65 



Western Australia. The Austni/tisitin says: "An illustration of 

 the great benefit of good cultivation, combined with early sowing, in 

 a very bad season, is furnished this year by Mr. Alexander B. 

 Cobham's farm at Pine Hills, Waitchie. The crop consists of 40 

 acres of wheat which lias a luxuriance of growth that would be 

 remarkable in an ordinary season, but is something extraordinary 

 in the present drought." Mr. Cobham says : ' The crop was sown 

 the third week in March, but no rain fell till April. The rainfall 

 with which it has grown is as follows: April, 0.58 inches ; May, 

 i. 06 inches ; June, 0.8 1 inches ; July, 0.21 inches ; August, 0.95 

 inches ; September, 1.58 inches ; October, (i to 18), o.io inches ; 

 total, 5.38 inches. This crop has therefore being grown with less 

 than 5[, inches of rain, and has been subject to particularly trying 

 weather, hot winds, for several weeks past, having been prevalent. 

 We intend starting cutting the crop for hay to-morrow. We shall 

 sell the crop as chaff, and expect to make a profit (that is after 

 deducting the cost of seed and all labor) of about $ per acre. 

 This should satisfy anyone that there is money to be made in the 

 mallee, even in a dry season. The rainfall of the year to date 

 (i8th October) amounts to 7.45 inches. The average rainfall of the 

 district is over 13 inches, and it mostly falls before the end of 

 October.' Some samples of this crop have been kindly sent us by 

 the Rev. Mr. Patterson, to whom the letter from which we have 

 quoted was sent. The wheat is remarkably well grown and is fully 

 4 feet 6 inches high. A single plant has sent up 118 stalks, each of 

 which carries a head, save one, and the exception has a head just 

 coming out. With the wheat plants is a sample of Cape barley, 

 grown on the same farm. It is three feet high and remarkably well 

 headed. On hrst looking at these samples their strong healthy 

 growth gives one the impression that they are from irrigated 

 land." 



The point of this extract is that it goes to show that crops can 

 be grown, with careful and early cultivation, with less than the rain- 

 fall which is generally considered essential to their success, and also 

 that the eastern farming districts of this colony have not yet 

 experienced anything like so dry a year as that which has been 

 known in the mallee. The only month during which in 1894 the 

 rainfall at Doodelkine did not greatly exceed that which produced 

 Mr. Cobham's heavy yield at Waitchie, was September, when the 

 returns respectively w r ere : 1.59 ; Doodlekine .59 ; but an earlier 

 sown crop at Doodlekine would have been already ripening in 

 September, and therefore almost independent of rain. 



Rain came very late in 1895. Early sowing proved to be 

 of special value, but new ground could not be broken up in time to 

 sow early, so that only fallowed land yielded well. The returns 

 show Mooranoppin, 9.60 ; Southern Cross, 5.42. 1896 was a good 

 season for early crops, heavy rain falling in March. Self-sown 

 wheat, with the benefit of these showers, w r as wonderfully good, 



