LONELY AUSTRALIA: THE UNIQUE CONTINENT 



541 



ooo cattle from starvation and thirst. 

 Mining operations were checked for lack 

 of water. The wheat production fell in 

 one year from 38,000,000 bushels to 12,- 

 000,000 bushels, and flour, as well as 

 other foodstuffs, were imported. Many 

 people left the country, the excess of 

 departures over arrivals for the period 

 1 901 -1 905 being 16,800. The birth rate 

 decreased ; the death rate increased so 

 that the increase in population dropped 

 to 1.38 per cent, the lowest in the history 

 of the country. 



Nothing shows better the temper of the 

 Australians and the marvelous recupera- 

 tive power of soil and stock than the 

 rapid recovery from this overpowering 

 disaster. During the drought "the black- 

 soil plains of the Darling were reduced 

 to dust, without vestiges of herbage for 

 miles. Within a week they were covered 

 with green, and in a few weeks there was 

 luxurious pasturage." 



In the year following the drought 74,- 

 000,000 bushels of wheat were harvested, 

 and the fields of New South Wales, 

 which had returned about two bushels to 

 the acre in 1902, returned 15 to 17 bushels 

 per acre in 1903. Within three years the 

 flocks of this State, which had lost 17,- 

 000,000 head during the drought, had in- 

 creased from 23,000,000 to 40,000,000, 

 and the number of cattle and horses had 

 doubled ; and by 1905 the number of 

 sheep and of cattle in the Commonwealth 

 exceeded that of 1900. 



THE RABBIT PEST 



The Australian farmer and ranchman 

 originally had little to contend with in 

 the way of native prolific weeds and pred- 

 atory animals ; but, unfortunately, Aus- 

 tralia, like the United States, has suffered 

 from misguided efforts to introduce new 

 species of plants and animals. The cactus 

 finds a congenial home. Its myriad seeds 

 are spread by birds, by wind, and through 

 the involuntary efforts of cattle and 

 sheep. It plays the part of the Russian 

 thistle on our western plains, and, thriv- 

 ing as it does in most any soil and climate, 

 has so far defied the efforts of the bush- 

 man who by ingenious systems of burn- 

 ing, burying in pits and poisoning, have 

 courageously attacked the pest. 



Foxes and also rabbits have been intro- 



duced, for the transplanted English 

 squire must have his sport, and the hunt- 

 ing of kangaroos and wallabies and wom- 

 bats furnish about the same excitement 

 as killing a herd of defenseless buffalo or 

 cornering woodchucks on a New England 

 farm. Foxes have outlived their useful- 

 ness ; they take an annual toll of about 

 100,000 sheep, and are now more dreaded 

 than the dingo. 



Likewise the enthusiasm with which 

 the harmless-looking rabbits were turned 

 loose has been replaced by sincere regret. 

 The joyous sport of "hunting the hare" 

 has become the discouraging and expen- 

 sive task of exterminating "vermin." 

 Within a few years after their introduc- 

 tion rabbits were overrunning the coun- 

 try. They appropriated the forage for 

 sheep and cattle and threatened the ex- 

 termination of the native fauna because 

 of the loss of its food supply. Like 

 swarms of locusts, they swept parts of 

 the country clean of vegetation, destroy- 

 ing the bushes and eating the grass down 

 to its roots. Not only were the agricul- 

 tural lands and sheep "runs" infested, but 

 vacant land in the suburbs of the cities 

 was honeycombed by these industrious 

 little miners. 



MORE THAN 100,000 MILES OE WIRE 

 FENCES BUIET TO CHECK RABBITS 



Liberal bounties and wholesale poison- 

 ing and hunting with packs of tamed 

 dingos failed to check the spread of the 

 remarkably prolific beast. Hundreds of 

 thousands were killed, but millions were 

 born each year. There was some hope 

 that a severe drought might exterminate 

 them or at least deplete their numbers to 

 the point where a vigorous attack might 

 be successful. It was found, however, 

 that though during droughts their corpses 

 were thickly strewn over "back blocks" 

 and along dry water-courses, they quickly 

 reappeared with the coming of the rains. 

 The introduction of parasites was also 

 without result, and it seemed for a time as 

 if agriculture and grazing were doomed 

 over large parts of the continent. 



As a last resort, the scheme of fences, 

 which gives to an Australian land map 

 such an unusual appearance, was devised. 

 As described in the South Australian Act 

 of 1914, the "rabbit-proof fence" is made 



