THE ANNUAL SHOWS
Once a year, at least, each Australian State gives demonstrable
evidence, in the most attractive manner, of its natural wealth. Every
State has its annual Agricultural “Show” to which all loyal people pay
homage, for a display of the stock and the produce of a country is more
than a pastime, it is a revelation of power and possibilities. Here
is an immense tract of country, covering thousands of square miles.
Less than a century ago it was a wild “bush” covered with the gum tree
and every variety of undergrowth. Less than fifty years ago only a
mere fraction of the space was “cleared” for agricultural purposes.
Slowly the work of preparing the soil has advanced. So far as the great
outside world is concerned the cultivation of the country has proceeded
in silence. No person without special knowledge of the march of events
could have dreamed that progress has been so marked as the issue has
revealed it to be. Only when the total results are massed together in
a great “Show” is it possible to understand how marvellous has been
the rate of progress. Canada has long called, with alluring voice, to
the Old Country to come and aid its progress and share its wealth.
Australia has now called to the old world. These vast spaces must be
filled, not with fools in search of an easy berth, but with strong,
earnest men and women who will co-operate with Nature in fructifying
the earth.
It was that I might behold with my own eyes what the Commonwealth had
already done in conquering the soil, and that I might also help to make
the old Mother at home open her eyes to the facts, that I attended five
of Australia’s “Shows.”
They were impressive, great, revealing. From every part of the States
machinery and produce had been sent. It was a veritable panorama of a
young country’s life and effort. Wheels, still and in motion--the work
of man. Life, still and in motion--the work of God. It was quite a
serious show. There were few amusements in it. People who attended it
in thousands went to pay homage to the manhood of the country. It was
the life of a young nation, under this attractive guise, that received
the universal salutation. All this work was Australia’s own. The
vast mass of machinery and implements were fabricated in Australia’s
workshops. True the Old Country had a share in the exhibits, but not
a great share. There were imports, but not many. America, too, always
ready to capture Poles, or equators, or anything else, was represented
amongst the machines. But the significant thing was that the greater
part of the machinery and implements were made by Australians. The
child has grown up, and got to work, and the old Mother hardly realises
what he is doing so far away.
To take the machinery first. Here were engines, threshing-machines,
mowers, ploughs, harrows, planters, seed-sowers, rollers, hoes, pumps,
forges, grinders, separators, tanks, stoves, fire-fighters, and
hundreds of other agricultural implements “too numerous to mention,”
as the consecrated phrase runs, such as one would find in any English
agricultural show. But there were others peculiar to Australia. For
example, fly-proof tents, window fly-screens, rabbit poisoners, poison
carts, all suggestive of Australian conditions. Of the rabbit poisoners
I know next to nothing, save that the farmers are compelled to resort
to strong measures in order to exterminate these pests of the land.
But of the flies I am beginning to learn, by experience, a little. How
grateful these fly-proof screens and tents appeared! Flies are already
appearing in alarming numbers, and we are bidden to prepare for the
annual invasion, when nothing is sacred from their inquisitive and
poisonous tentacles. Still amongst the machinery, we observe “forest
devils” and stump-pullers. These, again, are peculiarly Australian,
called into existence by the exigencies of agricultural life. The
country abounds with the stumps of trees. The giants have been levelled
to the ground, but the stumps remain, firmly rooted in the soil. Now
certain portable “forest devils” have been invented by means of which
one man can, with the aid of a lever and a wheel-gear, draw from the
ground the most stubborn stump of a tree. Agricultural dentistry--that
is what it is! Again, there are several varieties of steel windmills
and other machinery for raising and distributing water. Irrigation is
one of the problems of this growing country, and engineering science
is doing its best to solve that problem. They have even the milking
machine, that last contrivance to compel steel and rubber to do what
hitherto the human hand alone has been able to accomplish. Farther on
are carriages and buggies, eminently suited for this land. But one
needs to know them. To a new-comer they present the appearance of
supreme uncomfortableness. Persons who try them speak in different
terms of them. Certain types of English carriages do not appear to have
found their way here. But while machinery has a peculiar fascination,
it is wholly eclipsed by the live stock and produce of the country.
I am no judge of cattle, but the professional judges who awarded
prizes had much to say about the quality of the horses and oxen and
sheep and swine. And everybody seemed pleased, so I cheerfully add my
“Amen,” without reason, save that unreasonable reason that “everybody
says so.” And “everybody” in this connection must be right. But I do
know wool when I see it. Australia is proud of its wool, and it has
reason to be. Many of the prize sheep seemed to have more wool than
flesh upon them. Again and again I buried my hand, and wrist, and even
beyond that, in the wool of the sheep. It hung upon them in layers; a
burden to the poor animals, a little gold mine to the wool-growers.
Of poultry, also, I am no judge, being severely limited in experience
to a few hens who do not lay nearly so many eggs per day as they
should, considering what is spent upon them. But in the show they had
hens which had laid an average of 240–250 eggs in the season, and they
looked quite cheerful after the effort. One farmer printed a notice
to the effect that his profits on eggs alone during the year had
been £441. Intimations of that kind provoke serious thought in many
directions. But the produce! It was a perfect revelation of the wealth
of the country. The average Englishman, coming out here for the first
time, would not believe that any State could produce the variety that
these States produce. The point to be observed is that this wonderful
productiveness is the fertility of a country not long cleared. And the
further point to be noted is that there is very much more to follow
as the country develops. Perhaps the most interesting thing in the
show was the various collections of exhibits from societies or groups,
representing the produce of a certain district. The _whole_ of the
produce of the district was shown in sample. Think of one limited area
producing wheat--yielding thirty-six bushels for every bushel and a
quarter of seed--oats, barley, maize, peas, rye grass, linseed, hemp,
mangolds, beetroot (nearly half a yard long), sugar beet, carrots,
onions, turnips, cabbage, potatoes (many weighing more than a pound),
apples, lemons, nuts, olive oil, meal, poultry, eggs, wool, wine,
bacon, butter and honey. That is the product of one district only.
The place seems capable of producing everything. Honey is the thing
that imposes itself upon one. It is a great country for honey. In
the bush it flows wild and men gather it in bucketfuls. And where it
is cultivated it is cheap enough, being about one-third the price of
English honey. Of course, all this means that industries are springing
up everywhere. Australia has its own condensed milk factories; it dries
its own raisins, makes its own chutney, and sauces, and jams, and tins
fruit for home use and export.
I said there is more to follow. The science of agriculture is being
developed. There are State Schools’ competitions, which include samples
of forestry, fruit trees, grains, forage and roots, grasses and
clovers, potatoes, fibres, vegetables, honey, etc. But the competitors
must describe as well as exhibit. They must be able to answer questions
on soils and produce, and they must be able to make models. The whole
trend of agricultural education is scientific.
The folk at home do not know all this. They ought to know. Now that a
Land Act is in operation, and the big estates are being cut up, we may
expect a great boom in agriculture. People will then be wanted from the
Old Country. There is plenty of room, and a population is imperatively
needed. But let none go over until the gong sounds.