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The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848-1954) (about)
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Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1108412
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FARMER
Drought Brings New Problems
By HOWARD S PALMER, who has
just completed a special study 0f
erosion in North-Western Vic
tona. "?
I met a man in the central Wim- mera last week who claimed he had worn out a bicycle tyre keeping other men's stock out of his paddocks. This is a "normal" problem for drought area farmers in this most
abnormal year.
The man was one of those in this province who got seed for next year's sowing by careful and proper land use this year. He was not in the worst Wimmera drought area. The worst is in the north-east of the Wimmera, and the country improves
as one travels west.
Just south of Warracknabeal I met Mr O. Huebner, who was sewing up some of the 84 bags he had reaped from 180 acres of wheat and 170 acres of oats. Seven of the usual 12 to 20 inches of rain had fallen there, but even so he had garnered only 84 bags instead of the 1,500 of two years ago. For his industry, however, he will gain less from the Federal bounty than other men who have planted far greater acreages, put a lot of sheep in to eat it, and not reaped any crop.
To add to his woes he told of con- tinuous efforts to keep other men's sheep from straying into his fields and eating the stubble, which was all that prevented his land from blow- ing away. He could not keep a hack, so he had obtained a bicycle for "boundary riding" and had worn out a tyre on the job, he estimated.
Mr Huebner made other important points as we chatted. The only drift in the district, he said, was fallow. Bare patches, he thought, would take four to five years to put right. When rain fell on these patches, as it did a month ago to the tune of an inch, they must be worked immediately. Otherwise they dry and blow worse
than before.
He did not advocate control of farming. Plans did not help prim- ary industry. Farmers themselves knew their land and their markets, and would control themselves econo- mically. Their trouble, he thought, was their individualism and their fear of the other fellow getting the better of them. They would improve their lot immensely if they stood to- gether, as coalminers and others did for mutual benefit. But the farmer was a bad unionist. He had had experience of fanners trying to or- ganise themselves in a protective body, and had seen their organisa- tion sundered on their fear of miss- ing something. They would not for- go a personal advantage for the com-
mon good.
Mr Huebner, like most farmers I met, strongly favoured tractors for farm work in Australia. He was forced to sell many of his horses, getting only 30/ each for them. It would cost as much to keep one horse for a year as it would to main- tain a tractor. Using horses, he esti- mated it would cost £30 to harvest this year's small crop. Combining with a neighbour, who had a tractor,
it cost him £4.
I found the need for tractors in Vic- toria's wheat country one of the most important factors in primary production and in the fanner's life. The older generation of farmers is carrying on while sons are at the war, but they are finding the going hard. Added to this, they think, many of them, that the next generation will not stay on the land if the life offers only the same old grind that it of- fered their fathers.
They will require not only assured water for stock and domestic use through water conservation, but they will demand also complete rural elec- trification, a tractor on every farm, a car for every family, and a guaran- tee of other normal amenities for themselves, their wives, and families. Young men of today, their fathers believe, may not feel inclined to ask their wives to share the present hard lot of a wheat farmer, far from society and entertainment, surroun- ded by work and inconvenience,
This challenging, but natural, view was put to me by Mr J. Ridd, of Ru- panyup. He said he noticed the growing feeling among country lads to require a steadier living and the ordinary amenities of life to be made available to them, and he agreed with them. Someone had to till the soil, and he should not suffer by his lot.
Next Drift: Checked in Mallee