Wheat Growing in Australia
Book Excerpt
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 prov