16 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Jan., 1899. 
profit. Such properties, consisting of from, say, 5,000 to 20,000 or 30,000 
acres, are now and no doubt will more and more continue to be managed on 
mixed farming lines. In most cases a good deal of cultivation is carried on, 
sometimes almost entirely in connection with stock-raising, either as feed for 
stud stock or for fattening purposes. In others, the agricultural operations 
are of considerable magnitude and are a source of direct profit. 
The Darling Downs has been from the start, and still is, the home of the 
principal stud flocks and of several of the principal stud herds of cattle in 
Queensland. The district is more adapted for stud-breeding than the purely 
pastoral country of Western and Central Queensland ; the seasons are more 
reliable ; there is less risk of losing valuable stock from periodical droughts ; 
and moreover it is, without doubt, the finest residential district in Queensland. 
Taking the above into consideration with the fact that there should be, in 
Western Queensland, a practically unlimited market for rams and bulls, it is 
very unlikely that the stud-breeders of the Downs will be altogether crowded 
out by close settlement. 
Our illustrations in this number are from photographs taken lately by Mr. 
F.C. Wills, artist to the Department of Agriculture, at two typical stud sheep 
properties, East Talgai and Talgai West. ‘These were originally one freehold 
of about 32,000 acres, but some few years ago, wishing to reduce the size of 
the property, Mr. Clark sold about 23,000 acres, now known as Talgai West, 
to the Scottish Australian Investment Company, who also purchased a portion 
of the stud flock. This property, under the able management of Mr. Aubin 
Dowling, is carried on as a stud-breeding establishment from which the 
company supply their large Western properties with rams. No pains or 
expense are spared to keep the sheep up to a high standard of excellence. 
The company have kept to the original East Talgai blood, but this year a very 
high-class son of the noted Tasmanian ram “ President’’ was purchased at the 
annual sales in Sydney for 510 guineas. 
Besides the stud sheep, Mr. Dowling has lately started a dairy herd 
with imported stock from the Illawarra district, in New South Wales. There 
is a small creamery at the head station, with cowyards, piggeries, &c., 
put up in the most approved style; and at a short distance from the homestead 
1s a dairy farm, with cottage and all improvements necessary for working 
same, which has been taken by a tenant on the share system. It is proposed 
to let several other dairy farms in this way. 
Several hundred acres have also been let to tenants as wheat farmers on 
shares, and, besides the cultivation required for the stud sheep and dairy cattle, 
Mr. Dowling has tried a little cultivation for profit. 
East Talgai, the residence of Mr. George C. Clark, and formerly of his 
father, Mr. George Clark, being only a small but choice property of 9,000 acres, is 
worked almost entirely as a stud farm, everything else being subservient to the 
stud sheep. About 700 head of cattle are kept, mostly fattening steers, for 
the purpose of eating off the rough grass, and the country is kept considerably 
understocked with sheep. It is subdivided into numerous paddocks, watered 
principally by wells and windmills, as, although Dalrymple Creek runs right 
through the property, the losses of valuable stock from bogging caused so 
much annoyance that it was considered better to water the stock in this way, 
and fence off the creek. About 500 acres of land are kept under cultivation, 
part laid down in lucerne, and part sown annually with Cape barley; other 
crops, such as pumpkins and mangolds, are also grown for the stud sheep, and 
a good supply of hay is always kept in reserve. 
Most of the flock rams bred at East Talgai are taken for Western 
Queensland stations, and, besides the annual draft of flock rams, Mr. Clark 
sends small lots of high-class sheep for sale to the Sydney Ram Fair, and to 
the annual shows now held at Longreach and Hughenden. Being also an 
exhibitor at the above-mentioned places and at the shows at Toowoomba and 
Brisbane, a certain number of the choicest sheep intended for show and sale 
are always hand-fed during about six months of the year. 
