282 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Apri, 1902. 
Let no one suppose that there is any suggestion conveyed that objection- 
able species of plants are necessary; like any species of animal or vegetable 
life proposed for introduction, there is here the power of choice, which leads 
to the selection of the best of the classes. To sum up—New South Wales and 
Australia generally has been for 100 years, or nearly, trying to force old-world 
methods upon a new world, land, and climate. The process has partly killed 
the West, and created conditions which threaten to bury the land to the foot 
of the mountains. Old-world methods need not be totally ignored, nor should 
they be, but new are distinctly called for, or disaster to the whole country 
must follow. Make a new system for the West which will be distinctly Aus- 
tralian, conforming to Australian conditions. 
Drifting sand will contain vegetable remains, which, rotting in the region 
of moisture below the surface, will furnish food for dividing wind breaks or 
fences of the cactus-like growths before mentioned, placed at any distance 
from each other which may be decided on; put in the clear spaces or paddocks 
plants of the Mesembryacee, Portulacacee, Chenopodicee, and Acacia tribes of 
vegetation, with some of our own indigenous drought-resisting grasses, or 
those of America or elsewhere. We have the free choice, and from the world’s 
supply can pick the best of each order of vegetable life, and place there the 
best of the world’s animals which feed upon them, selected from the ruminants 
of Africa or any other country. 
PartTIcuLaRS oF PLAntTs. 
Cactacee.—There are 500 species of cacti; some are noxious and useless, 
but many make splendid fences or hedges and so break winds. Men and cattle 
can obtain moisture from many. 
Mesembryacee.—Mesembryanthemums furnish moisture. Seeds of JL 
ecrystallinum, M. geniculiflorwm, are ground into flour to make bread. JZ, 
edule yields a fruit which is eaten and called Hottentot fig. I. emarcidum 
(Kou of Hottentots) is rolled up, dried and chewed like tobacco ; all bring up 
moisture from below. 
Portulacacee, succulent class, furnishes a running weed, and some are 
bushes, like the spekboom of Africa, are foods for the elands and sheep ; are, 
in fact, excellent fodder plants, which send down roots through the sand for 
moisture. 
Chenopodiacee include our salt-bushes of all kinds, and the African kanna 
bosch or elands’ food plant, all-round fodder plants, and accustomed to heat 
and dry country. 
Leguminosae, suborder Mimose-Acacia, our dry country wattles and scrubs, 
all of which are the elands’ and other African antelopes’ foods, as well as being 
valuable for other purposes. 
Here is foreshadowed a new industry growing out of necessity. Nothing 
is wanted but resolute action. There is no doubt whatever to suppose other 
than that should the dry seasons now prevailing change to a humid time it will 
be followed by a still worse drought at no distant date, by reason of the 
denudation of timber and the clear sweep the dry winds have of the country. 
Therefore, use the first fair sign of a coming wet time to give a start to the new 
order of things. Australia need have no deserts, because there is some rainfall, 
however little, everywhere and at one time or another. Nor need there be any 
obstruction to settlement on good country because of the existence of what are 
called impassable stock-routes, if succulent, drought-resisting plants are put 
down in good or fair seasons, and the avaricious wish to feed off to extinction 
is prevented when they appear above ground. The more especially if a new 
animal be added to our list of stock, as recommended in the paper, “ Elands for 
the Western districts of New South Wales and Central Australia,’ which 
which appeared in the May number of this Gazette. 
a 
