There is no difficulty in acquiring this, as stockowners are without exception glad of the assistance of a willing young fellow who accepts the knowledge acquired and perhaps a trifling salary as an equivalent for his time and work. After a couple of years of this novitiate as a "Jackeroo," he will be equipped for facing the future on his own account, which with ordinary steadfastness, energy, and forethought he may regard with confidence. [Illustration: DAIRY CATTLE ON DARLING DOWNS] [Illustration: SHEEP, JIMBOUR, DARLING DOWNS] [Illustration: HORSES, IVANHOE STATION, WARREGO] CHAPTER II. AGRICULTURE IN QUEENSLAND. Tripartite Division of Queensland.--Climate.--Development of Agriculture in Queensland.--Wide Range of Products.--Early History.--Exclusion of Farmers from Richest Lands.--Origin of Mixed Farming.--Extension of Industry Westward.--Inexperience of Early Settlers.--Cotton-growing.--Chief Crops.--Dairying. --Cereal-growing.--Farming in the Tropics.--Farming on the Downs.--Farming in the West.--Irrigation.--Conservation of Water.--Timber Industry.--Land Selection.--Assistance Given by the Government.--Immigration.--Attractions of Queensland. --Defenders of Hearth and Home. Situated between 101/2 degrees and 29 degrees South latitude and 138 degrees and 1531/2 degrees East longitude, Queensland covers 670,500 square miles, or 429,120,000 acres--greater than the combined areas of France, Germany, and Austro-Hungary. Of this immense territory 53.5 per cent. lies within the Tropics, and 46.5 per cent. within the South Temperate Zone. The State may be divided into three belts--the tropical, stretching from Cape York to the 21st parallel in the neighbourhood of Mackay; the sub-tropical, between Mackay and Gladstone, about 24 degrees South; and the temperate, from Gladstone to the 29th parallel on the border of New South Wales. These three zones lend themselves, in turn, to a tripartite subdivision of littoral, tableland, and Western plain. Running generally in a North and South direction, and distant from the Eastern coast 30 to 100 miles, the Great Dividing Range separates the littoral from a series of tablelands having an altitude of 3,000 ft. at the two extremes, with a lesser elevation between Herberton in the North and the Darling Downs in the South. Almost imperceptibly the intermediate plateau sinks into a vast plain, which extends westward for hundreds of miles and into South Australia.