The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-12
FARM AND
GARDEN II
INTERESTS
Australian Farming.

Australia, apart from the trOplcal area,
Is naturally divided into three divisions
the coast the table lands and the western
districts; and the value of each district is
solely a matter of rainfall. The coast has
rainfall of about forty-one inches, the
table-land country about thirty-three
inches. while out In the west the rainfall
decreases in proportion to the distance
from the ocean, till west of the Darling
there is lot of country with an average
rainfall of less than ten inches, and in
some parts of Australia the rainfall is only
five inches. And yet into all this western
country money has been poured like water
in the vain hope of doing something with
it. In the words of a starved-out grazier:
1T is a great question whether the west
ern districts of Australia should be
garded as an asset or a liability"
The settlement of Australia was, unfor-
tunately, not gradual matter; the set
tiers did not have TO make their own cap
ital and spread out slowly, making their
way on their own resources. The country
was settled on the most up-to-date meth
DDS, inasmuch as there was unlimited cap
ital TO finance the settlers. Land was
scrambled for in the districts where the
rainfall was sure; and its value was cal
culated, not on what result could be pro-
duced by it, but on what ii could be sold
for in future years, and on what could be
borrowed on it in the meantime. By in
conceivable folly all the good farming land
belonging TO the crown was thrown open
for purchase at fixed price of 81 an acre
The result was that the good land went
up in price by leaps and bounds, till the
value of farming land in a good district
or, rather. not the value, but the price-is
as high as similar land in English farming
districts. This false idea of value is a
sad handicap in everything. The whole
country suffers from overcapitalization.
The gold mines are overcapitalized-a mine
that would pay dividends on small cap
ital is put on the market as worth millions,
and never earns its shareholders a decent
return for their money; the farmer has TO
pay so much for his land that he can never
keep down the interest on his mortgage;
and the grazier who has been forced to
secure his land by purchase has had TO
spend pound an acre in cash and a pound
an acre in improvements for land that
needs two acres to feed a sheep, so that
he is paying interest on ga TO maintain
one sheep. and sheep will not earn in
terest on "a at present prices.
The western graZiers of Australia have
immersed themselves in debt. and now
that the drought is on the land their pros
poets are bad indeed
A drought is thing happily unknown to
English readers. The big stations out in
the West mostly depend on artificial sup
pies TOT lHelT water, as the lew natural
watercources and creeks usually go dry
once each year at least. To secure water
for the stock big reservoirs, called tanks"
are dug, holding millions of gallons. and
dams are put across the shallow water
ways, and in some places artesian water is
obtained; but, even if the water supply
holds out. the want of grass soon begins
to Kill the stock. Sheep and cattle are
turned loose all the year round i'm large
paddocks. some of them being five miles
square. Then the sheep, coming down to
Irnf off fRn .l1n~w
ing anywhere near the water, and as the
drought progresses they eat every green
thing anywhere within three or four miles
of the water; then they get weaker and
weaker. and even though there may be a
little grass left out in the outlying corners
of their paddocks, they have not strength
enough to tramp out after it, and they
hang round the water and perish miserably.
The graZiers send out men with axes to
cut down edible scrub for them. and it is
pitiful TO see the poor brutes staggering
toward the sound of the axes. With a
cloudless sky and blazing sun overhead,
the plain is dried and trOdden to q bare
desert. The winds pick up the dust and
blow 1t across country, sometimes tor miles;
fences and homesteadS are gradually buried
in the drifted dust. In some great wind
storms fiocks of sheep have been over
whelmed; the central district graziers say
the whole of the West is being blown over
on to them There is no hope to shift the
stock, because they are too weak TO travel.
Some stations in touch with the railway
way TO save their lives, but the expense is
| great. AS rule, the grazier can do moth
| ing but sit and watch his sheep dying be-
| fore his eyes.
And if this is the fate of the "squatter''
with big area and backbone of capital
either his own or borrowed-to help him,
how much worse it is for the small farmer
| who has just few hundred sheep, and who
| lives from hand to mouth. The drought
| soon kills off his stock, and he loses his
| farm, and the result of years of hard work
| and patient thrift is swept away in a single
| season. This 1t is which is responsible for
| so much of the socialism and reliance on
| government which has developed in the
| country. The small farmer. working for
himself. and putting by little money each
| year is almost an unexistent quantity: for
no small farmer can hope to make sheen
| growing pay in the dry districts and in
| the well-watered districts the price of land
| is almost prohibitive. Hence il comes that
| New South Wales has nearly half her pop
ulation in the city of Sydney. and that in
stead of there being plenty of openings for
young men on the land. we find them volun-
| teering in thousands TO give up their prop
erty and go TO wars.