122 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Feb., 1919. 



it to its former position, as shown at A, thus doing away with a 

 complicated set of ropes seen in so many cow-bails. 



The measurements of the bail are as follows : — Width, 4 ft. 6 in. ; 

 height, 6 ft. 6 in. ; head-piece, 2 ft. 3 in. x 2 in. ; bail post, 4 ft. 6 in., 

 3 in. X 2 in. The small iron tongue working the bail is let in so that 

 the sharp point reaches just below the niche in the head-piece, and in this 

 way the bail post is prevented from catching in the head-piece on its 

 return from opening the bails, after being pulled past the sharp point 

 of the tongue by tightening the rope. 



THE AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE. 



ITS EFFECT IN CONTROLLING SETTLEMENT. 



Under the title of The Australian Environment the Commonwealth 

 Advisory Council of Science and Industry has just published a memoir 

 by Dr. Griffith Taylor, physiographer in the Commonwealth Meteoro- 

 logical Bureau. The research has been carried out at the Bureau of 

 Meteorology, and was recently awarded the Syme Prize by the Univer- 

 sity of Melbourne. 



The frontispiece is a solar-control model, which shows (by a 

 sliding card crossing a map of Australia) the way in which the sun's 

 movement determines the actual rainfall, storms, winds, temperatures, 

 and pressures in each month of the year. 



A map showing where the rains are reliable and where they are 

 erratic is as important to the settler as the more usual seasonal and 

 annual rain maps. Perth is shown to have the most reliable and Onslow 

 (W.A.) the least reliable rainfall in Australia. 



The regions of uniform rainfall are also charted, and determine 

 where the but too few valuable timber forests occur. Vegetation maps 

 correlate the areas of sand and spinifex, of mallee, grasslands, &c., with 

 the rainfall and temperature controls. 



Wew methods of comparing Australian climates and Australian 

 agricultural areas with those of foreign countries, are described in the 

 chapter dealing with climographs and hythergraphs. 



In the third part of the memoir Australia is considered in fifteen 

 divisions. Each is illustrated by a coloured plate showing the contours 

 and the distribution of rainfall. Many of these contour maps have not 

 been published previously, and will be found of value in most develop- 

 mental problems. 



In each division, the topography, drainage, vegetation, settlement, 

 health, the season and origin of the rains, are considered in detail and 

 correlated. 



The rain origins are considered quantitatively, and several thousand 

 weather maps have been tabulated in the process. JJ^Tearly 100 of these 

 maps are reproduced in the memoir. 



