THE GREAT PLAINS form an important agricultural and pastoral area, and contain, notwithstanding their unfavourable climatic conditions, three-fourths of the cultivated land of Victoria. Wheat is the chief crop raised, and nine-tenths of the total wheat pro duction of the state is from the Wimmera, Mallee, and Northern districts of the Great Plains. The yield per acre is low, and in the Mallee frequently falls below six bushels. Recently, the practice of allowing the wheat lands to lie fallow in alternate years has been more generally adopted, and with beneficial results, the yield per acre on allowed land being at least twice as great as that on unfallowed.
Pastoral pursuits are also extensively followed, and over one third of the sheep in Victoria are in the region under consideration.
These are generally found in the north and west of the plains, the Mallee country being as a rule unsuitable. Cattle are also reared in the north. The stock equivalent varies from one sheep to one and a third acres in the northern districts to one sheep to five acres in the Mallee.
Victoria lies outside of the artesian basin proper, but sufficient water for stock and domestic purposes is usually found in the plains at shallow depths. In addition, irrigation works have been constructed, especially in the north, where water can be obtained from the Murray and its tributaries—the Goulburn and the Loddon.
Among the most important of these irrigation settlements are the districts round Rodney and Echuca, watered by the Goulburn ; Tragowel Plains, watered by the Loddon ; and the lands about Kow Swamp, Cohuna, and Mildura, watered by the Murray. Mil dura, in the north of the Mallee, has become an important fruit producing region, and exports considerable quantities of raisins and tinned fruits. In all, about a quarter of a million acres can now be cultivated by means of irrigation in the Great Plains.