THE CROAKERS.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 313, 19 October 1860, Page 4

THE CROAKERS.

The Croakers are a numerous family, so numerous as to lead archeeologists and others learned in obsolete matters to question whether our prime ancestor, on becoming tired of giving names to posterity, said let all the rest be called " Smith;" and to conclude that he rather lumped them as " Croakers." The influence of this family is very considerable. Their gloomy visionings, their fears, their portentous predictions are continually being brought forward to inspire uncertainty and misgiving where otherwise confidence and hope—that mainspring of effort and soul of enterprise— would prevail. They are a perfect clog upon the wheels of progress, whatever branch of a people's industry and wealth is concerned. The Croakers tell us, for instance, that the planting of vineyards will end in ruinous sacrifices; because, they say, when a sufficient quantity of wine is made yearly to meet the requirements of the colony itself, not only will the price come down tremendously low, but there will be no sale for any surplus in Europe, as South Australian wines will not be looked at, or if looked at will asssuredly never be drunk there. They utter this sickly and sinister stuff in forgetfulness that South Australian wines are already meeting with a market in Victoria, that as for the better class of them, they are finding favor in England, and that with every passing year the quality of our wines may be expected to improve by the cultivation of those vines which are best suited to the climate; by the age of the vineyards, on which the character of a wine greatly depends; by better cellarage; and by riper experience among our vignerons in the best modes of fermenting and of curing wines. But the jeremiads of the Croaker family are by no means exhausted upon this branch of colonial enterprise and wealth. Agriculture comes in for a large share of gloomy forebodings, woes looming in the future. Granted, say these prophets of evil things, granted that Providence is kind, that rich harvests may be reaped, that new soil may be broken up, that agriculture may flourish and extend in South Australia, what if no market can be found ? Where is the produce to go to ? The Victorian market will soon be lost to us, and the English market we shall not be able to reach with any chance of profitable culture. Our success will be our ruin. On two public occasions, within the last few weeks, views such as these have been expressed by men of good sense in other respects; men of good position in the colony, and men from whom there might have been expected more enlightened and far-seeing sentiments. As an antidote to this bane of the farmer, it may be advanced that notwithstanding this croak has been heard for some years, nothing answering to what has been predicted has followed. The ploughs are going here, culture is spreading, crops are matured and gathered; and the agriculturists of South Australia find as good a market as in all conscience they can reasonably expect, and they find it in Victoria. To put it in another form, Victoria cannot supply herself with breadstuff's. She has striven hard, and under more favorable circumstances than now exist, and she has failed. She is is more dependent upon extraneous supplies this year than she was last; she has a larger population, and had a less amount of wheat under crop than she had the year Jaefore, and a considerably less yield per acre than the breadth under cultivation. It would look as if the market for South Australian wheat and flour were rather increasing in Victoria than otherwise, and were promising to be better in future than it is now. There are many reasons for this state of things, and this among others. Many persons took to farming in the neighborhood of the principal diggings of Victoria, reckoning upon great profits from their produce coming without expense into markets heightened by the price of cartage from Melbourne. And when this cartage was as high as from j£6o to £100 per ton, it is not wonderful that the stimulus was great; but with cartage as low as dSS per ton per 100 miles, and with farm labor higher near to the diggings than elsewhere, diggings-farming is carried on at too great an expense to make it probable that it will extend further. When the railways are completed, and carriage of flour and corn become lower than at present, it is very questionable whether the farmer near to such diggings will be able to compete successfully with the South Australian farmer any longer. But, supposing South Australian cereal produce were doubled in amount this very next year, and that as a consequence the price of wheat were to come down to the lowest paying price, say 4s. 6d. per bushel, what would be the result ? It certainly would be this—that no such supplies as are now being forwarded from Chili and California would be received. They could not hope to reach Victoria and yield a profit. The market, therefore, could be cleared of all foreign supply, and be open to the produce of South Australia and Tasmania, New Zealand being in too unsettled a state to allow of anything being expected from that quarter. The Victorian market, therefore, would be increased to us, and it may be safely affirmed that with wheat at 4s. 6d. per bushel, Victorian farmers, on account of their heavy expenses, especially

where they are upon hired farms, would be half ruined. Agriculture would never extend in that colony under those circumstances, and her increasing population and decreasing agriculture would lead to an iricreased market for the cereal productions ,of South Australia. It is not only the fact that labor is cheaper in South Australia which places iVictorian farmers at a disadvantage, but it is also that machinery, especially reaping machinery, cannot be used so readily there as here. The corn is not so dry, the land is not so even. The soil is patchy, making the crop patchy, high and low, ripe and green, here and there; so that the Ridley or any other good reaping machine works with difficulty. This of itself would tend to discourage the extension of agriculture ,in Victoria, so far as the production of wheat is concerned, and would tell in favor of the South Australian agriculturist. We are only to be a pastoral country, say these Croakers, for our country is not fitted for much more than a vast sheep run —our wools are to enrich us, if we are ever to be enriched. We shall not be a mineral country, say they; for the Burra Burra is being exhausted, and the new mines are all mere pockets, soon " cleaned out" and the shareholders "stumped." Besides, if it were not so, they are too far from the seaboard ever to be worked at "a profit. Our country cannot prosper agriculturally, say these evil geniuses; for we shall soon have so much corn that we shall not know what to do with it or where to get a purchaser for it. Verily these Croakers are a kind-hearted and sensible family.— Farm and Garden.