The Conquest of the Desert 



tice is strongly advocated by the foremost 

 Australian authority on dry-farming, Sutton 

 of New South Wales, who writes : 



" In dry districts a proper system of fallowing 

 is therefore an essential of success, and the 

 general adoption of a proper system in our 

 wheat districts is a factor which will do more 

 than any other to remove wheat-growing from 

 the area of speculation and place it on a sound 

 and solid basis. With a proper system in 

 practice, the rainfall of the previous, or a portion 

 of the previous, year can be stored, conserved 

 and utilised for a subsequent crop." 



And he closed an instructive address to an 

 assemblage of farmers with these words : " Go 

 back home and fallow till harvest-time, and, 

 when the harvest is over, start to work the 

 fallow and keep at it until seed-time." 



It may be said that the practice of growing 

 crops on only half of the arable land and main- 

 taining the other half in clean fallows means a 

 good deal of extra labour. That is so, but it 

 also means a certain crop in seasons of drought. 

 It may be said that the continuous cultivation 

 of the moisture-saving fallows will eventually 

 burn out the vegetable matter in the soil. It 



116 



