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finest flavour, abundant in quantity, and presses well. It is expected to become an article of export.

Gooseberries grow, but not encouragingly, except on the higher grounds.

Grapes, of every variety, are now produced in great plenty; and wine and brandy are becoming valuable exports, 150,000 gallons having been sent out in 1851.

Herbs; the common culinary herbs grow well; so also does watercress in the proper situations, together with garden-cress, lettuce, &c.

Hop this plant is now growing with a rapidity and luxuriance unknown in Europe; the flavour is excellent; the latest accounts from Illawara speak of its success on the brush lands of that district in the highest terms.

Loquats flourish well in gardens.

Lemons flourish remarkably, either as hedgerow bushes or standards. They have long been a very common tree in the colony: some orchards have even become worn out for some years, through neglect, after having arrived at perfection.

Mulberries are now becoming a most important article of plantation produce, as will be noticed in connection with silk. It is found that the tree flourishes everywhere throughout the colony.

Melons; this rich fruit is produced in the greatest abundance, even in the hottest parts, with no further attention than that of depositing the seeds in the ground under the open sky. Melons sometimes reach 20 lbs. and 24 lbs. in weight, and sell at from 6d. to 2s. each. About the more populous and long-settled districts their price is smallest, for scarcely any little cultivator neglects to throw in a few clusters of seed amongst his corn.

Mushrooms plentiful in South Australia; not so much so in the elder colony. The traveller, however, is sometimes surprised by coming on a damp morning upon some solitary spot, especially where horses frequent, and finding thousands, in their various stages, rising before him.

Maize and millet flourish luxuriantly in all ordinary seasons. There is generally a double crop to be brought in by the settler. The "for'ard corn," as it is called, is planted early, on land especially devoted to it for the year; the "late corn," or "stubble corn," as it is also called, is maize planted, after the wheat is reaped, amidst its stubble, sometimes without even burning the stubble. A single furrow is struck with the plough, or a single hole made with the hoe, and the seed just cast in and covered up. The stubble crop is of course not so good as the crop of "for'ard corn."

PLANTS THAT FLOURISH IN AUSTRALIA.

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Olive grows in all the milder districts. It is considered to be a tree of great promise. The attention of the colonists has lately been turned to the commercial value of the tree for the sake of its oil.

Orange; near Paramatta there are some very valuable plantations, furnishing large quantities of fruit to the Sydney market. An original owner and planter (a Mr. Mobbs) is said to have made a very considerable fortune from fruit in the course of a few years.

Onions grow very well wherever the ground affords an average quantity of moisture. About the Hawkesbury, and in Illawarra and the Curryjong, some splendid beds are often to be met with; as also at Bathurst, and in various parts of the new country.

Peas grow freely and produce abundantly throughout the colony. Peach, chiefly met with as a standard. Its yield is immense; so also is the comparative size of the fruit. The little settlers make intoxicating liquors (cider, brandy) from the produce of their peach-orchards ; many bring home whole drayloads together of the ripe windfalls to feed their pigs.

Potatoes grow freely throughout the colony; but not so well in the middle and northern districts as they do in the southern and interior. The Hawkesbury, Bathurst, Argyle, Illawarra produce this vegetable in perfection; and the potato disease, which has made such havoc elsewhere, is unknown.

Pineapples, pomegranates, plantains, pears, plums, all flourish in various localities: parsnips grow well enough in the less arid soils.

Quince is met with flourishing wherever it has been planted; but that is by no means extensively..

Rhubarb grows to an enormous size in the parts suitable to it.
Radishes, ditto.

Raspberries, on the hilly southern districts, are produced freely.
Strawberries, ditto.

Spinach, seakale, sweet potatoes, grow well on the soils and in the situations suitable to them.

Tobacco grows very well throughout the colony. It is a plant which requires, however, good soil and a sufficiency of moisture, as well as a tolerably genial climate. All the seacoast brushes, and all the interior alluvial soil on the river-banks, and the sides of the mountains where brushes originally grew, are most suitable.

Turnip; abundant during winter and spring in favourable situations, but very little cultivated. No field cultivation.

Walnut; but lately introduced; growing luxuriantly, but does not appear suited for all localities.

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Wheat; no finer wheat is grown in the world than some produced in Australia: samples shown at Mark-lane lately have been pronounced equal to any ever seen. Generally it is very good. It is a grain, however, which requires to be looked after to save it from the attacks of insects after ripening.

Yams; this very fine and productive vegetable requires good soil, but is well worth any such charge upon the cultivator's means and care.

Tools and Implements for a New Farm.

Common Australian falling-axe (forged only in the colony).-Mem: If the settler mean to work himself, with one labourer, he will need, of course, two axes; if with two labourers, three axes, and so on. They must be hafted and ground in the settlement. Heavy poll on at least one; each handle of different length; each axeman will find out his own. Morticing axe; two rather than one in all cases, for they are very apt to get spoiled.

Auger, inch, 1 inch, 11⁄2 inch.

Cross-cut saw, 6 feet plate at least; 7 feet better. Square teeth. Files for ditto, at least half a dozen; and saw set.

Maul, or, as termed in some parts of England, beetle. The rings will be forged by the smith at the settlement; the labourer must be able to put them on. Each man that works at splitting requires a maul. A few small iron wedges: make the blacksmith jag the edges so that, once in the wood, they will not come out again.

Set of splitting wedges.

Only one set is required.

Broad axe.

Generally, half a dozen go to one set.

Adze. Mem. All tools that require grinding may be ground at the settlement.

Spades for digging post holes—a peculiar sort; to be purchased at the company's stores. Also common spades.

Spud and pick; to be procured from blacksmith.

Hoes.

These also are a purely colonial article, 12 inches in the blade, strongly supported on the back, and with thoroughly substantial eye. The smallest settler should have at least four.

With these tools and implements a crop may be got in; without them, not, unless in a very blundering makeshift manner.

The larger settler will require all the above; he will also require many more, but how many, and what, will depend entirely on the extent of his operations.

PURCHASE OF LAND.

Furnishing a Bush Hut.

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The following are what a bachelor shepherd has to make shift with:

Bedding, which he must find himself. A hide stretched loosely over four posts driven in the ground makes an excellent bed, or couch.

Iron pots for meat.

Tin quart pots for tea.
Fryingpan.

Tin dishes.

Knives-pocket are generally used.

Flour or wheat.

Cask for salting meat.

Tables and stools, home made.

Buckets, at least a couple.`

Matches, or tinder-box, flint, and steel.

Stores for Farm.

The wheat involves a steel mill and sieves.

Meat, either salted and conveyed to the farm, or purchased standing and slaughtered.

Tea.
Coffee.

Sugar.
Salt.

Tobacco.
Soap.

men.

All these are indispensable, and required for the weekly rations of Each settler must adapt his further stock of stores to his circumstances. Large settlers will require slop clothing for their men ; little settlers will not. As a rule, do not ask the shopkeeper himself what goods you ought to give him an order for.

CHAPTER XXI.

HOW TO BUY OR LEASE LAND FROM THE CROWN-SHEEP RUNS-THE SHEPHERD'S LIFE-HUT KEEPER-LAMBING-SHEEP WASHING-SHEARING-PURCHASE OF SHEEP-DISEASES OF SHEEP-CATTLE AND BULLOCK TEAMS-DAIRY-STOCKMEN-BRANDING CATTLE-HORSE BREEDING-RIDING IN AUSTRALIA.

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AND in New South Wales and Victoria (Port Phillip), and South Australia, is divided into town, suburban, and country lots, and sold by auction. Country land is put up at a minimum price of £1 an acre, and, after having been once submitted to competition, may be sold by private contract at the minimum price. The lots of country land were formerly large-seldom less than 640 acres, except in South Australia, where they were 80 acres; but in 1851 instructions were sent out from the Colonial Office to survey and sell small lots of 30 and 50 acres in New South Wales. This order, so contrary to the previous policy of the home government, was brought about by the

almost total cessation of country sales, and the necessity of making some attempt to fix the colonists to the soil.

In New South Wales, and in Victoria, special surveys of twenty thousand acres may be obtained, at the fixed price of £20,000, without competition; and such an investment gives the purchaser a pre-emptive right and the privileges of pasture over 40,000 acres more. This system of special surveys, which is in every respect most mischievous, has been abolished in South Australia ever since the discovery of the Burra copper-mine, and it may be expected that the gold discoveries will lead to its suspension in the elder colonies.

In New South Wales and Victoria there is also a system of government reserves, which are a fruitful source of jobbery and discontent.

The intending land purchaser is continually told after selecting an eligible location—"that is, a government reserve;" and a government reserve it continues, until some favoured purchaser, well recommended from the home government, or otherwise, appears.

For instance, for many years, within ten miles of Melbourne, in the midst of land sold there remained two very eligible lots of fine agricultural land, of about 1,300 acres.

In 1849 the King of Prussia sent out two parties of German emigrants, well recommended to the governor, Mr. Latrobe; the representative of the King of Prussia, armed with a letter from Earl Grey, was permitted to search the archives of the surveyor-general's office, and select, at the minimum price of £1 an acre, the two reserves which had been improved in value by the labour of unpatronized colonists. In the very same year applications from associations of English mechanics to buy land in Port Phillip in block were contemptuously rejected.

But the whole system of land sales will no doubt shortly come under the revision of the representative assemblies of Australia, and important alterations may be anticipated, as colonists take a very different view of the question of colonial land from colonial ministers, who are also English landlords, owning land which has been cultivated for nigh one thousand years.

Squatters' runs beyond the proclaimed districts may be leased for fourteen years; within those districts they are held from year to year.

Sheep Runs.

The original rent for a run estimated to feed 4,000 sheep, or 640 cattle, is not less than £10, and £2 10s. per annum for every additional 1,000 sheep it will carry over 4,000, and also an annual poll-tax of 1d. for every lamb, 3d. for every beast, and 6d. for every horse: calves,

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