524 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. , [1 Junx, 1898. 
bulb is still immature, but as soon as it turns purple the crop may be harvested. 
Arrowroot may be left to stand over for two seasons, as in the case of sugar- 
cane. — 
RAISING TENDER SEEDLINGS. 
Mr. W. Sourrer, Acting Inspector of State Farms, gives the following 
handy and simple method of raising tender seedlings which are liable to suffer 
from winds and rain. Place the seed in a flower pot in free sandy soil, procure 
another empty pot two or three sizes larger; into this stand the pot with the seed; 
the rim of the seed pot should be about 2 inches below the level of the rim of the 
larger pot; this height can be regulated by an inverted pot of right size; over 
the whole place a sheet of glass slightly tilted to admit air. In this tiny 
extemporised glasshouse it is astonishing how few plants will damp off. This 
is owing to the absorbent nature of the walls. With a few of these wee 
glasshouses the average amateur can raise seedlings, no matter how tender 
they are.. 
NEW MALTING-HOUSE AT TOOWOOMBA. 
A new malting-house is about to be erected at Toowoomba by Mr. A. H. 
Redwood. Its capacity will be from 60,000 to 80,000 bushels. Tenders for 
the work will be called for on the 1st June, and it is anticipated that the 
establishment will be ready to commence operations in December next. 
A GOOD GARDEN LINE. 
Tiere are few implements (says Mr, Soutter) in connection with the garden 
that cause more annoyance than does the garden line; and there are few that 
require to be so often renewed. The line is liable to break whenever strained, 
or to be cut with the spade or hoe, and there is nothing more tantalising than 
when laying off a series of parallel rows your line snaps,and you find yourseif 
in probably a sitting posture with innumerable yards of dirty line encircling 
your neck in consequence of a snap; or, when running out a seed furrow 
with the hoe, you suddenly come in contact with a knot, and away flies your | 
line to either end of the ground. Now, the best line for general purposes ig 
not a line at all, but merely a piece of No. 12 galvanised wire with a loop at 
either end, cut to lengths to fit the squares of your garden. ‘I'wo 1-inch iron 
or steel rods, each. about 2 feet long and tapered at one end, are used for 
stakes. Use one for an anchor, and the other as alever for pulling taut. You 
can thus get a great strain on, which will enable you to not only drawa plumb 
line with a hoe, but to run a very accurate line with a Planet Junior drill, 
When not in use you can either leave your line on the ground between your 
rows, or it may be hitched up along your fences with no fear of rot or decay, 
no fear of breakage, nor the accompanying eccentricities of the hemp line, 
while the moral atmosphere of the garden will be most certainly considerably 
purified—try wire. 
HOW TO BUILD A PONTOON. 
Many times it has occurred in this colony that travellers, teamsters, and others 
have been delayed for days owing to the depth and velocity of some otherwise 
insignificant creek. This delay has happened often near a station or townshi 
when materials for the construction of a pontoon were procurable, but the 
genius of construction was not present. We well remember crossing the 
Upper Burdekin in a cask attached to a wire stretched across the river, and on 
one occasion the officer in charge of the Georgetown gold escort improvised a 
tub pontoon and safely carried over 10,000 oz. of gold. Mr. Wilson’s (Water 
Supply Department) experience may be of yalue and interest to travellers in 
bridgeless districts. He says :— ' : 
During the month of February last the chief of my department tele- 
graphed that he was sending 600 feet of casing to Wyandra, ‘the present 
