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THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
To His Excellency Sir James Stirling, Governor, &c. &c., Patron of the Agricultural Society of Western Australia.
SIR,—In laying before your Excellency our third Agricultural Report for the colony, we cannot but remark, that though the total amount of live stock in the colony may appear small, and though a great many farmers have as yet been able to procure but a very limited supply—yet, when we reflect, that only the fifth year of our existence as a community has passed, and look at the same period of any other colony on record, it will be found that we stand very far before them in this respect, as well as in the extent of land in cultivation. And when we look at the state of importance to which other colonies have arrived (Sydney, for instance, almost even within our own knowledge and experience), we think we have reason to congratulate ourselves.
From our own observations, we can state that within the last twelve months, the increase of stock has been very considerable, the holders having acted more judiciously of late, in withholding the breeding stock from the butcher, however high the price: whereas formerly, they thought merely of the present, by killing ewes &c., whenever the condition of the animal or great demand for meat gave present profit.
We believe the number of head of live stock has never before been taken, to enable us to state with precision what the increase has been within any given time; but, by as careful a means as could be adopted, we find the present numbers, and the quantity of land in cultivation, to be as follows:—
Horses, 84; mares, 78; cows, 307; working cattle, 96; bulls and steers, 97; sheep, 3545; goats, 492; pigs, 374.
Number of acres in wheat, 564; barley, 100; oats, 116; Kaffre corn and maize, 29; potatoes, 15; other crops, 94; fallow, 118; vines half an acre.
