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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



wonder. Verily, the farmer must be a man of sound 

 sense, knowledge, taste, and judgment, to do business 

 advantageously in the sheep fair. 



It is so in the pig market ; he has to decide as to 

 age, quality, propensity to fatten, and adaptation for 

 his peculiar keeping. "Poor piggy" has his various 

 places to fill J it may be the fattening-stye, or the fal- 

 low-field : for each or other the farmer has to use his 

 best knov^ledge and judgment in buying. In the sum- 



mer he will require a small variety, or breed for 

 porkers : in winter he will feed for bacon. Besides this, 

 a consideration for his best market, and the demand 

 arising there, must have due weight ; coarse animals alone 

 sell in districts where the population is poor, small 

 porkers in richer districts. Verily it is a libel to class 

 the farmer one whit below the average of his fellow- 

 countrymen. 



AGRICULTURE IN TASMANIA. 



01 the boveral Australian colonies there are none 

 that just at this time occupies a more favourable esti- 

 mation in the eyes of the British public than Tasmania, 

 better known perhaps under its original name of Van 

 Diemcn's Land. There are several reasons conducing 

 to this besides its fertility of soil, picturesque beauty of 

 suiface, and salubrity of climate. Firstly, there are 

 peculiar facilities offered for acquiring good land in 

 country or agricultural lots, or for pastoral purposes, 

 ttt from 10s. to £1 per acre; whilst in the unsettled 

 lands grants of 50 to G40 acres are made to iondfidc 

 settlers, in proportion to the capital tliey possess — live 

 stock, implements of husbandry, and machinery being 

 reckoned as capital. Secondly, the colony has of late 

 years been taking active measures to place its varied 

 resources prominently before the British public. Speci- 

 mens of its agricultural produce, grain, timber, 

 and v/ools, have been shown at the Great ilxhibition 

 in 1851 ; in a special department at the Crystal Palace ; 

 laid before the Society of Arts; and at the Paris Inter- 

 national Exhibition in 1855. Officially prepared hand- 

 books, views of the island scenery, and every authentic 

 statistical data have also been prepared, which cannot 

 fail to be of great use to the farmer in search of a new 

 and wide field of operation lor his capital and industry. 

 The climate and general character ot the country, too, 

 are such as specially to attract British settlers. 



The mean annual temperature, as deduced from 

 fourteen years' observations at the Colonial Observa- 

 tory, Hobart Town, is 53 degrees. The highest regis- 

 tered during this period is 105 deg. The mean daily 

 range of thermometer 60.(55 deg., and the yearly fall of 

 rain 21 inches ; but on the western side of the island 

 it is double this. Snow rarely falls, except on the high 

 table land, and upon the mountain ranges. Continued 

 frosts are unknown. The fine open weather which 

 characterises the winter of Tasmania offers to the agri- 

 culturist those facilities for prosecuting the labours of 

 his farm which he would in vain expect to find in any 

 other part of the world. The conditions of climate arc 

 therefore not only admirably suited to the constitution 

 and habits of an Englishman, but they are better 

 adapted for the furtherance of his views and objects as 

 an emigrant and farmer than perhaps those of any other 

 possession or territory under the British Crown. 



Much of the unoccupied land in Tasmania is still 

 heavily wooded. The richest soils in the island 

 usually sustain forest- trees of the largest dimensions ; 

 but where the trees are of large size they stand far- 

 ther apart, and are of course less numerous on a given 

 surface. In the best pastoral districts the trees are 

 dotted as sparsely, and often in groups, quite as pic- 

 turesque as in a nobleman's old domain in England. 

 Here is an account of the natural features and capa- 

 bilities of some of the localities : The plains at Oat- 

 lancis and on the Upper Jordan afford valuable pas- 



turage; the eastern and western marshes, now con- 

 verted into flourishing agricultural farms, bear the 

 heaviest of crops, and yield the richest and most suc- 

 culent natural pasturage. The plains at Brighton and 

 Bagdad, and at Richmond, Pittwater, and Sorell, on 

 the south side, arc famous for dairy farms and for 

 abundant corn crops ; and the Lawrenny plains, at the 

 junction of the Clyde river with the Derwent, near 

 Hamilton, stand unrivalled for soft beauty of surface 

 and luxuriant pastures, but there is no other tract of 

 country in the island possessing these qualifications 

 which at all approaches the valley of the South Esk in 

 extent and importance. The district stretching from 

 the Lake river to the Meander, through Norfolk Plains, 

 Westbury, and Deloraine, on the western side of this 

 valley, may be looked upon at present as the granary 

 of the colony. There, fields of whent, oats, barley, 

 turnips, potatoes, hay crops, and other products which 

 characterise English farms, are now found in close series 

 over a large surface of country, where a few years ago 

 there stood heavily-timbered forests. 



To the enterprise, intelligence, and active industry 

 of the occupants of Tasmania is due the development 

 of the vast resources of the far-famed gold colony of 

 Victoria. Forin 1 834 the Messrs. Henty, of Lancaster, 

 initiated the settlement of Port Philip by sending to 

 Portland Bay and Port Fairy a large number of 

 breeding ewes. The shores of Hobson's Bay and the 

 banks of the Yarra-Yarra were occupied the following 

 year by flocks introduced by Messrs. Bateman and Co., 

 Mr. Falkner, and others. During 1836 and 1837 the 

 exodus of settlers and live stock flowed from Tasmania 

 in a continuous stream to Australia Felix ; and at this 

 time some of the most extensive and valuable sheep 

 stations in Victoria are held by Tasmanian settlers. 



The high premium afi'orded for labour at Victoria 

 during the first days of the gold-diggings produced a 

 convulsion in the labour market of Tasmania, from 

 which it has scarcely yet recovered. Happily, the worst 

 characters were the very first to move off, and few re- 

 turned. The prosperity, wealth, and importance of a new 

 country may be said to depend entirely upon popula- 

 tion operating on its natural resources and capabili- 

 ties. In the last twenty years we find that the popula- 

 tion of Tasmania has about doubled. In 1840 it was 

 40,057, and judging by the latest official returns it 

 must be now nearly 90,000. But with the abolition 

 of transportation, the migration to the gold colonies, 

 and the slow increase by immigration, this ratio can 

 scarcely be maintained. 



The industry and capital of Tasmania have almost 

 from the very outset of the colony been directed to the 

 production of three great staple articles of trade — 

 wool, oil from the coast whale-fisheries, and wheat. 

 With the culture of these, some collateral products, 

 such as live stock and various sorts of agricultural 



