57 



with fruit trees or vines, notwithstanding that there are four special 

 inducements to embark in this enterprise : i. That the local 

 market, owing to the population of Western Australia having 

 quadrupled during the last seven years, is insufficiently supplied 

 with fruit, which is in especial demand on the semi-tropical gold- 

 fields. 2. That prices are very remunerative grapes selling retail 

 at sixpence to eightpence per Ib. ; oranges, from is. to 33. per 

 dozen ; and apples at is. per Ib. 3. That Western Australia is 

 from four to nine days' sail nearer the London market which Aus- 

 tralian consignments reach at the dear time of the year than the 

 other colonies, viz., South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New 

 South Wales, and Tasmania. 4. That owing to the codlin moth 

 being found in the other colonies, Western Australia prohibits the 

 importation of apples. 



The raising of poultry receives some attention in the York 

 district. Nearly every farmer sends some birds to market every 

 year, but there are no poultry farms on the large and organised 

 scale adopted in England and France. Around York the birds are 

 kept in a semi-wild state, having the run of the fields, and requiring 

 little shelter in so mild a climate. Nor are fashionable strains, 

 either for the table or laying qualities, much sought after. It is the 

 common barn-door bird that is chiefly relied upon ; it is hardy, 

 gives little trouble, is a fairly prolific egg-producer, and can always 

 be sold at from 53. to 6s. 6d. per couple. The goldfields' hotels 

 are constant customers for all the poultry, including ducks and 

 turkeys, which are not largely kept, that the farming population can 

 supply, while there is never a glut in the poultry markets of Perth 

 and Fremantle. The birds are profitable to those who rear them, 

 because to a large extent they find their own food, having a great 

 range of run and the ground never being heavily stocked. It is be- 

 lieved that the high price of grain would prevent the keeping of 

 poultry in confinement at a profit. For this reason the rule is to 

 send the birds away without fattening them in pens. This process 

 is almost unknown anywhere in the colony, where the poultry 

 served at table are, as a rule, somewhat spare, but, owing to the 

 healthful conditions under which the birds are reared and the 

 variety of their food on the farms, the dish is of excellent flavor and 

 very wholesome. 



In the territory of which we are writing the value of bees is 

 almost entirely overlooked, as there is only one apiarist there. He 

 has 80 hives at a place about 17 miles west of York, and he has 

 only recently started bee-keeping. His neighbors are watching the 

 result of his experiment with some interest, to see whether bees will 

 do as well in the east as they do in the south of Western Australia. 

 So far the apiarist is able to make an encouraging report, although 

 he will not be able to form definite conclusions until he has had 

 the experience of another season or two. Along the coast line, 

 that is to say within 30 miles of the sea, in the south-west, bees 



