A7id Soils of Victoria, 



263 



the phosphates. Now, although volcanic rock, especially if 

 auglte predominate in its composition, may occasionally con- 

 tain a less proportionate quantity of the alkalis, or even of 

 the phosphates than some other rocks, yet, the greater 

 intensity of the disintegrating action generally observable in 

 soil derived from volcanic rock would often furnish so large 

 and continuous a supply of the chief inorganic constituents 

 required by cereal crops, as to render the renovation of the 

 soil, by disintegration still going on therein^ quite equivalent 

 to the abstraction of inorganic matter by incessant cereal 

 crops. In this way only can I account for the inexhaustible 

 soils already alluded to, at Prospect and lilawarra. 



But in Victoria we possess extensive tracts of land, not 

 yet brought under cultivation, whose soils seem to me to be 

 under precisely the same conditions of derivation and disin- 

 tegration as the soils of those favoured, but very limited 

 localities in New South Wales; and much of this land in 

 Victoria consists of well-grassed plains, easily brought under 

 cultivation. I admit that the soil in connexion with the 

 recent lava, north of Melbourne, is not always rich, but may 

 yet, on the whole, be pronounced so far good as to justify the 

 opinion I now venture to submit to you, that in Australia, 

 soils derived from the disintegration of volcanic rocks are 

 more generally fertile than those connected with aqueous or 

 plutonic rocks. 



As the available surface of Victoria embraces a much 

 greater extent of soil thus derived, than that of any other 

 Australian Colony, I have therefore concluded that the natural 

 advantages of Victoria, in reference to the extensive and 

 successful production of ordinary cereals, greatly preponderates 

 over those of her neighbours. 



In South Australia the only volcanic district worth noticing 

 is that around Mount Gambler on the confines of the colony. 

 In Tasmania volcanic rocks are more prevalent, but are very 

 frequently associated with steep densly wooded surfaces. In 

 New South Wales the sandstone of the central counties is, 

 in a few localities, displaced by trap dykes, as already me- 

 tioned ; in the northern part of that territory, the volcanic 

 rocks are mostly confined to densly wooded mountain ranges. 



But if the disintegration of volcanic rocks in Victoria has 

 rendered so much surface pre-eminently adapted for corn crops, 

 the disintegration of another class of rock very prevalent near 

 Melbourne, — clay slate, — ^has tended to produce much soil 

 that would prove, in the very highest degree, favourable not 

 only to the growth of the vine, but also to the production 

 of wines of very superior quality. 



