26 WHEATGROWING IN AUSTRALIA. 



The stripper-harvester is another Australian invention. It is 

 an improvement on the stripper, and is now in more general use. 

 It is really a combined stripper and winnower. It takes off the 

 heads of wheat, and also threshes and cleans them as it goes along, 

 and delivers the grain into bags at the side of the machine. This 

 reduces the cost of harvesting, as less labour is required. Two men 

 can work a harvester, one driving the machine while the other 

 removes and sews up the bags. The machines cut 5 to 6 ft., but 



(1) STEAM THRESHER. (2) STOOK-BUILDING. (3) HARVEST PICNIC. (4) BALING FOR 

 EXPORT. (5) STOCKS READY FOR CARTING. 



8-ft. machines have proved successful of late, and with them a good 

 area can be handled in a day. The smaller machine will strip 

 about 10 acres of a fair crop in a working day. 



WORKING THE WHEAT FARM. 



The settler having acquired his land, he will require to fence 

 in his holding, and also subdivide it into convenient paddocks or 

 fields. All Australian farms are fenced, and in districts in which 

 the rabbit is a menace the boundary fences are wire-netted. Un- 

 less timber is very plentiful wire fences are almost universal.. Posts, 

 which are obtained from timber on the farm that is fallen, and 

 split into the necessary lengths, are erected 9 or u ft. apart, with 

 six or seven wires running through them. Sometimes the posts are 

 put at a greater distance apart, and "droppers" placed between 

 them at'distances of 7 or 8 ft. Some of these droppers are of split 



