its infancy. It is capable of almost unlimited expansion. So far,
farmers have confined their attention almost exclusively to butter, but
the first steps have also been successfully taken to manufacture cheese
and condensed milk, and to open up a regular market for fresh pork,
hams, and bacon.

[Illustration: How the Dairy Fodder Question is Settled in Australia.]

A large portion of Victoria is suitable for dairy farming on account of
the suitability of soil for the production of pasture and fodder crops,
and the mild climatic conditions. For the most part the cows are fed
solely on the natural pastures, little provision either in the way of
food or shelter being thought necessary. Progressive farmers, however,
find that it pays them to grow fodder for their herd and to shelter the
animals in the winter, and anyone beginning in Victoria is advised to
make up his mind to cultivate a certain area of his land from the first,
instead of trusting to grazing alone.

[Illustration: Shorthorn Cattle.]

The southern half of Victoria is divided, roughly speaking, into the
Western District and Gippsland. Two-thirds of the dairy cows are kept in
these portions of the State. The Western District is famed for its rich
soil of volcanic origin. Every town and hamlet has its butter factory.

Gippsland is a district of rolling hills and downs, and of a
comparatively heavy rainfall. Many parts were once covered with dense
forests, but these are rapidly passing away before the pioneer.
Practically every railway station has become a centre of the dairying
industry, and cans of cream are always in evidence on the platforms.
Owing to its suitable climate Gippsland has become the centre of maize
growing in the State, and much of this crop reaches the market in the
form of butter and pork.

In the north the summers are warmer and drier, but the soil is perhaps
even more prolific than in the southern parts of Victoria. Large areas
are suitable for dairy farming under ordinary conditions, and extensive
water storage works have been provided for the irrigation of large
tracts of country which is being made available in suitable areas for
dairying under very liberal conditions.

The manufacturing and marketing of the butter is carried on, to a very
large extent, on a co-operative basis, the factories being owned and
managed by the farmers who supply the cream. Two hundred factories are
scattered throughout the State, the largest of them pr