229 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
having drawn in that direction much of that energy 
which it would have been better for the country to 
have divided between the two most important, branches 
of industry, namely, the pastoial and the agricultural. 
The gold discoveries must also be added to the list of 
retarding causes, for it not only upset the. labour 
market at the time, but has ever since continued to 
keep wages up to a fictitious standard, henefitting no 
one but helping to rnin the country. Here again the 
pastoral interest had this advantage over the agricul¬ 
tural, that while the latter had to compete in the 
market with an article that could he easily brought to 
our doors in ships, and sold at a less price than it cost 
him to produce, whilst the former was recompensed for 
the increased cost of his labour and other appliances by 
a corresponding increase in the price obtained tor his 
beef and mutton. Of course such a state of matters no 
foresight could have prevented, and the consequence has 
been a still greater withdrawal of enterprise from 
agriculture. 
Next and perhaps chief on the list of drawbacks has 
been an unwise system of surveying and laying out the 
public lands for sale. This system so long pursued had 
a tendency to disperse rather than to concentrate the 
agricultural population of the country. Concentration 
for many reasons, is a necessary concomitant of the 
improvement and success of the husbandry, of a 
country. One of the reasons for such a companiopship 
I will explain by a quotation from a well-known living 
agricultural essayist, who says:—“The advancement 
of art is mainly promoted by emulation; and correct 
principles are deduced from comparison; but emulation 
and comparison aro alike shut ont when the mere phy¬ 
sical impediment of distance arrests the habitual opera¬ 
tion of the perceptive faculties, and consequently 
deadens the activity of the mind. We are. even in the 
present dav familiar with the fact, that the most un¬ 
questionable improvements and recommendations arc 
frequently met with denials of their applicability to 
this and that particular soil and district, which if re¬ 
spectively true would, in the aggregate, negative them 
upon all; and the most injudicious practices are on the 
other hand defended, upon the score of local suitability, 
on soils of the most opposite description. And this 
very common cause of retarded improvement will 
have been generally found to operate more powerfully 
according as population was more thinly scattered.” 
This/easoning cannot be gainsaid as regards any branch 
of art, but applies in the strongest degree to the art of 
the husbandman. 
But a still greater and far more convincing reason 
for the concentration of an agricultural population is to 
he found, and is, from our circumstances, brought more 
immediately under our notice in this country. That is 
the necessity for combined action in many works for 
the common weal, such as the formation of roads, 
drainage, aud most of all in this country, engineering 
works for irrigation, needed to'counteract the injury to 
which crops are liable from drought. Where half a- 
dozen farms are situated, say at a point twenty miles 
from a market, the combined efforts of these would not 
suffice to form the most wretched road, while if 500 
existed a railroad would be made for their convenience 
without any difficulty, and so in every other respect the 
larger number would individually have the advantage 
over the smaller, while the few would not he able to 
secure the services of a common blacksmith to repair 
their ploughshares; the many would be surrounded 
with everything required in the pursuit, from the 
itinerant match seller up to the most talented mechanist 
and the professional man, to say nothing of churches, 
schools, and all the other appliances and comforts at¬ 
tendant upon a forward and advancing state of society. 
I had intended to have illustrated this view of the 
subject somewhat further, and draw comparisons be¬ 
tween the various Australian colonies, but find that my 
remarks have already reached a greater length than 
perhaps in a meeting of this kind they ought, I will 
therefore conclude by promising to continue the subject 
in future papers, and with thanking you for the kind 
manner in which you have listened to, I fear, my very 
imperfect treatment of the subject in hand. 
C LI AN THUS DAMPIEMI. 
From the very numerous enquiries re¬ 
specting the culture of this magnificent 
shrub, since its appearance at the exhi¬ 
bition of this Society on Thursday last, 
I am led to offer these few remarks with 
a view to assist intending cultivators of 
this truly beautiful flower to a successful 
issue. 
In the early part of last year (1857) 
Mr. Francis, of the Adelaide Botanic Gar¬ 
dens, kindly forwarded to the Darling 
Nursery a small packet, of the seed of the 
plant in question : from this plant I suc¬ 
ceeded in establishing twelve plants, in 
pots of various sizes, with varied soils 
and drainage. These plants were sub¬ 
jected to various kinds of treatment, some 
being nursed in the hot-house, others in the 
plant pit, others again in the cold frame 
and lastly, some in the usual plant shed. 
The twelve plants in a few weeks dwin¬ 
dled down to two ; and, as a last effort, 
I planted these out in a border which had 
been recently' deeply trenched : the one 
receiving a regular supply of water, ma¬ 
nure, and every attention, the other being 
left destitute "of either, trusting entirely 
to a poor, dry, sandy soil, for support. 
Both plants have survived—but, strange 
to say, the former, which had been nursed 
with every care, continues a poor, ill- 
grown, stunted plant, whilst the latter 
grew most luxuriantly, and now forms a 
trailing shrub of live feet in diameter, 
from wbicb the specimen exhibited on 
Thursday last was taken. I may here 
mention that the two plants which sur¬ 
vived in pots were those which had the 
lightest soil and the greatest amount of 
drainage, and were growing in eight-inch 
pots. 
From the foregoing facts, I would re¬ 
commend that to cultivate the Cliantlius 
Dampierii successfully, young plants 
should not be planted out till October; 
that the soil should be of a poor, sandy 
nature, with a little leaf-mould added, and 
well drained. The drainage appears to me 
to be the most important feature in the 
cultivation of this plant; and I am of 
opinion that it will he greatly assisted by 
raising a small mound of earth on the 
spot where the plant is to be grown. In 
