212 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



converse about what is to be the future of farming in Victoria, when water 

 has been systematically impounded, in order to flood the land in due season. 

 Our farmers, it is to be noted, have hitherto sought the plains, where the 

 timber was not more than was required for firewood, and where they could 

 sow and reap at once. But the value of the forest country is now being 

 appreciated. There is heavy clearing to be done, no doubt ; but then the 

 land is rich, and gives astonishing root crops, and fattens many sheep to the 

 acre. And when a railway is run into the forest it is found that the timber 

 pays for itself, and for the land also, and is as good a crop as the selector 

 is ever likely to take off the soil. 



The following are the present conditions under which land can be 

 selected in Victoria : The best unsold portions of the public estate, amounting 

 in the aggregate to 8,712,000 acres, are divided into 'grazing areas,' not 

 exceeding 1000 acres in size, each of which is available for the occupation 

 of one individual, who is entitled to select, within the limits of his block, an 

 extent not exceeding 320 acres, for purchase in fee simple at £1 per acre, 

 payment of which may extend over twenty years, without interest. The 

 selected portion is termed an ' agricultural allotment,' and of it the selector 

 is bound to cultivate one acre in every ten acres, and make other improve- 

 ments amounting to a total value of at least £1 per acre. The unselected 

 portion of the original area is intended for pastoral purposes, and for this 

 the occupier obtains a lease, at a rental of from 2d. to \d. per acre, for a 

 period of fourteen years, after which it reverts to the Crown, an allowance 

 up to 1 os. per acre being made the lessee for any improvements he may 

 have effected calculated to improve the stock-carrying capabilities of the 

 land. In New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia, and Western 

 Australia, the facilities are greater than in Victoria. But it is better to state 

 the minimum than the maximum advantage. All classes go on the lands 

 with success, because ' high farming ' or ' scientific culture ' is not attempted 

 in the bush— only in exceptional instances near the towns. A county prize 

 for the best-kept farm was recently awarded to a freeholder whose culture 

 and whose crops were highly commended by the judges. • You were trained 

 in a good school, evidently,' said one of the judges to the prize-taker. 

 1 Not at all, sir,' was the reply ; ' until I took up this land I was serving 

 all my life behind a linen-draper's counter.' A handsome endowment has, 

 however, just been made for the establishment of Agricultural Colleges in 

 Australia. 



Without a wife the settler's is but a lonely lot. There are bachelors, of 

 course. Our picture represents a forlorn individual returning to his home. 

 He will have a warmer welcome no doubt some day from wife and weans 

 than that which he receives from the cockatoo which he has taught and 

 tamed. 



The settler has few enemies. The only two worth naming are drought 



