CHAPTER XXITHE ANNUAL SHOWS
Oncea 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 nowcalled 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 windmillsand 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 manyeggs 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. Thewholeof 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. Inthe 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.