Dairying. Australian butter already has a good
market in Europe, but there is infinite room for expansion.
Producing butter and cheese for export is a special branch not
yet greatly developed in West Australia, but attention is being
largely attracted to the question, and indeed some of the
“Midland” applicants are experts in this branch, and will no
doubt develop the industry and become purchasers of the smaller
output of their neighbours. Dairying and sheep-raising should
undoubtedly be carried out to a greater or lesser extent by
every Midland farmer, for, apart from the profits on wool,
mutton, beef and dairy produce, the land improves vastly in
fertility when animals have had the run of it.
Sheep and Cattle. The natural grasses on the
Midland Company’s lands are eminently sustaining and suitable
for raising sheep and cattle. We reproduce a picture of a small
flock of sheep owned by Messrs. Stanley and Hunter on land which
without improvement, carried a sheep to the acre. “Midland”
farmers who want more space for raising sheep and cattle can
acquire suitable land on lease at the low rental of £2 per 1,000
acres.
Markets. A very pertinent question is what to
do with your produce when you have raised it. Let us say you
have got a farm at the first settlement, Winchester, and at the
end of the first year you have got 2,000 bushels of wheat, a ton
of potatoes, 20 tons of chaff and 50 head of cattle to dispose
of. Before you find your market the market will find you; but
what you want to know is where the market is. Well, from
Winchester your markets will be either at Geraldton, Fremantle
or Perth. From Geraldton buyers will distribute your produce
either round by sea to Fremantle, or if for export, further
afield, or along the Murchison Goldfields line; here there is a
good market for chaff, vegetables, fruit and livestock. Your
wheat probably will go to Fremantle by the Company’s line, and
then be exported. Your cattle, also your root crops, will go to
Perth, and either be consumed in the metropolis or distributed
throughout the Eastern Goldfields line. Perth, too, unless you
specialise in export trade, will be your market for butter, eggs
and vegetables. At the present time Western Australia itself
depends a great deal for its food supplies upon imports from the
Eastern states and from the Old Country. Probably nowhere in the
world is there a better local market for farm produce. You will
have to pay occasional visits to buyers in Perth, .....
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