Page:Extracts from the letters and journals of George Fletcher Moore.djvu/211

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VARIETIES OF LAND.
185

answers pretty well, if carefully applied. Mr. Brown has an outside covering of it, about fourteen inches in thickness, over a shingled roof, to keep out heat, but it is expensive. You inquire, "of what quality is my land on the Swan?" This is a very general and comprehensive question.—I forget how many thousand varieties of earth old Evelyn reckons: I will not say there are so many varieties on my land, yet it varies considerably. I can give you a section of it.[1] On the alluvial land, the grass-wattle and the gum-trees flourish; on another portion, the herbage is of inferior quality, and the trees are consequently of a dwarfish and shrubby nature: one of these looks and smells like white-thorn, and has a white flower, but not of the same shape—I believe it to be of the Mespilus species. It is called here, generally, by the English appellative, the May-thorn. The third division has a shrubby covering, and produces the red-gum, white-gum, broom, wattle, and grass trees.

I have acquired some knowledge of the indications of soil: mahogany is indicative of sandy land; red gum, of stiff cold clay; wattle, of moisture; and the broom and dwarf grass tree, of what we term shrubby herbage.

The next question you ask is about "water."—

  1. Mr. Moore frequently amused himself by sketching diagrams, plans, &c. These are here omitted.—Editor.