MAGAZINE OE SCIENCE AND ART. 
181 
IMPROVEMENT OF PASTORAL 
LANDS. 
Having had my attention drawn to the subject of 
improving pastoral land, by the kind advice ol Sir 
W. Denison and reported in the Sydney Magazine, 
loth June last, I take the opportunity of offering a 
few observations on the subject which may be of 
advantage to some — particularly - those holding a 
limited number of acres. 
About fifteen years ago, it occurred to me that 
by pulling or knocking up with the back of the 
axe all such bushes as were too small to hack, and 
killing all trees above that size by hacking them 
round stump high, I should have a better chance 
of a good crop of grass. I engaged a man to do 
seventy acres in this way, at three shillings per 
acre, at which he earned good wages. Before two 
years had elapsed, I found that the stock became 
very loud of grazing upon the land where the trees 
had been killed. I then had ninety acres killed in 
another paddock, and subsequently forty acres in 
a third. The bark and leaves that fall from these 
trees afford a heavy coat of manure, either burned 
or allowed to rest upon the land. I conceive this 
inode renders the land more productive, and the 
grass sweeter and more nutricious. In two or three 
years, the small trees and limbs of the large ones 
begin to fall, and roots to decay. This land becomes 
much more open, the frost disappears much earlier 
from the land where the timber has been killed 
than in hush land. I leave a portion of each pad- 
dock in its natural state as shelter for the stock in 
cold stormy weather, at which time limbs and trees 
are most likely to fall. Notwithstanding the cattle 
are exceedingly fond of the grass on the dead 
timber land, and I have constantly kept a large 
number in these paddocks, I am not aware of one 
accident among them by a tree or a limb falling. 
This method encourages the growth of while 
Dutch clami: all my land, upon which the trees 
have been killed, is covered with it; and I have no 
doubt that in a few years it will supersede all the 
native grasses, particularly in this climate. Land 
treated in this way should be gone over yearly, for 
the first two or. three years, for the purpose of 
removing such seedlings and suckers as may make 
their appearance. This can be effected very 
expeditiously indeed, if trees are hacked in summer. 
When the sap is up there will but few appear. 
I have had ample proof that land treated in this 
way will maintain treble the number of stock that 
it will do in its natural state. If at ariY time any 
portion of this land should be required for agricul¬ 
tural purposes, it can be cleared at one-fifth of the 
expense drat clearing land upon which the timber 
is green. Every summer furnishes additional 
proof of the advantage of killing timber upon pas- 
turai land. 1 have been long of that opinion, and 
regret that circumstances have prevented me from 
going more extensively into it, but hope in future 
to be able to give the matter more attention, and 
to do some portion of my land every summer until 
four-fifths of my estate is killed. I shall in this 
case, of course, reserve all such trees as are or may 
be fit for building or fencing purposes. These 
trees will improve the appearance of the land, be¬ 
sides their utility. 
HENRY BADGERY. 
EXTRACT. 
IODINE IN THE UNITED STATES. 
^ The curative properties of Iodine in a variety of 
I diseases have been known for the last twenty years 
j to the faculty of Europe and the United States, 
but hitherto its use has necessarily been limited to 
its combination with other substances - as an “ al- 
I coholie tincture,” or with double its volume of 
j iodine of potassium in other preparations, its ex- 
I lubition in either form being very frequently inad¬ 
missible—when the introduction of “ pure iodine” 
uncombined into the system would, had it been 
possible, have been extremely desirable. This dif¬ 
ficulty, so long and so severely felt, will, it seems, 
for the future, be entirely obviated by the result of 
the chemical experiments recently effected by a 
J physician and chemist of Brooklyn, New York, 
j judging from the following editorial of one of the 
first medical publications of the present day, the 
American Medical Monthly , for September, edited 
I by Edward H. Parker, A.M., M.D., &c., under the 
supervision of the faculty of the “ New York 
Medical College.” The following' is the article al¬ 
luded to : — 
“Dr. Candsell’s * aqueous solution of iodine.’— 
In our number for Ju<y we noticed a ? preparation 
of iodine/ of which samples had been‘sent us by a 
gentleman of this city. In that notice we ought, 
perhaps, in justice to have slated that our attention 
was first called to the possibility of producing a 
concentrated * aqueous solution of iodine,’ by Dr. 
Henry W. CausaeII, of Brooklyn, New York, who 
tells us that for some years he has been trying 
experiments, with a view to effect that object, in 
Paris and in London, with only partial success, but 
more recently in this city with the most satisfactory 
results; having found in the Croton water of New 
York chemical properties which neither the waters 
of the Seine nor the Thames appear to possess. 
Dr. Candell has sent us some of the ‘solution’ 
prepared by him, which has been very carefully 
analyzed by a skilful chemist, and is found to be 
a really pure and concentrated ‘ solution of iodine 5 
in water, uncombined with any other substance, 
and of a strength ten times greater than had 
hitherto been considered practicable by any of the 
chemists of Europe or the United States; thus 
placing in the hands of the faculty a simple, 
easily-controlled, and effective means of introdu¬ 
cing pure iodine into the system of patients in all 
those diseases in which the use of iodine is indi¬ 
cated. _ Dr. Cansdell states that he has used this 
preparation with the most beneficial results in 
many severe cases of scrofula, rheumatism, and 
particularly in obstinate cases of intermittent 
fever, where the exhibition of quinine and 
‘ Fowler’s solution ’ had failed to produce their 
usual effects. And in order that Ihe faculty may 
have an opportunity of testing the therapeutical 
value of this newly-discovered preparation, Dr. 
Cansdell has offered to furnish a gratuitous supply 
to any or all of the hospitals in the city ; and, with 
a liberality 7 of spirit that should at least entitle him 
to the thanks of the profession, he has pledged 
himself shortly to acquaint us with the mode of 
preparing this addition to our remedial agents, 
which we shall have much pleasure in communi¬ 
cating to the faculty.” We leant that the doctor 
has brought his discovery before the French and* 
English medical societies .—Philadelphia Evening 
I Journal. 
