Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/70

 is a splendid chocolate loam, like that of its rival, York, producing wheat crops of from eighteen to thirty bushels to the acre. I explored the district under the intelligent ciceronage of Mr. Madden, the local manager of the National Bank of Australasia, which in other directions has prominently associated itself with the rising fortunes of Western Australia. From observations I made, farming in the Northam district is some­ thing more than a profitable pursuit, the advent of railway communication and the establishment of roller mills having given an immense spurt to wheat production, where formerly grazing predominated in connection with a very old-fashioned style of agriculture. Where wheat was grown in the old times an exhaustive method of continuous cropping was resorted to, whereas now a rotative and fallowing system, accompanied even by some rudimentary manuring, is beginning to prevail. What with the railway, and what with responsible government, a new spirit possesses the people, the colony, to use Mr. Madden's expressive phraseology, having virtually been "born again, after the bad start it made in the days of its early and premature inflation. The advent of the banks has been nearly as beneficial as the advent of the railways. Formerly cash was almost unknown, and a barbarous system of barter all-prevailing. One or two store-keeping monopolists supplied the farmers with provisions and necessaries, receiving their produce in exchange. The charge for supplies was more than double Perth rates, whilst the price given for the agricultural produce went to the opposite extreme. The storekeeper wanted an exorbitant profit both on what he sold and on what he bought or took in exchange. The farmer had thus very little chance of making more than a bare living, and was lucky if he did not labour under a load of debt, which the periodical advent of harvest only partially extinguished. Now that the banks have come into the field, the Queen's head on the coin of the realm has become a more familiar object. The farmer gets reasonable advances to enable him to develop his holding at 8 per cent. on deposit of his deeds, and is thus able to buy his provisions in the cheapest and to sell his produce in the dearest market, Perth being now rendered reasonably accessible by railway. Even