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."

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.

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.

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.