CLOSER SETTLEMENT IN N.S. WALES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 21

CLOSER SETTLEMENT IN N.S. WALES.

The cutting up of agricultural land in , New South Wales for closer settlement is proceeding naturally, and during the past few months quite a number of estates have been disposed of. Still another property is to be disposed of by auction on March 25, when the Brundah estate, Cowra, will bo offered by Mesre Ham and Searight. It has been cut up info 34 farms, ranging ' from 295 acres to 640 acres. "When free selection came into vogue the owners out of a huge tract of country bought the freehold of 16,000 acres of the best of the land. It was considered, too valuable for use as a. sheep station, and the Messrs Wood erected a rabbit-proof fence, subdivided the land into paddocke, and grubed every acre, and went in for cereal-growing. In clearing the property the owners were careful to pre- : serve a generous sprinkling of beautiful kurrajong and box tree, end these, dotted about the cleared paddocks, gi\ c the property a park-like appoarance, added to which its succession of gentle undulations provide not only commanding sites for homesteads, but ideal spots for all kinds of agriculture and fruit-growing. The average rainfall computed over 30 years is 25£* inches. The property has never known a Beruj>is dtQUJzht. In 1902, vrhan almost

civc'j property off th<? roast in New South "Wales was losing stock by the hundred and thousand, the Alessra Wood carried, without any loss, a ehrep and a-quarter to the acre, and did no hand-feeding. And, what is e\en more wonderful, in that year, when the wheat area for the State did not return the seed sown, the Brundah crop of some thousands of acres averaged 10 bushels to the acre. Last winter, when nine-tenths of southern and south-western pastorahsts and famers were lucky if they could keep their flocks alive, the Brundah ewes were overfat for the lambing. And in the harvest just over, for which the official estimate is cix bushels to the acre, the Brundah crop of 3000 acres yielded 20 bushel- to the acre, and sold at 4s 6^d a bushel on the ground. Its proximity to a railway and the other advantages should result in the property being easily disposed of.