and their Development. 147 



For wheat and flour £600,000 



For oats 530,000 



For barley, and malt made from barley. . 144,000 

 For maize, imported principally from 



New South Wales 52,000 



For gram 37,000 



£1,363,000 



That is, for the above five articles alone, our colonial farmers 

 in this colony of Victoria kept out of their pockets nearly 

 one and a half millions of money in the year 1858 (and this 

 list does not include hops, potatoes, vegetables, &c, nor 

 many other items of agricultural produce, as the total amount 

 of agricultural produce imported last year into this colony 

 cost £3,000,000 of money). 



Let us hope that our farmers will now bestir themselves, 

 especially as, in the opinion of many, we are on the verge of 

 a war which may make us almost wholly dependent on our 

 own resources ; and it is proper to be mentioned that if our 

 imports for the remainder of this year continue in the pro- 

 portion they have for the last seven months, all our imports 

 for this year will exceed all our exports by more than two 

 millions of money. 



In treating on agricultural produce, I will continue on a 

 little longer in connection with other wants than our own. 

 In England great attention is paid to the fattening of cattle, 

 and among such great beefeaters as we are, to provide a suf- 

 ficiency of food for the sustenance of our cattle is a subject of 

 great importance, especially as for many months in the year 

 our natural pastures are burnt up. Linseed cake is most ex- 

 tensively used for this purpose in England. Now linseed, or the 

 flax plant, grows here very well. The oil is easily expressed 

 from it quite cold ; and we import about 300,000 gallons of 

 the oil yearly for the use of painters and other purposes, worth 

 about £70,000. Were we to grow this plant, we could not only 

 save this £70,000 which the oil costs us, but we could pro- 

 vide about 60,000 tons of oil cake for cattle feed. The oil 

 would yield a profit, and the oil cake would be had for 

 nothing'. 60,000 tons of oil cake would be worth £500,000 

 at the least. 



Speaking of cattle-feed, I will also mention the sunflower. 

 This is a most prolific plant. One acre bears from thirty to 

 forty bushels of seed ; each bushel yields one gallon of oil, 



