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by the dairyman. But how easy it is to supplement them with cultivated 
fodders. .There, not only can ample provisions of hay and ensilage be made 
for any emergency, but green fodder can be had the whole year through. 
Instead of the five or six months of winter and snow of the North American 
farmer, the Western Queenslander can grow, the whole winter through, wheat, 
oats, barley, rape, cabbages, sugar and silver beets, mangel-wurzels, prairie grass, 
-&¢e.; and in summer, maize, Kaffir corn, Jerusalem and Himalaya corns, 
sorghum, pearl and broom millets, imphee or farmers’ friend, Setaria germanica 
or panicum (of this latter he may take three crops off the same land ina 
summer, if he chooses to do so), and, above all these, sweet potatoes, the vines 
-and tubers of which are amongst the best things a farmer can grow for 
himself, and for his cattle, horses, and pigs. 
In regard to pigs, space does not allow the writer to express to-day all the 
good things he thinks of that most useful and most calumniated animal, 
True, the pig is somewhat of a materialist; he likes a good dinner six times a 
day—without whisky, though. But he is such a genial, good fellow; so 
thankful for the care bestowed upon him; so fond of a good bath and 
cleanliness when available to him; and above all he is such a magnificent 
money-coining machine. Through him all the products, nay, all the waste, of. 
the Hee can be turned into a currency in demand in all the markets of the 
world. 
There are also in the whole of the West numerous and extensive areas of 
serub and other lands perfectly adapted for poultry-farming, bee-keeping, 
fruit-growing, and especially vine-growing. If it is not the fatherland, it is at: 
least the favourite adopted country of the vine, the crop of which has never 
been known to fail during the quarter of a century of its cultivation there. 
There are, of course, some drawbacks there, too, and itis well that it be so. 
History shows us that the great nations of the world are not those living in 
countries where Nature pours her gifts on man without requiring from en 
some exertionin return. It might even be remarked that the climatic con- 
‘ditions are here so much more favourable, the soils so much more fertile, 
communications so much easier, and social security and order so superior to 
what they were in the early days of the American colonisation of the west, 
that it is a question whether the healthy principle of the survival of the fittest 
~will be rigidly applied. It may be feared that many weaklings will survive, 
who, in all justice, ought to have been weeded out. In any case, there are 
hardly any drawbacks which could not be overcome by co-operation and 
combination amongst farmers themselves. 
And let it be remarked, in conclusion, that the West of Queensland has 
no more than the East or the North of the colony to fear the effects of 
impending federation and intercolonial freetrade. All the above enumerated 
pee are eminently fit for exportation as well as for home consumption. 
Vhilst not a single Queensland farmer will go to the southern colonies, 
thousands will come here from the south. They will avail themselves of the 
virgin nature and greater fertility of our soils, of the comparative earliness of 
-our seasons, of the immense extent and variety of our territory, and, let it be 
hoped, of the very liberal terms of ovr land Jaws. They will not only grow 
here with us the products necessary for the consumption of Queensland and 
Australia, but, working with us hand in hand, they will help us to force our 
way into the markets of the world, and take there a footing undreamed of at 
present by the most sanguine Queenslanders. 
