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Porongerup range, covered with a splendid karri forest. Some of 

 the immense trees measure 70 feet to the first branch, and 18 feet in 

 girth. The Messrs. Millar Bros., large sawmill owners, are cutting 

 karri for home use and export. They have also purchased 5000 

 acres of very rich black soil, upon which yate is the chief timber. 

 The ground about Mount Barker varies in character, much of it 

 being particularly well adapted for fruit and cereals. The Poronge- 

 rup ranges, besides being heavily clothed with karri, have a deep, 

 rich soil, which has been taken advantage of by several settlers. 

 Messrs. Dunn, Moir Brothers, and J. Knight, have selections in the 

 ranges, and are growing fruit and vegetables, including heavy crops of 

 potatoes, with much success. There was, by some freak of nature, 

 a natural clearing on the crest of the range, so that the producers 

 were not put to the expense of removing the giant trees, which stand 

 in the way of the hills being rapidly and extensively tilled. The 

 Western Australian Land company received 305. per acre for 

 the alienated blocks ; adjoining land is now open for selection 

 under the Crown. Mr. H. E. Warburton has a pastoral run of 

 10,000 acres, and sheep and cattle both do well in the 

 hills. Between Mount Barker and Albany there are sandy 

 stretches. The large farming areas have now been passed through, 

 what remains to be seen is garden land which only needs high 

 cultivation to be very remunerative when it is properly treated in 

 small areas. At the nine-mile lake, or Torbay Junction, nine miles from 

 Albany, there are what an official report describes as '' alluvial Hats 

 of humus or peaty mould, well watered, sparsely timbered, and 

 specially suited for root crops, garden produce, and dairy farming ; 

 its close proximity to Albany, where there is always a ready market, 

 renders this place particularly suited to immediate settlement." To 

 the westward of the lake Messrs. Millar Bros, have purchased 7000 

 acres which are being cleared prior to cultivation. A townsite has 

 been laid out upon the northern slopes of a large fresh water lake. 

 The Western Australian Land company reserved 100 acres on the 

 west side of the lake for a public park. This station is the junction of 

 the branch line laid by Messrs. Millar Bros, to Torbay for the purpose 

 of developing the timber trade of the district. The neighborhood of 

 the lake should be inspected by those who are in search of, say, 100 

 acres of land, which they can take up as a free homestead farm, with a 

 view to supplying the vegetable market, which at Albany, owing to 

 the important shipping trade of the port, is not an inconsiderable 

 one. The soil is a deep black rich formation, and there is ample 

 rainfall in this district to render artificial irrigation superfluous. 

 There are sidings at Grasmere, Eastwood, and Gledhow, less than a 

 mile and a half apart, so that the cost and labor of carting produce 

 to Albany are reduced to the minimum. The land drains freely into 

 the lake, and as it is naturally moist there is every natural ad- 

 vantage in this neighborhood which a skilled farmer would desire. 

 The largest and most profitable crops would be cut in the summer, 



