AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20084, 13 November 1930, Page 25

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

Latest Stock Returns. SHEEP, CATTLE, AND HORSES. The following table gives the latest figures of the numbers of sheeft cattle, and horses in New Zealand, the various States of Australia, and in the Argentine:— Sheep. Cattle. Horses. 1929. 1980. 1920. 1930. 1920. 1930. N.S.W. 50,515,000 50,740,000 2,848,455 2,784,615 598,377 567,371 Q'land 18,509,201 19,975,752 5,128,341 5,122,063 522,490 493,101 Victoria 16,498,222 17,427,203 1,304,426 1,335,242 412,877 393,015 8. Aust. 7,079,947 7,247,099 316,314 268,016 224,027 205,865 W. Aust. 8,937,602 9,556,825 846,735 837,527 165,021 160,841 Tasmania 1,904,955 2,000,005 210,894 208,852 35,872 34,908 N. Aust 9,585 10,000 863,597 835,390 42,801 40,108 Argentina Total 103,454,512 106,958,884 11,518,762 11,386,605 2,001,465 1,895,209 N.Z. 29,051,382 30,637,390 3,445,790 3,720,969 298,986 897,264 S. Africa (a) 38,242,191 38,218,477 10,412,466 10,477,777 856,040 814,894 (b) 4,258,058 4,842,638 " ' 1 • ! " * . . N.S.W. sheep returns are to January Ist, 1989, and . January Ist, 1930. Cattle and horse returns are to June 30th, 1928 and 1929 respec- s tively. Figures prepared by Government Statistician. Queensland returns in each case are to January Ist, 1929, and January Ist,' 1930. Tasmanian returns are to January Ist, 1928, and Januar/ Ist, 1929. •Victoria returns in each ease are March 31st, 1929, and March 31st, 1930. W. Australia—Sheep returns are to January Ist, 1929, and January Ist, 1930, Cattle and horses to January Ist, 1928, and January Ist, 1929. S. Australia—Sheep returns are to January Ist, 1929, and January Ist, 1930. Cattle and horses to January Ist, 1928, and January Ist, 1929. N. Australia—Sheep returns are to January Ist, 1928, and January Ist, 1929. Cattle and horses to January Ist, 1927 and 1938. South Africa—Sheep returns are to August 31st, 1928, and Jane 30th, $1)29; cattle, to August 31st, 1927, and August 31st,. 1928; horses, to August'3lst, 1926, and June 30th, 1927, (a) Befais to woolled and (b) to non-woolled sheep. There were 1,317,945 Angora and 6,367,932 other goats in South Africa at June 30th, 1928. '

EARLY SCIENTIFICFARMING; __ • . \

FIRST BOOKS ON THE; «- % SUBJECT. , 'V? Scientific farming 'is generally ae» knowledged to have begun with Baron Liebig's "Chemistry in Relation to ' ; Agriculture and Physiology," translated and published in 1840, It was in 1 \ many ways in advance of anything of tho kind previously printed; but it was not the first book on the atibjeet. , It happened to come at a time when « 'J®? men'a minds were ripe for it, and thus ".'"j is became almost epoch-making. - But aa far back u 1818 Sir Humpiirey Davy published his "Elements of Aericultural Chemistry," containing the. , * ''-s substance of a course of lectured delivered by him under the auspices of, ■* -vsjSl the old Board of Agriculture. And • - further back still, at the end of the Mth" ' V* or the beginning of the ,J9th Cpnttfry, ' .. the Earl of Dundonald published ?'A>. ~ , A Treatise showing .the intimate oon- „ ' nefetion that subsists between Agricnl- - ture and Chemistry," and addressed ' 7 it to the cultivator* of the- soil; James v l n Anderson published hi* ' < Recreations . - 3 in Agriculture"; Erasmua Darwin hia 7"-} "Phytologia, or' the Philosophy of ; Agriculture and Gardening," and; Eobert Heron his "Elements of ' r S Chemistry intended for the use ,©f J/ga Farmers, etc." Nor ia it at all likely " ' Jjg that these were the first* •v f%. Jetturo TuU. f k'MS The late John Chalmers - - his ' 'Cyclopedia. of. Agrtoulttire,!.'; of Jethro TuU that he made 'ftofrwrffj-V" systematic attempt to lay down fixed principles of farming! ■- method of carrying them' "p - *;< ?:im practice.'' Others speafeg "The father of the dustry," and he is generally *l<Kiked"«a \ as the originator of an new-' ■ 2§ system of fanning. Yet inwriter, who evidently knew . much '-qf;V c Tull and hia work, but who was" -not,*'", like us, under the glamour of it, "Mr Tun, who revived a mode p£,agrv> . culture anciently praotiaed, was a greSt - r ,,- Q enemy to dung. .being of'opinion tßftt" > * frequent ploughing was* -all • that. necessary towards rendering the earth, - " fertile." After this whose reputation * -: ■■ :-r~M