8 



own vine and fig tree and none daring to make him afraid. The 

 settler who has grappled with and effaced the forest trees, who can 

 look out upon a broad expanse of stubble land after harvest, would 

 need to be very improvident to b3 afraid of meeting any creditor ; 

 but between the taking up of the block allotted to him and the ac- 

 complishment of this task there is before him many a day when he 

 will literally fulfil the old scriptural mandate and earn his bread by 

 the sweat of his brow. If he shrink from the weight of his labor 

 he can find an easier vocation in taking up the more lightly timbered 

 lands along the Great Southern railway, or beyond Greenhills or 

 Goomalling, with his eyes open to the fact that there the rainfall is 

 much lighter, that the climate is for some months dry and hot, and 

 the conditions of life not so pleasant ; while in the south-west 

 a crop has never, with ordinary care, been known to 

 fail, or a fruit tree to die for want of water. Here there 

 is little or no need to conserve water for stock ; little or no 

 expense in sinking wells or scooping out dams ; no anxious 

 watching for the thundercloud to burst to save driving cattle or 

 sheep perhaps for miles to the nearest watering place to slake their 

 thirst. In giving the settler a wide range of choice as to the 

 peculiar natural gifts h^ shall desire to bestow upon himself, 

 Western Australia is almost unique. No district has a monopoly of 

 advantages, but there is in their distribution a nice balance and 

 equipoise of merits and demerits. The south-west has the 

 unfailing and plenteous rainfall, and the heaviest clearing ; in 

 many places the smallest areas of first class land in one piece. 

 The eastern division is nearer the goldfields market ; it has very 

 large stretches that could be placed under crop without a break, 

 and a beginner can readily clear a nice piece of jam country to get 

 in a crop in his first year that will cheer him on his way. The 

 south-west is more intractable ; it resists the advances of civilization; 

 the forest is not easily subdued, and the land that can soon be 

 reclaimed will prove disappointing in the end. 



Before booking at Fremantle for Bunbury, the enquirer for 

 Crown lands on agricultural areas should have a look at Jandakot, 

 which is situated jo miles east from Fremantle, and which was 

 thrown open for selection in August, 1890. It comprises 36,000 

 acres, mostly of a light sandy nature. There arc, however, in the 

 area a lair proportion of alluvial banks and swampy lands which 

 are highly suitable for the production of vegetables," of which the 

 Perth and Freuiantle markets are lamentably bare for the greater 

 portion of the year. The land is, however, imperfectly drained, and 

 it is somewhat expensive to clear. Some of it would cost quite 10 

 per acre before seed could be sown ; but, on the other 

 hand, the productiveness of the soil, and the consequently small 

 required, compared with what is necessary, suv, at Meeker- 

 ing, for mixed farming, would compensate for this outlay. There 



