man's calculations to even estimate what proportion may ultimately come under the plough.

At the present time, however, it is far from extravagant to say that while Australia is now, roughly, producing 100,000,000 bushels of wheat on 10,000,000 acres, it is capable, without improving the average yield, of producing 1,000,000,000 bushels of wheat from 100,000,000 acres. And as the experience of good farms has conclusively demonstrated that the average yield could be much greater than it is at present, with good farming methods, the general use of more suitable varieties of wheat, not to mention the still greater improvement in the breeding of suitable wheats, that yield should certainly be half as much again. Australia therefore stands out as promising to be one of the greatest wheat-producing countries in the world.

Australia has the land and climate; she wants the men.

There is a large area of country in Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales known as the Mallee, the name being derived from a dense dwarf eucalyptus scrub which covers the land in its natural state. For a long period this land was deemed unfit for wheatgrowing on account mainly of the low rainfall, and, away from the River Murray, absence of water supply. Experience has long since proved that it is very profitable wheat land when properly worked, while the discovery of a sub-artesian water supply and good water-holding country has overcome most of the difficulty that first faced settlement. There is a large area of this land available for share farming, and a great area is also being opened up for settlement, particularly in South Australia. There is thus a sound prospect fronting the new settler, as he might start on the Mallee country share farming, and on what he has earned establish himself on a holding of his own, with all the advantage of a practical experience of that particular type of land and the climate. The Mallee soil is mostly sandy loam, but red and black loams, varying from sand to clay, are found. It is a low elevation above sea level, but the country is undulating. The vegetation is reckoned a sound guide to the quality of the soil for wheatgrowing; indeed, this same principle can be accepted in all parts of the wheat belt. On the Mallee the richest parts are denoted by the pines and bull oak trees, while the large and small Mallee marks good and medium loams and clays.

The Mallee land is suitable for handling by the man with small means, either on a farm of his own or as a share farmer, as in the first case the clearing is cheap, while in the second he can handle a large area. The scrub is broken down by rollers, and is comparatively easily eradicated. For a time young suckers come up amongst the wheat crop, but they are burnt off when the standing stubble is burnt after the crop has been taken off, and in time quite cleaned out. The soil is naturally rich in potash, nitrogen, and lime, but requires superphosphate, as the percentage of phosphoric acid is low. Although the average yield is lower than other parts of the wheat belt, wheatgrowing has proved very profitable in the Mallee country, and there is plenty of evidence of that fact.

In Victoria the Mallee country is an important part of the wheat belt of that State, there being over 800,000 acres under wheat last season (1913-14) out of a total area for that State of 2,786,421 acres. Yet it is only within the last ten years that it has had any reputation for farming, being mostly looked upon as useless. Most of the first settlers were share farmers with little capital, but with brains and energy, and many of them are now worth from $50,000.00 to $100,000.00. There were failures in the early days, because there was want of knowledge of the proper methods of working low-rainfall country for growing wheat, and also proper methods and lack of proper implements for that class of country. Suitable implements, especially "stump-jump" implements, have been evolved, and there is a solid guide for the new settlers to follow. One of the leading farmers in the Mallee country in Victoria, Mr. R. Blackwood, at Hopetoun, where the soil is of average quality and the rainfall less than 14 in., started on the share system in 1892. It was seven years before he adopted the "bare fallow" method, an essential in such country, and since doing so he has averaged 16 bushels per acre. In the record dry year (1902) his crop went 8 bushels to the acre, and paid working expenses. By 1913 he was the owner of 5000 acres. He crops about 650 acres each year, and fallows about the same area, working on a three-year rotation of fallow, wheat, grazing.

FACTORS GOVERNING WHEATGROWING.

The principal factors governing wheatgrowing in Australia are:—

The settler has not to find these things out for himself. He has the assistance of well-organised and progressive departments of agriculture in the different States to tell him what to do, how and when to do it. The working of his land is a matter upon which he will be fully informed. He will have the scientific experience of the departmental experts, the examples of local experimental plots, and the experience of working farmers to guide him in regard to the best method of working his soil. Methods vary somewhat in different soils and districts, as has been previously stated.

He is informed as to the best varieties to sow in his district and the proper time to sow them. The completeness of that information can be gathered from the following particulars which are supplied by the Department of Agriculture in New South Wales every season. Similar information is furnished in other States. In New South Wales a classification of varieties of wheat is made by the department, and a table published for the information of wheatgrowers. The following is the classification for the season 1913-14:—

In respect of time of sowing the varieties mentioned above were recommended in inverse order.

Just as the farmer is advised as to the most suitable varieties of wheat for his district, so experiments are conducted to ascertain the most useful quantity of manure, and full particulars made available in the agricultural gazettes or journals which are published in the different States, as well as being made available in bulletin form. The question of manuring is a very important one to the wheatgrower, as it influences the yield greatly in most of the principal areas, if not all.