WHEAT, AS A NEW SOUTH WALES PRODUCT. 



439 



this, would be the strengthening of the roots and straw, whicli are 

 stunted and do sutler badly for want of potash, especially during 

 dry weather. Tlie nitrogenous matters in our soils are cjuickly 

 run down by grain crops, hence the slow growth for small returns 

 on poor land, in comparison with the greater vigour of the crop, 

 and its quality and bulk per acre, where the soil is good enough. 

 The ammonia and nitrate compounds meet this requirement. 



Touching the cultivation necessary to secure full crops of high- 

 class wheat, much the same process as is followed with such excellent 

 results in the British Islands, is necessary here. It is cuiious 

 that, while the belief remained strong that our soils wei"e so rich 

 that they required no fertilising aid, the processes of cultivation 

 necessary to get the best results from rich soil were applied 

 mainly by those whose experience led them to doubt this great 

 natural richness. They accordingly ploughed the land twice at 

 least, harrowed it, and drilled in tlie seed, and when practicable 

 rolled the crop or put a cultivator through it. Operations of the 

 kind are really as necessary here as elsewliere. It pays to work 

 the soil, and so expose it to the influences of sun, rain, and air, to 

 secure the beneficial changes which nature is carrying on all the 

 time. Poorer soils do not need so much working, for there is not 

 the material in them to benefit by exposure to the weather, 

 nor do they give the more vigorous growth of weeds, &c., nor 

 the richer growth of grain as a consequence. The fact is, that 

 it does not answer to farm land which is too thin or poor to 

 send up a vigorous growth of something ; nor does it pay to have 

 anything other than wheat on wheat land. The better course is 

 to so work the land as to get it to yield the largest possible crops 

 of what is sown. This is especially true of wheat. The following 

 taV)les from the Rothamsted tests afford further data concerning 

 wheat and its milling properties ; and for comparison purposes 

 with milling experiences here. So far as I have been able to get 

 at the results the averages of fine flour got liere do not reach the 

 figures 8ubmitted in connection with the Lawes and Gilbert tests. 



III. — Produce of wheat per acre, weight per bushel, and proportion 

 of fine flour obtained by milling four* varieties of wheat grown 

 under similar circumstances : — 



