5io Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



estates will no doubt be found, but as I do not 

 pretend to have an exhaustive knowledge on 

 the subject, I think I have said enough. Of 

 course, I do not intend to touch on the use of 

 explosives for mining, since I speak only from 

 the agriculturist's point of view ; nor even of 

 their utility for removing large masses of rock 

 or soil for making estate roads, as the latter, 

 although not uncommon, is too big and 

 dangerous a task for the average planter, and 

 should not be carried out without consulting 

 an expert, one of whom nowadays is to be 

 found at all large centres, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of mines. 



" It must not be thought that dynamite 

 obviates the necessity of top ploughing," very 

 truly points out the Queensland Agricultural 

 Journal. " Far from it. The plough must be 

 used just as much as ever. The only differ- 

 ence is, that the dynamite expends its dis- 

 integrating force in the sub-soil, which is never 

 touched by the plough, so that one is not merely 

 planting the crops in the same soil year after 

 year, but can, by its use, enable the crops to 

 draw up their nutriment from below." Where 

 clay sub-soils form a water seal, the use of 

 explosives, if correctly applied, breaks up the 

 clay strata and so allows the accumulated and 

 stagnant water to pass through (at the same 

 time the explosion kills myriads of harmful 

 lives), and dissolving the plant foods in the 

 lower, and hitherto inaccessible strata, liberates 



