FARM LANDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 21 



For cultivation, clearing dead timber runs from 20s. up to <!0s. per acre, 

 for green timber from ,£2 to £•'? ; generally dealer in the colder country, going 

 as bigli as £8 per acre. 



Except in cleared country fencing material is plentiful. The best timbers 

 for posts are ironbark, red box, red gum, and stringybark. White ants are 

 not troublesome. Post and rail fences are hardly used in the district. The 

 •cost of post and split-rail fencing would be from £100 per mile. 



The cost of a five-wire cattle fence is about £50 to £60 per mile ; for a six- 

 wire sheep-proof fence, about £48, and for a seven-wire fence, about £53 

 per mile. 



Rabbit-proof fencing costs £100 to £120 per mile. 



The cost of well-sinking varies from 5s. per foot for the first 50 feet in 

 soft ground. This price does not include slabbing ; slab wells run from 

 20s. per foot upwards. 



Excavating for tanks costs from Is. per cubic yard. Neither wells nor 

 tanks are much used in this district as the country is generally well watered. 



The cost of transport is also very variable, the roads being in places very 

 -steep. East of the Dividing Range the roads are sandy, but in nearly all the 

 country west of the range the roads are good and hard, with the exception 

 of the northern portion (County Bligh), where the roads are impassable in wet 

 weather unless metalled. 



The cost of transport of wool and merchandise is stated to be 30s. per ton 

 in the Mudgee district (where the country is hilly). 



There is not much available Crown land in the plain districts, and the 

 price of good land is very high, running up to £8 to £15 per acre for the 

 best land ; river flats reaching even £40 to £50 per acre. Land suitable for 

 mixed farming fetches £4 to £7 per acre. Lower priced land is poor and 

 carries a sheep on from 2 to 1 2 acres. 



In addition to pastoral pursuits, generally speaking, the following are the 

 crops principally grown in the different districts, or for which those districts 

 are particularly suitable : — 



Orange : Apples and pears, cherries, and other cold country fruits, and 

 potatoes. 

 Potatoes are extensively cultivated about Millthorpe. 

 Carcoar: Wheat, fruit, and potatoes. 



Cowra : Fruit, wheat, oats, and vines ; lucerne, on the river-flats. 



This district is well watered by the Lachlan and permanent creeks. 



Molong : wheat, oats, fruit, and vines ; lucerne on flats. 



There is plenty of first-class wheat land around Eugowra and Canowindra. 

 The Belubula River flats about Canowindra are specially adapted for 

 lucerne, and command high prices. 



Sydney (Metropolitan) Land Board District. 



Includes the coast from Broken Bay to Bateman's Bay, with the townships and districts 

 of Windsor, Richmond, Penrith, Parramatta, Picton, Wollongong, Kiama, Nowra, 

 Milton, and Ulladull.i. 



This district includes a considerable stretch of the coast south of Broken 

 Bay, and the country to the east of the Main Dividing Range. The 

 formation is for the most part derived from the Hawkesbury sandstone and 

 Wianamatta shale formations, with granite and basic outcrops. The soil 

 embraces almost every tvpe represented in the State, from sandy soils to 

 heavy clays derived from slate and basalt, with alluvial flats upon the rivers. 



