In the wheat districts the summer is warm, and the thermometer often registers over 100 degs. Fahr., but it is a dry, healthy heat that is not as uncomfortable as the lower temperatures in moister climates. The warm weather holds for two or three months in midsummer, when the heat during the day is trying, but for the remainder of the year the climate is perfect. The winter is mild, so much so that live stock need no shelter, and often fatten on the natural pasture throughout the year. Farming operations can be conducted throughout the year. There is no snow or period when work is practically at a standstill.
AUSTRALIAN WHEAT AREA.
On the average of the past five years the wheat yield of Australia represents about 2 per cent. of the world's production. The return per acre is low, but as has been pointed out, the cost of production is likewise low, and it is doubtful if in any other country the business of growing wheat is more profitable. The area now cultivated is but a mere percentage of what could be put under wheat profitably. The exact area is almost impossible to arrive at, for the simple reason that with improved methods and better varieties of wheat, the extent of country in which the cereal can be successfully grown increases.
For practical purposes the area deemed suitable for wheatgrowing is that which has sufficient rainfall to admit of ploughing being carried out at the right time of the year, as already stated, from March to June, to cover the growing period, and to fill the grain during September and October. In other words, it is not so much a matter of what the annual rainfall is as when the rain usually falls. The State of New South Wales for example. For a long time land with less than a rainfall of 20 in. has been excluded from the area considered safe for profitable wheatgrowing. Even then the area in that State suitable for wheat covers 25 million acres. In the State of South Australia farmers place the annual rainfall limit at 16 in., provided it is regular and the land is properly worked. If wheat can be grown on that rainfall in the latter State, and the evidence is that it certainly can, at least another 10,000,000 acres can be added to the wheat belt of the State. Although, therefore, the present area under wheat (1913-14) is only 3,206,600 acres, there are 35,000,000 acres on a moderate estimate in New South Wales alone that can grow wheat profitably. And experiments in the west show that a still greater extension of the wheat belt can be looked for, especially with improvement in the breeding of varieties suitable for the dryer districts. At present, however, there is no necessity for settlers to go outside the area of "safe country."
(1) Typical Australian Farm Scene. (2) Preparing Wheat for Harvest. (3) Ploughing.
What can be achieved in dry districts with a limited and intermittent rainfall has been most forcibly proved by experience. At Messrs. Gagie Bros.' farm, Spy Hill, West Wyalong, New South Wales, a yield of 24 bushels of wheat was obtained in the 1911-12 season on a rainfall of 668 points—less than 7 in.! Of course, such a crop could not be grown on such a rainfall alone, as a much larger quantity of water would be required to produce that amount of wheat. The crop during the growing period only received 668 points of rain, but in the land on which it was grown, and which was fallowed and properly worked, a large quantity of moisture was stored from the previous year, and on this reserve the growing crop grew, and with the additional 668 points that fell during the growing period a yield of 24 bushels per acre was obtained.
Still more remarkable were the results obtained in the same season from experiment plots on the farm of Mr. Carew, Deniliquin, in the same State. The seed was sown on well-worked fallow land in which a good amount of the previous year's rainfall had been conserved. The rainfall during the growing period was 322 points, distributed as follows:—May, 210; June, 60; July, 12; August, nil; September, 37; October, 3 points. Under ordinary conditions such a rainfall would mean utter failure of a wheat crop, yet in this case a yield of 14 bushels per acre was obtained.
