A great deal of watering and hoeing will, however, be saved if mulch is used as already advised. The importance of mulching cannot be over-estimated. Almost anything will do-stable-manure, grass, or litter of any kind, provided it can be easily and conveniently placed around the plants. Mulching prevents the ground from baking after watering, and so saves hoeing; and it also helps to arrest evaporation, thus saving watering; and also it tends to keep the temperature of the surface soil equable, and so tends to promote healthy and vigorous root-action. I confidently recommend mulching for any kind of vegetable crops which require transplanting, and am sure that the grower who tries it once will never give it up again so long as he aims to get the best possible results from his work with as little labour as possible.

SHEEP-BREEDING ON THE DARLING DOWNS.

EAST TALGAI-HENDON.

WHEN the enterprising pioneers of the pastoral industry in Queensland left the mother colony in search of fresh fields and pastures new, they at once directed their steps towards the then newly-discovered Darling Downs. Bringing their flocks and their herds with them, they travelled through New England, then a settled district, and spread over the eastern portion of the Downs from Warwick to Toowoomba, the country farther to the west and at a distance from the Main Range being gradually absorbed, until within a very few years nearly the whole of what is now known as the Darling Downs was taken up and more or less stocked.

The country was then purely pastoral. There was, to begin with, but a scanty population, and it was almost universally supposed that the agricultural capabilities of the district were nil.

On the other hand, in spite of initial difficulties and the usual ups and downs of pioneering life, the squatters did well on the whole; fortunes were made and lost again. When the western portions of the colony began to be taken up, there was a brisk demand for all classes of stock, especially breeding sheep, large lines of flock maiden ewes being sold for stocking the Western runs at £1 per head and upwards. The runs were then all held as squattages. For miles the country lay open without a fence, and for many years sheep were shepherded, the present almost universal system of paddocking being unknown.

All this is now changed. The agricultural capabilities of the district have been gradually discovered and developed. Legislation has prepared the way for close settlement with a rural population, the old squattages have been long ago broken up, and though sheep-raising is still one of the most important, if not the staple, industry of the Darling Downs taken as a whole, yet it is now universally acknowledged that, in a large portion of the district. and on freehold land worth from £2 to £6 and more per acre, wool-growing pure and simple will no longer pay.

The pastoralist must give way to the agriculturist, or he must perforce become more or less of an agriculturist himself. He must combine farming with stock-raising, and develop to the fullest extent the capacities of his country. Recognising this fact, many large freeholders have within the past few years rendered the greater portions of their properties available for close settlement either by cutting them up themselves or by selling to the Government under the provisions of " The Agricultural Lands Purchase Acts of 1894 and 1897." Whether, in time, the pastoralist will altogether give place to the agriculturist with small holdings, time alone will show; but it would seem that even in the most thickly-settled and richest farming districts on the Darling Downs, comparatively large properties are likely to remain in the hands of some of the present proprietors, and that they can be worked by them at a fair

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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. expense are spared to keep the sheep up to a high standard of excellence. No pains or The company have kept to the original East Talgai blood, but this year a very high-class son of the noted Tasmanian ram annual sales in Sydney for 510 guineas. President" was purchased at the

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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 is 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.