337 
November 2,1891,] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
water-oarrying strata have been tapped, with good 
results; and such is the promise ol this source 
alone, that the death ol stock by the thousands, 
by reason ol drought, will soon be impossible. 
And, alter all, il this bo too sanguine, there 
remains a tract of nearly two million square miles, 
within which men and all that men feed upon 
grow and thrive, some parts ol which are the 
most favoured in the world, and all of which 
may be utilized. Surely a magnificent heritage, 
fit habitation for a race with a great future. 
And that such is before the Australians, they 
mayj well be confident. Ol the lour millions, in 
round numbers, who occupy Australia, the groat 
majority are of our own stock ; scarcely even is 
New England, as to race, mote a part of Great 
Britain, accidentally detached, than is Australia ; 
and nowhere have Englishmen laboured more 
stoutly and to bettor purpose. Mr. Ooghlan’s 
computations record rapid progress, of which tbe 
colonists may well bo proud. In much less than 
a century of activity, Australia has accumulated 
a stock of wealth, which, he estimates, far exceeds 
that ol Belgium, Holland, or ('anads, each a 
comparatively old State. Such figures, however, 
con be but rough approximations — at beat only 
very intelligent surmises. More trustworthy, and 
equally impressive, are the returns as to sheep- 
farming and other kindred industries. In the year 
1889 there were one hundred millions of sheep, 
nine-and-a-half millions of cattle, ono-and-a-balf 
million of horses, and more than a million of 
swine. The value of the wool grown in that year, 
is put at twenty millions : the value of the year’s 
produce to the growers, at thirty-five millions ; 
and to this must be added the dairy produce, 
reckoned at over seven millions sterling. We all 
know the vastness of the flocks possessed by 
Australian millionaires ; the conditions of economy 
under which they are fed are less understood. 
There is no need of artificial grasses ; that which 
grows wild on the runs is generally suilicient. 
Labour is dear ; therefore labour is reduced to a 
minimum, and, in place of the shepherd, who has 
all but disappeared, are wirefenced paddocks, 
within which the sheep roam at their will. The 
wool, too, is of the best : the original stock was 
good, and the climate has improved the qualities 
of the fleece. 
These are magnificent results ; and yet our 
Correspondent admits that agriculture is still almost 
in its infancy. It now takes about nine-and-a-halt 
acres to produce annually a single fleece of wool ; 
but this, he explains, is owing to so much land 
being completely unstocked. If it all carried as 
much as Now South Wales, there would be six 
hundred millions more sheep than now exist. 
No wonder the Australians are hopeful, when 
their statisticians and agriculturists tell them that 
they may soon expect to have a clear addition 
to their present flocks of as many sheep as are 
now fed in Europe, five times the number in 
Asia, six time.s the number in Africa, and more 
than exist in North or South America. Econo- 
mists have explained that agriculture in its 
development follows oortain laws : that when 
population is small and land plentiful, stock- 
raising is remunerative and necessary ; that, as 
population increases, agriculture becomes more 
“intensive,” and huge flocks become things ol 
the past. At no great distance from Melbourne 
and Sydney this evolution has long been completed. 
Elsewhere agriculture is still in the earliest stages. 
Even in Victoria and Now Zealand the cultivateil 
area is only 'i'l'A and 2'07 of the whole, while 
in (juooiisland. South Australia, and Western 
Australia it is the insignificant proportion of -06, 
■39, and *01. If our Correspondent’s hopes are 
well founded, the greater portion of what now 
lies useless, except for stock raising, may bo put 
under crops; and, when this transformation takes 
place, the wealth of Australasia will be immensely 
increased. It is a simple calculation ; if the value 
of agricultural produce was seven -tenths of that 
of the pastoral produce, when, to speak generally, 
only one-third of one acre out of every hnudr^ 
was under cultivation, what will be the value ol 
the former when the country is cultivated as 
Scotland or Ireland 1 Of the future of Australian 
commerce one must speak only with diffidence. 
Economists and historians have not discovered 
the complex laws governing its growth. But the 
results so far entitle one to hope the best. Seven 
tarills, more or less hostile to British goods^ have 
been in operation ; but everywhere, even in Victoria 
with its high protective duties, trade has expanded 
by leaps and bounds. Tbe total external trade 
of Australasia in 1889 was valued at £76,384,000, 
of which no less than 77 per cent, was with 
Great Britain. In a single decade the colonial 
external trade increased by more than £'24,000,000. 
It will surprise many Englishmen to bo told that, 
as to shipping, ” within the Empire Melbourne 
is exceeded in absolute tonnage only by London, 
Liverpool, Cardiff, and Newcastle,"— with tbe addi- 
tion, as Sir William Des Vmux has pointed out, 
of Hongkong— and that within the same limits 
“ Melbourne is exceeded in population only by 
London, Calcutta, Liverpool and Glasgow, while 
only Birmingham and Madras are to bo added to 
the list before Sydney is oalled.” These things 
are outdone by no achievements of industry in 
the same space of time. In tbe last century, 
poems would have been written about them. In 
glowing heroics would have been described the 
silent, lonely and miserable land, becoming, as il 
by magic, rich, prosperous, people with flocks and 
herds, and vocal with the sounds of human in- 
dustry. In still earlier ages, bad such things come 
to pass, the story would have been, after the 
manner of Herodotus, of some people driven from 
their homes, finding a strange land, pleasing by 
propitious sacrifices the gods, who poured upon 
the new-comers the beat that Heaven could give, 
flush accounts, the poem as well as the legend, 
would have been true ; for it is the magic of 
courage and enterprise, tbe propitious sacrifice of 
unremitting toil, which has triumphed over all 
difliculties, and worked tbs marvels described in 
*“ The Commonwealth of Australia .” — Timet Weekly 
Edition) flept. 1- 
LWe had the pleasure of a visit from Mr. Ward, 
the author of the able | articles referred to, 
when he was on his way homo. Ho bad been 
associated in Australian journalism with Mr, 
Quilett, who some dozen years back was in 
Ceylon.— Ec. T, A.j 
I’ERSIA AS A FIELD FOR ENTERFRISE. 
* • a • 
I’ersian commerce affords ns a very striking 
example of what may be attained by perseverance, 
and a resolve to tenaciously hold on to a definite 
scheme of working. The British India Steam 
Navigation have persistently pushed business in 
tbe Persian Gulf, and have created by their efforts 
a valuable stream of commerce which before their 
advent did not flow, although the materials for it 
existed. This point was fully brought out by 
Major-General Sir H. Murdoch Smith in the ad- 
dress ho read before the London Chamber of 
Comoaeroe lu February, 1889, and a full reporf 
