1 May, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 841 
for rent, will give a comfortable yearly surplus; and to these conditions must 
be added the further fact that the chances of accumulation in early years are 
greatly increased by the general simplicity of the scale of living in a new 
country. ‘The rule of domestic economy on the prairies is to buy nothing which 
it is possible to make or grow. The cost of living for a small household is 
practically included in the cost of production, and everything which is realised 
beyond that is profit. 
The estimates of the capital required for making a fair start are given 
subject to two remarks. Oneis that to start a very young man on any much 
larger scale is to incur an almost certain risk of loss; to become a proficient 
in prairie farming it appears to be almost essential to pass through an appren- 
ticeship of “roughing it,’ and any extension of the scale of investments which 
may be desired should be made at a later period. The other remark is that 
many a successful beginning has been made upon much smaller sums. Both 
in ranching and in wheat-farming beginnings have been made by men who, 
working for wages, have patiently invested their earnings year by year in cattle 
or in farm machinery till they have accumulated a small stock with which to 
start upon an independent career. The great advantage which the possession 
of even a little capital confers is that it saves time in the early years of a 
man’s career and places him much sooner on the road to independence. 
It will be observed that the difference between the higher and the lower 
estimates which have been given is caused chiefly by the different amounts 
which have been allowed for the purchase of farm machinery and cattle. It 
is a matter of absolute necessity for successful farming on the prairies that a 
man should have the use of machinery. It is not, however, essential during 
the first year or two that he should own it. A press-drili seeder will sow 10 
acres of land inaday. In the first year, in which there are but 20 acres to 
sow, the seeder will only be in use for two days, and might be hired for the 
occasion. The same argument applies to the reaper and binder, which will 
also reap and bind the crop of 10 acresina day. ‘hese and other items may 
therefore be retrenched from the first outlay. On the other hand, the young 
settler who owns horses and a seeder, and has only two days’ work to do on his 
own land, can profitably hire himself and his machine out to more busily pressed 
farmers from 2 dollars 50 cents to 3 dollars a day, repeating the process at 
harvest time with his reaper and binder, and earn a handsome interest on the 
first cost of his machines.— Weekly News Advertiser. 
Bush Work. — 
CLEARING HEAVY TIMBER. 
Some considerable interest appears to have been aroused by our description in 
the Journal of a method of getting rid of heavy timber on land intended for 
cultivation by means of inoculation with saltpetre supplemented by ring- 
barking. A correspondent who considers the matter of great importance to 
settlers on the North Coast line wishes for further particulars concerning 
this process. It is certainly not new, having been advocated years ago by a 
correspondent of the Queenslander. The amount of saltpetre required for a 
tree 3 feet in diameter is stated by Mr. P. Mac Mahon, Curator of the Botanic 
Gardens, as being regulated merely by the size of the tree and the diameter of 
the auger employed. {fe recommends that only one hole should be bored 
with an inch auger to a depth not beyond the solid wood. If the tree be 
perfectly solid, then the hole should be bored to the centre and be filled with 
the salt. The time elapsing between the first and second charging can, of course, 
be determined by examination. It'will probably be nearly a year. If the operator, 
lj 
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