46 CEREALS 



of an additional 13,500,000 acres on which wheat is being 

 profitably cultivated. 



With regard to (2) the proportion of suitable land, I 

 can only find that this has been estimated with any 

 accuracy in the case of New South Wales. This estimate 

 leaves out of account all the coastal districts and the 

 northern districts where wheat is now grown only for 

 hay. It also excludes the mountainous country and all 

 country which under present conditions is unsuited to 

 wheat. 



The late Director of Agriculture for Victoria (Professor 

 Cherry) estimated the area available for wheat production 

 in that State at 28,000,000 acres. If this estimate is 

 correct, the total production of wheat in Victoria would 

 be capable of being increased to 264,500,000 bushels, and 

 that for the four States to over 705,000,000 bushels. The 

 estimate appears, however, to be high, as it assumes that 

 considerably more than half the area receiving 10 in. of 

 rain from April to October is suitable and available for 

 wheat growing. 



(3) The average yields per acre for the separate States 

 has been maintained fairly at this level for the past ten 

 or eleven years. We experienced one exceptionally 

 droughty season as late as 1902, when the yield per acre 

 for the Commonwealth was only 2*4 bushels, but the 

 succeeding harvest yielded an average of 13*32 bushels. 

 The average for the past six seasons (1907-08 to 1912-13) 

 is n'59 bushels. Last harvest (1912-13) yielded an 

 average of 12-5 bushels. 



(4) No account is taken of expansion in other States 

 than the four present wheat States. Tasmania is not 

 likely ever to develop to any extent as a wheat producing 

 country; but, on the other hand, Queensland has 

 enormous areas suitable for wheat production, which will 

 undoubtedly be cultivated as the country develops. The 

 Northern Territory is another unknown quantity. Wheat, 

 in common with other crops, has only been experiment- 

 ally tried, and the Commonwealth Year Book gives the 

 area under cultivation as 2 acres. From the reports of 

 those who have been there, there is no doubt that there 

 is an enormous area, both within and outside the tropics. 



