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It is impossible to learn farming from a book ; and no pretence 

 is made in the following pages of imparting the whole theory and 

 practice of agriculture. It is merely intended to convey, in the 

 plainest language, a few useful and practical hints on the pre- 

 liminary preparation of 1 md after it has been taken up in its virgin 

 state, and to give the new settler, lacking knowledge in cultural 

 methods, the results of the experiences of others who have been 

 farming for a lifetime in the colonies. Speaking generally, colonial 

 farming cannot be called high-class farming. It is capable of great 

 improvement, and it is pleasing to record that improvement is 

 now gradually taking place, thanks to the dissemination of 

 knowledge by the various departments of agriculture of the 

 colonies and by the Australian press, to the noble example set 

 by men of superior intelligence, and, in some cases, of superior 

 means also, \vho voluntarily divorced themselves from the vast 

 army of single croppers, and launched out in entirely new direc- 

 tions, in an endeavor to show how the land could be made to 

 produce to its fullest extent. The depression which has existed for 

 the past few years in all the colonies, except Western Australia, 

 has perforce, caused the farmers of the eastern provinces to pay 

 greater attention to varying the products of the soil, and unite in 

 developing new features of rural industry that had hitherto been 

 either totally neglected, or carried on by individuals in a more or 

 less tentative and perfunctory manner. Prior to the granting of 

 responsible government to this colony, and the shortly subsequent 

 discovery of our phenomenal auriferous wealth, there was little or 

 no inducement to the Western Australian farmer to produce much 

 more than would supply his actual needs. He was in an isolated 

 position. There was no demand for the produce of his broad 

 acres across the seas, if we except wool and an indigenous pro- 

 duct sanclalwood. The population of the colony was small 

 something under 40,000 souls and the wants of these were easily 

 supplied from the few fertile acres under cultivation. During the 

 decade immediately preceding the advent of self-government, the 

 area under cultivation decreased rather than increased. The long 

 period of stagnation its monotony, if broken at all, being only so 

 by an active period of retrogression which enveloped the Western 



