8 May, 1908.] 



Clearing by Traction Engine 



269 



found. The whole area forms part of the Ninety Mile Desert, and the 

 name desert was formerly applied to the whole of it. 



Recently the Triumph Plough Company, of Adelaide, secured about 

 60,000 acres of the old Tintinara run, and set about clearing it bv steam 

 to sell to farmers. The freehold is not parted with, but the right, 

 acquired by the Company, to perpetual leases at :^d. per acre per annum 

 is transferred to the purchaser. For cleared land, that is, with the timber 

 rolled or pulled down, prices of 15s. and upwards per acre are obtained 

 for this once while desert. 



In the gum country clearing is generally done by pulling down. The 

 work is done by two traction engines, fitted with the "Dreadnought" 

 attachment referred to later on. The engines work from 2 to 3 chains 

 apart dragging between them an inch and a quarter steel wire rope about 

 6 chains in length. The engines go straight ahead, the loop or slack 

 of the cabfe pulling down all trees or scrub stout enough to stand up 

 against the rope. In the case of the larger gums, the men walking behind 

 the cable nick the trunk some few feet up and lift the cable into it. 

 Trees up to 3 feet in diameter and 60 to 70 feet in height are uprooted 

 by these means. There is one driver on each engine who fires, steers, and 

 drives, and four or five men follow the cable. In lighter gum or heavy 



PULLING DOWN TREES WITH TRACTION ENGINES AND CABLES. 



mallee, a heavy chain cable about 180 feet long attached at each end 

 to the engines by about 100 feet of steel wire rope is used, the rope above 

 referred to being too light to pull down the small stuff. 



In the lighter mallee, rollers are used much of the ordinary type. 

 One engine drags three of these, totalling 60 feet in width, with ease 

 and could pull as much again. Pulling down with the wire rope in 

 ordinary gum country, an average of 10 acres per day may be cleared. 

 With the chain cable, up to 50 acres mav be done, while with the rollers 



