Wheat Growing in Australia Part 1

Wheat Growing in Australia.

by Australia Department of External Affairs.

WHEATGROWING IN AUSTRALIA.

With the growing scarcity of foodstuffs that has become a world-wide feature of the last few years, the wheatgrower is one of the most important necessities in civilisation. He has prospered in the past, but the future holds still greater and richer prospects. And in no country in the world are those prospects brighter than in the Commonwealth of Australia. The world's surface is gradually filling up, and most of the older countries have reached sight of the limit of cultivation, so the world's millions have to look to newer lands to provide them with food.

The great island continent in the southern seas possesses a vast area of proven wheat land, as yet untouched by the plough. It lies dormant, fertile, and responsive, awaiting the union of labour and land to yield abundance of food.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BREAKING UP NEW GROUND.]

Australia has many rural industries, but of agriculture wheat is the most important, just as it is the most important of the world's crops.

Wheat is the king of cereals--the prime essential of civilised life.

Nearly half the inhabitants of the globe are wheat-eaters. And the number is growing, for the Eastern races are becoming consumers of wheat, which is significant of a higher standard of living. For as races rise in the human scale wheat becomes a more important part of their food. This alone shows the increasing importance of the cereal, and the importance of the men who grow it. Indeed, the food value of wheat, its ease of cultivation and preparation for human use, the fact that it will grow and flourish in so many different soils and climates, and can be made into so many and various products, combined with its quick and bountiful return, all go to enhance the value of wheat grain, and the prospects of the man who grows it.

Science is teaching how to produce more wheat from the same area, is improving the varieties of wheat and the methods of cultivating it, and teaching how to restore impoverished lands. And there is still an enormous area as yet untouched, while land is being utilised now that twenty years ago was deemed incapable of growing wheat. Who can tell what the future will find?

Australia alone has many millions of acres of wheat land as yet unused for that purpose. One of the youngest of nations, yet one of the oldest parts of the world geologically, it can house and feed millions more than its present population. There is room for the extension and continuation of the magnificent progress that wheatgrowing has already made. The story of wheat cultivation is the story of progress. In Australia, within the last decade, wheatgrowing has advanced rapidly.

Railways have been built out into new districts, and freight is cheap.

Towns have sprung into existence, and the whole aspect of the countryside in district after district being altered by increasing settlement, where wheatfields have taken the place of sheep paddocks.

These towns are solvent and prosperous, and certain of a great future, for there is room for immensely greater settlement. The majority of the wheat farms are larger than necessary, and only a small percentage of the wheat land is cultivated. The urgent necessity is for more men to build homes and farm these lands. There are both private and public lands awaiting settlement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TYPICAL CLa.s.sES OF FARMING LANDS.]

The profitable nature of wheatgrowing in Australia is shown by the comfortable homesteads and the strong financial position of numerous families in the wheat districts. Many of these successful wheatgrowers, indeed most of them, are men who started with little or no capital in cash, but with plenty of energy and willingness to work.

They have built homes for themselves in the "bush," and found prosperity, and there is room for thousands of other men to follow in their footsteps. In a favourable year a wheatfarmer will often receive as much, or more, for his crop than the capital value of his land.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIRST STAGES OF CROPPING.]

In the early stages of wheatgrowing in Australia mistakes were made and progress was slow. Wheat was grown in the wrong soil and districts, and suitable varieties of the cereal were not available. Cultivation was confined to the moist coastal country, with its annual rainfall of 30 to 40 in., and wheat was not a success. The discovery that the drier districts inland were more suitable for wheatgrowing altered the position very happily. The bulk of the wheat is now grown in districts with a rainfall of 20 to 25 in. and under. This averaged rainfall is considered sufficient for wheatgrowing, and safer than a heavier rainfall. Wheatgrowing has been most profitable in districts with a rainfall below 20 in., and an average of 40 bushels per acre has been harvested from 600 acres. On well-worked fallowed land splendid money-making crops have been gathered, although the growing crop only had 2 or 3 in. of rain.

In Australian wheat districts the quant.i.ty of rain is not as important as the time of the year in which it falls. Rain is wanted in the early autumn, so that ploughing can be done, and in the spring, when the wheat is heading and flowering. With rain in April and May, and again in September or October, the Australian wheatgrower is a.s.sured of a fine crop. In the wheat districts those are the seasonable times to get rain.

The summer is usually dry and warm, and this is one of the main advantages from the wheatgrower's standpoint. This fine dry weather--which is exceptionally healthy for the human being--means the production of a high-cla.s.s grain, for which there is an unlimited demand in the world's markets. Unless the common rule is broken, and the season is unduly wet, there is no fear of rust, and nothing to interfere with the haymaking. The main crop, which is kept for grain, can be left standing safely in the paddocks until it is thoroughly ripe, when it is taken off with a stripper or harvester and bagged. So the districts that have heavy summer rains are largely unsuitable for wheatgrowing, but those in which the rains fall during the autumn, winter, and spring, and have dry summers, are most suitable.

While the present average is low in the Australian wheatgrowing districts compared with other countries, the cost of production is also remarkably low. Furthermore, methods are improving generally, and a considerable increase in yield can be expected with confidence. The very richness of the soil and the kindliness of the climate has tempted growers to adopt speculative methods of growing wheat. The main idea has been to put a large area under crop on the chance of striking a good year, when a small fortune may be realised. But growers are being educated to the value of more careful methods as paying best in the long run. The average yield in Australia has been about 11 to 13 bushels per acre. The total area under wheat and the wheat yield in the different Australian States for the season 1913-14 was:--

+------------------+---------------+------------------+-----------+ | | | | Average | | State. | Area.--Acres. | Yield.--Bushels. | per Acre. | |------------------+---------------+------------------+-----------+ |New South Wales | 3,206,600 | 38,043,360 | 11.09 | |Victoria | 2,786,421 | 32,936,245 | 12.84 | |South Australia | 2,699,632 | 16,736,988 | 7.47 | |Western Australia | 1,104,753 | 13,496,242 | 12.02 | |Queensland | 132,655 | 1,769,432 | 13.34 | |Tasmania[A] | 18,054 | 421,380 | 23.33 | | |---------------|------------------+-----------+ | | 9,948,115 | 103,403,647 | 10.39 | +------------------+---------------+------------------+-----------+

[Footnote A: Estimated.]

As stated, compared with some of the older countries, such averages seem small, yet in the dry districts of Australia they mean a reasonable margin of profit. In such districts it is estimated that a 10-bushel crop per acre will pay $0.60 per bushel. Of late years the price received by growers has averaged about $0.84 per bushel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DISC PLOUGHS ARE POPULAR IN AUSTRALIA.]

The average return does not show what a district or country is capable of producing, as it is reduced by the low yields of careless and unskilled farmers. The men are responsible, and not the soil or climate.

There are thousands of farmers who never have a lower average than 20 to 25 bushels, while in some well-farmed districts a whole locality has averaged nearly 30 bushels to the acre. The whole tendency now is towards more careful methods and higher averages, and this will mean greater prosperity for the farmers. As it is, men have been wonderfully successful in growing wheat in Australia, and if this is the case with the careless, largely happy-go-lucky style of the past, the prospect is extremely promising for the future. In a way, new men coming into Australia, and taking up wheatgrowing, stand a better chance than many of the long-settled farmers who have got into a groove--even a profitable one--and who do not care to bother greatly with progressive ideas. The new comer has no preconceived notions, and comes with an open mind adaptable to the teachings of experience.

The new settler has his path made easy by the attention the Governments of the different States are giving to wheatgrowing. In all the States there is a Department of Agriculture, and all its acc.u.mulated knowledge is available to the farmer. In all the princ.i.p.al States there are Government Experiment Farms, where new wheats are tried, and also the best methods; the results are furnished to the public. In most of the wheat districts there are demonstration plots showing the best varieties to grow in the different localities. The new settler is advised what varieties to grow in his locality, and when to grow them, what amount of fertiliser to use, and the best methods of handling his land. In any difficulty the resources of the Department of Agriculture are at his service. At the Government farms crops of the best wheats are grown, and the seed distributed amongst the farmers, while inspectors are continually travelling through the country lecturing and visiting the growers, and advising them, whenever advice is asked for. With such facilities the future of the settler practically depends upon the use he makes of his opportunities, and the opportunities are unsurpa.s.sed in any other country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PUTTING IN SEED.]

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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: (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 quant.i.ty 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 quant.i.ty 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FINE CROP OF WHEAT.]

Again at Mr. G. Laidlaw's farm, "Elm Park," Jindera, Albury, New South Wales, 28 bushels 56 lbs. were obtained on fallowed land with a rainfall of 752 points.

With a seasonal distribution of rain wheat can be successfully grown with an average of 10 in. There are growers in country that ten years ago was considered outside the wheat belt, that is, the safe country, who for the last five years have never harvested less than an average of 25 bushels per acre. Yet an average of 12 to 15 bushels has proved profitable.

In Victoria, wheatgrowing can increase fivefold before the whole of the suitable land is brought under the plough. The wheat crop of that State should, if the settlers are forthcoming, within a few years reach 8,000,000 acres, provided that one-third of each farm is regularly cultivated. The area under wheat in 1913-14 was 2,786,421 acres, so there is room for thousands of growers yet.

In South Australia and in Western Australia there are immense areas, running into millions of acres, which yet remain to be brought under wheat. In Queensland wheatgrowing practically remains to be developed.

At present stockraising proves most profitable, but there is no question that in the course of time that State will add immensely to the wheat belt of the Commonwealth. In all the States the usual course has been for wheat to follow stockraising, after the latter have sweetened and improved the soil, making it more compact and suitable for cultivation.

In new lands, where the soil has been practically untrodden for ages, it is seldom immediately suitable for the cultivation of wheat, in what later on proved to be ideal wheat districts. Therefore, in such a vast country as Australia, which totals 2,974,581 square miles, it is beyond 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AUSTRALIA'S AVERAGE WHEAT YIELD IS FROM 11 TO 13 BUSHELS PER ACRE, BUT THOUSANDS OF FARMS YIELD FROM 20 TO 25 BUSHELS PER ACRE.]

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 cla.s.s 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.