:?36 THE AGBICULTUBAL JOURNAL. 



There was a very good review at Flem- 

 ington Race Course of about 10,000 Vol- 

 unteeis, and 5,000 Cadets, 



The Children's Fete was one of the best 

 things heie, thousands of them singing 

 and dancing. There were twelve xilay- 

 Pole Dances going on at one time, each in 

 different r;ostume. The Flower Dance 

 was very pretty, some hundreds of girls 

 e'\ch with either a bouquet, or arch of 

 flowers, dancing and singing. 



The Premier of Tasmania has arranged 

 a very nice tour through that Island for 

 us, which will occupy all next week. 



We have been invited to a re(;eption at 

 Government House to meet the Duke and 

 Duchess, ard are to dine with them on 

 Monday. 



TASMANIA. 



We retarned to Melbourne from Tas- 

 mania on the 19th May. Mr. Lewis, the 

 Premier, *^he Hon Mr. Henry, and others, 

 were very kind to us. We left here on 

 Tuesday morning in the "Penguin," a 

 small steamer of about 200 tons, and re: 

 turned on the " Googee," about the same 

 size. The vnw across takes about 20 hours, 

 and is generally very rough, something 

 like crossing the English Channel. Many 

 wli;) are never ill on an ocean steamer 

 have a very b.id time. It certainly is not 

 enjoyable. 



We arrived at Burnie early in the 

 morning, and went along the c.^ast about 

 two hours to Devenport, a nice little har- 

 bour on the Mersey River. 



Before descriljing Tasmania, I may say 

 that it seemed so funny to us to find so 

 many Brilish names jumbled together. 

 De Wet's rapid movements were not in 

 it with us. One moment we were in 

 Epping Forest, the next few minutes at 

 Ross, then at Tunbridge Wells, soon after 

 at Glen Orchy, and so on. All the 

 counties are also called after British 

 counties in the same way— towns, rivers 

 and counties, awfully mixed up. 



At Devenport young Mr. Henny met us 

 and diove us inland to a place called 

 Sliellield, about 15 miles iu the heart of 

 the potato country. Like most of Aus- 

 tralia it is nearly all wooded, anil there 

 are some very large blue gum tree?. I 

 fear most of our farmers would 1 jok a 

 long time at this country before taking 

 it up for agriculture. The large trees 



have first to be ringed, then all the 

 smaller scrub cut down and left to dry. 

 This is then all burnt. All the big timber 

 remains dry and charred, and the land 

 between is either sown with grass 

 or ploughed. Very heavy crops of potatoes 

 are at first grown on this land, from 10 to 

 15 tons per acre, gradually dwindling 

 down to three to four tons, and plenty of 

 bone dust has to be put on. We saw 

 potatoes everywhere, thousands of sacks. 

 The price this season is considered very 

 good, £3 to £4 per ton, often they are 

 from £1 to £2. A lot of money must be 

 expended on all land in Tasmania before 

 getting a crop. One man told me he lost 

 £30 last year on 12 acres of potatoes he 

 put in. From what I could gather, it 

 generally cost about £3 an acre to culti- 

 vaoe, and if the produce was only three 

 or four tons of potatoes at low prices they 

 olten lost money. Wheat, they say, does 

 not pay to grow, 20 to 25 bushels to the 

 acre at about 2s. (kl. per bushel. The 

 holding.- towards Sheffield are nearly all 

 smdl, a few humlred acres or less. Good 

 land about there was fetching up to £15 

 an acre— that was laud fit to plough. To 

 entirely clear the land would cost £20 to 

 £30 ill some places. These ringed trees 

 stand for 25 to 30 years, great white 

 ghosts. The branches gradually fall and 

 are burnt. 



All over Tasmania the land seems very 

 putchy. For miles the land is poor and 

 has not been cleared, then one comes to 

 a part all taken up and every acre culti- 

 vated. Some parts that have been entirely 

 cleared are just like England itself, 

 cattle, horses, sheep, fences, crops, every- 

 thing the same. Then one comes to bush 

 land, quite a transformation scene. From 

 Sheffield we continued our drive to 

 Railton, where we joined the railway to 

 Launcestown. It was on this road we 

 saw rabl)its for the first time, certainly 

 plenty of them. There seem to be three 

 pests — rabbits, sparrows, and blackberries, 

 all imported. It seems that a man of the 

 name of Fenton imported three black- 

 berry plants ; one died, and the other two 

 were carefully tended; now the plantlis ob- 

 taining possession of hundred of acres, 

 nothing will kill it, the soil being mostly 

 of a sandy nature seems just to suit it. 

 Then it affords splendid cover for rabbits 

 and sparrows, and the three together are 



