1 Jan,, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 23 
The maul should be cut from a sound, cross-grained, dry ironbark limb. 
The ends are dressed to allow of the rings being driven on. About a quarter 
of an inch of the wood should protrude beyond the rings. Wooden wedges 
are then driven into the wood, which is thus forced against the rings, holding 
_ them firmly in place. The projecting wood soon flattens down over the rings, and 
prevents their being battered by contact with the iron wedges. A hole is next 
bored into the maul, a smooth handle is inserted,and all is ready for felling 
and cutting up the tree. 
SELECTING A TRIE. 
This is a most important matter, and one which requires great judgment 
and experience. Some old splitters can tell at a glance whether a tree will 
“run” freely or not. Others examine the bark of an ironbark or stringybark, 
and from its corrugations will judge of the toughness or otherwise of the 
timber. If the perpendicular corrugations run in parallel lines, the tree will 
in all probability be easy to “burst.” If on the other hand the lines are 
interlocked, the timber will probably be the same, and take great labour to 
open; or, if winding, the resulting rails will probably be useless, although 
posts got from such a tree might be used. Asa rule, a tree hard to “ burst”’ 
will “run” more evenly than one which bursts freely. A good way to tell a 
tree is to cut out a large chip, and split it. If it splits freely, it is probable, 
but not always certain, that the whole tree will split well. It sometimes 
happens that the chip is hard to split, or is very stringy, yet the upper portion 
of the tree splits freely, so that after all the chip is no certain guide. 
An experienced splitter can generally tell if a tree is hollow, by noticing 
that some of the broken limbs are hollow, and that sometimes branches shoot 
vutfrom the main stem almost from top to bottom. Such a tree is pretty sure to 
have a pipe, which makes it all the easier to split. A tree plentifully 
besprinkled with large round knots should not be rejected on that account, for 
the knots are rarely found to extend beyond the sap wood. In getting timber 
for sawmills, some use an auger, and bore into the tree to find out if it has a 
pipe, in which case it is rejected. But where the log timber-getter is also a 
splitter, the pipy log, if felled, comes in for posts, rails, shingles, palings, or 
spokes. Illustrations of these trees will be given in next month’s Journal. 
We will now suppose the tree to be selected. It should be a good-sized 
one with a straight barrel, from 2 to 4 feet in diameter or larger if possible, 
with at least four good cuts of 9 feet in length, for the larger the girth and 
the longer the tree the less the labour. 
The next question is ; 
TO FELL THE TREE. 
Felling a tree scientifically is an art gained by long practice. We are 
dealing now with saw work. ‘he first thing to be done is to ring the tree, 
removing a ring of bark about 6 inches wide all round, exposing the sap 
wood. ‘The saw is then entered on the leaning side. If the tree be absolutely 
perpendicular, a survey of the branches above willclearly indicate to which 
side the tree will incline when falling. It will naturally fall on the side of the 
heaviest limbs. In such acase the cut is begun on that side. To ensure a 
perfectly horizontal cut, the saw must be held horizontally, care being taken to 
keep the back up, as it tends to sag downwards, until it has entered far enough 
to rest on the lower side of the cut. But still the back must be kept up, for, 
if cutting proceeds with the back resting, the cut will naturally take an upward 
direction. ; 
Having entered the saw to a depth not further than nor even quite so far as 
the centre of the tree, withdraw the saw. Here I may remark that when a 
tree has a considerable lean, the saw should be withdrawn as soon as it is in the 
least pinched by the coming together of the two parts of the cut. Cases have 
oecurred in which the saw ii moved fairly freely, and yet could not be with- 
drawn owing to the cut having closed behind it. In such a case nothing 
