CHAPTER XLVII 



THE KNELL OF THE SQUATTER 



There are countries where the soil is so barren that it 

 cannot produce root-crops, though the grass may be 

 nutritious and abundant, or may be sufficient in its 

 season. Such were, and are, the major portion of 

 Arabia and the valley of the Jordan, and no small part 

 of Central Asia. The bulk of the Transvaal and, 

 indeed, of all South Africa is well-suited to cattle- 

 raising, but wheat, oats, and barley are exiguous. Large 

 portions of Australia and New Zealand lie under a like 

 disability or enjoy a like privilege. Extensive tracts 

 of the Canterbury Plains in New Zealand, shaved bare 

 by glaciers in the ice-age, and the foot-hills above them, 

 are too light or too rocky to be suited to agriculture, 

 but on them the finest breeds of sheep thrive. The 

 great Western Division of New South Wales is in summer 

 a mere tract of blowing dust, but for six or eight 

 months of the year it can at least rear sheep. In such 

 countries no conflict between pastoralist and agricul- 

 turist can arise ; they remain for ever dedicated to 

 the peaceful pursuits of the pastoral life. 



It is otherwise with the rich straths, the alluvial 

 tracts, the volcanic patches, the valleys and the plateaus 

 enriched by the decayed foliage of a hundred thousand 

 vegetal generations. At the epoch of colonisation 

 they are covered with scrub, with bush, with forest, and 

 while they so remain, they are the home of sheep, which 

 graze in the intermediate pastures, or of cattle, which 

 fatten on the succulent leaves or twigs. So long as 



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