Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/21

 Showers commence in March, and increase in duration and heaviness till August; from which period to November they gradually diminish. In September there is heavy rain, and fine showers fall in October and November. By December the grain is ripe, and therefore suffers nothing from lack of moisture.

There is little or no rain in December, January, and February; but in these months the dews are heavy. The grain (which sheds little) may, consequently, be left without injury a long time in the fields, to suit the convenience of the farmer.

Hay is cut in November, and may be made up six hours after cutting, without risk of its heating in the stack.

It is apparent, from what has been said, that the farmer is highly favoured in both seasons—in seed time and in harvest.

Although the grass is much burnt up in the summer, live stock keep in good condition upon it; and young cattle are remarked to be as large at nine months old as they would be in England at twelve: this is attributed to their being enabled to graze all the year without penning up.

The wheat of the colony is a fine grain, and samples of it, sent to England, have been highly approved of, and preserved for seed there. It averages from 62 lbs. to 65 lbs. the bushel, and some of it has weighed 68 lbs.

The average of the crops by the acre has not been great. It has been computed at twenty-five bushels the English acre; but the calculation has not been made with accuracy. The imperfect mode of cultivation should here be borne in mind, as the probable cause of so moderate a produce, compared with instances, hereinafter adduced, of the fertility of the soil. The following is an experiment, made two years in succession.

A piece of alluvial land, measured with exactness, and sown with wheat, gave, the first year, a produce at the rate of