Land Improvement in Australia. 
161 
should a soluble phosphate, like phosphate of soda, or an insoluble 
one, like powdered phosphate of lime, be introduced into milk after 
milking, such an admixture can be readily detected, since the normal 
proportion of soluble or insoluble phosphates must be thereby 
disturbed. The normal proportion of ash in milk (0 - 75 per cent.) 
is in fact more constant than that of any other constituent, and 
furnishes one of the most valuable criteria of genuineness. 
J. M. H. Munro. 
LAND IMPROVEMENT IN AUSTRALIA. 
A very interesting paper by Mr. Pell, on the “ Making of the Land 
in England,” in this Journal (Vol. XXIII., 2nd Series, Part II., 
1887), was recalled forcibly to my mind, during a recent visit to 
Australia, by some of the processes of making the land, the results 
of which I witnessed there. The building up of the productive and 
useful state of the land is the same in the new countries as it is in 
the old, but it is done much more rapidly, owing to the general use 
of improved implements and means of locomotion, such as were not 
available in the early days of making the land in England. I do 
not allude here to the vast extent of pastoral land, though it also 
has been improved and cleared and fenced to make it fit for cattle 
and sheep. It was the rich land of part of the Western District of 
Victoria that particularly came under my notice, and it is a stretch 
of fine land, originally subject to flood but now reclaimed, that I 
wish to describe. 
When the land was purchased about the year 1850 it was covered 
with timber and dense scrub — scrub and undergrowth generally 
thriving with the luxuriance due to a warm climate and plenty of 
moisture, for there is an abundant rainfall near the sea in this part of 
Victoria. Roughly speaking, there were about 7,000 acres, extend- 
ing in an irregular way for four or five miles on either side of a 
small river. This river meandered about with a very slight fall, 
and frequently covered all the neighbouring low land with its 
waters, the result being that the best of the land was a deep swamp. 
The first thing to be done was to get the water away, and this 
was effected by straightening the course of the river, and making a 
deep cut through an ancient flow of lava that had extended itself 
between the river and its outlet to the sea. The very considerable 
expenditure this entailed was recouped by rendering available for 
rough pasture about 3,000 acres that had previously been swamp 
covered with grass, reeds, and water-plants. The dense vegetation 
was removed by burning and the finer grasses were encouraged, but 
much still remained to be done. An old settler, writing to me, thus 
described the appearance of the land at that period : “ Covered 
with heavy timber in places, and in others with tremendous scrub, 
its condition was such that the hardiest sons of toil hesitated to 
VOL. IV. T. S. — 13 M 
