And ^oils of Victoria. 



261 



largest proportionate extent of land adapted for agriculture, 

 and partly in consequence of the geological and chemical 

 influences that have either tended to render much of the best 

 soil here capable of withstanding, without renovation for 

 a long series of years, the most severe cropping, or else 

 established a condition of soil most favourable for the produc- 

 tion of wine of superior quality. 



For^ a considerable period, Victoria, notwithstanding the 

 gold discoveries, has been supposed to offer less inducements 

 for the settlement of bona fide working farmers than some of 

 the other colonies, more especially South Australia; and I 

 believe that the great extension of agriculture in that pro- 

 vince has resulted less from the fertility of the land, and the 

 facility of its acquirement in small sections, than from the 

 numerous class of agriculturists, with small capital, who have 

 been attracted to South Australia in consequence of the 

 superior advantages it has been supposed to offer to small 

 farmers. 



The most remarkable characteristic of the physical confi- 

 guration of this colony, when compared with that of any 

 other Australian colony, is the great prevalence here of 

 volcanic rocks and clay slates. Sir Charles Lyell has noticed 

 the general fertility of soil produced from the disintegration 

 of volcanic rocks, but in Australia the fertility of soil thus 

 produced has often been found most extraordinary. For 

 instance, in New South Wales at Prospect Hills, where a 

 small dyke of trap traverses the sandstone, some of the soil 

 derived from the trap was brought into cultivation before the 

 close of the last century, and has ever since given good crops 

 without manuring ; yet this land does not display any symp- 

 toms of exhaustion. On the trap formation at lUawarra, I 

 have heard of sixteen successive crops of wheat, having been 

 taken off the same piece of ground, without the last crops 

 having exhibited any falling oflj as regards quantity or 

 quality. Even the natural vegetation on soil derived from 

 volcanic rock in Australia, is, almost constantly, more luxu- 

 riant than on other soils. This is especially noticeable in the 

 Blue Mountains, wherever the thick stratum of sandstone is 

 displaced by dykes of trap; thus on the basaltic slopes of 

 Mount Hay are found enormous trees, ferns, and luxuriant 

 creepers, whilst all the surrounding mountain ranges and 

 gullies, are only partially clothed with low scrubs. There is 

 also a sudden and startling change on entering the trap for- 

 mation at lUawarra, from stunted eucalyptus and low bushes 

 to lofty palm groves and semi-tropical vegetation. In this 



