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Great Southern line, but which has more superlatively good land for 

 its acreage than is commonly found, Mr. Maley let large contracts 

 for clearing, and imported white Tuscan and purple straw varieties 

 of seed wheat, as well as the seeds of Johnson grass and of other 

 herbage, which he judged would be especially well adapted to the 

 district. Of the white Tuscan he says : " If you do not sow it 

 early it is an absolute failure ; if it is sown in time, the yield is larger 

 than that of any other variety I have seen tried." He adds : " The 

 purple straw should be cut for hay, and it will then give a very 

 satisfactory return. It is generally sown in South Australia, as it 

 does well where the rainfall is light and the summer comes in early. 

 I intend to stick to these two varieties of wheat ; they are popular 

 with my neighbors, to some of whom I have sold purple straw 

 wheat for seed at 75. per bushel." Mr. Maley in reply to enquiries 

 as to what he thinks of the country as a field for settlement, has 

 made the following statement : " There is, I believe, an excellent 

 future before farmers here, but the one thing to be garcled against 

 is earth hunger. A man, where there is so much room to select and 

 such liberal land laws prevail, can easily cripple himself by grasping 

 too large an area, I mean more than he can profitably use. It is so 

 easy to pay sixpence per acre per annum that there is a temptation 

 to lose sight of the improvements, and also of the fact that unless 

 the ground is fenced, ringbarked, and stocked, it is a drag instead of 

 a help. The object to be put before all others is to make as much land 

 as possible earn an income, not to scatter one's energies in trying to 

 cover too much ground. Another point that I think it is well to 

 bear in mind : that it is better to go a little farther from a railway 

 station and get first-class land, than to have a train at the farm door, 

 if the country is inferior. I do not say the ground right at Katan- 

 ning is inferior, but it is not so good as it is here at my place, five 

 miles away. There the soil is less than a foot deep, here it is two 

 feet deep, but there is not an unlimited quantity of it. Not far out- 

 side my boundaries you come upon ironstone and poor gravel. 

 That class of country is among the ranges, and the principal timber 

 found upon it is white gum. I call it third-class country, useful, if 

 lightly stocked, for carrying sheep. Wherever a chocolate soil 

 above clay can be found it ought to be selected, as it is good for 

 every kind of cultivation, and if laid down with artificial grasses, 

 will support a lot of stock. I have been sowing Johnson grass, 

 which doc- very well indeed, but not better than corkscrew grass 

 one of the native grasses which cannot be excelled if it is given a 

 chance on corn lands that are let go back to pasture. It is very 

 d&OUght-resigting and prolific, and 1 do not know a better friend of 

 the stockmastcr in the whole range of botanical research. Silver 

 grass is also well worthy of encouragement ; although it is com- 

 itively short-lived it is very luxuriant in the spring, and stock 

 fatten rapidly upon it. After it ripens, if the paddocks have been 

 saved, sheep thrive upon it." Mr. Maley. discussing methods of 



