232 THE farmers' handbook. 



new land for the first three or four years; they may even be adopted — and 

 certainly are over large areas — on much older wheat-land than that, and the 

 persistence of the system is evidence that the growers are able to show 

 satisfactory profits. In such case the land is ploughed as early in the autumn 

 as the conditions will allow, and harrowed or cultivated once or twice before 

 sowing. Crops grown under such conditions are dependent entirely on the 

 rain that falls immediately before sowing and during growth, and are conse- 

 quently readily affected by an unfavourable season. The fact that there has 

 existed, side by side with this system, another and better one has probably 

 influenced the extension of the past few years, even though ordinary farm 

 methods have not been affected to the extent that might have been expected. 



The system advocated by the Department and adopted now to a certain 

 extent throughout the drier districts of the State is known as " Dry Farm- 

 ing." The term is somewhat of a misnomer, but it is intended to imply the 

 use of good farming methods in dry districts for the production of crops 

 without irrigation. 



Dry Farming in Australia. 



So much has been written and said about " dry farming " in America, that 

 many are apt to conclude that only in that country has dry farming been 

 practised. They are apt to overlook the fact that dry farming (as the term 

 was understood imtil quite recently) has long been carried out in Australia. 



For years past dry -farming methods have been practised in South Aus- 

 tralia, Victoria, and New South Wales. South Australia is famous in the 

 Commonwealth for the amount of grain produced in districts of scanty rain- 

 fall. The successful settlers in the Mallee districts of Victoria, with an 

 annual rainfall of 12 to 10 inches, give striking examples of dry farming in 

 that State; and in New South Wales the appearances of the farms in 

 numerous localities and the flourishing condition of many inland town- 

 furnish undoubted evidence of the success which has attended dry farming 

 in those districts. 



Wheat-growing is uncertain in some districts, because no attempt is made 

 to conserve the rain that falls prior to planting, Modern methods require, 

 and enable this to be done, and when they become general, failures in our 

 present wheat districts will be almost unknown. The industry will then be 

 less speculative; it will be placed on a sounder and more prosperous basis 

 than ever; the. average yield will be largely increased; the wheat belt will be 

 widened, and a large proportion of that immense area between the limits 

 of the 14 and 16-inch rainfall will be brought under cultivation. 



"Fallowing" and its Results. 



It might be said that the name under 'which "dry farming" more com- 

 monly goes to-day is " fallowing." The term describes a system of cultiva- 

 tion that consists of ploughing the land during the year previous to sowing' 

 the crop and allowing it to rest in the interval. Its effect is to conserve in 

 the soil and subsoil an increased amount of moisture, and to afford favour- 

 able conditions for the activities of the bacteria who prepare the stores of 

 plant-food upon which the crop will be grown. 



