In South Australia the conditions of cultiva tion are even more favorable than the above indicates, and with a smaller yield, wheat grow ing is bound to be very profitable. The present comparatively low yields are largely due to the fact that immense areas are put under crops by individual farmers. In consequence, the culti vation and harvesting methods are not carried out so thoroughly as in older countries of the world. With smaller areas and better farming, far higher averages will, it is believed, be ob tained in the future. The following tables show the average area and yield of some of the other principal crops: West Australia and South Australia. By sink ing artesian bores supplies of water are brought to the surface from underground sources which exist in the Tertiary drifts and the Cretaceous beds.
In New South Wales one of these wells has a daily flow of 1,750,000 gallons, the depth of the bore being 2,029 feet. Over 50 artesian bores have been successfully sunk in South Australia, the greatest daily flow amounting to 1,200,000 gallons. These bores give excellent water for stock purposes and are also used in many cases for irrigating crops.
Mineral Resources.-- Most metals of eco nomic value are found in Australia. Gold is found in all the states and in 1823 the first dis covery of the precious metal was made. In 1851 and 1852 important discoveries were made in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania and attracted a rush of popula tion. A little later gold was found in Queens land and the last of the states in which- exten sive deposits were found was West Australia. So important did these deposits prove that in 1905 the output of West Australia was more than equal to all the other Australian states together.
The following table shows the gold won in Australia up to the end of 1915 and the return for the year 1915: Total Yield. 1915 Ounces Total 572,487,653 8,270,339 Large areas are also under orchards in the various states of the Commonwealth, the total being 216,000 acres. Victoria heads the list with 67,000; New South Wales 51,000, and South Australia 24,000. The export of apples, oranges and dried fruits to Great Britain has been commenced and promises to develop into an important industry.
All the governments give considerable at tention to agricultural education and have estab lished agricultural colleges and experimental farms where practical and scientific agriculture is taught.
In most of the states also arrangements are made by the government to advance money to assist farmers at low rates of interest.
Irrigation.-- The necessity for providing water for stock and irrigation in the dry parts of Australia induced the respective governments to spend a good deal of money on water con servation and artesian boring. Cretaceous beds extend over large areas of New South Wales, found in all the states either alone or in the form of sulphides, chloride, bromide, iodide, chloro-bromide of silver and antimonial and arsenical ores and argentiferous lead ores. In the latter the largest deposits of metal are found.
Prior to 1882 the output of silver in Aus tralia was small, but with the opening up of the Barrier mines at Broken Hill, close to the boundary of New South Wales and South Australia, rapid advances took place. The fol lowing table shows the output of silver and silver lead in Australia up to the close of 1915 and for the year 1915: Silver and silver-lead £ £ Total 82.266.333 3,514,254 •Copper.— The production of copper in Aus tralia in 1915 amounted to i3,035,890.
Tin is also found in payable quantities in many parts of Australia, the production in 1915 amounting to £806,641. Iron is distributed throughout the Commonwealth and at Lithgow, in New South Wales, where iron and coal de posits lie alongside each other, a commencement has been made to smelt the ore. Tasmania has enormous deposits situated near the Blyth River. Other minerals widely diffused throughout Aus tralia are antimony, bismuth, manganese, plati num, tellurium, lead, wolfram and a number of earth colors. The annual production of such other minerals amounts to about f1,000,000.
Coal was first discovered in New South Wales in 1797. Since that time it has been proved that nature has bountifully sup plied Australia with mineral fuel. Black coal forms one of the principal mineral resources of New South Wales. The total output of coal in 1915 reached £4,277,592.
Brown coal or lignite occurs principally in Victoria but it is much inferior to the black coal. Good coal has been found in West Australia, while in Queensland the extent of the coal fields is practically unlimited — over 24,000 square miles of coal measures having already been explored. Tasmania also has important carboniferous formations.