SEPTEMBER, i8Si. 61 



it dries again shakes out of the cars in quantity at every 

 movement. Were it not that the straw is of more con- 

 sequence to us here in a way as farmers than the 

 grain, we would look to much more careful cultivation 

 doing for oats what has been done in special instances 

 for wheat, namely, create a class of large-grained, strong 

 stemmed grass more readily controlled, that would be 

 planted like potatoes in place of sown broadcast. This 

 is a result not at all difficult to obtain, as has been shown 

 in the case of wheat thus treated ; but the single stems 

 are so thick and glazed with silica, that it would not suit 

 the primary object of our straw, as wintering for our 

 stock. To those who look to a peasant proprietory 

 living upon their agricultural produce, however, this is a 

 direction in which important results may be looked for, 

 as enabling the husbandman to obtain a more reasonable 

 proportion of the possible and natural return. 



Young frogs of the size of small beetles continue to 

 make their appearance after every fresh outbreak of wet 

 weather here, and yet they cannot have been produced 

 from fresh thrown spawn, we fancy, for we have seen 

 none since the spring, and are consequently led to 

 suppose the tadpoles have, through untoward circum- 

 stances and surroundings been prevented completing 

 their transformation until later, and remained longer in 

 the tadpole state. We saw one year a quantity of tad- 

 poles in a dark, dull pool in the wood near this in the 

 month of November, and supposed their change had been 

 arrested through want of sunlight. 



We saw fresh dog-roses in flower at Barcaldine two 

 days ago, along with the hips of the former crop, and 

 very much out of place they looked in a landscape whose 

 brightest colouring is now obtained from the fast fading 



