Trade of Australasia. 



465 



several of the colonies, though on the mainland this has 

 taken shape hitherto mainly in the direction of the 

 cultivation of wheat. It is in Victoria and South Australia 

 that this development has chiefly proceeded. These 

 two colonies possess nearly three-fourths of the entire 

 Australasian acreage under wheat (4,000,000 acres), and 

 the first-named has the largest surface devoted to the 

 production of barley and potatoes. In New Zealand the 

 rearing of fat sheep for the frozen mutton trade has 

 made arable cultivation an essential branch of sheep- 

 farming. Considerable quantities of oats are grown in this 

 colony, and the production of roots, clover, and artificial 

 grasses is extending yearly. The average yield per acre of 

 wheat in New Zealand is more than double that of any 

 of the other colonies except Tasmania. In New South 

 Wales wheat growing is gaining ground mainly in the 

 districts where sheep-farming has hitherto prevailed, but the 

 area under all cereals is under a million acres, and of this 

 wheat occupies 600,000 acres, and maize 200,000 acres. 

 Queensland has made little progress in wheat-growing, and 

 at present her production of this grain, like that of New 

 South Wales, does not suffice to meet the requirements of 

 her population. It is held, however, that there is an exten- 

 sive region of range land in Queensland, particularly on the 

 Darling Downs, which could be converted into fertile wheat- 

 fields ; and it is believed that within the next decade the 

 colony will be in a position to export wheat, inasmuch as 

 the squatters are themselves becoming the largest wheat- 

 growers, and are continually bringing large areas of grass 

 land under the plough. In Tasmania, wheat is grown on 

 over 60,000 acres, and in Western Australia, on 42,000 

 .acres, whereas, in Queensland, less than 30,000 are devoted 

 to this cereal. 



The shipments of wheat from Australia to foreign coun- 

 tries, mainly the United Kingdom, consist almost entirely of 

 the surplus available from the production of the wheat-fields 

 of Victoria, South Australia, and New Zealand, the greater 

 portion being contributed by the first-named colony. 



Dairy farming has been introduced with success into nearly 



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