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putes as to the priority of a budget of applications for certain 

 sections, it was decided that all the applications made on the open- 

 ing day of the restored rights of the people should be referred to 

 the arbitrament of the drawing of lots. Xo more just way, one would 

 think, could have been conceived, but some applicants adroitly made 

 their success almost certain by getting their friends to put in papers 

 for the land. The man \vho had only one string to his bow had 

 little chance against a large combination, the successful member of 

 which, not wanting the block, would transfer it to the boua fide 

 selector in whose interests the application had been made. 

 Mr. Piesse is satisfied that there will be enough corn grown 

 in the colony during the next five or six years to keep im- 

 ported wheat or flour out of, the market. He points to the rapid 

 influx of farmers from the other colonies, who desire to participate 

 in benefits that are denied them in the more crowded and competi- 

 tive spheres which they are leaving. If all the wheat lands in the 

 south alone were utilised Mr. Piesse says Western Australia would 

 have wheat to spare, instead of supporting the producers of other 

 countries as she is doing now. He is a great advocate for the use of 

 fertilisers on the rules of arithmetic in adding up his profits. " If," 

 he says, u it costs 3 per acre to clear land, it is a mistake not to get 

 as much off it as possible, for it costs as much to plough, to sow and 

 to harvest poor land, as rich. The larger the crop the greater the 

 margin between working expenses and profit. A ton of guano, bone- 

 dust or phosphates will cost ^ or ^"6, and it will give a lair dressing 

 to from six to 10 acres, increasing the weight and value of the crop 

 fully one-third. In other words, the manuring has cost from 8s. to 

 1 2s. per acre, and the enlarged yield is worth fully 2. Why then 

 should land be left to 'nature, as it generally is in the south ? We 

 have found that bonedust or phosphates pays better than guano, un- 

 less what is known as ' live guano' that is containing the ammoniacal 

 salts unimpaired can be obtained, but this sort of guano is a scarce 

 article. The ordinary sample of guano contains too large a propor- 

 tion of gravel to be the best value. Up to date Thomas's phosphate 

 appears to take the palm for excellence, but its use is at present an 

 uncompleted experiment. Although hay is the most profitable crop 

 to grow just now, when the Meckering, Goomalling and Greenhills 

 lands are opened up, our farmers will go back to growing wheat. In 

 the east the new ?reas I have named have an advantage of I2S. 6d. 

 per ton in supplying chaff for the Yilgarn goldfields, as compared 

 with growers about Wagin Lake and Katanning, but we can com- 

 pete with those places on equal terms in sending wheat and flour to 

 the metropolitan and Fremantle markets. The Katanning roller 

 mills alone could grind 80,000 to 100,000 bushels of wheat each year, 

 if the corn were grown to keep it fully employed." 



A ride of a few miles cast of Katanning along the main road 

 will take the Visitor past some large and admirable tarms. past broad 

 cornfields (from May until the end of October), substantial stead- 



