398 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



of purchase a right often exercised out of the profits of the first, second, or third year. 

 The seasons at that juncture were fairly favourable, the soil was virgin, and the price 

 of wheat was a paying one. Agriculture went ahead, and South Australia became for a 



time the granary of 

 Australia. Since then 

 the industry has re- 

 ceived a check, partly 

 because Victoria, the 

 principal buyer, has 

 been producing for 

 itself, partly because 

 the settlers, pushing 

 more and more toward 

 the North, have got 

 into a drier latitude, 

 and have been vexed 

 with harvests that bare- 

 ly repaid the labour 

 spent on them. The 

 average all over the 

 colony has sometimes 

 been as low as four 

 bushels to the acre ; 

 but everything has 

 been done to cheapen 

 the cost of production, 

 which, on the whole, is 

 lower there than in 

 any other colony. 



In Victoria, after 

 the first effervescence 

 of the gold mania had 

 subsided, and land had 

 been wrested from the 

 squatters, many men, 

 tired of the uncertain- 

 ties of mining, turned 



their attention to farming ; and the industry was subsequently encouraged by a pro- 

 tective duty on imported wheat. Victoria now grows more than enough for its own 

 consumption, and what it cannot sell to its eastern neighbours, it has, like South Aus- 

 tralia, to send to England. But this distant market yields a poor price to the growers, 

 who are now asking for additional Government encouragement. New Zealand, which 

 abounds in rich land, is a good wheat-growing country, but on account of the greater 

 moistness of the climate, the grain does not carry quite so well on long voyages. But 



CLEARING LAND BY RING-BARKING TREES. 



