i8o 



owing to the limestone they need no coast change. A good deal 

 of neat kine are bred at Yatheroo. Mr. Roberts imports bulls of the 

 best shorthorn strains from South Australia and New South Wales 

 to raise the grade of his herds, the representatives of which are 

 always large prize takers at the annual show of the Royal agricul- 

 tural and pastoral society, which is held in November at Guildford. 

 He also milks 80 or 90 cows for winter dairying, but at the 

 expiration of the cool months the cows are turned out and allowed 

 to rear their calves. From May to the end of July the milking herd 

 are given a liberal ration of hay, which is grown in Mr. Roberts' 

 paddocks. The butter he makes is sold in Perth at is. 4d. per Ib. ; 

 his cows are milked only once a day. He finds that as his stock 

 improve in beef-carrying properties, they steadily deteriorate in the 

 profit they yield in the dairy. The general utility cow, which some 

 would-be farmers' guides recommend, may be a fair animal all 

 round, but either meat, or milk and cream, must be made a specialty 

 if the breeder is to achieve distinct success in supplying the beef or 

 the butter market ; so says Mr. Roberts, and he thinks few who put 

 their theories to the test of practice will find reason to differ with his 

 conclusions. Another point upon which he gives a definite opinion is 

 that if a cow is to milk well she must be fed well. He compares a cow 

 that is working for a dairy to a draught horse that is daily in harness. 

 Neither of them can stand the drain on their strength and vitality 

 unless they are well nourished, any more than an engine can be kept 

 going without the furnace being replenished with fuel. In addition 

 to the freehold land at Yatheroo, Mr. Roberts leases 60,000 acres 

 from the Midland railway company. He shares Mr. Lefroy's con- 

 viction that it would be greatly to the interests of the colony if the 

 line and the landed interests of the company were acquired by the 

 Government; but he does not consider the company to be an unmixed 

 evil, on account of the carrying facilities it affords. But as compared 

 with the position of the settlers in other districts, who have been 

 given the boon of a state railway, the security of tenure, and 

 the liberal land regulations of the Government, he thinks the people 

 of the Midland are badly off. His view was aptly expressed by Sir 

 John Forrest in replying to Mr. Lefroy, when that gentleman's 

 motion regarding the proposed acquisition of the Midland railway 

 (to which reference lias been made) was before the Legislative 

 Assembly. On that occasion the Premier said : " I fully sympathise 

 with the hon. member and his constituents in the position in which 

 they have been placed during so many years, through not been able 

 to acquire any of the company's land on the easy terms on which 

 the lands of the Government can be acquired ; but it should not be 

 altogether forgotten that the people in that district have some 

 advantages at any rate from the operations of the company, for they 

 have means of transit provided by the railway for carrying stock, 

 and also to some extent for other produce, which were not available 

 before the railway was constructed." Mr. Roberts formerly held 



