322 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Nov., 19v2. 
with forks and burning-rakes, a team or two of oxen on the heavy turf-drags, a 
four-horse team with lighter drags, then three horse-harrows coupled by riders, a 
pair of horses chain-harrowing, and another pair rolling, the burners working the 
turf into wothies (rows), and finally into small heaps, a bunt of straw being tucked 
into the heap on the windy side and fired. When the ashes were hot and 
clean, then was the time to put in the bacon and potatoes to cook for dinner. The 
bacon was wrapped in brown paper and buried in the ashes, as we do with a 
damper; and, take my word for it, with a piece of home-made bread mother 
made, and half-a-pint of beer father brewed, there was a dinner fit for a king, and 
never in any part of the world have I enjoyed a feed so much. 
Anyone visiting Chedworth, in the Cotswolds, in March or April, “ater 
zix o’clock at night,” in fine weather, can see the labourers planting their 
allotments with the breast-plough—potatoes every second furrow, peas in each 
furrow, with barley sown first and turned in 2 inches or so. When planting 
is finished, the ‘“ hoodden hooman” (wooden woman*) is put away in the tool- 
house till next spring. 
By the way, the breast-plough is noé pushed breast-high, but simply 
raised in soft ground to enter, exactly the same as a swing-plough. In hard 
sod land the man takes the beam near the centre, and, with a sharp jab, drives 
the point the required depth; then, stepping back, throws his weight into the 
upper part of the thighs, the beaters hanging from his belt. 
LIME AS A SOIL IMPROVER. 
Mr. W. Brampton, Richmond Hill, writes that he greatly appreciates Mr, 
Brooks’ excellent article on lime as a soil improver in the October issue of this 
Journal. In his own country Mr. Brampton says much of the arable land 
was a stiff clay often impossible to break up, and which ploughed like a bar of 
soap from one end of the furrow to the other. The farmers used to spread 
unslaked lime on the land and plough it in. After some time, the stiff land 
became as friable as an ash bed. He cannot understand what objection there 
can be to this method of putting the lime on the soil, for it saves a great deal 
of work. 
(Theoretically, it would seem better to plough under the lime rather than to 
harrow it in, since the sooner and the more intimately and completely the lime 
is brought into contact with the soil, the more thorough will its action be. All 
that is left uncovered until it has changed to carbonate of lime can never act 
as caustic lime. What is wanted in dealing with lime is rapidity. Once the 
work is commenced it should be hauled, slaked, spread, and ploughed under as 
soon as possible. The great merit of laying outquicklime in small heaps on the 
field and allowing it to slake there is that the powdery product can be distributed 
on the field with Jess annoyance to the workmen than if the slaked lime had to 
be carted.—Ed. Q.A.J.] 
REPORT ON WORK—QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
JULY, 1902. 
Farm.— During the first week, prepares land and sowed Cape barley on 
plot 10 (4 acres). The land was ploughed to a depth of 18 inches by means of 
the road-making plough; the barley was planted at a depth of 3 inches by a 
seed drill. Ploughed 9 acres to a depth of 15 inches, and planted with 
lucerne; owing to the dry condition of the soil, the seed, 10 Ib. to the acre, was 
planted 2 inches deep. Seven tons of pumpkins were haryested from plots 9 
and 10; 2 tons of cowpea from section 1; and 2 tons of po atoes from a portion 
of section 4. Ploughed sections 1, 9, and 4 (5 acres eavh). MHauled stable 
manure, 36 tons to 1} acres, section 9. The steam pump, which lifts 3,000 
* It is never used now on the farm, 
