574 prbsidbnt's address. — section g". 



Figures for comparison over a series of years are not available 

 for the Commonwealth, but a ten-years' comparison for New South 



Wales shows as follows : — 



Year 1897. Year 19<i7. 



£ £ 



Pastoral 11,823,000 ... 22,750,000 



■Agricultural ... 6,250,000* ... 6,587,000 



Dairying 2,653,000 ... 3,400,000 



Poultiy, bees, &c. ... ... ... 1,845,000 



Total £20,726,000 ...£34,582,000 



The production of butter for the Commonwealth and each State 

 is given for the year 1897 and the year 1907 : — 



Year 1897. Year 1907. 



Lb. Lb. 



New South Wales .. . 29,410,000 ... 60,031,000 



Victoria 34,561,000 ... 63,746,000 



Queensland ... 5,686,000 ... 22,789,000 



South Australia ... 4,831,000 ... 8,519,000 



West Australia ... 270,000 ... 437,000 



Tasmania 600,000 ... 905,000 



75,358,000 ... 156,427,000 



The statement of the president of the Pastoralists' Union (Mr. 

 W. E. Abboiv) at the annual meeting in 1905 is worth repeating, as 

 indicating wliat the potentialities are even in one portion of this 

 State alone. He said : — '" By the application of capital to the land 

 and the use of the plough instead of depending on the natural growth 

 of grass as we have hithei-to done, the eastern division, which is only 

 one-third of the State, can be made to easily and safely carry more 

 than 40,000,000 sheep, besides leaving room for other stock and all 

 kinds of farming; and it would then maintain in comfort and pros- 

 perity a population ten times as large as it carries now." 



It has been predicted by some recent writers that the day is 

 approaching when all the lands suitable or available for wheat grow- 

 ing will be in use, and when the annual consumption will overtake 

 production. Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson stated last year that 

 this \Anuld happen as early as the year 1910. Sir William Crooke, in 

 a prei-'.'dential address to the British Association about 10 years 

 ago, jjlaced the time somewhere about the year 1931. In view of the 

 foregoing figures for this continent I do not think there is any cause 

 for alarm, even in the present conditions. 



Moreover, the vast resoui'ces of the United States are only in a 

 comparatively early stage of utilisation, so much so that whatever 

 may be true in pai'ticular I'egions, cultivation as a whole is not so 

 scientifically advanced, and not so productive per acre, as in the 

 United Kingdom. According to the 12th census of the United 

 States the farm acreage represented only 44 per cent, of the total 

 area of the States; and only one-half the farm acreage is returned 

 as "Improved land " — i.e., under crops, bare fallow, or sown grasses. 



* 1897 was an exceptionally good year for prices— agriculturally. 



