260 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JouRNAL. [1 Szpr., 1897. 
to represent wages for the summer half-year to Martinmas next, including 
meat and lodging in the farmhouses of the employers:—Headmen who take 
the management of the farm in the absence of the master, £20; best men, 
£15 to £18; second-class, £12 to £14; boys and youths, £4 to £10; good 
dairymaids, £11 to £12; second-class women, £8 to £10; girls and young 
women, £4 to £7.” ; 
How do these rates compare with the wages for farm servants ruling in 
Queensland? And yet the article we are quoting goes on to say: ‘“ As these 
money wages represent more than is necessary for clothing, the thrifty farm 
' servant of the present day is enabled to put by after a few yesrs—when 
matrimony is contemplated, and more especially if the intended wife has been 
equally saving—sufficient to stock a small farm, which here ranges from 30 to 
200 acres, and thus it comes that the bulk of our farmers have sprung from the 
farm-servant class.”’ 
Here should be a chance for our emigration lecturers. If, as doubtless is 
the case, many of the northern farm-servants are saving money to set up for 
themselves by-and-by, it should not be difficult to find some who could be 
induced to employ a portion of their savings in paying their passages to a 
colony which offers such great inducements to farmers as does Queensland. 
Climate, food, virgin soil, fuel, house-room, clothing—all these are better and 
‘cheaper than in the old country. The farmer here is not bound down by 
restrictions as to cropping, draining, fencing, rotation of crops, &c., as he is 
there; whilst as to wages, taking them all round, they are at least double 
- those obtainable in England. If Queensland were as near to Great Britain as 
Canada and the United States, shiploads of able-bodied men and women, paying 
their own fares, would be yearly landed at our various seaports, and very soon 
the Western lands would be covered with agricultural and grazing farms, 
ence rich freights of produce would be distributed in various parts of the 
world. ; 
BROAD V. NARROW WAGON TIRES. . 
Mr. J. T. Bett, M.L.A., on the day of the official opening of the Queensland 
Agricultural College, when examining the carts and wagons of the institution, 
remarked on the narrowness of the tires, and stated that they would have an 
injurious effect on the roads. 
The Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Journal has the following on the 
subject, taken from a Bulletin issued by the Ontario Department of Agri- 
culture :— 
“Tt is not only necessary to make good roads; it is also necessary that they 
should remain good. Tor this reason, all European countries, advanced in 
road-making, have laws regulating the width of tires used on wagons, carts, 
and vehicles for heavy draught. 
.“In France, the width of tires ranges from 8 to 10 inches, usually from 
4 to 6. Every market wagon and tonnage wagon is a roller; the forward 
axle is about 14 inches shorter than the rear axle, so that the hind wheels run 
in a line about an inch outside the level rolled by the fore wheel. 
“Tn Germany, wagons used for drawing earth, brick, stone, and similarly 
heavy loads must have a width of tire of at least 4: inches. 
; “Tn Austria, all wagons built to carry a load of more than 23 tons must — 
- have tires at least 44 inches in width. In Lower Austria, a rim of 44 inches is 
‘ required for wagons drawn by two horses. 
“Tn the State of Michigan, persons using the wide tires receive a rebate of 
one-fourth of their road tax. 
‘ Hixperience goes to show that broad tires are very much to be preferred 
for drawing loads through fields and on farm roads, as they sink less deeply 
into the soft earth and employ less draught to move them. On rough, rutted 
: roads the advantage is slightly in favcur of the narrow tire in point of draught, 
: but when wide tires are used by all tnere will be no rutted roads. One farmer, 
using tires as narrow as 4 inches,’says that in the spring time he has only to 
