THE GENESEE FARMER. 



245 



asion and in all their wonderful excellence in the 

 forth-east Transept. Gold, and wool, and grain, 

 nd cotton, and wine from Australia ; timber, grain, 

 irs, minerals, and agricultural machinery from 

 !anada. 



The catalogues of the New South Wales and 

 lanadian collections are worthy of all praise ; the 

 n - mer especially giving an admirable account of 

 ae wealth, condition and resources of the colony. 

 Ve learn from it that New South "Wales has a pop- 

 lation of 350,860, of whom 15.39 per cent, are 

 gricultural. The live stock in the colony at the 

 ad of 1860 is stated along with that of the other 

 Lustralian colonies in the following table: 



"In 1796 the whole of the live stock in the colo- 

 y, exclusive of goats and pigs, was 57 horses, 227 

 ittle, and 1,531 sheep ; and from this stock have 

 irung the vast flocks and herds which were feed- 

 tg on the natural grasses of Australia at the end 

 f 1860, as exhibited in the following table : 



"The returns of agriculture, taken on March 31, 

 361, give a total extent of land under cultivation 

 F 269,798 acres. Of this quantity not quite one- 

 ilf (128,829 acres) was sown with wheat; nearly 

 le-fifth with maize, or Indian corn; another fifth 

 ith barley, oats, and artificial grasses for hay and 

 •een food for horses and cattle; and the remain- 

 sr was appropriated to potatoes, vineyards and 

 •chards. 



" The average production of wheat is a little over 

 > bushels per acre. 



" Maize is grown largely as food for horses, pigs, 

 id poultry. New South "Wales and Queensland 

 •e the only two Australian colonies which are 

 lapted by climate to the production of this valu- 

 >le cereal. The average production is rather over 

 ) bushels per acre. 



" Much attention has of late years been bestowed 

 l the cultivation of the vine, and the manufacture 

 ' wine." 



Of all these commodities samples are shown in 

 te New South "Wales collection. Remarkably fine 

 imples of maize in cob are shown by twelve ex- 

 ibitors. W'heat is shown by eight exhibitors; a 

 ary fine sample by Mr. S. S. Clements, of Bath- 

 rst, and three samples shown by Messrs. MaoAr- 

 ittr of the harvest of 1861, may be selected from 

 nong the others. The wheat is of two kinds, one 

 rge grained, the other extremely small. Among 

 Messrs. Mac Arthur's samples is one very large and 

 ae grain, which weighed in the colony 68 lbs. per 

 ashel. 



Cotton and wine are also shown by New South 

 Tales, and especially by Queensland, lying to the 

 orth of it. As, however, the samples in the New 

 outh "Wales collection are, we believe, excelled in 

 nality by those from the hotter climate, so her 

 rain is beaten by that shown from Victoria in the 

 slder climate to the south of it. Queensland, on 

 le other hand, shows samples of a rather coarse 

 3d wheat. A large case of wheats, barleys and 



oats has just been erected in the "Victoria collec- 

 tion, on which agricultural visitors will look with 

 astonishment. Among the samples of wheat is one 

 numbered 26, which weighed no less than 69 lbs. 4 

 oz. in the colony, and which now weighs 68^ lbs. 

 It is a large translucent grain. There are, how- 

 ever, samples of a very fine cream-colored, small- 

 berried wheat almost rivalling this weight. A 

 sample of barley grown by Mr. Grant weighs 58 

 lbs. 5 oz. per bushel. The oats, too, are remarka- 

 bly fine. A long Tartarian oat weighs no less 

 than 49 lbs. 4 oz. per bushel — a weight which, 

 rarely reached by any variety, is, we should im- 

 agine, altogether unparalleled in the case of Tar- 

 tarian oats. 



The South Australian colony is also very rich in 

 samples of grain ; there is, for instance, a sample 

 of the harvest of 1862, cut in January of this 

 year, which weighed in the colony 68 lbs. 1 oz. per 

 bushel, and 10 or 12 other bushel samples of grain, 

 varying from 64 to 67 lhs. 



The "West Australian colony exhibits wheats and 

 maize, and especially a fine collection of woods, 

 but it is for its wools and its alpaca that it is more 

 especially remarkable. The wools from all the 

 Australian colonies are, after all, the representa- 

 tives of their greatest agricultural wealth. Both 

 here and among the grains the English farmer 

 looks on specimens representing quality which his 

 climate forbids his ever hoping to rival. 



NOTES FKOM CANADA WEST. 



Eds. Genesee Farmer : — Your readers need not 

 wait for me to to tell them that the year 1862 has 

 been, hitherto, a peculiar season, made up of 

 extremes. The winter brought us a greater amount 

 of snow, and of longer duration, than we have 

 ever seen, and when the snow left, without any 

 great amount of rain, the land continued so wet 

 that we could not commence plowing operations 

 until late ; then, before half our crops were sown, 

 the land " sealed " and became as hard as a road, 

 and it would have paid about as well to have sowed 

 the seed by the " wayside," and allow the "fowls 

 of the air to devour it," for there is very little 

 prospect, in many instances, of "reaping where 

 they have sown." 



With us the drought commenced with the month 

 of May, and till the middle of June, I believe, was 

 general throughout Canada. Since then occasional 

 showers, in greater or less quantities, have fallen in 

 almost every locality. In this neighborhood we 

 have not had a shower that penetrated the mellow- 

 ist soil an inch deep, or benefitted the crops more 

 than a heavy dew, while only five or six miles 

 away, in every direction, they have been favored 

 by copious rains. To sum up our prospects, in as 

 few words as possible, according to present appear- 

 ances, I would say that the hay crop is past re- 

 demption. Many farmers have been compelled to 

 stock nearly all their meadows to prevent starva- 

 tion, and the majority of that which has been left 

 is scarcely worth cutting — say 500 pounds per 

 acre. Fall wheat looks well where there is any to 

 look at ; but we have to travel a long way to find 

 a field. Spring wheat cannot possibly be more 

 than half a crop. Barley was frozen badly, and 

 cannot be good. Roots will, I fear, be a total 

 failure. The carrots never came up ; and the few 



