for the plant. The most far-reach- 

 ing generalisation which has been made in recent years in connection 

 with agriculture is the discovery of the part played by microscopic 

 plants, or bacteria, in producing and maintaining the fertility of the 

 soil. Not only do they break do^^^l the excreta and dead tissues of 

 the animal into forms available for the plant, but we have recently 

 learnt that they cause the free nitrogen of the air to combine with 

 oxygen. This combination is the first step in the wondrous ascent 

 which leads to the transformation of dead into living matter. I am 

 inclined to think that the best measure of the fertility of the soil is the 

 acutal number of micro-organisms which it contains. We regard the 

 soil no longer as dead and inert, but alive and active. No small part 

 of the activity of the soil organisms is seen in the extent to which they 

 form acids and alkalies from the carbon compounds which they use 

 as food. All plant food must be dissolved before it can be taken up 

 by the roots of the plant. The chief solvent is carbonic acid, and prob- 

 ably most of this which is present in soil water is formed by the micro- 

 organisms of the soil. In addition, there is little doubt that mach 



