TO 



turn the fruit into bacon. At Lowlands, the estate of Mr. A. R. 

 Richardson, 24 miles from Fremantle on the South-western railway, 

 there are some rig-trees of great size, one of them measuring seven 

 feet five inches in girth of trunk. Mandurah and Rockingham can 

 show several nearly as large. Mr. Thos. Hardy, the well-known 

 South Australian horticulturist, admired the fig plantations greatly 

 when he visited the colony a few years ago. He said he had seen 

 nothing nearly so fine of the kind anywhere else south of the line. 

 Mr. Paterson, who is the first to undertake the culture of the 

 fig on a large scale, is importing fourteen varieties. He estimates 

 that in seven years time the yield will be of the value of i per 

 tree ; he is planting 2,000 trees. It is pointed out that such a 

 plantation requires no grafting, pruning, or budding, and very little 

 cultivation, while the cuttings are cheap and easily procured, and 

 the trees, generally speaking, almost immune from disease. In his 

 opinion the fig has been too much neglected in the west ; if it had 

 not grown almost wild and had a smaller yield of fruit, the satiated 

 appetite would not have looked askance upon what he regards as 

 being one of the most wholesome and appetising of fruits. In a 

 country like Western Australia, where bacon brings is. per lb., he 

 knows of no better or more profitable purpose to which to devote 

 his Mandurah estate than to raise figs upon a large scale there in 

 the limestone country. The olive also does remarkably well on the 

 coast, and fine specimens of these trees may be seen anywhere 

 between Fremantle and the Vasse. 



The limestone country, which we have been inspecting before 

 going into the clay districts further inland, grows several other 

 crops that are valuable, although it is not recommended for general 

 farming purposes. Lucerne, a fodder plant that is extensively culti- 

 vated in the eastern colonies, is in a congenial place among the 

 limestone. Patches of it have been put in for test purposes, with 

 most gratifying results. The roots go down to a great depth, and 

 all through the summer it can be repeatedly cut after it has had 

 twelve months to establish itself. The value of lucerne, and the 

 important part it should take in the feeding of stock during the dry 

 season, may be emphasised, for probably there is no part of the 

 world where summer fodder is more required than in the neighbour- 

 hood of Fremantle and Perth. In the spring, indigenous and exotic 

 grasses and clovers grow in the richest spots, and especially where 

 the ground has been cleared and cultivated ; but as the season 

 advances these disappear, leaving the dairy herds of the metropolis 

 and the chief seaport town of the colony to subsist mostly on rank 

 scrub and imported bran, for which from is. to is. 9d. per bushel 

 (according to market supplies) is charged. 



There is another aspect of the fodder question which should 

 be emphasised in connection with lands available for selection 

 within reasonable distance of the metropolis, and that is the meat 



