Midland is not. however, a great farming country as a whole; it 

 is very good for agriculture in patches ; it is a great gra/ing 

 country, if the sand plains are exceptcd. If the paddock is picked 

 for the different crops there is nothing I know of that the Midland will 

 not grow ; it is very good for fruit, cereals and vegetables, it" the 

 spots for growing them are well selected. When I mention fruits, 

 I refer to oranges, lemons, apples, grapes and pears ; we have not 

 been able to do much with plums or cherries. We do not enrich 

 the land except by resting it ; we have enough land to crop our 

 paddocks only in alternate years. We rind it cheaper to do that 

 than to buy fertilisers. Although the best of the arable land is very 

 good, I believe that continuous cropping for four years would ex- 

 haust, or, at any rate, seriously deteriorate it. There are no large 

 local orchards ; most of the settlers grow a little fruit for them- 

 selves. When we were without a railway it cost about live pounds 

 per ton to cart stuff to Perth, and, therefore, we did not expect to 

 be able to produce fruit at a profit, hence only compar- 

 atively few trees were planted. Since the railway has been 

 opened some encouragement has been given to enlarging the 

 productiveness of the district, but orchards require time to come to 

 maturity. Many of the settlers combine the keeping of sheep with 

 cultivation. The largest flockmaster is Mr. Drummond, at Dan- 

 darag i. I find pigs more profitable than sheep. I kill about lifty 

 pigs every year. They are allowed the run of certain securely 

 fenced paddocks until they are wanted for fattening ; then they are 

 fed on wheat meal in the sty, and make prime bacon, for which I 

 have obtained many prizes at the Guildford show r , or are sold to 

 the butcher. I keep Berkshire pigs, and always use imported 

 boars. Dingoes are very troublesome ; they occasionally kill pigs 

 and calves. Another pest is the domestic cat, that has gone wild in 

 the bush ; they are destructive among the chickens in the poultry 

 yard. An enormous number of eaglehawks are shot and poisoned. 

 The bonus of 2s. per head has been paid on about rive thousand 

 eaglehawks in the Midland district within the last seven years. I 

 cannot give a complete list of the local grasses, but I would like to 

 say a word against couch, which I think is held in undeserved 

 esteem in this colony, although it may prove to be a valuable 

 pasture plant in New South Wales, where it grows splendidly. My 

 experience is that we should be much better without couch in 

 Western Australia, and I will give my reasons for this unfavorable 

 verdict. It always grows on the very best land paddocks that 

 have been cultivated, for preference and wherever it takes root it 

 drives every other grass out. The stock get on to the green couch 

 in the summer time, when it is the only green thing on the ground, 

 and eat it bare. When the couch has been fed down close the 

 cattle still hang on it, and nil themselves with earth or sand trying 

 to get another mouthful. In a word, they not only go hungry and 

 lose condition by sticking to the couch, but many a beast has been 



