1 Surr., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 261 
drive up and down his lane a few times to change it into a smooth level drive- 
way. Those who will observe the occasional wide track made on our own country 
roads will understand this result. 
“Towns and cities are no less affected by narrow tires than are rural 
districts, and it is little short of absurd that property-owners should go to the 
expense of laying expensive pavements, while those most benefited continue to 
destroy them with narrow tires. The city of Ottawa has recently adopted a 
wide-tire by-law, and this example, it is hoped, will soon be followed by others. 
To understand the evil effect of narrow tires, one has only to observe an empty, 
springless wagon jolting along the highway, or a loaded wagon ploughing its 
way through the crust of a gravel road in fall or spring. At all times narrow 
tires on wagons of heavy draught are the greatest destroyers of roadways. To 
get the most benefit from the statute labour and other road expenditure, to 
lessen the cost of road making and maintenance, narrow tires must be discarded 
by those engaged in heavy teaming on our roads. 
“ Broad tires, on the contrary, are in a way a benefit rather than a detri- 
ment to roads. The broad surfaces perform the work of rollers in keeping a 
smooth and compact roadway free from ruts. Wide tires, more than any other 
means that can be adopted, distribute wear over the surface of the road. 
Narrow tires do the work of a pick on a roadway, while broad tires do the work 
of a pounder. The one tears up, the other consolidates.” 
FARM POULTRY. : 
Ir came to us as a bit of a surprise when we learned last week that the 
Government of New Zealand were taking steps to establish a poultry-breeding 
station in the vicinity of Auckland. But when we come to consider the figures 
published by the Kansas (U.S.A.) State Board of Agriculture in connection 
with this branch of rural industry, the surprise is that we, in Queensland, 
have not pushed poultry farming much beyond exhibiting a few fancy fowls 
at our various shows. Mr. Smirrell, an erstwhile breeder and exhibitor of 
poultry, speaking on the subject of poultry-breeding, said: “There is nothing 
init. It does not pay.” Now, we commend to Mr. Smirrell and to all others 
interested in poultry the following statements from a bond fide official source :— 
“Tn the year ending 1st March, 1896, the value of Kansas poultry and 
eges sold was $3,608,815,* or 19 per cent. more than the entire value of the 
rye, barley, buckwheat, castor beans, cotton, hemp, tobacco, broom corn, milo 
maize, Jerusalem corn, garden and horticultural products marketed, wine, 
honey, sheep, and wool of the same year. No field crops, with the exception of 
wheat, corn, and hay, equalled in value the surplus sold from the Kansas hens, 
ducks, turkeys, and geese in the year named. 
“Tt was a sum sufficient to pay all the State and city taxes of the preceding 
year, and leave on hand the comfortable nest-ege of $175,000 (£36,458 6s. 8d). 
Its value was nearly twice (or 95 per cent.) greater than the same year’s output 
of lead and zinc from our mines, conceded to be of great richness, and within 
28 per cent. of the value of all the coal mined during the preceding year. It 
was 23 per cent. greater than the total paid for teachers’ wages and school 
supervision; more than three times as much as the total combined amounts 
paid‘ for school sites, buildings, furniture, rent, repairs, district library and 
school apparatus, fuel, incidentals, and all other school purposes except salaries, 
In fact, the poultry came within about 14 cent. of paying the entire cost of the 
public schools. 
“The average value of poultry and eggs sold annually in the State, as 
returned to assessors, in the five years ending with 1896, was $3,333,562 
(£694,492 1s. 8d.), or a value greater by nearly 10 per cent. than that of the 
potato crops for the same year; 55 per cent. greater than the sorghum crops; 
71 per cent. greater than the millet and Hungarian, and 168 per cent. greater 
than the value of Kaffir corn. 
a anes the American dollar at 4s. 2d. sterling, this is equivalent to £751,836 9s. 2d,— 
1 QAS, rascet: é 
