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yields of wool and the tremendous losses of stock, which each 
drought now entails, extensive squatting properties fall into the 
hands of financial institutions, who find that “runs” which 
formerly produced thousands of pounds per annum now require 
an Income to be spent upon them, as it is only in very wet 
seasons that a surplus over the expenditure may be expected. 
On the Lower Murray River, in the mallee country, many such 
dire experience could be related, and it does not appear probable 
that these extensive tracts can become again covered with their 
original flora so rich and varied in drought-resisting plants, a 
flora which is unequalled in the world for the abundance and 
variety of the very best fodder-plants. If it were possible to 
exclude herbivorous animals from these desolated areas we might 
hope that in the course of years, the seeds now buried might 
vegetate and gradually re-clothe the country ; but unfortunately, 
though every few months of drought destroys millions of rabbits, 
there always remain enough to re-stock the country, and so rapidly 
do they reproduce that very few months are sufficient to cover 
the country in incredible numbers. It may possibly happen that 
in the course of years, as the shrubs from which they derive 
moisture during the hot months become gradually extinct, they 
may perchance become extinct also; but it is appalling to think 
of what must first happen when we find such trees as Sandalwood 
(Myoporum platycarpum), Mulga (Acacia aneura), Myal 
(A. cyclops, &c.), Leopard-wood (Llindersia maculata), Dog-wood 
(Eremophila longifolia), and many others, all carefully ring- 
barked by these destructive rodents. 
Only the two extremes of country are safe from these pests, 
namely, the very moist, where they become attacked by entozoa ; 
and the very dry, say, inside the five-inch rainfall belt, where the 
rainfall in some years is only two inches, or less. 
It is no exaggeration to say that the devastations to the Aus- 
tralian flora by this rabbit-plague are more than all the other 
causes put together, and the pecuniary loss to Australia has 
already amounted to many millions of pounds sterling. 
In Western Australia the destructive effects of settlement are 
not so conspicuous ; two factors of much importance preventing 
systematic overstocking exist, and the rabbit-plague has not yet 
reached there. From the siliceous nature of much of South- 
Western Australia, there are very large tracts, the prevailing 
flora of which is so extremely innutritious that neither cattle nor 
sheep can be profitably kept ; and though after fires in the sum- 
mer the winter rains produce an abundance of tender shoots, 
stock can only be grazed for short periods. These ‘“‘sand-plains ” 
are, of course, altogether unfit for the cultivation of any food- 
producing plants, whilst in other districts the prevalence of plants 
