110 J. H. MAIDEN. 



As regards Merriwa Creek, the banks have broken down 

 and have carried the rich alluvial soil with them, as in 

 many other places. The soil of Merriwa appears to be sui 

 generis; it is of specially fine texture and hence can only 

 be used for crops with difficulty. At present we have very 

 few data enabling us to classify the soils of New South 

 Wales; in a few years no doubt we shall have a "soil-map" 

 of the State, and then it will be realized how valuable are 

 many areas along the Hunter River and its tributaries. 



III. The Situation — Denudation, 

 Coming to first principles, the beginning of streams and 

 floods with which we are concerned is : — 1. Rain falls more 

 or less on the land. 2. Some sinks into the ground. 3. 

 The balance drains away. 



Thus a single paddock may be an object lesson in regard 

 to forces at work in the whole of New South Wales, as I 

 will endeavour to show presently. I shall seek to prove 

 that our treatment of paddocks affords an illustration of 

 the truth of the ancient saying to the effect that — 



" Every act of man is the forerunner of a chain of consequences of 

 which no one can foresee the end." 



The natural forests on the rounded steep hills of the 

 Upper Hunter have in many cases been destroyed, and the 

 sheep and cattle tracks are everywhere in evidence, even 

 in the steepest places. At the present time (May), these 

 dry and dusty hills (near the source) are a pitiful sight, 

 brown, vegetationless (apparently) although the sheep and 

 stock looked well considering the season. 



The innumerable sheep tracks are accentuated, and the 

 ground everywhere is pulverised by the feet of the sheep 

 wandering after the scanty herbage. When the rain falls 

 much of this pulverised soil, carrying with it grass plants 

 (latent) and seed of grasses and various forage plants must 

 be washed into the creeks and again into the Hunter, 



