AGRICULTURE IN AUSTRALIA

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 125, 27 May 1920, Page 7

AGRICULTURE IN AUSTRALIA

SERIOUSLY AFFECTED BY THE

DROUGHT.

(BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL TO THE POST.)

AUCKLAND, This Day. An interesting account of agricultural conditions in Australia, . particularly New South Wales and Victoria, is given by Mr. D. Jones, M.P., who has just returned from the Common-wealth. He said in an interview that in New South Wales the drought had seriously affected farming interests, and the conditions were the worst in that State's history 'He had been over a wide range of country, and it wa3 impossible to distinguish unploughed land from ploughed. In the rabbit-infested country in which he had travelled there was not a . aign of a rabbit. Victoria was»also affected, but 'not to the same extent as New South Wales. Australia, consequent upon the drought, was out of the meat trade for the next two years. They were having an -extremely trying time, but this knowledge would help farmers here in their discussion of the meat question.

Referring to the wheat question in Australia, Mr. Jones said ■ the storage .system in New South. Wales was on a very extensive scale. The authorities were constructing 70 groups of wheat silos in different parts of the country. Thesis would do away with the use of sacks, the wheat being stored in bulk. An enormous central silo had been constructed in Sydney, to hold 6,000,000 bushels. It was fitted with heatinpr apparatus, and was rat-proof. The wheat when shipped would run over indiarubber belts from the silos to the ship, the idea, being to do away with sacks altogether, just as had been done by America and Canada, when shipping •wheat. Ten thousand tons of cement was used in the construction of the central silo, which was 300 ft by 297 ft, and was 90ft in height. It wa?- divided into over 50 round! comportments. If these silos had been in existence during the war they would nave meant a considerable saving in wheat. The irony of the whole ■position in New South Wales was that they now had practically no wheat for export. They were, of course, hopeful that they would get some (rood crops next year. At nresent wheat in lustraHf was worth 12s 6d to 13s a bushel, and the opinion in well-informed circles wits that these prices would bs exceeded next year. In spite of the drought they had been endeavouring to put in a lot of wheat; and the Government expected to get 4.000,000 acres sown in Victoria.