1 Aprin, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. ~— 257 
seed is put at 2s. 1d., and interest on the value of the land at 3s. 13d., making 
within 12s. 5d. per acre, without allowing anything for taxes or miscellaneous 
expenses.* His 6 bushels of wheat per acre have brought him in this season 
only 12s. 6d., so that his crop has only paid working and other expenses. 
Indeed, there must be some small expenses not covered by the 12s. 5d. As this 
farmer does a great deal of the work himself, he says that his crop has just paid 
him good wages. In other words, the farmer of 300 acres is satisfied to earn 
the wages of a farm labourer. What the English farmer cannot understand is 
why his American friends should take the trouble to crop so many acres with 
wheat for such amiserable result. A good farmer in this country frequently 
grows as much wheat on 45 acres as the South Dakota farmer produces on 
8300 acres, Possibly the latter could not grow as much per acre as the former, 
however well he farmed, soil and climate being different; but it is feasible to 
grow the 1,800 bushels on 100 acres in Dakota, and to leave the remaining 200 
acres for grazing, if nothing better can be done with it. : 
Now, turn we to our own country—Australasia; and that we may not be 
charged with picking out any one good year, we will consider the wheat yield 
of the whole of the seven colonies for the 10 years when wheat-growing 
was coming to the front—from South Australia to Queensland. 
With this view we present the following table :— 
AVERAGE YIELD oF WHEAT PER ACRE IN THE Seven Cononres FROM THE 
YEAR 1885 ro 1894. 
Colony. G Average Yield per Acre. 
Bush. lb. 
New South Wales AC 2 a 12 0 
Victoria ... HS) fe eed a 9 9 
Queensland on a Lf a > WE Ye) 
South Australia ... re “tn xr 6 8 
Western Australia ar or! 3 iil 4% 
Tasmania ... 10) e = rs 17 4: 
New Zealand Ht a tx) ts OBy Tf 
The average yield for the seven colonies during a period of 10 years is thus 
13 bushels 15 lb. per acre. 
We will now take the years 1890 to 1898 for the colonies of South 
Australia and Queensland :— ‘ 
Soutn AUSTRALTA, 
Year, Average Yield. 
Bush. Ib. 
1890-91... oer ‘a5 33 x - G1 BY 
1891-92... ax re “¥5) etd Ad 
1892-938... ore 304) 6 41 
1893-94: Sas 
1894-95 ... me 045 ; 4 52 
1895-96... ac mb ne 4 22 
1896-97... ee ap oh Pe 2 gAlr 
NYAS cas; 30 Oy << on a 
QUEENSLAND. 
139020. aeuemeres 0 se03 00 ccy PAO) alls) 
1891-92... wn, 10% ex as Ab BIS 
1892-9355 7. 200 Hu Se .. 14 32 
1893-94 ... Si ved 00) sig TK BY 
1894-95... er bre me sty USS) 8) 
1895-96... ons a oe xo §) BH a 
1896-97... ote sb re ax dy vay) 
1897-98... i ne aa ai WGK! (0) 
* Some other expenses must come to 4s. 1d. in order to arrive at a total cost of 128 5d. per 
acre,—Kd: @. A.J. 
