following are the requisites grassy plains, or well-grassed of neither swampy in the wet season of a good supply of water in th sufficient timber growing on building and fencing, and, if possi from your nearest neighbour n seven or eight miles.

Immediately you have selected apply to the Commissioners of Lands for a depasturing lease, descr application as nearly as possible the

of

your run, and the number of s you claim. This will secure your months, and afterwards you mus annual license of £10; and, in additi yearly tax on all stock at your station, penny a-head for sheep, three half cattle, and three pence for horses. be careful not to lay out your run o tensive a scale, as before you get you two persons—one appointed by the gove

ou a good run. T quisites: Wellwa

and one nomir

your run for si

must pay addition, a hal tion, of a half halfpence fir

5. You must

un on too exyour license

government,

run, and if they report it capable of supportin more than 4,000 sheep, or a proportiona number of cattle, then you will have to p an increased annual sum of £2 10s. for eve extra thousand the run is adjudged to suppo though you have them not. The license w give you a right to the run and to the p emption of it should you desire it. It al confers the privilege during your occupan to purchase 160 acres of crown land at t upset price of £1 per acre, you paying t expenses of the survey, or the Governme bearing the expense on your purchasing 31

acres.

S 2

CHAPTER XIV.

Sheep Farms-Life in the Bush-Boil Stock-Religious Denominations-The Revenue.

PREVIOUS to the gold discoveries, 1 Wales was essentially a pastoral Henceforth, gold will, as a staple ex bably exceed that of wool; but the interests, although for a period must, after the subsidence of the gol again flourish and advance: theref present is a favourable time to commenc farming. The rush to the diggings has a scarcity of labour, and so depressed th

IV.

-Boiling down f
-The Population-

ries, New South

storal country

Le export, pro the pastoral od deranged gold mania,

erefore, the hence sheep has induced d the value

the

of stock, that £500 well laid out in sheep
cattle, would in a few years return a fortune
possessor. The profits on sheep-farmin
average from 20 to 30 per cent. The occ
pation is precarious-and except that of go
digging, requires more skill, toil, attention a
good luck, than any other colonial pursu
The fleece of an Australian sheep averages
weight from 24 lbs. to 4 lbs., but mu
depends on the pasture. Sheep depastured
a soil too rich, or too sandy, have their tee
quickly worn away, and if not then consign
to the butcher, die of inanition. The lar
Leicestershire breed of sheep in Australia yi
a clip of 6 lbs. or 7 lbs. of wool, but t
finest wool is obtained from the small Saxon
breed.

The wool growers' greatest enemies are t catarrah; the scab; the foot-rot, caused marshy runs; the native dog, and bad servan Cattle and horse breeding is a less speculativ and, therefore, in the aggregate, a more profital occupation than that of sheep-farming. Pi

I, however, have not the space to di matters, which indeed have alread phically detailed in numerous Wo Australian colonies.

The wild life of a bushman p charms to tempt the cockney, dwellin and enjoying the luxuries of civil desert the quill and the ledger for the crook. True, the wealthy squatter, w to procure shepherds and stockmen to fast increasing flocks and herds, and want of a better paying beef and market, are consigned by hundreds melting-pot, may, for the best of pocket reasons, indite flaming epistle friends in Britain, describing the A bush as a terrestrial paradise, whe pleasure and plenty hold their court. this same individual be, as is the case w shepherd, confined to the bush for a month round, and, during that tim scarcely a person but his chum, the hut-k