250 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JoURNAL. [1 Aprit, 1899. 
THE EXPANSION OF AGRICULTURE. 
Looxine back a hundred years, one cannot but be impressed with the 
marvellous strides which have been made in agricultural science since the day 
when Malthus wrote his “Essay on Population” (1798). At that time there was 
very little science in agriculture. The occupation was looked upon very mach 
in the same light as it was in Anglo-Saxon and Norman days, when the tiller 
of the soil was a churl or a vilein, a mere clod-hopping animal whom God had 
specially created to minister to the wants of eorls, thanes, and barons. Up 
to as late as 60 years ago, farmers were spoken of as “jolly,” “sturdy,” &e., 
and were depicted as very fat men in top boots, baggy breeches, low, white, 
broad-brimmed hats, and on market days usually to be seen with a yard of 
clay in their mouths and quart-pots of beer in their hands. In fact, the 
British farmer was the type of “John Bull”’—thick set, sturdy, aggressive, 
and very conservative. What is he to-day ? Except in some Northern and 
Western districts, and in parts of Ireland, the farmer is not to be distinguished 
from any other man, except perhaps from a soldier, sailor, or clergyman. One 
of the reasons for this change is that the latter-day farmer has to work largely 
with his brains; another is that he has the assistance of various kinds of 
labour-saving machinery. No longer do we see hordes of men and women 
cutting down the golden harvest and binding it intosheaves. No longer is the 
rhythmetical “swish” of the scythe heard as the mowers, keeping time with 
each other, laid the sweet-smelling hay in long, regular swaths. The music 
of the flail in the barn does not any longer amuse the children “looking in 
at the open door.” All is changed eyen to the sower who went forth to sow. 
And how has production itself kept pace with the improved machinery, 
with the scientific discoveries tending to double or treble the produce of the 
land? It must be said that farmers are slow to adopt new ideas, although the 
old stubborn conservative has almost disappeared from the land, and the new 
generation is more amenable to reason and common sense. ‘The vast estates of 
many of the old nobility and gentry in the old country have been let to farmers 
in greater numbers during the last hundred years. In newer worlds, large 
areas of virgin soil have been placed under the plough. specially has this 
form of development taken place in the peaceable colonies of Australia. Many 
of the large freehold estates of the squatters have been subdivided into farms 
by the owners, or have been repurchased by the Government, and sold on easy 
terms, and at reasonable{prices to the agriculturists, so that to-day we have the 
spectacle of large areas of the finest soil in the world, which were formerly 
considered as being only adapted to the raising of sheep and cattle, waving with 
splendid crops of wheat, maize, and lucerne, bringing in as many pounds per 
acre to the owners as they formerly brought in shillings. 
Tf we consider the position of agriculture in Queensland only 38 years ago, 
and compare it with the state of the field industries of to-day, what a 
marvellous expansion is before us! In the early sixties the cultivation of the 
land was practically confined to the coast. All the magnificent Downs country 
was nothing but a collection of vast sheep runs. The total area under 
cultivation amounted to at most 3,250 acres. Sugar, cotton, rice, coffee, 
wheat were not even dreamt of. Most of the requirements of the colonists in 
the way of agricultural produce were drawn from foreign sources. Dairying 
was carried’ on here and there by some “cockatoo” farmers, who kept half- 
a-dozen ill-bred cows, and butter was imported in large quantities from Ireland. 
Bananas were only grown on the river banks, where other cultivation was 
impracticable. The State took no interest in the farmer. It was convenient 
to sell coast lands to him which were worthless for sheep farming at £1 per acre 
cash, but he was looked upon as a sort of necessary evil, and legislation was 
then directed to the expansion of the squatting industry rather than towards 
that of agriculture. By-and-by, however, came the American civil war, and an 
impetus Was given to the cultivation of the soil in consequence of the demand 
