58 



have been kept with a surprising degree of success. As will be 

 seen by the student of the report of the late Baron von Mueller, 

 which appears in another chapter of this work, Western Australia 

 is marvellously rich in both the variety and the number of her wild 

 flowers, which, in the spring season, make even the roughest scrub 

 paddocks at a little distance resemble a conservatory, and supply 

 beautiful displays at the competitive shows which are held through- 

 out the season in the chief centres. The flowers must be rich in 

 saccharine juices, for the swarms of wild bees are able to lay up in 

 the hollow trunks of trees large stores of honey, which become the 

 prize of the splitter or the settler. The honey has a peculiarly 

 piquant and agreeable taste, but, unfortunately, a great deal of it is 

 wasted by the falling of the tree containing it, which breaks up the 

 comb and drives into the honey the dust and the splinters of the 

 cavity. Finding from the teachings of nature that the colony is 

 admirably adapted to the bee, many settlers in the south have es- 

 tablished hives with swarms of what have been wild bees, and 

 have improved the stock by sending abroad for Italian and other 

 queens. In two instances within the personal knowledge of the 

 writer the bees have thriven so well and proved to be so prolific 

 that the household expenses of the family are paid out of the profits 

 of about 100 hives, and the income derived from the farm is devoted 

 to the purchase of plant and the clearing of more land. What has 

 been done in the south may be accomplished in the east, especially 

 by immigrants who bring with them from other countries a 

 knowledge of the proper system of bee-keeping, which the men 

 referred to in the foregoing did not possess. They were in the 

 early stages of their experience as apiarists indebted to Mr. R. 

 Helms, the biologist of the Bureau of Agriculture, for the instruction 

 which, aided by their own study and observation, has enabled them 

 to obtain a material addition t:> the earnings of their properties. 



Among the minor foes of settlement about York and Be\ erley 

 the native vermin, both fur and feathered, have to be reckoned. 

 The dingo, or wild dog of Australia, which would be mistaken tor a, 

 fox if it were seen in an English county, is a great enemy to sheep, 

 and among an unprotected flock is a terrible butcher. The dog 

 will often worry as many as twenty sheep before feeding on one, 

 and he is ruthlessly pursued by trap and poison, and sometimes run 

 down by a well mounted stockman. The Government gives 

 a reward of los. per head for each wild dog's scalp that is 

 produced to the resident magistrate of the district. The 

 Producers' conference has on two occasion^ voted this reward to 

 be insufficient to lead to the extirpation of the dogs. A sheep 

 owner will lay baits of meat or fat poisoned with strychnine, or 

 occasionally set a trap if he finds that a dingo has been harrying his 

 stock, but the dogs are allowed to breed in their fastnesses in the 

 back country almost undisturbed. The delegates at the conference 

 were of opinion that the reward should be raised to /.'i per scalp 





