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demand for fat stock. One source of trouble is the wild dog, 

 especially on the outlying boundaries. Eaglehavvks also make away 

 with a percentage of lambs, and boodie rats, opossums, parrots, and 

 silvereyes do some damage among the fruit trees and cereal crops ; 

 but as settlement goes on, and the more stringent provisions for 

 imposing a vermin rate and paying bonuses come into force, in 

 accordance with the resolution of the Producers' conference, these 

 pests may be fairly expected to almost wholly disappear. Happily, 

 poison plants are almost unknown, but specimens, chiefly of the 

 heartleaf variety, have been found. The note made by one well- 

 informed authority on this subject says : " There is poison in this 

 district, but not to anything like the same extent as in many other 

 parts of the colony." Bunbury is said, by those who have tried it 

 longest, to be " a fair district for stock, particularly along the coast." 

 The principal grasses are on the occupied lands near the coast, and 

 comprise couch grass, several varieties of trefoil, prairie and rye grasses, 

 all of which are spreading fast, as well as many valuable native 

 grasses. The arable lands are in good sized blocks on the large private 

 estates, but the selector must be content with paddocks of from 10 

 acres to 50 acres, all good and fit for the plough. Since the great 

 flow of immigration commenced, four or five years ago, there has been 

 a large influx of settlers, chiefly from the other Australian colonies. 

 They are mostly men of English blood, with an infusion of Irish, 

 Scotch, Germans, Italians, and Scandinavians. The value of modern 

 implements of agriculture is becoming daily better recognised, and 

 those of the older patterns are being put aside in favor of machines 

 which are being largely ordered or have arrived. Double arid treble 

 furrow ploughs, reapers and binders, and steam plant for chaffing hay, 

 are now in common use. It is desirable, according to the admission 

 of the graziers, that more should be done for the improvement of flocks 

 and herds. A few stations have imported pedigreed stallions, bulls, 

 and rams, but there is still room for more attention and money being 

 turned in the direction of raising the grades of draught horses, and 

 obtaining larger beef and mutton carcases to contribute to the 

 meat supply. The great essential for doing this rapidly and on a 

 sound basis is to form artificial pastures, but until there is more 

 than enough land cleared than is required for cropping, those who 

 have contributed the data for this chapter say that there will be a 

 reluctance to run stock on anything better than ringbarked land or 

 fields of stubble. The statement exhibits how much scope there is 

 for an enlarged scale of operations in the reclamation of land. 

 Here again our informants point out that the labor trouble inter- 

 poses itself. It is pointed out that there is more work in Western 

 Australia than there are hands to accomplish within a few years. 

 She wants to clear her forests and at the same time carry out a 

 broad and enterprising public works policy, and the result is that 

 able bodied men are in great demand. The farmers want them, 

 and so do the contractors, and the competition sometimes causes 



