PAPERS READ IN SECTION G2 



1,— AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM FARRER'S WORK IN 

 CONNECTION WITH HIS IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEATS FOR 

 AUSTRALIAN CONDITIONS. 



By W. S. CAMPBELL, late Director of Agriculture, New South Wales. 



I MET the late William Farrer about 36 years ago, and from that 

 time until his death enjoyed his friendship and coniidence. Shortly 

 before meeting him he had published an article of considerable 

 interest, and exceptionally well written, called " Grass and Sheep 

 Farming," a paper speculative and suggestive. He explained in 

 his introduction that " the following paper is in a great part theo- 

 retical, but as far as possible theory has been made dependent upon 

 practice and has been guided into what it is hoped may prove 

 useful channels. Those who affect to despise theory will do well to 

 recollect that a function of theory is to examine the foundations of 

 practice and by this means to modify it and extend it advan- 

 tageously." 



He was at that time either directly or indirectly interested in 

 pastoral matters, and one object, he told me, in pubhshing the 

 article was to have a dig at Mr. John Robertson's Free Selection 

 Land Act, which encouraged selectors to take up poor land in 

 tableland districts which nature had evidently intended for pastoral 

 purposes only. He enjoyed this " dig," as he termed it, and in 

 talking about his article to me laughed heartily over some of his 

 remarks. 



It appears from the pamphlet that he had, even at that distant 

 period, observed the great losses sustained by settlers in conse- 

 quence of the spread of rust amongst their wheat crops, and it 

 gradually dawned upon him that he might possibly be able to find 

 or devise some means of checking its attacks, or perhaps for eventu- 

 ally stamping it out of the country. 



After sustaining heavy losses in mining ventures, he studied 

 for the profession of surveyor, and obtained his hcense. He 

 occupied himself for some years at his profession in the field, and 

 then settled down on a conditional purchase of his own, near the 

 little village of Tharwa, some few miles south of the town of 

 Queanbeyan. He suffered a good deal at times from ill health, and 

 tlie climate of the district in which he settled suited him admirably. 

 Here he set to work practically and energetically to solve the pro- 

 blem of making new wheats, of good milling qualities, to resist the 



