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trunks on the road to Camballing. The jarrah of most other districts 

 is puny compared with the goliaths of Camballing. And this mag- 

 nificent forest, in which there are many trees ten feet thick at the 

 base, is a virgin one. Except to clear the road, an axe has never so 

 much as chipped the bark off any of the mammoth trees, that are 

 so thick that the sun is sometimes shut out by the intertwining foli- 

 age." When the question is asked or debated in Parliament " Will 

 a railway to the Williams pay ?" it can be answered by interroga- 

 ting the questioner " Will it pay to carry jarrah ?" An estimate of 

 the enormous value of this superb forest has been made by a Scotch 

 syndicate represented by Messrs. Millar and Young. These gentle- 

 men spent about a \veek looking for the cheapest and easiest route tor 

 a line to bring the timber from the forest, and it is understood that 

 they are making representations, through their principal, which will 

 result in the Government being approached with a view of obtain- 

 ing large rights over this important national asset, which, so far, 

 has been ceded to private firms in other portions of the Darling 

 range upon merely nominal terms. But, remembering that the 

 Premier has pronounced against private railways, and has said, on 

 more than one public occasion, that all his influence will be exerted 

 against private concessions being granted in a similar direction, 

 Parliament will probably be asked to decide that the forest shall be 

 utilised as the feeder of a railway belonging to the colony. 



After passing through the Camballing forest the traveller reaches 

 the Hotham, on the banks of which are some first-class farms. 

 One of them is owned by Mr. F.Cowcher, who left Pinjarrah nearly 

 30 years ago to get more room. The father of ten sons, several of 

 whom are selectors, he has cleared a large area of valuable river-flat 

 which, in the absence of a railway, he finds it lucrative to use as a 

 fattening ground for stock. To the reporter who collected informa- 

 tion for these pages he said : " To give you an idea of what I could 

 grow here, I will tell you the produce of two acres of my 

 garden, which are no better than nearly all of the farm. I got last 

 year from those two acres, four hogsheads of wine, two tons of 

 potatoes, half a ton of plums, a sack full of dried peaches, and a 

 heavy crop of vegetables and garden stuff for the pigs. And that 

 is the kind of soil that is 40 miles from a railway. My neighbor, 

 Mr. Farmer, who has one of the best farms in the district on the 

 river Murray, and who has been cropping his land for 30 years, 

 with only an occasional rest, getting from 15 to 28 bushels of wheat 

 per auv, will tell you, and show you, what sort of a corn-growing 

 centre this will be when we get a railway." At present there is not 

 one-tenth of the cultivable lands cropped. Leaving the banks of 

 the Hotham, an ironstone timbered ridge exists for about five 

 miles, and then the valley of the Manaclong brook is re-ached. 

 There is no need of a finger post to point it out, for suddenly there 

 breaks upon the view an expanse of deep rich fallow land on the 

 hillside, of a dark chocolate colour. Across the valley, and all 



