i Noy., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 309 
machine to move, and at last sending for the machine man who supplies a lot 
of new duplicate parts or even a new machine, for which the farmer has to 
pay. 
Now, just take the advice I here give you. Run up ashed with a few bush 
posts. If you have no slabs, use second-class galvanised iron for roof and sides. 
Fix up a good wide door—a sliding door is the best, and saves wear and tear on 
door and hinges, besides being out of the way of collision with any machine 
going in. Such a building does not take long to put up. You can work at it 
by moonlight if you are very busy. Put all your implements, machines, and 
tools into this shed when not in use. Keep them always ready for work at a 
moment’s notice. Treat them well, and they will not fail you when you require 
their services. 
Give them a coat of paint at least once a year. Lastly, get to know all 
about your machines. Study every part, and how to take them to pieces and 
put them together again properly. And not only study them yourself, but 
teach one or two of your most reliable men. Then, when any little hitch 
occurs, you need not send a telegram or ride 20 miles to bring out an expert in 
machinery. He will cost you a lot of money and time, and you cannot blame 
him when a big bill comes in. Looking after machinery and selling it are his 
business, and his time and labour and skill have to be paid for just as much as 
a doctor’s time and skill. So do not blame the machine man, but blame your 
own carelessness if your machines are allowed to get into such a bad state of 
disrepair that his services are needed, and. furthermore blame your further 
carelessness in not making a practical study of all the working parts of oY 
machine you own. If you follow the advice here given, which 1s advice which 
has been given over and over again in every agricultural journal under the sun, 
it will mean all the difference between profit and loss. 
Care or Horses. 
J will suppose that you have started with two or more really good plough 
horses. They will have cost you anything from £15 to £30 or more each. 
You cannot afford to ill-treat animals like these. Even the most cruel slave- 
drivers in the old slavery days of the United States of America were, with few 
exceptions, careful not to knock-up, starve, or ill-treat their slaves during the 
cotton-picking season. Strong healthy slaves, costing from £80 to £100 each, 
were too valuable chattels to the planter to be trifled with. Your horses are your 
slaves, willing slaves. Treat a good horse kindly, feed him well and judiciously, 
do not overwork him or overtax his strength, and there is nothing in reason 
that he will not willingly do. A well-bred, well-trained, plough horse is the 
most docile and tractable of animals. Then why beat him, starve him, work him 
till he is ready to drop from fatigue and thirst? Why leave him standing 
alongside the plough with his harness on, in the blazing sun without a drink, 
while you and your man go to the house for dinner and a comfortable hour’s 
spell? I have seen this over and over again on farms in Queensland. . Much 
unintentional cruelty is practised by those in charge of working horses, 
especially during the hot summer. In many cases the animals are brought up 
at, say, half-past 5 in the morning. They may have had a drink at a waterhole 
or they may not, for all the ploughman knows. Then they are given a feed 
of dry lucerne hay, possibly some corn. Without any thought of the 
probability of the poor animals being thirsty, they are yoked up and worked 
through the whole morning until midday without being allowed either spell or 
drink, unless the ploughman wants a spell himself. The latter quenches his 
thirst from a water-bag, but never dreams that his cattle may be even more 
thirsty. With a refinement of cruelty, the water-bag may sometimes be seen 
hung to one of the hames, and the unhappy horse that carries it is tantalised 
by the smell and gurgling of the water of which not a drop reaches his lips. 
Then, at noon, the heated animals, mad with thirst, are taken to a waterhole, 
and are allowed to drink all they can, heedless of the possible bad effect of filling 
the empty stomach with a quantity of cold water. 
