A HINT WORTH FOLLOWING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3070, 29 April 1881, Page 4

A HINT WORTH FOLLOWING.

We learn by telegraph from Adelaide that, in view of failing crops, Dr. Schomburgk has recommended the farmers no longer to devote their almost exclusive attention to the production of breadstuff's, but to try whether less familiar products will not give them better returns. He suggests the cultivation of the wattle and the olive, of flax, rape, hemp, canary seed, chicory, Zante currants, sultana raisins, flowers for perfumers, and other things likely to prove profitable. Although the advice is only offered to the agriculturists of the Colony to -which he belongs, there is no reason why Victorian selectors shoxiid not lay it to heart. It appears to us that the future of this Colony depends in a great measure on the success or failure of efforts to raise the fanning class out of the groove into which it has settled down. Kveryono desires to see the land in the hands of substantial yeomen, all tilling their own acres, and the community have made great sacrifices in order to encourage this sort of settlement. But no laws that human ingenuity can devise will ever maintain a race of small proprietors unless farming can be made to pay. Now it is useless to conceal from ourselves that the production of cereals in this Colony is never likely to be a very profitable business. Even if Ihe farmers were placed on the most advantageous footing by the abolition of protective duties, the keen competition of the American grain-growers would generally keep profits down to something like starvation point. Unfortunately, its not likely that their prospects will improve with time. Manure is expensive, and withoxit it holdings from which successive grain crops are taken soon lose their fertility. Under the circumstances, hope must lie in tho discovery of some root or plant which is in general demand, ov which can be converted into something readily saleable, and to which the climate of this colony is especially suitable. Whether the articles mentioned by Dr Schomburgk would answer to these conditions or not is a matter for the serious consideration of practical men. If they would not, others might be discovered better adapted to the purpose ; but in _ the interim they may serve to indicate the direction in which experiments should be made. The great obstacle in the way of new industries is the difficulty which small men experience in finding a market for their produce or handiwork. They frequently have no money to pay necessary expenses, they cannot afford to wait for returns ; and mercantile firms, that advance willingly on ordinary goods lodged with them for sale or shipment, do not like to touch unaccustomed commodities. Something might be done to facilitate the operations of those who wish to get away from an eternal round of grain and potatoes, by the formation of a Farmers' Co-operative Agency like that which has been successfully established in South Australia.—Argus.