1885.] AUSTHALASIAX notes. 53 



We give, on the opposite page, a woodcut of a new foot-power saw, 

 patented this year by the Britannia Company of Colchester. 



This machine has been invented, like all recently-brought-out 

 saws, with a view to save labour ; as it combines apparatus to 

 do fret-cutting, grooving, dowelling, mitre-cutting, boring, and is 

 provided with a circular saw capable of being driven at 1500 

 revolutions per minute, it must be deemed an economical piece of 

 mechanism. The high rate of revolution is obtained Ijy a connec- 

 tion which places the fly-wheel on a secondary spindle driven by 

 the treadle-crank. Some idea of the power of this saw may be 

 formed, that when worked by foot, a board of 1-inch mahogany was 

 cut 3 feet 8 inches after the foot was taken from the treadle. A 

 handle may be fixed on the left of the saw to give auxiliary force, 

 or to be used instead of the treadle. The price of the bench with 

 three saws is £15, and £1, 2s. 6d. is charged for the adjustable 

 table at side. 



The Britannia Company state that nearly double the amount of 

 work can be done by this than any otliei' saw of similar description. 



AUSTRALASIAN NOTES 



A COMPANY has been formed at Echunga, in the Mount Barker 

 district, Alctoria, to cultivate wattles on 1900 acres of land 

 which has been leased for twenty-one years. About 25,000 wattles 

 have been trimmed to a height of from 5 to 6 feet in order to increase 

 the value of the bark and to facilitate the work of stripping when 

 the trees are matured. On the sites of burnt rubbish piles, young 

 wattles are springing up very rapidly. Horses, which do not touch 

 the trees in any stage of growth, are to pasture the grounds in place , 

 of sheep, which eat the young wattles. In those parts of the 

 holding which it is proposed to cultivate from seeds and by trans- 

 jDlantation, the trees will be put at distances of 5 feet in rows 

 7 feet apart. According to the Melbourne Leader, 17,000 lbs. (or 

 about 7^ tons) of bark per acre are anticipated when the trees are 

 five years old. 



The same newspaper draws the attention of the ^Minister of 

 Agriculture to the proposed destruction by the saw-mill owners of 

 the timber country extending from Colac to the margin of the sea, 

 including the Otway forest. According to a Mr. Costin, of Ballarat, 

 there are there beech trees, " splendid-looking fellows," mountain 

 ash trees "towering up 2 00 feet without a limb. Some specimens 

 were discovered 70 feet, 80 feet, and 100 feet in circumference." 

 There were also seen " samples of stringy bark, enough timber in 



