IOI 



yield abundantly, while the pumpkins, water melons, etc., do not 

 appear to be any drain on the fertility of the land, which can be 

 sown next autumn with wheat or oats. The only precaution that 

 has to be taken in following the course here prescribed, is that the 

 new land must not be broken up until the seed time for the squash 

 has arrived, for the crop will not do well if the land is allowed to 

 consolidate after ploughing before the squash seed is put in. By 

 using some of their virgin paddocks for producing water-melons 

 and pumpkins for the goldlields, the Messrs. F. H. and C. A. Piesse 

 have had very lucrative returns which, after deducting expenses, in 

 marketing the crop, have gone a good way towards defraying the 

 cost of clearing the land on which the yield was grown. (2). An 

 excellent chocolate loam, upon which the white gum is never seen ; 

 this land grows York gums, manna, and jam, and it is the best that 

 is found in the south. It is equally good for corn raising or orchards, 

 and not only produces a heavy harvest, but is of great stamina, even 

 where it is only fallowed by way of recuperation. (3). A red 

 clayey soil carrying a small admixture of gravel. Here the salmon 

 gum is mostly seen, and it has been usual to pass it by. The exper- 

 ience gained to the east of Northam, however, where salmon gum 

 country has been tried with encouraging results, is tending to bring 

 this territory into use about Wagin and Katanning. (4). There is 

 a small proportion of a more friable chocolate soil on which small 

 York gums, more than usually ragged in appearance, appear 

 together with some manna trees, but no white gums. These 

 spots are especially congenial to fruit trees. The places in 

 which this characteristic are found are to the west, south and 

 north of Wagin Lake, but none to the eastward of that centre. 

 Land of this description is available for selection at distances 

 varying from six to 20 miles from Wagin, Katanning, and Narrogin. 

 (5). A white, cold, sterile gravel, carrying some ironstone, is found 

 upon some of the higher levels. This sort of country has not yet 

 been proved to be profitable for any cultivation. It might grow 

 vines well enough ; but while there is so much better land, thoroughly 

 adapted for vineyards, open for selection, vignerons naturally 

 hesitate to risk their outlay and labor in making experiments, which, 

 even if they were successful, would only be generally followed when 

 there is ten times the present rural population in Western Australia. 

 The gravel country is used for pastoral purposes, for which, when it 

 is free of poison plants, it is fairly well adapted, if not too heavily 

 stocked. On some of the lighter sandy loams near Wagin, the 

 peculiarity is met with of patches of redgums, which only grow in 

 heavy lands within the limits of the south-western district. One of 

 these small forests is to be seen near the Tellarian brook, a water- 

 course that was utilised by the Western Australian Land company to 

 supply water for the locomotives of the Great Southern railway. 

 Mr. Piesse says that Mr. W. Fleay is settled upon a similar area near 

 the Arthur river, and he has found the land very fertile. 



