itable
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.

[Illustration: AUSTRALIA'S AVERAGE WHEAT YIELD IS FROM 11 TO 13 BUSHELS
PER ACRE, BUT THOUSANDS OF FARMS YIELD FROM 20 TO 25 BUSHELS PER ACRE.]

Australia has the land and climate; she wants the men.

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