118 R. G. Thomas: 



Embodied in the maps is also meteorological data relating to 

 rainfall and temperature, which is necessary for adequate con- 

 sideration of the factors affecting the present distribution and 

 probable extension of the industries. The data given consist of 

 various isotherms (i.e., lines of equal average mean annual tem- 

 perature) ;with the 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 60 inch isohyets (i.e., 

 lines of average annual rainfall), in the case of the two stock 

 maps; and for the wheat map, the 5, 7.5, 10, 15 and 20 inch lines 

 of winter rainfall, or more strictly the rainfall during the growing 

 period of the crop, i.e., April to October, inclusive. 



Acknowledgment is here made to the Government Statists of 

 the various States and the Department of Home and Territories 

 for the furnishing of the statistics necessary to the work, and to 

 the Commonwealth Meteorological Bureau for meteorological 

 data used. 



Wheat. 



The total area sown to wheat for grain and hay in Australia, 

 for the season 1918-19, was 9,647,433 acres, and of this total New 

 South Wales contributed 3,227,374, South. Australia 2,571,208, 

 Victoria 2,488,810, Western Australia 1,336,502, and Queensland 

 23,539 acres. This area represented approximately 3.5 per cent. 

 of the total area that year sown to wheat throughout the world. 

 Until the last four seasons, which have shown a decline due to 

 abnormal labour and marketing conditions, there had been a 

 steady expansion of wheat-growing in Australia, her production 

 increasing from 1.6 per cent, of that of the world in 1906-07, 

 to 4.8 per cent, in 1916-17, and it is hoped to show that there 

 is ample room for this extension to continue. 



Considering the distribution of the area shown by the map 

 (Plate I.), the most striking feature is the very limited extent of 

 the wheat-growing country. There is, indeed, a distinct wheat 

 belt forming a crescent-shaped area some distance inland from, 

 and approximately parallel to, the south-eastern coast line, 

 approaching and broken by the coast line as the latter turns 

 northwards along South Australia, and continued again as a 

 similar belt back from the south-western coast of Western 

 Australia. 



The factors limiting the distribution of the wheat acreage may 

 be classed under two heads — natural and political or economic. 

 The chief natural factors are the soil and climatic conditions of 

 rainfall and temperature. The soil within any climatic region 



