1 Sepr., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 247 
will plant two rows at a time from 24 inches to 30 inches apart. The potatoes 
can be planted at 11, 12, 13, or 14 inches in the rows, change wheels being 
provided for the pupose. 
This planter is fitted with two ridging bodies which make the furrows for 
the potatoes to be dropped in, and a marker shows the position for the next 
bout. These are required when lanting on the flat, in which the greatest 
saying of labour is effected by machine planting. 
If, however, the planter is wanted for planting on manure in between 
ridges previously formed, it can be fitted with wheels with concave rims, which 
tun on the ridges, and with disc press wheels (instead of ridging bodies) to press 
down the manure and prepare a suitable place for the potatoes to fall into. The 
horses walk in the furrows. 
The machine can be made when desired to cover th 
along, in which case coverers are fixed behind each disc. It is, however, 
generally considered better not to cover them by the machine, as, of course, 
there must be a few misses, and a boy walking behind can easily drop a potato 
where missed, and the cost of his wages will be covered by the extra roots grown. 
The machine will plant ordinary seed potatoes with only 5 per cent. of 
missed plants. The weight of the planter is about 7 ewt. 
e potatoes as it goes 
A TYPICAL HEREFORD STUD FARM. 
Tue old order of things changeth! Nowhere is this more apparent than 
in the methods to-day adopted by the pastoralists and agriculturists of Aus- 
tralasia. Those who can remember “the good old days” look back to their 
early struggles with inferior cattle, hairy sheep, razor-backed pigs, hand labour 
in cultivation, and, generally, on all the primitive appliances for working stock, 
raising crops, producing sugar, arrowroot, and other things demanding the 
employment of machinery with a half regret, yet at the same time with thank- 
fulness that science, in all branches of rural pursuits, has enabled them to cope 
successfully with the requirements of the new generation, with the numerous 
drawbacks which have of late “so heeddled on the heads” of the stock-breeder, 
the sugar-planter, and the farmer, and with the mad competition which has of 
late years taxed to the utmost the energies and abilities of our Australasian 
producers. 
When the famed Darling Downs were first occupied by the old-time 
pastoralists, whose names will live in history whilst Australia is Australia, many 
were the troubles the squatters had to contend against. Distance was then 
distance ; there were no trains, and few coaches. The natives were numerous 
and hostile. The luxuries of life were practically unattamable. Mutton, 
damper, and tea constituted, as a rule, the rations of master and man. All this 
is now ancient history. Railways and coaches haye annihilated space. When 
formerly a visit to Brisbane from the western limits of civilisation involved a 
weary journey on horseback of two or three weeks’ duration, to-day the same 
journey can be performed in twenty-four hours in comfort. ‘The term “ native” 
in the West no longer implies a blackfellow. Hereby hangs a little tale which, 
told here, will relieve the hard matter-of-fact of this article. 
