The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1873

Evening Star, Issue 3253, 24 July 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1873

It is satisfactory to find that the Provincial Council has seriously given itself to business, and that such rapid progress has been made that there is reason to hope its labors will be brought to a close after a few more sittings. The Executive commands a much larger number of supporters than was anticipated, and seems to have brought forward measures satisfactory to the majority of both sides of the House. They have, at any rate, avoided the errors of the last three years, and have thrown a sufficient quantity of land into the market to satisfy the most ardent advocate for settlement, while the declaration of Hundreds seems likely to meet the wishes of those who are anxious to combine squatting on a small scale with agriculture. Whether or not this will ultimately be advantageous remains to be seen. We have no doubt it will; although if there are inducements to settlement through opening up Hundreds, the good is not an unmixed one. As a counterbalance to the present gain from feeding stock, there is the temptation to exhaust the land by constantly sowing with the same description of crop. South Australia is a notable example of this result of the Hundred system. Year by year many of the farmers there ran their cattle on the Hundreds, and sowed their farms with wheat, taking no steps whahem- to return to the soil, in the form of manu re, those organic substances which had been taken from it in feeding the crop. Year by year the soil became poorer. Beginning with an average of eighteen or twenty bushels to the acre, the produce gradually became less, until twelve, and ultimately Less was the estimated yield of land under wheat throughout the Colony ; while in many cases cultivation bad to be abandoned altogether. There is no doubt a com-

pensating feature, which is not often thought of even by those politicians who are the most ardent students of land in relation to settlement. It is perfectly true that the farmer, by constant cropping without manuring, impoverishes the soil he tills ; but on the other hand, his cattle grazing over the Hundred, are enriching the seeming waste by giving to it a large proportion of organic substances, and preparing it for future profitable cultivation. Precisely the same remark applies to pastoral industry. The observation was made in the Council yesterday, that vast areas of ground, once considered unfit for agriculture, had latterly been cultived profitably. We have no doubt of it, and year by year that quantity will be increased. What is wanted is settlement, and we do not think the price of laud so serious an element in the calculation as it is usually mack Men and women are better occupiers ot the soil than sheep and cattle, and as there will be plenty of land to be had when the new Hundreds are proclaimed, we hope they will realise the expectations of their supporters, and provide happy homes for prosperous families.