122 R G. Thomas: 



million acres under crop each year ; this, with an average yield of 

 ID bushels per acre, would give at least 400 milUon bushels 

 annually, which, at the present Australian rate of consumption 

 per head of population, and deducting the necessary quantity 

 required for seed, would supply flour sufficient for the require- 

 ments of over 50 millions of people. It is not to be thought that 

 even this is considered the limit of our possibilities as a wheat- 

 producing country. It is a conservative estimate of the possible 

 production from this area only, based on a low proportion of 

 land under crop and a low average yield per acre. In the closer 

 settlement country, wheat can be grown in rotation with other 

 crops under conditions of intensive agriculture; the acreage 

 sown in these areas would not approach that of the wheat belt, 

 but with a higher average yield per acre the production would 

 be appreciable. 



It is clearly evident that the factors determining the present 

 actual limits of the wheat belt are economic and not natural ones. 

 The limits on the coastal side of the belt are determined by 

 questions of profit in competition with other crop and live stock 

 industries ; inland, practically in all cases by transport facilities. 

 The most striking instance of this is in the undeveloped areas 

 of Mallee land on either side of the Ouyen-Murrayville railway 

 line. Again, the decided boundary in South Australia and New 

 South Wales where the wheat belt stops at the Murray River, 

 coincident with the limits of railway facilities. We have a long 

 way to go in extending this, the chief present economic limit to 

 the development of the wheat industry, before we approach the 

 natural boundaries indicated above. 



Sheep. 



In the year under consideration, the sheep population of Aus- 

 tralia numbered some 85,194,503, and of these New South Wales 

 •claims 37,381,874, Queensland 18,220,985, Victoria 15,773,902, 

 Western Australia 7,183,747, South Australia 6,625,184, and 

 Northern Territory 8,81 1 head. This number represents approxi- 

 mately 16 per cent, of the world's sheep, emphasising Australia's 

 |X)sition as a leading sheep and wool-producing country. 



Examining the distribution of the sheep throughout the con- 

 tinent (Plate II.), it is seen that the belt of maximum concen- 

 tration is in South-eastern Australia, and that it coincides 

 Toughly with the wheat belt, the main departure being in the 



