'9 



\Yhiby Falls, and still going south, some miles of 

 country that is chiefly jarrah forest intervene before \ve are upon the 

 scene of the next object lesson that is calculated to teach so much 

 to an intelligent and receptive observer who wishes to see what 

 others have done, and what the country will grow to the best 

 advantage, before he starts work on his own account. The forest is 

 occupied by the Jarrahdale sawmills, a large and powerful 

 company who have laid down a branch line extending from the 

 South-western railway to the main timber station in the ranges 

 further eastward. Jarrahdale, as its name would indicate to any 

 Western Australian, is not a place where granaries will ever be 

 seen, but the wine press would have plenty of occupation if all the 

 vine land could tempt the peasantry of one of the provinces of 

 France to make of it a second Moselle. Pushing on to the 

 Serpentine, Lowlands, the estate of Mr. A. R. Richardson, is an unique 

 example of natural irrigation, for here the Serpentine river disperses 

 itself over Hats, percolates through the soil, and resumes its course 

 in its bed at a point nearer the sea. The Serpentine is a second 

 Xile in its fertilising effects, and it would be very hard to lincl a 

 place where stock will fatten more quickly than on Lowlands. Mr. 

 Richardson, who has only just retired from public life, after sitting 

 in the Legislative Assembly for the De Grey and holding with 

 much honor and usefulness the portfolio of Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands, did not lincl Lowlands what it is to-day. When he became 

 its o\vner it was densely overgrown with flooded gums and 

 undergrowth, which were very hard to kill in the deep, strong, 

 moist loam. As fast as the flooded gums were ringbarked they 

 threw up saplings and suckers so plentifully that it seemed a 

 sisyphean labor to try and wrest the territory from their grasp. 

 But Mr. Richardson was not to be daunted by the assertion that is 

 often made, that if a flooded gum has plenty of water it is imp< 

 to vanquish it. He had perseverance, and, fortunately, he had 

 means, for Lowlands has always been a place that demanded a 

 liberal expenditure of money. The saplings and suckers were 

 ruthlessly decimated, hacked, and grubbed and burned year after 

 year, every inch of ground that was so hardly won was resolutely 

 guarded from further encroachment, until at last the flooded gums 

 gave up the light. In the end Mr. Richardson could survey square 

 miles of magnificent pasture ground, clothed during the hottest 

 season of the year with a high close mat of couch, and he can now 

 send his sheep and cattle prime fat to the butcher at a time when 

 locally fattened stock is very scarce In making a success of 

 Lowlands, where cereals and fruit are also produced, Mr. 

 Richardson has only put into practice the maxim that land, like a 

 good horse, must not be left to take care of itself if it is to do good 

 work and be worth keeping. In speaking from his place in the 

 Legislative Assembly on one occasion, he dwelt strongly upon the 

 evils of earth hunger of a man taking up more land than he 



