470 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAT JOURNAML, {1 Dec., 1898. 
broadcast sowing, as there is so much more labour in ploughing all the land, 
and the work of thinning out the young plants is very much greater. He 
would strongly advise ibat only seed of the true broad-leaf wattle should be 
planted, as it is doubtful whether it will pay to grow any other variety, the 
bark of which will be worth quite 20 per cent. less. Horses may be allowed 
the free run of a wattle paddock, but cattle should be kept out altogether, and 
sheep should not be allowed in until the tops of the plants are out of reach, as 
they are very fond of the young shoots. He felt certain that if the bark had 
no market value it would pay well to plough fern hills, and sow 3 or 4: 1b. of 
seed per acre broadcast, and keep all stock out for three years, by which time 
He wattles would provide a very large amount of feed for either cattle or 
sheep. 
d DOBBIE'S WATTLE-BARKING MACHINE. 
This lately invented machine readily strips the trees close up to the leaves 
far higher than could be stripped by hand. The speedy operation of the 
machine shows to special advantage on wattles from the thickness of walking- 
sticks up to 3 inches in diameter, indicating that where the crops of wattles 
were so abundant as to require thinning out, and were too small to strip by 
hand, it would pay to use the machine. It has been regarded as being quite 
evident that the machine would reduce the cost of stripping by at least 25 per 
cent. Moreover, by using the implement, stripping could be commenced much 
earlier and carried on much later in the season than is possible by hand. 
The machine itself has the appearance of a substantial roller mangle, the 
rollers being either metal or covered with metal. One man can carry out the 
whole of the operations; but it would apparently be still greater economy for 
two or even four men or boys to operate in conjunction with one another. In 
using the machine the wattles pass between the revolving rollers, thus 
receiving pressure upon two sides, which cuts top and bottom, and causes the 
bark to spring from the complete circle of the stem in two halves. It would 
appear from this that a very valuable addition has been made to the wattle- 
bark industry. 
General Notes. 
GREATER BRITAIN EXHIBITION. 
Tur Department of Agriculture is bestirring itself in earnest to present 
Queensland and its industries in their true light before the British public at 
the forthcoming Exhibition at Harlscourt. Not only will multitudinous samples 
of our produets find a place in the Queensland annexe, but the different phases 
of colonial life, as represented by the industries of sugar-planting, general 
farming, sheep and cattle raising, mining, timber-getting, pearl-shelling, &c., 
&c., will be presented to the eye of our kinsmen “at home” by a number of 
splendid enlarged photographs. In addition to these, about a hundred lantern 
slides on the same subjects have been prepared, with a lecturette to accompany 
each picture. Mr. F. C. Wills, artist to the Department, to whom fell the 
arduous work of preparing all these pictures and slides, has been most 
successful in carrying out his instructions, and the result of his labours cannot 
fail to impress the people of Great Britain with the fact that a Greater Britain 
has grown up around the mother country, from the Poles to the Equator, all 
joining hands and firmly united either for peaceful trade or horrid war. 
The Minister for Agriculture has now instructed Mr. Wills to proceed to 
Sydney and Melbourne, to make arrangements for a series of views of moving 
life, which will be exhibited by the aid of the cinematographe. These cannot 
fail to prove of great value to any lecturer on Queensland. 
One of the lantern slides is the Queensland coat-of-arms, made entirely of 
various-coloured maize. It will be remembered that this coat-of-arms was 
shown in the agricultural section, at the last Exhibition. In this connection, 
