COUNTRY LIFE

Empire Farms

Within the circle of the Empire I have seen no system of small-holdings that appealed more to the eye—and the reason—than the " group settlements " of Western Australia, which were especially dear to Sir James Mitchell, one time Premier. They are now being re-established, so to say, by a final devaluation or writing off of Government expenditure. Two holdings in that rich and charming corner of Australia especially remain in my memory, one owned by a family from the Old Kent Road, the other by an ex-railway porter and his family from Lancashire. The Lancashire man had developed the ideal system. He made a very fair living off thirty to forty acres of fruit—peaches, and loquats especially—and was steadily letting light, and as a consequence grass, into a hundred and more acres of scrub, behind his hiimestead. He was developing land, making a good livelihood and pre- senting his family with a prospect of more extensive farming. Within the circle of the Empire I have seen no system of small-holdings that appealed more to the eye—and the reason—than the " group settlements " of Western Australia, which were especially dear to Sir James Mitchell, one time Premier. They are now being re-established, so to say, by a final devaluation or writing off of Government expenditure. Two holdings in that rich and charming corner of Australia especially remain in my memory, one owned by a family from the Old Kent Road, the other by an ex-railway porter and his family from Lancashire. The Lancashire man had developed the ideal system. He made a very fair living off thirty to forty acres of fruit—peaches, and loquats especially—and was steadily letting light, and as a consequence grass, into a hundred and more acres of scrub, behind his hiimestead. He was developing land, making a good livelihood and pre- senting his family with a prospect of more extensive farming.

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From Perth to Albany

Western Australia has got everything that should make a country populous. The coast line is broken by good harbours —Albany is a gem. Both sea and rivers are full of fish. The rainfall is sufficient and well timed for the growing of wheat. The market gardener may almost disregard the seasons, so favourable is the climate all the year round. The foreas are a marvel; and though the Hain forests are more or less scientifically handled, the waste of much excellent wood in the mixed forests is continuous. The scenic beauty of much of the country is outstanding. It is a severe comment on man's eatheiate of values that this Paradise was almost wholly deserted till gold was discovered in its hinterland and it is still sparsely inhabited outside the Capital. A great debt is due to Sir James Mitchell for his constructive ideas on group settlement and everyone will wish that the various groups of " Jimmiegrants " will prosper now.

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Boy Colonists

Much the best system of establishing migrants from crowded parts of the Empire has been seen in action at the Fairbridge Farm School further north in Western Australia. There has never been any question in any school of thought about its success whether theoretic or practical. It has given boys—" whom towns immure "—the certain prospect of a spacious education and a spacious life. The Fairbridge idea is now being extended to British Columbia, where are to be found some of the most ideal districts on the face of the globe. We have heard a good deal at various junctures of the richer emigrant to Canada and B.C. ; and a good many of the least well contented have been of a type that I visited in that perfect holiday place, Vancouver Island—the type of man who drives a Rolls Royce down to market with half a dozen eggs and complains that farming does not pay. Huge sums have been vainly sunk by men who bought planted fruit land at £200 an acre or more, or ranch land at an exorbitant figure. These men, and the land-boomers have obscured the real possibilities. The establishment of a Fairbridge School in British Columbia should do much to retrieve the harm done by such experiences. Boys that become, in essentials, native before they leave the farm school will be easily and economically absorbed into the rural population, still absurdly small, and fmd a spacious life. A country such as either Western Australia or British Columbia may readily absorb millions where a few hundred dumped immigrants would starve. Now that,, we are told, the scheme of migration within the Empire, is to be set going again, it is especially important that there Should be clear thinking on the right and the wrong sort of settlement.

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A Dog's Reason

Nearly all- dogs, as we know well, are fond of driving in motor-cars. They all like the speed ; they like the succession of smells.; but • they behave' differently. Some will sleep peaceably, some keep their nose to the draught or look out continuously. A certain mongrel spaniel, of high intelligence, adopts a compromise. He is apt to be comatose or at least recumbent, but sits up instantly- and takes notice if any

new road is taken. Any new turning rouses him from apparent sleep. It is a puzzle by what sense he peroeives the novelty, for he is often lying at full length on the back seat when the information reaches him by the route of his nose or other unknown sense. Their nose is no doubt the master sense of most dogs (sometimes even of greyhounds), but none, I think, has quite so constant a devotion to this sense as the spaniel. He uses his nose all the time, whether a quarry is toward or not, while a retriever, whose nose is not less accurate, is enjoying sight or movement. It was a Scottish spaniel who was alleged to have gone half mad with joy when he found a Scottish tweed in a New York store, and at once began to roll in it !

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Rabbit-proof Plants

Most country gardens suffer from the depredations of rabbits ; and some suffer so badly that it becomes necessary to grow in certain places only those plants that are distasteful. I knew one garden—in Hampshire—where one long line of beds was filled exclusively with strong-scented herbs and camomiles because nothing else was left imnibbled. But rabbits are by no means omnivorous. They have their Likes —such as young cabbages and any carnation—and their dislikes such as petunias. A Sussex. gardener of experience recommends Sweet Williams, Forget-Me-Not, Monkshood, and London. Pride, large-flowered course daisies, Michaelmas daisies, large poppies and aquilegia. He found that the flower heads of marigolds were nipped off but the leaves IA untouched.

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An Egg-Collector's Care

A very beautiful collection of birds' eggs, shown in complete clutches, was shown last week to a large public by Mr. Edgar Chance, who has become the great champion of the much- abused oologist. He has printed a leaflet maintaining the virtues of the egg-collection and the vices of the so-called keeper. There is, I think, no doubt that certain birds of prey, including the peregrine falcon, are anathema to game- keepers and that historically both the white-tailed eagle and osprey were reduced to a minimum in the early part of last century by Scottish game-preservers. Figures quoted by Mr. Chance from the Glengarry estate are evidence enough. The keepers of game-preserves have happily improved since those days. Hawks and owls and eagles are safer than they were. The oologist has perhaps grown keener ; and there is no doubt at all that the chief enemies of the kite and of the harriers, and rare small birds is the professional egg• collector. Oology is a proper science and the study of eggs interesting and important ; but there is nothing to be said in favour of the high prices paid for rare clutches. On the subject of rare birds good news reaches me from a northern island of the satisfactory hatching of choughs. The birds at one place on the coast are described to me as " more plentiful than the jackdaws," and beyond doubt the chief enemy of the though has been neither keeper nor oologist but his rival, the irre- pressible jackdaw. . This is certainly so in South Wales where the though just, and only just holds out. .. .

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A Weasel Procession

A good many intimate sights of natural history are presented to the gangers on our railways, men to whose conscientious work we all owe a debt. Birds are fond of the banks and dust between the sleepers more and.More now that roads have become quite useless for the purpose. - Quadrupeds use the line- as a road, and seem to lose some part of their fear of man in reference to the working gangers. • The other day,' on a little branch line, a ganger foreman saw what looked like a snake coming towards him. It proved to be a family of weasels, fourteen in number. They moved in single file and a very straight line; head to tail—head so' close to tail that there was no perceptible gap. One parent led the line, and orie, which carried a mouse in its jaws, brought up the rear. They were doubtless oft to some quiet place to enjoy the meal. It is a common experience that where weasels are many, both rats and mice are few. The weasel as certainly destroys mice as it does not attack rats ; but rats do not seem to enjoy its neigh-