24 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
sent rate of wages in tho colony ; and in fact, as far 
as I can learn, it is very seldom adopted, Having 
gone through tho various methods with which I am 
acquainted, as being in use in this colony. I am not 
at all surprised that so much interest is felt in the 
subject, for every one of them appears to me to 
involve great trouble and expense. I havo thought 
much on tho matter, and beg to suggest a method 
which I think superior to any that I havo yet hoard 
of being adopted. I propose to extract stumps of 
trees by means of tho hydraulic press ; I am well 
aware that this will damp tho expectations of many 
residents in the interior who are in hope of hearing 
of some magic method applicable to their own cir¬ 
cumstances, and available by their own resources. I 
am sorry I cannot devise a cheap and easy method 
of making every farmer his own stump extractor. 
My idea is, that this is work, that should bo under¬ 
taken by men who will make it their rognlar busi¬ 
ness, and will travel about the, country with their 
machinery and take contracts from the settlers for 
stumping their farms at so much per stump, extract¬ 
ing each one fairly from tho ground by the roots, 
and leaving tho farmer to burn them or remove them 
from the land he wishes to cultivate. I need not I 
am sure, enter into a long explanation with my pre¬ 
sent audience, as to tho enormous power that is 
possessed by Bramah’s Hydraulic Press. It is a fa¬ 
miliar machine in this coIodv, having been used to 
compress bales of wool into a very small compass. 
It may bo seen in operation very frequently at the 
A. S. N. Co’s, work at Fyrmont, where by means of 
tho Hydraulic Press four men are enabled to lift the 
entire hulls of the Steam Ships belonging to that 
Company, when they are placed upon the Patent 
Slip. In fact, by this agenoy, the force of four men 
is sufficient to lift 800 tons. I have made some en¬ 
quiries as to the cost, weight, and portability of a 
press, capable of lifting the largest description of 
stump out of tho earth, or in fact, of exerting a forco 
of 100 tons. I think that tho whole machinery need 
not weigh more than 20 cwt., and that it would not 
cost more than £120. My plan would be—for two 
men to join in partnership, as stumpers, and to fur¬ 
nish themselves with a strong covered cart, on four 
wheels, whioh should carry the machinery of tho 
press and form their lodging too when in the bush at 
work. That fixed in the cart should ho tho pump 
by which the water is forced into tho cylinder, and 
that the ram should be portnbloand dotaobed, having 
a broad bearing to prevent it sinking into the earth. 
An eight inch cylinder would be quite sufficient, and 
a piston with a rise of eighteen inches or two feet. 
They should also possess a long lover of irora 15 to 
20 feet in length, sufficiently strong to bear a weight 
of 50 to SO tons when suspended on bearings 10 feet 
apart. The wood of thi3 count’ y is so very tenacious 
and tpugh that a lever of this strength need not be 
of any very great thickness. Some experiments 
were made only on Saturday last, trotn which it ap¬ 
peared that a piece of black butt timber, 8 inches by 
21 inches, was capable of sustaining the enormous 
weight of 6 tons, when supported on herrings, with 
10 feet interval. The plan 1 propose with machinery 
of this kind would lie to place the lever on the stump 
to which it should be attached by powerful chains, 
passed round four iron pins placed in the sides of 
tho stump in four auger holes, drilled diagonally 
upwards, so that the strain of the chain should come 
equally on the chain and on the stump. The short 
end of the lever being placed upon a solid support, 
about equal height with the stump to be extracted; 
tho head of tho ram should be placed under the long 
end of t he lever. As soon ns tho pump was put in 
motion tho ram would rise with irresistible iorce, 
and would bring the stump up out of the earth with 
all the main roots attached, and no doubt with a 
great deal of the circumjacent earth. The strain 
would be so steady and gradual that I have great 
hopes that the larger roots would not be broken, ami 
that even tho mighty tap root would be forced from 
its deep recesses. If one elevation of tho ram did 
not suffice, the lever could bo supported by a prop, 
while the ram was raised to a greater elevation, ami 
the process repeated till the stump was fairly taken 
out. Tho whole operation need nut occupy ono 
quarter of an hour, and I think there are very few 
Btumpa that would not yield to the first application 
of this enormous power. Tho advantages of this 
plan are—first, tho speed with which it would be 
done; second, the absence of denser; third, tho 
very small expense at which two men could under¬ 
take to clear away a large number of stumps; and 
fourthly, the effectual way in which the troublesome 
roots which lie along the surface may be extracted. 
I should bo glad to hear tho plan discussed, for I am 
bound to say that it is entirely theoretical, for I have 
never heard of stumps being extracted in this man¬ 
ner. Should my plan be deemed a practical one, I 
think it'would be a very lucrative business for two 
working men to engage in. I know there is a great 
demand for the work to bo done, and there are fre¬ 
quently advertisements in the public papers for con¬ 
tractors willing to undertake the stumping of es¬ 
tates. I am happy to be able to state that all tho 
necessary machinery could bo made in the colony, 
quite as well, and I believo nearly, if not quite as 
cheaply, as if imported, for we now possess in this 
city, machinists and iron founders, that many Eng¬ 
lish cities would be proud of having. 
1 havo thus done my host to furnish a remedy for 
avery ereatpublic want, and I only regret that it is 
not ono that in capable of more common application. 
At all events, if this paper does no other good, it 
may direct public attention to the subject, and from 
the discussion that may follow, some more valuable 
suggestion may bo made by persons of practical ex¬ 
perience, which shall facilitate the progress of agri¬ 
culture and thus advance the most important inter¬ 
est in the community. 
I will conclude with a hint to the ornamental gar¬ 
deners, as to a use to which those stumps may bo 
put when they are extracted. It is a common prac¬ 
tice in English gardens to see one of them placed 
upon a lawn upside down upon its cut end and the 
interstices between the roots filled up with 
boards It thus, if tho root is of a nice round shape, 
forms an immense ilower basket of a very handsome 
grotesque form A great quantity of garden mould 
is then spread over the roots, and the whole is 
planted with flowering plants. By this means a 
beautiful bed of flowers, sometimes 15 or 20 feet 
in diameter,is supported jn the air by means of the 
massive cut trunk some three feet above the surface 
of the lawn. 
TRANSACTIONS Of THE 
AUSTRALIAN HORTICULTURAL 
AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Sixth Monthly Meeting, 
July 7th, 1857. 
Held in the Royal Hotel, His Excel¬ 
lency the Governor-General President in 
the Chair. 
Members of Council present, Messrs. 
F. Mitchell, T. IV. Shepherd, E. K. 
Silvester, M. Guilfoyle, P. L. C. Shep¬ 
herd, Win. MeDonell, O. Ottlev, W. S. 
j Wall, G. A. Bell, J. G. McKean, F. 
I Cresv.-ick, J. W. Waugh, D. Mclnnis, 
