ountry, on which great flocks of sheep graze. This is the Riverina
district, the most notable sheep land in the world. From here, and from
similar plains running all along the western and northern borders of New
South Wales, comes the fine merino wool, which is necessary for
first-class cloth-making. The story of merino wool is one of the
romances of modern industry. Before the days of Australia, Spain was
looked upon as the only country in the world which could produce fine
wool. Spain was not willing that British looms should have any advantage
of her production, and the British woollen manufacturing industry,
confined to the use of coarser staples, languished. Now Australia, and
Australia practically alone, produces the fine wool of the world.
Australia merino wool is finer, more elastic, longer in staple, than any
wool ever dreamed of a century ago, and its use alone makes possible
some of the very fine cloths of to-day.

This merino wool is purely a product of Australian cleverness in
sheep-breeding. The sheep imported have been improved upon again and
again, quality and quantity of coat being both considered, until to-day
the Australian sheep is the greatest triumph of modern science as
applied to the culture of animals, more wonderful and more useful than
the thoroughbred race-horse. It is only on the hot plains that the
merino sheep flourishes to perfection. If he is brought to cold
hill-country in Australia his coat at once begins to coarsen, and his
wool is therefore not so good.

As you pass the sheep-runs in the train you will probably notice that
they are divided into paddocks by fine-mesh wire-netting. That is to
keep the rabbits out. The rabbit is accounted rather a desirable little
creature in Great Britain. A rabbit-warren on an estate is a source of
good sport and good food, and the complaint is sometimes of too few
rabbits rather than too many. A boy may keep rabbits as pets with some
enjoyment and some profit.

In Australia rabbits were first introduced by an emigrant from England,
who wished to give to his farm a home-like air. They spread over the
country with such marvellous rapidity as to become soon a serious
nuisance, then a national danger. Millions of pounds have been spent in
different parts of Australia fighting the rabbit plague; millions more
will yet have to be spent, for though the rabbits are now being kept in
check, constant vigilance is needed to see that they do not get the
upper