26 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
PROCEEDINGS OF T11E AGRICUT.TUItAL 
AND HORTICULTURAL SUCH.TV OF 
new south wares. 
Tbo following pipers were read :—Explanation of 
some remarks which appeared in one of the daily 
papers, respecting a paper read before this Society, 
at one of its previous meetings, on native plants, 
and the Pastoral, Agricultural, and Horticultural 
resources of Australia, by Mr. T. W. Shepherd. 
I regret, that, through unavoidable circumstances 
I have been unable to prepare the paper which I 
promised, for this meeting. Rut would beg your 
attention for a few minutes. 1 desire to t ike you 
hack to a previous paper, (number 4 of the series.) 
iu order to set myself right, in the position I then 
took, respecting the power of Australia to supply 
herself with animal food. This position was, that 
the natural pastures of the country already pro¬ 
duced, under overage circumstances, the maximum 
quantity of beef and mutton that they were capable 
of, and "that unless some means wero devised, and 
employed to render these pastures more productive 
and more permanent, we would at no distant day 
have to import these commodities, or to produce 
them by having recourse to artificial feeding, by 
means of the cultivation of tho soil. This desire 
has been induced, because a writer in the daily 
press has assailed these conclusions, which my en¬ 
quiries and experience had compelled mo to 
arrive at. The writer alluded to. altogether denies 
that this maximum has been reached, on the 
following grounds. That our export of tatlow 
shows that a considerable amount of sheep 
and cattle are still sent to the tallow pot, 
and that because tho general publie will 
not, and do not believe in such a possibility, it 
therefore cannot exist, because ho and the public 
are, and must bo always right in their conclusions. 
To remove the first ground of objection, it is only 
necessary to show, that tho whole export of 
tallow from the country, lias in the face of most 
congenial scasous, dwindled to a very insignificant 
figure; I need not enter upon satisfies to prove 
this, because, I believe, no oho will deny it, 
and it may he therefore assumed as taken for 
granted,—and further, it might be shown that our 
import of tallow in the shape of soap, candles, oil, 
Ac., is somewhere about equal in quantity to our 
export of the raw material, thus proving, that, not 
only has our present supply of beef and mutton, from 
our natural pastures reached that stage, whero it is 
about equal to our homo consumption, but that 
tallow has also gained a similar position, as it must 
of a matter of course do. 1 am of opinion, that out 
of every hundred casks of tallow exported, ninety- 
nine are tho produce of animals slaughtered in 
town and country for human food, and the re¬ 
maining one oither the produce of diseased animals, 
“ killed to save their lives,” or of animals reared in 
remote and out of the way places, from which mar¬ 
kets for live stock aro difficult of access. Besides 
this, we do, even now, import a very considerable 
quantity of animal food, in tho shape of salted beef 
and pork, including bncon, hams, not to say any¬ 
thing of meats preserved fresh. It will, of course, 
he understood, chat all these remarks aro intended 
to apply to Australia as a Whole, and not to any 
particular colony, or part of it. Having now shown 
that the writer’s first ground of objection was 
founded on a fallacy, it appears to’ me, that his 
second is so self-evidently weak, that little need 
bo said in order to demolish it. In the first place 
thero is no proof that the publie as a body have the 
opinion stated, and if it had it could not affect the 
question, because the public generally have had no 
Opportunity of judging, and it is very evident that 
the w riter spoxen of, is labouring under a similar 
disadvantage. Under these circumstances, there¬ 
fore, it is clear, that any opinion or belief formed or 
entertained hy these parties on this suhjectcia hits' 
no weight whatever. 
The only reason I had for putting forward she 
conclusions spoken of, which I have arrived o 
after careful consideration, and ample opportunities 
for forming a correct opinion, was to male more 
apparent the necessity which existed for energetic 
action being at once taken, in order to itnprers 
ami increase the capabilities of our natural pu. 
turca by every means in our power. It never 
occurred to uie that Australil was, or would he, 
physically unable to produce either ariunl or 
vegetable food in sufficient quantities for the sup¬ 
port of her own people, even if these amounted to 
a hundred millions or more; on the contrary, I 
have over and over again put forth the very oppo¬ 
site opinion both in papers read before the memtu-n 
of this Society, and on other occasions, And I am 
still anxious to convince my fellow Australians of 
tho urgency with which their circumstances call 
upon them "to be up and doing, not like our Irani 
of the daily press, persuade them to keep thrir 
minds easy, and trust all to providence. I wn ! 
have one and all put shoulders to the wheel, mid 
fable we are told, Hercules advised the wagjotirr, 
and then, perhaps, providence may smile upon us 
and lend a helping hand. So far from being an 
alarmist, as our savant of tho ‘‘daily'’ would ap¬ 
pear to insinuate, 1 have never yet pointed out . 
defect in our country, without either showing tbit 
tho very defect might prove an advantage, or 
suggesting tho means by which it might be re¬ 
medied. It is a pity that public writers will pro¬ 
fess to teach that which they themselves are 
ignorant of, “if the blind lead the blind both 
shall fall into a ditch,” and critics should always 
remember th> advice of Apelles to the cobbler. 
ON THE ADVANTAGES OF CHANGING 
SEEDS. 
Changes of seeds are founded on most philosophical 
principles. In all places where plants do not grow 
indigenous, and where seeds have been Introduce! 
thero is generally a tendency of degeneration, which 
great care alone'ean prevent. When w heat for instate, 
is sown year after year in the same soil, without much 
attention to the process of dressing, far less of selecting 
such degeneracy descends nearly to the minhnunnf 
grass seeds, rather than enlarges to the maximum sits 
of plump grains, full of gluten anil starchy substance. 
Iu Australia less regard may be paiijto the subject 
of earliness, than perhaps is necessary in Brink. 
Australia is the land of the sun, and it ought therein 
to constitute a part of out agricultural system that ws 
should obtain and assiduously cultivate those varicue 
of wheat particularly ; being the main constituent of 
our daily bread ; which seem best adapted to the vari¬ 
ous Soils aud climates of this great colony. There caa 
he no doubt, however, that changes of seed from a 
warmer climate to a colder soil, growqnicker thus any 
crops repeatedly raised on the same field from like seed; 
and the inverse rule will have an effect of making the 
harvest later. Nav, wheat carried from a poor soil to a 
richer, may so far improve, but seeds conveyed from a 
poor soil to a poorer, will seldom pay the trouble. 
Wheat also raised from old seeds, arrives at maturity 
several days sooner, than if the crop had been grown 
from seeds six months reaped, and then sown. 
Lord Kairnes found that the produce from a judicious 
change exceeded the return from year-old seed, by 
twenty-six per cent. 
By advocating changes of seed, it is not however 
recommended that a farmer should reject bis stock 
in hand, if it give him reasonable satisfaction; any 
more than a grazier ought to put away a good brerd 
of sheep, cattle, or horses, and run the risk of ob¬ 
taining a worse ; for the cereals in this respect bear 
a closer analogy to the animal economy,' than nucj 
