758 



EEPOET — 1886. 



(2) Is it possible to make such holdings pay in the present day P Probably not 

 by usual modes of cultivation, but only by the growth of fruits and vegetables. 



(3) The account of an experiment on three acres of land for a period of fourteen 

 years — with the receipts and payments during that period — from fruit, pigs, and 

 poultry, Tsdth balance-sheets of the best and worst years. 



' I see that this year 71. was for trees and bushes taken to plant another farm. The rest for pears, 

 &c., sold, as there were no plums. 



(4) The conditions necessary for success, and which will require to be attended 

 to, if legislation on the subject of small holdings is to be adopted by the present 

 Parliament. 



(5) The grounds on which legislation in this direction is desirable. 



6. Colonial Agriculture, and its Influence on British Farming.^ 

 By Professor W. Feeam, B.Sc, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.S.8. 



An attempt was made in this paper to briefly indicate the present position and 

 the recent tendencies of the agricultural industry in each of our larger colonies. 

 Then followed an inquiry into the sources and the amount of the various kinds of 

 colonial agricultural produce which find their wa}' into the home markets, and 

 there compete with produce of a like character raised in the United Kingdom. 

 Finally, a plea was made in favour of the inauguration of some uniform and efficient 

 system for the collection of agricultural statistics throughout the Empire, and 

 particularly for the better equipment of the Department of Agriculture in the 

 mother country. 



The agricultural progress of each of the Australian colonies (New South Wales,. 

 Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, New Zea- 

 land) during the twelve years 1873 to 1884 was discussed, and illustrated by 

 statistical tables. Comparing 1884 with 1873, whilst the population of Australasia 

 increased one-half, the total area under cultivation increased two and a-half times, 

 and whereas the cultivated area of 1873 represented only 1-57 acres per head of the 

 population, it amounted in 1884 to 2'48 acres per head. The relative increase in 

 acreage of each of the crops — wheat, barley, oats, hay, green forage — in each of the 

 provinces, was stated. 



' Published in extenso in the Marlt Lane Express, Worth British Agriculturist^ 

 &c. Also, as a pamphlet, by the author. 



