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was re-claimed. It is so fertile that it will grow to perfection any- 

 thing that has been tried there, from cabbages, turnips and potatoes, 

 to grapes, apples, and peaches. A very lieavy crop ol' cereals, in- 

 cluding mai/e, could be taken off it if the land were not too valuable 

 for general farming. Mr. Clarke has taken the lead in showing 

 what the district can do under proper treatment, but he does not 

 possess a monopoly of the high class areas. There is besides, all 

 the way from Bunbury to Mundurah, a great deal of land that for 

 orchards and vineyards is not to be surpassed. It is of a sandy 

 nature, with limestone subsoil. The great disability is that much of 

 the best land was alienated from the Crown in the early days of the 

 colony, and in too many instances it is left practically idle. This is 

 the more to be regretted because the district is so well-watered that 

 it is suitable for close settlement. It has the Collie, Preston, Capel 

 and Harvey rivers and many affluents running through it, so that 

 farmers are not put to the expense of making wells and the labor 

 of drawing water for stock or domestic purposes ; water can, how- 

 ever, be struck at from 10 ft. to 20 ft. In the driest season there is 

 never any fear of drought, and the Boyanup and Dardanup plains 

 could easily be irrigated. The Preston river furnishes an ample 

 supply of water for the purpose, but it would have to be raised by 

 pumping. Parts of the Harvey and Uduc agricultural areas also 

 present facilities for irrigation. The general character of the soil 

 around Bunbury cannot be described in a word or tw r o, as it ex- 

 hibits many varieties. There is a rich loam in the swamps along the 

 coast, and further inland good red loam is met with, and ironstone 

 ridges among the hills. Near the sea line some sand plains 

 intersperse the more fertile country. The configuration of this 

 division of the colony is as full of contrasts as the land, for from 

 stretches of level flat the traveller can, without leaving the terri- 

 tory of Bunbury, get into mountainous country, rough enough to 

 tax his bush craft. These gravelly hills grow splendid jarrah ; 

 red gum indicates the superior chocolate loams ; swamp gums 

 shade the fringes oi the rivers and the creeks ; paperbark trees 

 shaggily appear in the beds of the swamps ; banksias in the sand 

 plains ; tuart on the limestone formation, and blackbutt on the 

 deepest and most valuable spots of all the pitch black loams that 

 teem with practically inexhaustible plant food of every kind. With 

 so much variety in the size and density of the timber it will be 

 understood that the cost of clearing land ready for the plough has 

 a range from ^3 to ^20 per acre, but the larger figure would only 

 be demanded for the subjugation of small patches of the swamps, 

 an acre of w r hich, producing two crops per annum of potatoes, 

 would be equal in its earnings to 20 acres of cereal paddocks. It 

 should be noted by any student of the Bunbury district, that there 

 is no more profitable rural industry at the present time than potato 

 growing in well drained swamp land, if the precaution is taken be- 

 fore commencing operations of obtaining from the laboratory of 



