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1 June, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 525 
WOOL FROM LIMESTONE. 
Aw American chemist is said to have discovered a process by which Alexandria — 
limestone can be converted into a substance resembling wool, the threads of 
which are strong enough to admit of their being woven. ‘The staple is, how- 
ever, too short for the purpose. But the product has evidently a commercial 
value, as we are told that it is in extensive use for packing round refrigerators, 
boiler cases, and pipes to preserve the heat in the latter case. It is also used 
for deadening the sound on floors, and large quantities are being shipped to the 
Philippine Islands, to be used as a non-conduetor in the storehouses of the 
American troops. 
SAVE YOUR OWN SEEDS. 
Some persons think they are exercising economy when they save their own seeds, 
but only seldom indeed is thisso. The seeds you purchase from a respectable 
seedsman are generally from selected stocks, grown purposely for their seeds, 
and not for their roots or their tops to be used as vegetables. The greatest care 
should be taken by the person who saves his own seeds in selecting the finest 
specimens of their kind, whereas the amateur generally uses the best for 
consumption, and then, when the plant is nearly exhausted, it is allowed to go 
to seed. Plants raised from such aati lneal sources cannot be expected to 
produce strong fertile crops, A fine cabbage or cauliflower may be allowed to 
go to seed, but no other plant of the same family must be permitted to be in 
flower at the same time in the same garden, or within a good distance of it, if 
the seed is wanted to be pure. The same remark applies to other vegetables. 
In nine cases out of ten it is better to buy your seeds than to save them your- 
self.—Martin’s Home and Farm. 
AUSTRALIAN SALTBUSH. 
CoMMENTING on an account of the trials carried out at the Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station of the University of California in the cultivation of Australian 
saltbush, the editor of the Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Western 
Australia speaks to the point. He says :—‘‘The immense importance attached 
to the cultivation of our Australian saltbushes in California and Cape Colony 
contrasts strangely with the apathy evidenced in Australia generally regarding 
the destruction of these most valuable fodder bushes. It is quite the exception 
here, in South Australia at least, to find anyone attempting to cultivate the 
saltbushes, though a number of landowners may have a plant or two in their 
gardens. The Agricultural Bureau has repeatedly offered to supply saltbush 
seed free to anyone desirous of growing it, but very few have availed themselves 
of this offer, and most of the seeds collected for distribution has been forwarded 
to other countries, where they are appreciated. Out of the number who did 
apply for seed, not more than a dozen have ever reported results. One of those 
who forwarded reports—Mr. FE. Calf, of Riverton—states that he simply scattered 
the seed broadcast last autumn on some poor land that had been scarified, and 
quite a number of plants came up and grew well until the cows got in and 
damaged them; while Mr. C. N. Grenfell, of Mount Templeton Public School, 
got Atriplex angulata and dA. vesicarium to grow luxuriantly on alkali soil 
which would not grow wheat, the bushes being 2 feet across in February, 1899, 
after about seven months’ growth from seed. In this colony, seeds or cuttings 
planted after the first autumn rains will probably give most satisfactory results. 
tis important to bear in mind that the seed must be very lightly covered. Cut- 
tingsmay be 9inches to 12inches long, of young firm wood, set 6 inches to 9 inches 
inthe soil. If the plantation is well protected from stock it will produce large 
quantities of seed and will rapidly extend in area. The Atriplea semibaccaia, so 
avourably spoken of by the Californians, is a prostrate bush with thin stems 
and small leaves of pale-green, and is found in many parts of the North, especi- 
ally on the railway reserves where protected from stock, and single plants will 
often be found covering 4 feet to 6 feet of ground. Cultivation of the land for 
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