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has been described by a professional orchardist as an ideal spot for 

 orangvs aiul lemons ; hut it is stiperllous to quote the testimony of 

 experts in the face of the results which the ground has achieved. 

 It is worth while, for the tutelage of new men, to examine into the 

 natural conditions which have contributed to the achievement of 

 such conspicuous success at Cheriton. In the first place the soil 

 on the margin of the creek is of the richest alluvial loam, 14 feet or 

 15 feet deep ; the water of the creek is used to irrigate the trees in 

 summer, and they are excellently sheltered by the surrounding 

 forest, which has been saved from ringbarking in order that 

 it may act as a breakwind. The soil, which is rich and warm, is 

 o\er a limestone formation, which is more noticeable on the caps of 

 the surrounding hills, where limestone appears on the surface. The 

 orangery is irrigated from a dam or reservoir communicating with 

 channels leading down the slopes between the trees, which have 

 grown so large and were planted so closely together that the branches 

 overlap each other. A larger area has been planted with apricots, 

 oranges and lemons, by Messrs. Edgar Wedge and Co., and one also 

 by Mr. Henry Brockman, the son of the original owner of Cheriton. 

 Both the new plantations are looking very promising ; vegetables 

 are also grown under the management of Mr. George Buchanan, for 

 the Murchison and Yilgarn goldfields, with the greatest success. 

 The work is done on a proper scale, with horsepower-implements, 

 instead of the spade, that is too often seen in the market gardens 

 around Perth. The ten additional acres which have been planted 

 with citrus trees, are on higher ground than the original orangery ; 

 here the ground cannot be irrigated by gravitation, but a pump is to 

 be set to work to remedy this drawback. Of the 10,000 acres in the 

 Cheriton estate, 200 have been retained by Mr. Henry Brockman, 

 and are being devoted to fruit trees, among which apricots, which 

 find a congenial situation at Gingin, have a prominent place. Mr. 

 Brockman's orchard was planted between three and four years ago, 

 and it bore an excellent crop of fruit last season. The superbly 

 good land at Cheriton does not run back more than ten chains from 

 the creek. The bulk of the estate is red gum country, carrying a 

 great deal of limestone. Its chief pasture plants are silver grass, 

 dandelion, couch and trefoil. It is an exceptionally good grazing 

 property, especially the limestone hills. Cattle fatten rapidly at 

 Cheriton, where a great deal of ringbarking is now being done. 

 The effect of ringbarking in the Midland district is to propagate 

 such an enormous quantity of eucalyptus suckers that some owners 

 of land, who are not prepared to carefully keep down this growth for 

 two or three years after the large trees are dead, prefer to leave the 

 forests untouched. They admit that the opening up of the country 

 to the sun and the free action of the air by ringbarking, 

 is very beneficial, as is proved by the large crop of young trees 

 which almost immediately make their appearance ; but all of them 

 are not prepared to keep on spending money to thoroughly win the 



