Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/72

 some useful instruction to those who may have yet to learn what are the requisites for a successful colonist.

To return from this digression, it is impossible to leave this part of the colony without giving some account of the really splendid establishment of Mr. Bull. This gentleman is a Lieutenant in the Navy, and affords a striking proof how well qualified officers in his branch of the public service may be to become settlers, from the energy and fortitude to which their professional habits give rise. He had acquired some knowledge of farming during a residence in Bedfordshire. Mr. Bull appears to have had in his eye the solid comfort of the substantial English farmer of the olden time. His kitchen, which is lofty and spacious, and has a fire-place of corresponding dimensions, is well garnished with flitches of bacon and other tokens of good cheer. After sharing with his numerous servants in their various employments—often himself holding the plough—it was his custom to sit down with them, presiding at the head of a long table plentifully furnished with plain but excellent fare, chiefly the produce of his own farm; to which were added good beer and ale, from barley grown, malted, and brewed, on the premises. The quantity he raises of wheat and other grain, and also of hay, equals, if not exceeds, the produce of any other colonist. His mill, which was constructed under his own direction, and is worked by horses, not only grinds the flour which is used in his own establishment, but returns him a considerable profit, by what it grinds for other settlers. Among his numerous cattle, are some of the finest cows in the colony, the genuine produce of the Duke of Bedford’s famous breed, obtained directly from Woburn. This gentleman, after having, by his strenuous exertions, overcome