412 i QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1899. 
Keep everything clean and in order for immediate work. A sharp spade, axe, 
&e., enables one to do his work quickly and easily, and a little labour spent in 
cleaning, oiling, painting, housing, &c., will save a lot of expense and trouble. 
A small workshop, fitted up with a few tools, should be kept by every gardener. 
A bolt, screw, nail, or rivet put in at the proper time may save a deal in repair 
later on.” 
The care of implements, or rather the want of care of them, continues 
to be one of the blots on many farms in Queensland. Another blot we 
should like to see wiped out is the bad housing of pigs, and in some cases the 
utter disregard for the comfort of dairy stock during the winter. In summer 
we hear of horses dying from sunstroke. At the Queensland Agricultural 
College, the principal, during the very hot weather of the past summer, had 
large sheds erected. They were roughly made of bush material, roofed with 
bushes, over which straw was laid and kept in place by saplings. ‘The horses 
congregated under these shades, and were thus protected from any danger of 
sunstroke. 
A FINE POTATO PLANT. 
A REMARKABLY fine potato plant, says the Australasian, grown in the Apollo 
Bay district, has been shown to us by Messrs. Davis, Lancaster, and Co. It 
is from a crop grown by Mr. Jas. McPhee, at Heathfield Farm. The area of 
the paddock is 5 acres; but the yield is expected to reach 75 tons, or an 
average of 15 tons per acre. The soil is 20 feet deep, with a clay bottom, and 
the ground forms part of the river flats, of which there is a considerable 
quantity. The haulm of the plants exhibits unusual vigour of growth, the one 
shown to us, laid out on a board, reaching the length of 9 feet. From its 
roots twelve large potatoes were taken. ‘The variety is the New Zealand Blue 
Derwent. The Apollo Bay district also produces good crops of onions, yields 
of 30 tons per acre being common. 
A STORY WITH A MORAL. 
Tr is not our province to supply our readers with amusing stories. Our work 
is to disseminate interesting and useful information applicable to rural pursuits, 
As, however, the following little story carries with it an obvious application, 
we give it as it was related by the Hon. J. V. Chataway at the late anniversary 
meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in Brisbane :— 
“Two frogs fell into a dish of milk. One of the frogs was of the despairing 
helpless kind. He battled for some time, and then coming to the conclusion 
that the fates were against him, he gave up the struggle and the ghost at the 
same time. The other frog was a more optimistic individual. He had no idea 
of giving in so long as he could make a fight for existence. He therefore 
struck out briskly, and kept going so long that at last he found himself landed 
high and dry on a pat of butter. He had worked or rather churned out his 
own salvation.” ‘ 
The moral of this story lieth in the application thereof. Many a man 
engaged in farming or other rural pursuits gets on all right till difficulties 
occur, and then losing heart he gives up the struggle and goes down, whilst 
other men never give in whilst there is the slightest chance of pulling things 
round. Such men usually find themselves safely landed on the pat of butter. 
THE BITE OF A PIG. 
Wuttst the fangs of some snakes and of a large number of insects carr 
venom into the wound inflicted by them, there is no true venom in the teeth of 
any quadruped, not even in those of a dog afflicted with rabies. The poison in 
the case of bites from dogs, cats, monkeys, pigs, &c., is conveyed by means of 
the saliva, and the more unclean feeder an animal is, the greater will be the 
danger of blood-poisoning after a bite from such an animal. The pig is one 
of the uncleanest feeders amongst mammals, and the animal’s saliva is 
consequently dangerous if injected into the human body. When a pig is 
