locks in
this way, and have frequently been vexed to see them return as late as
noon with only half the number.

Were I again to turn Australian farmer, I would stable my working
cattle, keep a man to take care of them, grow ten acres of Lucerne hay
to feed them, save their manure, (an article almost universally thrown
away in Australia,) get double work out of them, and have the
satisfaction of seeing my ploughs going at regular hours, in place of
being worried "from July to eternity," as Sam Slick says, by having to
search for the cattle in the bush. It often struck me, that the
Australian grazier loses a chance of making a good deal of money by
neglecting his dairy produce. Had he a regular establishment in the
bush where his herds run, to milk the cows and make butter and cheese,
it would not only, in my opinion, pay well for the trouble, but would
make his cattle much less wild. His having forty or fifty cows brought
home every evening to milk, would not only make their calves quiet and
tractable, but would also compel the stock-keeper to be more active,
would keep him at his duty, and, I feel satisfied, would save the
proprietor a great deal in the course of the year. The butter and cheese
here are both of excellent quality, and might be made in large
quantities; yet, both are regularly imported into Sydney from the
Derwent (Van Diemen's Land) and Port Phillip; a state of things the
settlers of New South Wales ought to be ashamed of.

Many a fine cattle-run is rendered useless in dry seasons, by want of
water. Nature has provided, all over the country, reservoirs (or tanks)
for water, which are filled by every heavy rain; and their contents last
a long time: still, in a very dry season, these fail; and many a thirsty
bullock loses his life by tumbling, from excessive weakness, into one of
those pits. Some parts of the country have no tanks, (or water-holes, as
they are called,) except a few muddy puddles at the foot of the hills,
and thus become unavailing sooner than other parts. This inconvenience
might in a great measure be remedied, at trifling cost, by constructing
dams at properly chosen places in the ravines or gulleys that intersect
the hills from top to bottom, every two or three hundred yards. In one
instance, I have seen this plan adopted with success. The owners of
property between Sydney and Paramatta are compelled to make tanks, the
water in the river being salt, and that procured by digging wells b