WHEAT CULTURE. 233 



For twenty years the Department of Agriculture 1ms urged the system 

 upon the wheat farmers of Ww South Wales. The response has often 

 seemed disappointingly small, but there have always been those who — good 

 season and had season have been able to point to the practical results of the 

 system and to declare that the bank-book furnished the most convincing 

 evidence. To-daj re hundreds of farmers who each year take time by 



the forelock, beginning the preparation of their wheat paddocks months in 

 advance of seeding, while hundreds of others, prevented by circumstances 

 from putting the system into practice, freely admit that it offers them more 

 certain and better profits if they could but take advantage of them. Slowly, 

 no doubt, but surely, the Department's propaganda has borne fruit, and to- 

 day not only is it possible to point to an altered attitude of farmers towards 

 the idea of fallow, but it is reasonable also to claim that better cultivation 

 methods have been a factor in the improvement of the yield of wheat, which, 

 notwithstanding the extension of wheat-growing into districts once regarded 

 as quite unsuitable, has been apparent in recent years. 



The change of feeling quite evident among farmers to-day can only have 

 taken place under the influence of hard facts — the hard facts of crops that 

 have weathered through dry spells more healthfully and more attractively 

 than others nearby, and that have filled more bags and returned more, money. 

 The experiment plots conducted in conjunction with the Department by 

 many private farmers in all parts of the wheat belt during the past ten or 

 twelve years have been a material factor in the change. 



Other issues such as varieties, fertilisers, and so forth are tested on these 

 plots from time to time, but the logic in favour of the outstanding feature 

 of the plots — fallow — is indisputable. In the plots the Department is able to 

 point to a mass of valuable information, and to advocate modern methods 

 with move confidence than ever. 



Behind the results obtained on these plots, too, there has also been (as 

 already indicated) a solid and increasing body of men who have adopted 

 fallowing as a regular feature of their farm practice, and who have done so 

 for that best of good reasons— that it pays. Where one of this class has 

 kept records of his returns for a number of years, and has carefully distin- 

 guished between fallow and non-fallow, the evidence can only be esteemed 

 most valuable. 



Such a record of results has been carefully kept for twenty year- by Mr. 

 W. W. Watson, of " Woodbine," Tichborne, near Parkes, who has generously 

 made his results available for the benefit of his fellow wheat-growers. 



The farm, be it related, which was acquired in 1902 (a bad year to start), 

 consisted of 1,200 acres of conditional purchase and special lease, of which 

 50 acres had been cleared. Fallowing was attempted at once, 30 acres out 

 of the 85 acre- planted receiving the Lengthy preparation for the L903 

 planting. Those were days of small things at " Woodbine," for plant and 

 other things were not too plentiful, and with the exception of 70 acres in 

 1906 no more fallowing was done for four years. As things improve 1. how- 

 ever, and resources increased, a regular application of the system became 

 possible, and since the year 1908 Air. Watson has always had a proportion 

 of his wheat under fallow, and year by year the proportion has increased, 

 until latterly the larger part of the area, and in some years the whole, have 

 had that thorough preparation. 



