LONELY AUSTRALIA: THE UNIQUE CONTINENT 



537 



change after a stated period. If his land 

 is part of a larger holding purchased by 

 the State, the settler pays the price in the 

 form of long-term loans. 



Since much of the desirable land is in- 

 cluded in large estates, the amount avail- 

 able for settlement is measured by the 

 ability of the government to purchase 

 holdings at their present high valuation, 



THE SOURCE OE HER WEALTH 



The position of Australia as the leader 

 among nations in average wealth per head 

 of population is largely the work of the 

 stockman, who has made good use of his 

 opportunities ; his wool, and mutton, and 

 tjeef, and hides are known in every world 

 market. 



The Australian wheat-grower, like the 

 sheep-rancher, is master of his craft : he 

 uses the most modern machinery, im- 

 ported from abroad, and has developed 

 implements of his own, including the 

 -well-known stripper-harvester used in 

 other wheat-growing countries. Tinder 

 the guidance of scientific leaders, he has 

 increased the yield and improved the 

 -quality of his crop, and has developed 

 new varieties suited to the climate. In 

 Tightness and hardness of grain, in mill- 

 ing qualities and in whiteness of flour, 

 "his wheat stands unequaled, and there- 

 fore ranks first in value per bushel in 

 foreign markets. 



Oddly enough, the handling of Aus- 

 tralia's wheat crop is still in a primitive 

 stage. It is put in bags in the field, hauled 

 in bags to the railway station, carried in 

 bags on the train, and remains in bags 

 during its oversea journey to market. 



Instead of the familiar grain elevators 

 of the United States and Canada — big 

 ones at terminal points, small ones scat- 

 tered along the railways— the traveler in 

 Australia sees bags stacked by the hun- 

 dreds at nearly every station and accumu- 

 lated by thousands at the larger shipping 

 points. Stacks containing 100,000 to 200,- 

 000 bags of wheat are not unusual sights 

 at South Australian ports (see page 540). 



That Australian agriculture is an in- 

 fant is shown by the fact that the land 

 under cultivation is 14,700,000 acres, less 

 than half that of Kansas and an insig- 

 nificant fraction (0.77 per cent) of the 



area of the Commonwealth. That the 

 tropics are practically uncultivated, and 

 the area with rainfall between 10 and 20 

 inches little utilized, is to be expected, 

 for these conditions prevail in other coun- 

 tries, and the treatment of such lands 

 may be left for the future ; but it occa- 

 sions surprise to find that nearly 300.- 

 000,000 acres in the temperate zone, re- 

 ceiving over 20 inches of rainfall — land 

 like that of Tennessee, Nebraska, and 

 Oregon — should remain idle (see p. 545). 

 The Commonwealth is suited for all 

 the crops of the temperate and tropical 

 zones, and on the small area cultivated 

 nearly every known kind of grain, fruit, 

 and vegetable is grown. Many varieties 

 of fruit trees and vines thrive even better 

 in Australia than in the countries from 

 which they were introduced, and the cli- 

 mate is such that lemons and oranges and 

 the finer varieties of grapes may be 

 grown in all the States on the mainland. 



MORE ANIMALS PERISH THAN IN THE 

 DAYS OE THE MURRAIN 



The Australian farmer and fruit- 

 grower and ranchman are practically free 

 from the fear of frosts, but instead they 

 must contend against a more bitter foe — 

 the drought. In other countries droughts 

 when severe are local. Australia alone is 

 subject to visitations (fortunately rare) 

 which travel like a scourge from one end 

 of the continent to the other. Those who 

 have experienced a drought on our west- 

 ern plains, when growth of vegetation 

 not only seems to be suspended com- 

 pletely, but grass withers to the roots, 

 may form a picture of the disaster at- 

 tending a severe drought extending, as it 

 were, from California to New York, with 

 only the mountains and parts of New 

 England and Washington retaining their 

 coating of green. 



Ten of the twelve droughts recorded 

 for Australia since 1880 affected chiefly 

 the inland areas, where the rainfall is 

 normally below 25 inches ; but the great 

 drought of 1902-1903, which marked the 

 culmination of five unfavorable years, af- 

 fected the entire continent. In one year 

 15,000,000 sheep and 1,500,000 cattle per- 

 ished, and the whole drought period saw 

 the death of 60,000,000 sheep and 4.000,- 



