Keyline Vol1 No6 Dec 1955

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ilo FRICTIOT{! \

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-{cc,rrdin3 t o Hazen-Williams formula v : 1'318c ft0.6350.5a

Vhen this -l'rrrmula is applied to Harilie's " Fibrolite" lf ater Pipe c-140 andthat's the point

rtnt.ntbet. Theflow of water remains Thrre is r1o rust or tuberculatiort.

tr-,

hish.

* [e deliver in truck load ]ots direct onto your

IEoFrt_v. Srite and ask for information.

Iogpe and price list mailed on request.

Cata-

Don't -prru-.:t; . irrigate! 666fl i11igatr,,a -! r;;r:-,r need "FuL,: Lt." Imigation l![ains. "Fiur:.-::-{stre:t,,:.1 o:ront Pipes cost less . . . ther''re

\ole Manufacturers:

JAMES HARDIE :\ [)\t\ \E\\, \:Ti i )ll,LBr'i R\l BRI:B\).I PERTH...

-\L r-.KL \\[)

..

& C()Y. PTY, LTD,

......Cnr. York and Barrack Strcet. ........324-326 King Srretr ..Cit1, Road arrd Clarendon Street

....Breakfast Creek Road, Neyrtead .\lelshpool ..

.

pcnrose- S.E.fr

n,:-:-'.:-tt

ther lg.tr . Lri.trn:r under working conditirn." ' i --nr Iite" Pi-"t- r:" irght in v-eight. TLis .p,r.d- .r, :.: operEtirL:" tr:. ir3n:port Costs. Sizes: l- : --{railgL,lt i : ;r.n:tr,t delivcry with full ranqt - :.r..-; iron dtll"l.. , a-' *.. irrigation outlets and =il"d:rr u,,,,),,"to =uit 3r1 trrE , t p,rrtable sprayline.

FI

6 DECEMBER, lg5s OFFICIAL JOURNAL ()F THE KEYLINE (RESEARCH) FOUNDATION

Vol. 1, No.

Editorial Correspondence: Keyline Publishing pty. Ltd., Room 6, grh FIoor, 117 Pitr Street, Sydney (BW6912).

Advertisrng Manrger: J. T. O'Mara, Room 2,3rd Floor.283 Elizabeth St., Sydney (MA2bgg). victorian Represenrarive: John Havre, 65A Franklin st., Melbourne (FJ5574-FJ3463).

- --+l ' ---=**+,-*== ,,-i--9-.=-.:3..*.--__------_.'_-

E,DITORIAL latter ITi; favourite

Jack Moses liked to stand in the sun spot in George Street, Sydney.

days

You would

see

him there absorbing the sunshine,

You would not talk with him for two minutes before would be expanding on his theme of Australia as the ckerbox of the World. loday you might feel that his own concept of the Dog the Tuckerbox has been slightly misinterpreted.

about it, the Tuckerbox was Australia's entire vast lands, capable of trebling production. The Dog stood for all those especially Governments who, in a rvay, - the Tuckerbox, but have -not known how to sit tight on get the lid offit.

Except for a magical use of lvater, Jack did not himself have the answer.

That water is an important part of the answer is a fTarnlliar enough concept. What now completes it is the' new technique of Keyline planning which is the fundamental working principle on which the Keyline the principle authori(Research) Foundation is based tativelv referred to by Mr. E..J.-Breakwell as one which had " evaded a veritable army of scientific workers and practical farmers over the past 40 years."

KEvr-rNn

I)ucrtrrtrrn,

1955

W ?RODUCE FON ?RO!PERITY

PRODUCTION PROSPERITV

pecIce

-ond sINcE CREATIoN, men have loined

to conquer \16{u1s-61

have separated

to fight each other for her fruits.

And when men do ioin together-harness to the task their brains and strength, their animals and tools-it becomes possible lor the good earth to support more and more lives. In Australia, lor exampLe, almost nine million people live peacefully and prosperously in a land that once barely supported a handful of Aborigines.

BUT, IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD, CLOSE TO OUR SHORES, NEIGHBOURS LIVE AND DIE, NEVER HAVING EXPERIENCED ANYTHING BUT POVERTY AND HUNGER,

Now, if we can produce more, ar,d produce it more cheaply, we can not only support ourselves in increasing prosperity and help even more in feeding our kinsmen, we can help feed our neighbours, too.

Ancl, in so sharing this richer harvest ol Nature's fruits, we go lar to making it unthinkable that men should ever separate and fight for them.

HOW IS THIS GOAL OF PEACE THROUGH PRODUCTION AND PROSPERITY

TO BE REACHED?

to produce ihe food at lower cosi . . .

IT{D THE MTN OI{ THE LAND W'II F'T{'SH THE JOB , . .

lndustry can, and will, produce ihe tools

NUFFIEI,D Sold

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Kr YlrNn

ilu*Ero(AusTRA,.,A)

pTY. [T0.,

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UNIT

Serviced

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by Aullio'i;:: r-=r:

THE 8R:

I :'-:i!:!it &

S' k:-:n ::t;:ilTl0N

Deolero Everywhere

(AusIRAtlAl PTY.

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SE,CRE,TARY'S

(ql,tno A Vol.

NAT/O NAt

NOTT,S

AGRICULTURAT /OURNAT

I, No. 6

December,

1955

INDEX

I

itorial Secretary's Notes .. .. lrrigation on the Keyline Pattern The Big Scrub. .

An lnvestor's Angle on Balance Sheets .

Meet the Bunyip Ed

1

3

12 '18

20 23

26

A Line on

30

Books

Furnishing Country Feminine Angles The Enthusiastic Prisoner

34

40 44

NE (RESEARCH) FOUNDATTON TRUSTEES

(Prusident)

Sir C. STANTON HICKS

Prof. J. R. A. McMILLAN

G. B. S. FALKINER

A. HORDERN Jnr.

(YicrPresident)

D. R. McCAUGHEY (Vice- Presidcnt)

C. R. McKERIHAN (Hon, Treasurer)

JOHN DARLING lvIrs. P.

A, YEOMANS

l!{rr. A. HORDERN Jur.

Harold N. Sarina (Organising

Sccretary)

Trro Keyr-rNr (Rrsre,ncn) FouNoerroN is an agricultural research organisation constituted for the purpose of investigating and applying techniques of land development originated by P. A. Yeomans at North Richmond, N.S.W.; and to publish the results of further research and development.

"Krvlwo" is the official journal of the Foundation and welcomes contributions on all topics of interest to men on the land. These will be paid for at standard rates or better, according to quality. Where possible, articles should be accompanied by photographs.

Ail contributions and editorial correspondence should be addressed to the Editor, "Keyline", Room 6, Bth Floor, 117

j =^^*

14

.

Land Development Building with Earth

P. A. YEOMANS

Pitt Street, Sydney.

ARELY is one able to depart from tiroroughness once it has been practised and results achieved.

Recently, the Foundation received a letter from N{r. R. E. Farrell, acting general-manager of the Newcastle Abattoir, who stated: ',We have b.., .orrsidering improving the pastures of our paddocks and are interested in the Keyline process of pasture improvement. We would be pleased if you would forwarcl us any pamphlets or information dealing with th:s matter. We were wondering also il it rvould be possible lbr us to arrange an inspection of Mr. yeomans,s property at Richmond at a date convenient to you.

We would be grateful if you would advise us if you could assist in this matter."

Mr. Farrell's name reminded me of Mr. Charles l'arrell, who also holds an executive position at the Newcastle Abattoir. I do not know whether R.E. is related to Charles, but from the tone of the letter it would appear that he also believes in progress. It was Charles's policy to try and do better and still better.

"Near enough" is not "good enough,, for him. This I experienced, and I might say enjoyed, when acting as secretary to the N.S.W. branch of the Austraiian Pig Society. For a considerable time Charles Farrell was a committeeman and later president. Betlveen ancl at meetings we were always on the qui aiae as to what

rrext he rvould be bringing forwarcl.

It

is m<tst irrtersting to hear the varied opinions

to whether Keyline ON THE

ffi"

4

Business Profile

KEYL|

N*-/r

r

COVER

.;rjr*'1, Jit'lffi.^b,.

as

,"

undulating country. This is not so. Keyline applies to all types of property. Quite recently we heard indirectlv

that Mr. David Hamilton, or Rylstone, chisel-

A typicol ofternoon scene on Mr. P. A, Yeomons,s Keyline property, Nevollan, ot Norrh Richmond (N.S.W.).

ploughed a flat area with a cover crop of clover ancl oats. The result, he stated, has been fantastic. The crop,

both clover and oats, has germinated to such an extent, regardless of the fact that he has already fed-off on a Continued on page 10

Krvt-rxl:

I)Ec:nr'rnnn, 1955

IRRIGATIO}T

By P. A. YEOMANS

Tl |

ir ( \Lr enrci\ d,rul-,rfltrl rvhcthel L.p,.,.-irri:arion equipmcnt rr,..

.- :

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,,1

-

Ialnrcr'. un the basis of pasture-irr -. mzlde t.r p.rv under Australian corLd:, -

..

. :li

-

irr

r ,dLr, tion-per'-acre ent( r r cla.s d-,rr'', lirnrs. It may pay fbr' .:..-. irre:1r.,::-r. But, fol ordinalr' :l::' plri-,ri',-rr. rnv experience leiicl: r::rr;-. -:r r -a.rtiotr is a dubious 'Jl 1,i-1.-1

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.

.- -:-.id : - ,r,I1C :. : :ltat

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I-

t'':

l:,.'.;: ,,:-ie in time of drought.

i:-:r- e commercial point -, -. -. --:iie embarrassing. \ft- -:-.. : :,=ciior-i

s:,,. --: lbr some time rmakes and

- . t,luipment.

' :-.-.rr', and

ffi$=

i

-usion

---:h, of' , Las no l

-,

-:rinelt'

Spr er

:-:. erluipment, designcd-:,:..r:Irt. I lravc lrt, doul,L :.

:

-,-

as

a ttalural affer Li, ' :rr itrt ed I have a y, . .rln not satisfied tliat t1:1. ,

.,n the --..igne r .:.'. I arn

- ButI

--- make

,

lalmel ar.i lrted to give the r'.:.. :,r)l possibilitier rf K. lirllv tested.

Il it is rnalketed.

-:re evcrage

-..e hesi".:rtii the -:I - ILOI'e

.

....

o1'

.

rr, e

rpct ifir' kirrd c,l'adr c:

.. .ine

-

:

. -',ith

a

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lling.

:::n

drain.

'.,.

-

Left: Woter leoving il e :-'. .'

Below: Flowing freely c'

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Y., _*4^ s.*'

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..:.r.

1955

on the KEYLII\E, PATTE,RI\ It must be sold as a. sort of insurance _ that rvay, a reasonable u"a ."tutirr.iy ""t Iooked at .up proposi_ tion rather than as u ol .lr.up -.u"r' .q";o";irg pasture. Spray_irrigation- will gro* pi"rr.,re; but, in my experience, it isn't cheap.

I didn't reach tL. )rears now r have b#.x?t1TJffiT?HJffi#i water-conservation and water_ur..

Ii_ still doing so. ro go back a few years. InJune, .buitding 11! lg44,westarted dams on yobarnie, Rich_ mond (N.S.W. ) properties. I., the """.-;i;;'North foilowir;;* months

hve dams, cver so much.larger rhan those days, hacr be"en

the;;;;. Farmer,s .;;;i;;;.';;rmers and

.t

9.1T vrewlng ulncrs the work, would remark are you going to do with all that *ut..ii

:

,,\Vhatever

The answer is simple : one can never have too much \^/ater on a farm or

the,*.:::l1A*r:::i'fl# ;:lJ'il.];: urd p'li"lorii.u, *".. constructed: the object being country.

rn

dams, wirh their feeder_aru"i.r',

to save aii the run_off.

with this conserved water in .^1_fi.* began irrigating .'nL, 1e4s.A pipeline

*""rely

.""pI;J;;^;iJ

outlet of one of the dams and a sma-li u."u'_u, ,p.)yl;.6*u,.6.

Over the next ten years various techniques

"r"d: rrrtgators. y_-...i:_.

spray-irrigation

Holf o mite from the dom

the

flow

of irrigation

rvith i;;;g,

is stiil

giant

strong ond steody.

In

1945

or

involving the

1946 we began a seiies of experiments ,.rra *ut.r-to deadJevel

use of drains"to

_co-ntour-furrows nhich overflowed down the hillsides.

We even used the method ]-.rti"gifr. \.\,ater go, azardly downh:l.j*t ili.

AII theie experiments lrph ::^.:I:, rn very patchy resurtecl waterinq.

pumped from one of our larger dams . .ln l9ai,;a,,eturkey_nest dam, which *u, .orll"d to u ill:1:Trtl rrne oI prpes running,thro rgh the high counrry the heads of the va"lleys. fr.ri, *rr"rrJ*ro above prodr.. pasture

for beef-cattle but, after the cost oloperations was worked out, it was abandonad u, u, ,rrr.conomic

proposition for fattening beef. We even conside.ed th^e_ operation" of dead_flat .orrio.r, temaces .- a series of bavs _ for flood irrigation, but found the costs were tot high. and priced

We did^establish, of course, during those years, what every golf-gr.een keepcr in the Courity oi C'umbe.land knows and has known lor a long tim. _ ,hl, on. .rn grow good grasses with artificia"i fertilisers and of water. But the cosr of p"*p;"g ;;"riiyi,.,gplerrty ,rra shifting spray-lines was excessive when considered in

terms of returns from beef_cattle. .T!.", following the success of the Keyline technique, rvhich.developed deep soit ,"d g;;J;;r,r.., .,rd", condirions ol narural rainlall o, Hi""rflulrl",i. U.gon o

Posture shortly after irriEotiono,,rr1r!r:;.U potches indicoting obsorption

Kr ylrxr

1)ricl:rrrrn,

l g55

of experiments, using the Keyline pattern of cultivation as a means of distributing irrigation water.

This led to Keyline Pattern Irrigation, which permits

are crossed, and three of them are found to be very

series

suitable dam sites, dams should be constructed at these places, and a drain along the Keyiine will collect water

a large volume of water to be spread evenly over the surface of the sloping land below the drains, very rapidly and extremely economically.

for them.

It all follows logically from the Keyline Plan and, as a technique of irrigation, it is ridiculously easy. Three or four dams flowing as much as half a million gallons an hour can be controlled efficiently by one man. I\tro power costs. Just turn the tap. I doubt whether any other method of irrigation, even flood irrigation, is as cheap or as efficient.

outlet, a drain is made for the dispersal of water. The drain falls into the lower country at five feet in 1000.

The efEciency of the technique of irrigating from the dam through this drain line depends on the pattern ol Keyline cultivation. Keyline cultivation prevents the

In the construction of a Keyline dam a pipeline r,r,ith a valve outlet is laid through the wall. From this

rapid concentration of nater in the valleys,

But let us go back a bit, to the Keyline Plan itself. development and improvement of land on the Keyline Plan, drains are not used for protection.

I)rains are used only for the conserwation of water in dams or for the dispersal of stored water for use. The use ol this stored water in undulating country is best achieved by Keyline Pattern Irrigation.

In undulating country, where rainfali conditions

This is the pattern of distribution of rain. The same pattern applies in the distribution of water from dams for irrigation. And as with rain the pattern of - water from the - drain over the cultivation spreads the surface of the land evenly.

By merely turning a tap or valve (which may be 4,6 or B inches in size) the drain is filled right through to the extremity of the area to be watered and, from

In the

ale suitable for the storage of water and soil conditions are suitable for the construction of dams, the Keyline, which is normally or theoretically a true contour line, is pegged in as a gently rising line which serves as the marker for a drain.

that point, allowed to overflon,. As the area most distant

from the dam is watered, further blocks are made in the drain, progressing back to the dam site. By this means, seepage areas below the drain can be adjusted to the right amount of water as the watering continues back to the valve outlet.

Starting from the first valley of the property, the Keypoint is located and the Keyline, rising at, sa1',

in

The Keyline method of soil development also led us to the discovery of what is the main failure of irrigation.

This failure is due to the boosting from the soil of an

in the direction ofthe general rise ofthe country, is pegged and suitably marked. As each successive valley is crossed by this drain line, the

five

1000

unnatural growth of apparently iush, healthl' pasture with the aid of water and superphosphate; u,hich, in time, does build a thin layer of black, apparenrh'

Keypoint is located : either by the drain, or as a new Keypoint, sited, usually, higher than the first part ol the line, and continuing thrr:ugh the various valleys.

The Keypoints and Keylines of the valieys locate the

healthy, topsoil. But the extraction of minerals from this soil by the shallow-rooting growth of grasses under irrigation usually proceeds at a more rapid pace than the formation of fertile soil from above. Eventuallr'. the end point is reached u,hen lvater and heaviel ancl

highest, most suitable, sites for storing water. Once the Keyline, or Keylines, are marked through the country, it 1,\,ill be seen quite clearly where the best dam sites are.

II, on this Keyline or series of Keylines

heavier applications

six valleys

Quorry Dom on Yobornie constructed 1944. Filled by o droin which collects rood woter. },ffi Se

ffi, :l&

Kl vlrNr

dis-

persing it, and holding it on the hills and ridges until these have absorbed water to their maximum capacity.

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of super'. lail to ploduce rlrr

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Drcenarn,1955

earlier, sometimes spectacular, results, Then such

out-cropping yellow shale

have, r.rnder the influence

of the moisture-retaining- Keyline cultivation above the tree rorvs, turned into about a foot of soil which

farming becomes unprofitable.

These indications, then, arising from the working out

looks reasonably fertile, after three years.

of the Keyline Plan and from later observations on Nevallan, raised doubts concerning the wisdom of

We didn't notice any particular der.elopment of this soil until about lB months after the t'ork above the treelines started. From then on development $'as rapid. Earth\,\,orms came into the tree rows last year, and in March this year, earthworm casts \,r,ere evervn,here. The drift of moisture downhill fi'om the flou, irrigation will no doubt make for more rapid develop-

using spray-irrigation on an ordinary grazing property.

Except, as I mentioned earlier, as insurance in time of drought. At those times it could be the means of saving the larm.

With the Keyline flow method of irrigation, or Keyline Pattern Irrigation, cultivation plays a very importanl- part, not only in the distribution of water, but in the aeration of the soil. When the soil shows the first sign of compaction it should be cultivated. If this is done, water, air, sun, all play their proper part in the rapid development of deep, fertile soil.

On lrlevallan, under conditions of natural rainfall, Keyline methods have produced, from shale and sand subsoil, from one loot to two feet of reasonably fertile soil, rvith approximately three cultivations. Nou,that earthworms have entered the picture further culti-

ment of the land and pasture belor,r,.

Keyline dams and Keyiine Pattern Irrigation, then, provide the most economical means of conserving water in dams, the most economical means of constructing

high, r,aluable dams, combined nith the

Efficient collection and efficient distribution. There is no profit in huge water-storage in dams unless the r,r'ater

is used lor some profitable purpose. Relativeiy small dams rvili supplv all the u,ater needed b1' stock. These Iarge dams, r,r,ith their pipe and vah,e-outlet, providc a cheap sorlrce of irrigatiorr, a means of usir-rg the r,r,ater

rration may be unnecessary.

Under the Keyline system of irrigation it would be

for maximum profit.

possible to cultivate in the summer, immediately the soil shows signs of needing it, without restricting in fact, accelerating the growth and quality of- the

Recentlv, discussing one of our dams u.hich cost d540 to construct and u'hich contains slightly more than 15 million sallons of u,ater, it u,as estimated that the dam was r.r,orth d6000 Bv putting in the Kevline, all thc best dam sites can be seen immediately. \,Vhen dams are made on all the best sites, and the rvater is being used, it u'il1

pasture, thereby aerating the soil and using these factors of fertility (which are so important) to produce the same soil more quickly; perhaps in one year instead of three.

Another very important aspect of the efficiency of Keyline Pattern Irrigation is the fact that nearly all the water used goes on the land. In spray-irrigation rarely more than 60 per cent. of the water pumped under pressure into the air reaches the ground; 40 per cent. or so evaporates. A dissipation of power and money into the air.

Under the conditions of Keyline Pattern Irrigation

Fighting a bmhfire

r,r'ater is used on the hillsides above anyflat 1and. As the

advance you must make sure of a base to

be found that this rvater is so mnch more vaiuable than

one anticipated rvhen one didn't have it, that, providing rvater is still leaving the propertl,, all the less ecoriomic dam sites r,l,ili be used, too.

And about other aspects of Kel4ine Patter-n "vhatFor instance, its usefulness in busl.rfires.

Irrigation? is

like fighting a \\'ar.

Re

",

lore \ ou can hich \'a:l aarl

retreat if the enemv is too stronq: line. i: c ::-,::-, .:.:cation;re-scrves..\ btr.l'rfir't rri1l ,,t:t:t:.: j.'..-:'. ,: .: :a: it is too dangerous ta a:::.r a: a :r'-:r,-.., .:;.-t. \\::ir Ker'line Partern Ilr':::ri' r-- -: r. orllr' lecessarv io turn

soil develops, the drift of moisture, instead of going straight down into the subsoil from which it may not come back tends to drift -along the fertile zone of the topsoil -(which may be a foot deep after a year) down to the lower, flat areas of the property. This means that all the land below the irrigation area u,ill improve without direct irrigation; a drift ol moisture and fertility from the irrigated land abor.e. This, of course, is a complete reversal of the usual method of irrigating flat land, leaving the hills alone.

ti.re tap. fi1l rht d:air. a:c star.t ir-rigating, and vou have a fir'n }rase. Ii the rlhole propert)' is patterned (in urdula:irg countrr.) bv the Ker.line irrigation techriiclue, onlv a \-erv small part of it rvill need to be protected from the fire.

Bushfires i,viIl probably be bad this year. Tirc best protection from fire is to stock heavily, kcep paddocks

Irrigation of Keylined land can dominate and fertility ofan area ofiand double the area

eaten down, and take the usual precautions as the fire season approaches; or, under a s)'stem ,f Kerline development, develop from mixed pastur-er :. a complete dominance of lucerne. A good pa:::: :': lucerne never gets dry and burns.

So, between, say, Iucerne protect-:,: ,::. --l't-hazard areas, and the Keyline pattern sl-. i:-. '. .::,- plotection to the property, bushfir'e . :... i ' -r :,o great

increase the

actually iruigated. We have had a considerable experience of the effect of this drift of moisture downhiil at Nevailan: not, as it happens, under irrigation. But the evidence ofwhat happens under conditions of natural rainfall, over a period of a few years, gives a very useful indication of what could happen under irrigation. Tree rows with soil almost pure white, in places; in others, yellor,r, or pink subsoil; and again, straight,

Kryr,rNn

cheapest

method oldisposal and dispersion of the water so stored.

problem.

B

'r..i,

1355

IIIIIT!---

I ;ned

I

i

iI iI ,

in Australia

- built in

Australia

lYtG ltuclot onlv the wilh these f[lUB

imsollunl leulules IIIt'II' h,?

t""i

.l::'::

t,.ad ^ll"Jt'

wi 19'^ J:"':'":-':,:Il"'i't:1"il: ;:1"

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L::.::1 :il1t"'.rl " : r:: l::'a':'"1;'; lt.tlt';-:::,,i?"1""1':"'"."lt..x'-.T"::::

-uir ffi :*j:#d*.hl*'n1;j:'!j .:P:l'"'"'';:'"i

di s-

'1"i"',":ln.3t ,T,[r:l:','::'';'il;;' 'prtion under rua-'

- -"r_toughened rubber

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pql

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i Traltgnp TYRES I TRAGToR

sIIIIIIIIIII! THE GREATEST GRIP OtI EARTH !

Kn vr,rNE

Decounrx,1955

SECRETARY'S I{OTES Continued from page

3

couple of occasiorrs, that

it rvill norv be difficult

harvest the oats.

Another

to

*"*p".i",r.. ir,..lr,;lg

rvhich

the

""., P. A. Yeomans), N{rs. Yeomans and President (N{r.

I had was when attending the recent official opening o1 the Soil Conservation Station at Scone, visiting \{r.

Norman E. \Vright's property at \{errirva, arid attendins conlbrences of representatives of'sraziers at N4erriwa and Shires' Presidents at Singleton. \Vhile in the Scone, Cassilis-N{errin.a, SingletonMaitland and Branxton areas \\.'e \\'ere able to inspect soil types, particularly black, fr om the point of vierv of how they, in conjunction rvith the terrain of the

Recent yisitors

to Nevollan-Above: A. M. Bloin, former,

country, n'ould respond to the Ker'line Plan. Over many years Mr. Yeomans had rvide mining experience in and around a1l the said areas, and, after relicshing his memory, he is convinced that there is no area that rvould more successfully and economicalll' respond to the Ke1-line Plan. He does, hou.ever, appreciate that in some cascs black soil has a thin, sunbaked surlace into lvhich it is difficult for tvater to penetrate, and that dam construction fi'om a holding point of view is a problem. He is convinced, though, that both these problems can be overcomc by a techniclue he is nor,r, investighting which u,ill beneficially affect dam con-

surveyor

for the N.L, whose wide knowledge ond experience of the Austrolian lond coused him to comment thot the Keyline ptan could bring yost oreos of poor-closs country into useful production. ond former M.H.R.

struction.

We saw black soil contour banks associated r,vith laree

erosion gaps, this mainly brought about by the tunnelling effect in the type of soil, with later cracking

Below: F. S. Crofts, B.Sc.Agr., Lecturer in Agronomy ot Sydney University, with o group of finol-yeor students.

and collapse of the banks. Keyline cultivation '"vi11 eiiminate the heavily constructed banks and successlully meet this situation.

A two-hour air.rrriol, ; ;" Kerlirre t'la. lor tlLc retention and direction of r-ainu'atel as it lalls rrt properties took place rvith replesentatiles

rt1-

Vallev Local Government Recorr.tilrctioil

the H,.ri.ter

-\.oti;ti-rr

on Saturdar', \ovember 5. aliel rthich discr-is:ion a unanimons decision rras reached . itittr alia, to support the Kcr'line Plan as a means of controliingflood-r,r,,aters

in the Hunter \-alle1'.

Foilorving the conferences at Nllerrirva and

Scone

nianv applications from farmers and graziels u,itlrin the areas lor Kevline service and 1br farms to lte clesignatecl Kevline Demonstration Properties, have beerr rcceir-cd ; all of these are receiving attentiorr.

In conriection with the abovementioned re1],.. ir rra> in the "Sydney \Ion-i:,: Herald" of November 1l that d25,000 is to lre .rt:rr bv a interesting to read

I"oundation which r'vill carry out a fir'e-'..r:,r :r tramrne ol research in the preparatioli .r1 ,, : ,--::--.u of the Hunter Valley, extensive me.l:Lrrc: - .-. : :tc,u- and heights and a sulvey of Neu'cr.stl. L:-.: .r':r1'ollielns.

Believing that the adoption oitl:t -{:' --,,. P-an u.ould Kr'.yr-rNn

l0

1. .r.r:1r.,

1955

be a maior factor in the prevention of floods and at tire

same time create higher fertility, the

Keyline

(Research) Foundation is prepared to co-operate with the newly appointed Foundation in its endeavour to reach the desired objective.

Although he had little knowledge of the Keyline Pian, he evinced much interest while at the office, and has taken back to New Zealand quite a deal of information from which he hopes to write articles lor the "Press".

.*.*Ur..."sidered applications field officers. Each applicant must of for the positions The Trustees have

Much interert i, ,.o,J irJrrg tut.r, in New Zealand, concerning the aims and objects of the Keyline (Research) Foundation, and articles are being published in the "New Zelatd Exporter". Recently, a letter was received lrom the editor, Mr. C, W. Burnard, who states

"I

:

am very impressed with the vigorous and forceful

natllre of your movement and with the support it is receiving from people of notable standing in Australia.

Mr. Boyd, of Kameruka, has already offered me photographs of the estate, and I have accepted his offer. I intend publishing one or two articles, and while I think that in the main Keyline is much more applicable to your conditions than to ours, I do think that it holds considerable interest for farmers here."

It

is also known that the "New Zealand Herald"

proposes to publish articles on the Keyline Plan.

Further New Zealand interest is shown by a visit made to the oflice of the Foundation by Mr' M' R' Craighead, of the "Press", Christchurch. Mr' Craighead recently spent six weeks in Australia as a student of the Robert Bell Trainee Scholarship in Journalism.

He has toured Victoria rather extensiveiy and seen a little of South Australia; unfortunately he was only able to make a hurried visit to properties in N'S.W. He went over the Snowy River Scheme: in addition to his interest in general matters appertaining to the man on the land, he is studying agricultural irrigation.

have had an agricultural training and practical experience, and will go through a school on Keyline principles before appointments are made. A11 steps are being taken to have at least some of these officers available for service during this coming January. In the meantime, or,r'ing to the incessant demand for service, Mr. Yeomans and an ofiicer of the Foundation will endeavour to cope with inquiries for service.

Until such time as all the present applicants have been satisfactorily dealt with preference for service will be given to members of the Foundation.

Department oieg.i.Jl,,r]" ok...., including Messrs.

Poggendorff, Chief of the Division of Plant Industry, and John L. Green, who administers the Regional Extension Serwices, together with extension oflfrcers of the South Coast and Tablelands agricultural

W. G.

regions visited Nevallan

on September 6, 1955, and

were shown the workings of the Keyline PIan by Mr. P. A. Yeomans.

The party visited all paddocks and had an opportunity to see what the country was like before Mr. Yeomans commenced his improvement work and also what it was possible to do in a brief period of three

years. These officers of the Department were happy to see that Mr. Yeomans was using grasses and clovers most suitable to the district, such as Rhodes-grass, as Continued on page 47

A/so L. to

ot Nevo/lon r.: l. W. G.Smith,

District

Doiry Officer, Moss Vole; N.

J.

Doug/os, District Agronomist, Queonbeyon; M. A. K. McDonold, District Agronomist, Kiamo; K. F. Flemons, District Agronomist, Bego ; Boyle, District Agronornist,

J. W.

Parromotta',

R.

Thomson, District

Agronomist, Goulburn

i

F.

D.

McKenzie, District Agronomist, Edst Moitland; W. W. Poggendorff, Chief of the Division of Plont lndustry,

N.S.W. Deportment of Agriculture; L. Flint, Farmer, Foxground; ond John L. Green, Executive Officer, Regiono/ Extension Services, N.S.W.

Deportment of Agriculture.

Kr,vr.rNe

DEcruerin,

1

955

and luscious. Introduced pasture species increased the food availability to the grazing animals, so that the carrving capacity was improved. More dairy produce was taken offeach acre until a high maximum was reached. rain-forest, grew strong

THE. BIG

SCRIJB

Then began the decline.

As produce continued (and stiii continues) to leave the farms in the cream-cans or with the pig and calf transport, Iittle r'vas done about putting back into the

By IAN DAWSON

soil that lvhich was taken out. Because much of the plant

material taken from the soil consisted mainly of the principal bone and milk minerals calcium and phosphorus, these u'ere applied as chernical fertilisers to the soil, to make up the deficiency.

HERE'S a moral for all land-users in the story of "The Big Scrub."

"You knou', there's something going wrong with this country. When I was a boy, at this time of year the grass would be over the barb-wire fences."

One often hears a remark like this, particularly from elderly farmers, in the Big Scrub area of the N.S.W. North Coast.

But the years of depletion had taken their toll' As other minerals were used, aluminium oxide had become free, so that it and other factors prevented the superphosphate or the lime from entering and becoming part of the soil structure. part of the soil solution It leached away almost as- soon as applied.

The Big Scrub area is a large part of the catchment area of the Richmond River, and the wiser heads ot flood mitigation committees there realise that not a little of the reason for the increasingly present danger of flooding is the lack of water-holding capacity in the Big

When Captain Rous discovered the Richmond River, in lB2B, there existed, over an area olsome 400 square miles, a rich red loam on which stood a luxuriant growth of vigorous tropical jungle. This thick rainforest, from which was to come some beautiful timbers, was referred to as the "Big Scrub". Cedars from it must valuable furniture '-nor,v be part of furniture gracing offices and rooms all- over the world.

Scrub soil.

The evident decline in fertility was follon'ed by a series olii-rvestigations. A11 sorts of tests lvere conducted

at and about the Wollongbar Experiment

Unspoiled, untouched by fire or rabbit, by axe or

plough, year after year, the plant grolvth died and dropped leaves; stems and whole trees decayed and returned to the soil the plant foods in a form ideally suitable to the continuing cycle of plant growth.

Roots of the larger plants reached deep into the soil, bringing up the then ever-present plant-grolvth elements, There was no shortage of lime or phosphorus.

The necessity for trace elements was unknown, because

the leaves dropping from the deep-rooted trees contained all that was ever necessary for maximum grorvth.

Certain also is the fact that the Big Scrub soils do t'rot to orthodox agricultural practices. Indeed it seems that to turn the soii is to hasten the leaching and depletion of the all-important organic matter, so that the soil reverts to an inert chemical structure.

Settling as it did, the decaying plant material maintained food for the desirable bacterial and earthrvorm population. It increased the soil's water-holding capacity to a degree that would be in keeping with a home gardener's most fanciful dreams today.

respond

Horvever, an accidental remedy makes itself apparent. Farms that are neglected, understocked by

Shortly after the visit of Captain Rous the first settlers arrived. The beautiful timbers of the Big Scrub developed an industry that paralleled a minor gold-strike. Trees were cut and fortunes were made.

Bullock-drivers and their teams found their way throughout the Big Scrub. Hotels and wild, hard

indolent farmers or rested by the more observant, shorv an improved productivity, particularly where a fence line adjoins one that is stocked to capacity'

Whilst they are going ahead rvith investigations, Agricultural Officers are following the common sense procedure of recommending that land-ou'ners endeavour to have their soil build up a sr-rpplr' of organic matter. They are advised to subdivide so that their paddocks may be grazed rotationall''. thus alior'ving each area in turn to be given as I-nricl, I'est as possible.

days followed.

Land was cleared, first for camps, for bullock-team pasturage, then for the actual process of settling the Iand and gaining a living fi'om its fruits.

For a long time the pastures, drawing on the richly abundant humus available in the wake of the natural Kn

vlrNr

Farm.

did seem to be forthcoming. The absence of minor or trace elements was thought responsible for the decline of productivity. One theory advanced lvas that liming in large quantities was unnecessary in almost all circumstances, because all it had ever done 'vvas to make available the minor amount of the vital trace element. Perhaps that is correct. Mol,vbdenum seemed certain to produce results il a minute amount rvas added to superphosphate top-dressing. Zinc ar-rd copper seemed to give positir-e results.

Progress

Continued on Page 12

4

!.crrreea,

1955

KNOW YOUR PASTIIRES

(./vo

+)

SunrrnxaNr,aN Cr-ovEll

The best known are :

Name

Raiffill

Growth Period Early Early Early

pH

Requirements

Dr,r,alganup Yarloop

14" 18"

to 18" 5.5

to Bacchus Marsh 18" to Mt. Barker 18" to Clare 18' to Tallarook 25" to

to

35" 5.5 to 30" 5.5 to 25" 5.5 to 25" 5.5 to 40" 5.5 to

7 7

Life Clcle

Annual Annual Annual Mid-Season Annual Late Annual Late Annual

The use of this clover in Australian pastures where climate permits establishment has, perhaps, been the greatest single factor causing increase in primary produce. Its success in economic fixation of nitrogen is due to ability to persist rvith fertility and moisture requirements lower than that needed by the reds and rvhite clovers.

Before selection of seed mix is made climatic restrictions and gror,r,th season should be studied. Associated will also be governed by climate. Superphosphate at a rate of not less than 160ibs. per acre should be used to assist establishment and all clover seed should be inoculated.

Mt. Borker stoin.

grasses sown

Former Anderson suggests thot

you

BUY ONLY FROM EXPERTS I FOUR CHECKS FOR BUYING SEED WISELY GET THE MOST FROM KEYLINE TEGHNIQUE

t/

for

v

for obsence of "DEAD SEEDS"

f

reedom from "WEED

SEEDS"

thot ruin

thot do not

poddocks,

grow.

for "GOOD STRAIN,, thot t/Y will give o hiqh yield.

v

for no "DEAD WEIGHT" in dust, husks.

:|t"".J":[.

"'

Write now for 4 folders and post free-on -free the following: {.The Clover Family * The Subterranean Clover Family

{ The Rye Grass Family * Pasture Plants of Promise (for Northern N.S.W.

> > p

and Queensland.)

STRONG GR0VV'TH

-

from laboratory tests

modern machine dressing removes ... weeds, dust,

BESI PEDIGREE

from experienced setections

CTEAN SEED

husks,

Section of our seed testirg loboraldcy Andersons Seeds Ltd. have been established for over 9l years.

Andgrsons

ANDERSONS SEEDS LIMITED, Church Street, 'Phone: Bega

Krvr,rNe

Bega 621

90 PARRAMATTA ROAD,

Earle Street, Coff,s Harbour 'Phone:179

IJ

romous stE D$

SUMMER HILL,

N.S.W.

.

UA2851

68 Boundary Street, Brisbane,

eueensland.'Phone:

86321

I)rcelrnrn,1955

An INVE,STOR,S ANGLE. By

A, C.

on BALANCE,

MOYES

SHE,E,TS

him to act as their watchdog for this purpose. The

and projects which pay their way serve Lrs best. The financial health, or otherwise, of any -f undertaking can be ascertained by an examination of its balance-sheet and relevant profit and loss account. Hence the importance of being able to "read" and understand these trvo statistical documents. For

T)LANS

directors, not the auditors, are responsible for management of the business and the policy pursued. If a majority of shareholders become clissatisfied nith directors, they can hand them their hats ifthey choose to do

a variety of reasons they are studied by shareholders by prospective the risk-takers in the venture

so.

There are no hard and last rules about the rvay in which the liabilities and assets should be set out, or as to what information should be given. Interpretation of the figures becomes more or less difficult according to the degree of disclosure. Only b1'examining sufficient data can the capacity of management be judged.

Financial data alone telis but part of the story of what is happening, or has happened, in any business. It is the things which brought about the financial results that matter. The modern trend is towards disclosure and explanation of these things, so far as this is unlikelv to prejudice or damage the activities of the undertaking concerned. Such a sulvey is an immense aid to both correct interpretation of the figures and assessment of a company's immediate prospects.

-investors, by trade union officials, by- taxation authori-

ties, by the Treasur,v, b,v trade rivals, and by banks (especially in connection with overdrafts) and other lenders, etc,

Let us start by defining our terms. What is a balancesheet? Broadly speaking it is a "still" of a moving position a statement designed to show the financial

position -of a business in a static condition at a siven date. The profitableness, or otherwise, of the undertaking is shown in the relevant profit and loss account 1br the period covered by the statement.

The balance-sheet sets out on the one hand funds in possession, and on the other hand the way in which these funds are used, or invested. This is done by summarising and classify'ing the various accounts in the

The first step toward analysis and interpretation ol the balance-sheet itselfis to group or arrange the figures

in a way in which the financial

ledger, ajob carried out by the specialist, or accountant.

The correctness and accuracy of his rvork is checked by an independent and qualified auditor, whose certificate is addressed to the shareholders who appoint

structure falls into perspective, thus enabling the picture to be seen readily as a balanced whole. The follor,ving diagram shows how this can be done: Continued overleaf

LIABILITIES

---T--nte rn al

I

I

l

Sharelcapital

II

Res e rv es I I

O rd i nary

Prefe re n ce

Specific Exte r n al I

I

Fixed i

Debentu res

lt Qverdr-aft

Mn..l"g",

rtoJing Trade

crediiors. etc

*-T--

ASSETS

I

I

Fixed

Trad ing

I

Freeiloldr, Pl"lnt, st ulres leaseholds etc. subsidiaries

Kg yLlxn

I I

lntangibles

eJt debts

Drcrrteun,

1955

I I I

i I

i

\N

I

i

i i

i i

I I

!

i

I

i i

i i i I I

"Would you pleose sto.p showing your pathetic lack of knowledge about inlernational and national'affatrs, sir ? If you ,in ,roa,--iiy Tue BumrrN and bring yourseff up to date.,,

MEN X/HO MATTER READ

rtBolletin NINEPENCE WEEKTY

ALt NEWSAGENTS

I

i I

.!.D,-(-o-o-o--o

Keyt,rxl

,-o-o-o-t)-r.}

l5

i i

I)r.crir,reoa, lg,5.i

By separating the liabilities into their interrral and external categories you can see immediately how much outside money (external liabilities) is being used in the

to the business as a going concern, except in the event of liquidation, or take-over, when their market value becomes the chief consideration. Freeholds and

business

buildings should be suitable for the purposes for which they are used, and suitably located. Give particular attention to the chief earning assets. It would be sheer economic folly for a manufacturer to pay large and increasing dividends if'his plant rvas inefficient, and if adequate allowances had not been made for needful replacements and repairs, because neglect in these respects rvould ultimately cripple one of the means by rvhich he earned dividends.

and how much belongs to shareholders (internal liabilities) . And by splitting the assets as a

rvhole in twain fixed and trading can see at - Iouand external once how much -of the total funds (internal liabilities combined) is invested in assets of a fixed or permanent nature from which the business is carried

on, and how much is emploved in assets rvhich are turned over in the ordinarv course oftrading, and from profits distributable as dividends are earned.

The gearing of the capital account, and the security and rights attached to preference shares, debentures and notes, as well as the status ofordinary shareholders, r,vere discussed in the October, 1955, issue of "Keyline."

The most vulnerable points in the retailer's armour are probably stocks and book debts. At the same time

a modern, bright, attractive and r.r'el1-situated store means much so far as turnover is concerned. If a substantial portion of the retailer's assets are represented by bricks and mortar, a livell' turno\-er, shrer,rd buying, clean stocks and a tight hold upon controllable outgoings are called for if satisfactorv profits are to be

The reserves assist and protect the share capital.

Because they differ in character they are called specific

and general. Specific reserves are not available for distribution as dividends, being provisions made to meet some anticipated liabilitl, or loss, such as taxation, long-service leave, bad debts, depreciation, fall in stock values, etc. But if the provision turns out to be

won. Where premises are leasehold, ascertain how long

the lease has to run.

Stocks are one of the most, often the most, important of all balance-sheet items. That is because the method ol in',,entory valuation has a material influence upon both the financial position shown in the balance-sheet and the profit claimed in the p. and I. account. The traditional basis of valuation is "cost or market value, whichever is the lower". This implies the use of "cost" u,'hen prices are rising and "market" when prices are falling. The switchover could involve an undisclosed adjustment to income. If the value of stock on hand at the end of a period has depreciated, either through obsolescence, damage or permanent drop in market value, and no allor,r,ance has been made for this in the

in excess of actual requirements for the specific purpose, then an inner reserve will exist rvhich can be used for general purposes.

General reserves are an accumulation

of

surplus

profits, and may be used in the business or outside it, or to maintain a steady rate of dividend during a sudden and temporary fall in profits. The creation of reserves out of earned profits has an effect similar to the introduction offresh cash paid capital; that is to say, it strengthens earning power and dividend paying capacity. The writing up of the book value of fixed assets, and creation ofa capital assets reserve, is purely a book entry which will not affect actual earning power one way or the other, and cannot be used for payment ofdividends. Such a reserve, however, can be used for

accounts, then an overstatement of profit occurs, and the financial position is not exactlv what it appears to

be in the

the purpose ofissuing bonus shares. Indeed, the creation of such a reselve for just that purpose is common prac-

inflation.

Things to note about the outside debts are their nature, composition, amount and relation to shareholders' funds (capital and free reserves combined) How much of it is flxed in the nature of debentures,

to a period of prolonged slump, when trade activity

What are they costing? \\,hen do they run out or mature? What provision, if anr,, mortgages?

slackens and wages drop and unemployment srows.

Most busincsses make some provision for bad and doubtful debts, but the amount is seldom disclosed. The problem assumes its greatest importance where the amounts of individual debts are substantial and payments are spread over long periods, as in the case of companies doing a large business on the time-payment and hire-purchase systems. Experience has shown that the major part of the risk in connection with debts lies in economic developments rather than in the moral hazard-that is, assuming proper care has been exercised in the selection of risks and in the volume of credit granted.

has been made for their redemption by wa,v of sinking

fund or other specific

reserwes? Then consider the size of the current or floating debts to the bank and trade creditors. If these are large they might spell trouble should the bank and others want their money back in a hurry, as often happens when a change in the economic climate brings tight money conditions. Banks and other creditors have a reputation for handing out an umbrella during fine weather, and then grabbing it back aga.in when the financial sky clouds over.

The overriding thought about

Krvr-rrr

assets

stock

Debtors' balances are another item which can pro\re troublesome, especially rvhen a boom suddenly changes

.

or

of

profit look better than the actual result. Obviously profit-rvriting is partlr-governed by the hand that puts the fina1 figures in the stock-sheet. The trouble occurs on a falling market, not a rising one.

tice among prosperous concerns during a period of

notes

balance-sheet, Unden aluation

creates an inner resera.e, and could make next year's

is their n,orth 16

Drcrusrn,

1955

The holdings of cash and readily realisable assets,

and 1. account, it should be noted ( 1) r.l hether adequate provision has been made for depreciation and taxation, (2) whether the figure includes any profits of a capital

such as Government and other Stock Exchange securi-

ties, varies according to circumstances and the policy of the business concerned. N{any retailers and others like to hold sufficient cash, etc., to be able to take prompt advantage of any bargains that might offer.

Also liquid assets might be piled up to finarrce, or

or non-recurring nature, and (3) whether any amount has been put to general or free reserves before the netprofit figure has been stated. Prior additions to reseryes lr''ill not aiways show up in the p. and l. account itself.

An exarrrination of the reserves shown in the balancesheet, and of rnovements therein, is the surest way ol

help finance, expansion of the br-rsiness when the board is ready to go ahead, or circumstances permit it to do so, This is an important point for the investor, because it effects the extent to r,vhich shareholders are likely to be asked to assist, if at all. Also, if the accumulation of cash and outside investments is large, and there is little likelihood of the money being needed in the business,

obtaining the answer.

If there is a heavy falling off in sales, and collection of debtors' balances becomes difficult, some or all of the following remedies may have to be pursued in order to avoid further trouble: (1) Reduce stocks at cut prices.

(2) Restrict credit and exert pressure on debtors.

(3) Arrange extension of terms on lvhich stocks are

there is always the possibilitv that the board might decide to return part of the capital.

A point to consider in connection with goodwill and other intangibles is the extent to which they are covered or exceeded by reserves. If the intangibles are larger than the reserves it means that the earming power of the physical assets is weighted to the extent of the excess

of intangibles. It is the net

purchased,

(4) Provide further capital.

(5) Endeavour to fund some of the debt.

tane.ibles assets

Ilence the importance, from the investor,s point of view, of a well-balanced trading policy and a strong and sound financial position. One of the greatest aidi to sound judgment in these matters is the ease with which a balance-sheet and profit and loss account can be "read" and understood.

(capital plus reserwes less intangibles) that matter most when considering a business as a going concern. Goodwill, however, can be a very valuable item rvhen the sale of a business is being negotiated.

When considering the profit figure shown in the p.

FAEA| A

TESSON .

FEOfi 4

yVOn4AM

{

Yes, it's so light, so quick and efficient, even a woman can operate the new exclusive l.E.C.,KWlK-N-LITE'

fi

Self-locking, self-seoling under

low

pressure;

ond self-draining

when not in operotion.

d

Coupling-the perfect answer to your irrigation problems.

Locks fost when the pressure is on... disconnected by simple twisting oction when the pressure drops.

I

All-round flexibility-up, down or sidewoys, ond no restriction to ony method of pipe loyout,

AUSTRALIA',

OWN

ffiffiffim,&ffiffiffi@ Weight-24ft. 4in. aluminium pipe

COMPLETE

STAND

Weight-24ft. 3in. aluminium pipe STAND ..

WITH

You save time and labour with I.E.C. lrrigation Equipment and you are assured of trouble-free irrigition. Rihg today and let l.E.C.'s representarives call, advise and quote on l.E.C. spray irrigarion withour obligation.

22 lbs.

COMPLETE

wlrH

17 lbs.

IRRIGATION EQUIPMENT CO. pTy. LTD. Head Office and Sales: 6 Harbord Street, Clyde, N.S.W. 'Phone YU2885

Kr,r-r-rxn

t7

Dacrnnrn,1955

ME ,T THT, BI]NYIP SHORT story by Gavin Casey in a recent issue of Kryr,rNn ((]1 Finds Its Level" lvas based on that- well-knolvn physical fact :-if two tanks, level with each other and open to the air, are connected by an open pipe and water is pumped into one of them, the water will reach the same level in both tanks.

On that principle, Mr. P. A. Yeomans has designed a simple and effective level the Bunyip Level. It consists of two five-foot staffs- marked in feet, inches and eighths ofan inch from zero to five feet. Each staff is in two parts for easy packing and is provided with a socket coupling for use. Spring clips are provided on each staff for attaching each end of 60 feet of Vinyl Polychloride transparent tubing. Each end ofthe transparent tubing is fitted with a control valve and atmttsphere button.

To operate the level, one of the control valves is pulled out of the tubing and the tubing pushed up inside a tap. The atmosphere button on rhe opposite end of the tubing is held pressed and the tap turned on. The tube is thus filled with water, leauing a few inches

o1f

air space, and the control valve is then replaced.

Attach one end of the tubing to each staff with the control valve seated in the hole provided on the end The Bunyip Level complete.

of the staff, the tube itself ciipped into the groove of the staff by the spring clips provided.

With the tube filled, stand the two staffs togerl-rer and press both atmosphere buttons. The rvater level in each end of the tubing will automatically adjust itself dead level. If a littie less water is required, press both atmosphere buttons and release a small quantity of water from one valve.

For determining a small variation in height, stand a staff on each of these two points. Each operator then presses the atmosphere button, holding it in this position. The difference in reading between the two staffs is the actual difference in height between the two points if the n,ater-level on one staff reads 42 inches - the other staff 44* inches, the difference in and on height between the tw'o points is 2$ inches.

For laying in contours, stand one staffat the starting point and mark with the Bunyip wire peg provided.

The second operator walks to the approximate position of the next point on the contour and, with both atmosphere buttons pressed, adjusts his staff until both staffs read the same water level. Peg the second point, then proceed, either by the first operator walking around the second which may be advisabie for ex- by the first staffman rvalking to treme accuracy or

-

Assemb/ing the stoff.

i'ia .i::li'l :i :!:.

Kr yrrNE

DEcnuarnr

1955

Above: Showing otmosphere button ond tube in position.

Right: Reoding the Bunyip Levelotmosphere buttons pressed in.

the position of the second staffman and the second staffman proceeding to locate the third position on the contour. It is absolutely essential that both atmosphere buttons be held pressed in during the reading of the staff. The water in the tube will not find its own levei uniess free atmosphere is on contact with the water.

The Bunyip Level is accurate and can be used to

The level is very suitable for all the levelling work

necessary for farm-dam construction. First of all, decide on the water level required and lay in a contour line around the depression area that will coincide with the water Ievel of the dam when filled, and mark this clearly. The most suitable spillway area and the height

and levels of the wall can be accurately controlled rvith the Bunyip Level.

In the construction of earth wali farm-dams it is advisable to construct the centre of the wall level higher to allow for settling. One and a quarter inches per foot of height is recommended in the absence ol professional advice on the matter. This means on a wall 14 feet high the centre would be 17! inches higher than the ends.

The Bunyip Level has many uses for farmers, graziers, contractors, builders, engineers, carpenters, masons, plumbers, road builders, landscape gardeners and home owners. It can be used for all footings, foundations, batter boards, sills, lintels, floors, road gradings, driveways, lawns, walks, piping, drainage, farm work-in hct, for all general construction, etc., which normally needs an expensive ler.elling instrument requiring operational skill.

The level is simple and accurate, foolproof, fast, works around corners, and is weatherproofand sturdy.

Even if you have a dumpy level and surveying instruments, the Bunyip will save you much valuable time, and, unlike all other levels, it cannot get out of adjustment. The only way to prevent the level from functioning perfectly is to fail to press the atmosphere button

check the accuracy of other instruments such as dumpy levels, etc. It is impossible for a mistake to be made by one staffman reading his staff water levei, as

this inaccuracy is reflected on the other staff.

For laying in sloping drains, the actual difference in reading between the two staffs is always the difference in level between the two relative points. As an illustration, if a sloping drain of five feet in a thousand (i.e.,one in two hundred) is required and the water level of the two staffs at the starting point is 46 inches, then the first reading on the sloping drain 50 feet from the first point (which is gauged by the length of the tube) would be 47$ inches and the reading on the first staff 44] inches, giving a difference between the readings of three inches and three inches in 50 feet is one in

- Providing the level does not lose two hundred fall. water, the foilor,r,ing readings along the drain will all be the same as the first two (i.e.,44] inches and 47! inches). Levels ian be laid in at arry distance apart {rom zero to 50 feet with the standard Bunyip Level.

With the level it is only necessary for the operator to read his own staff and call the reading to his helper.

There is no necessity for either to be in sight of the other, which allows levelling around obstacles or in heavy scrub country without sight-line clearing.

Knyr-rNn

rvhen reading staffs.

19

Dacnrvrnnn, 1955

BT]SINE,SS

PROFILE, FARMERS ANID GP.AZIERS' CO.OP,

aT-HE idea of employing the co-operative principle to the marketing of farm produce was not fully I appreciated when the late Sir Arthur Kinq Trethowan, with a vision far ahead of his time, founded the Farmers' and Graziers' Co-op. company in 1917 to give the man on the land a direct interest in the

marketing of his o-"vn produce and the substantial beneflts that derive from co-operative selling.

Sceptics predicted a gloomy future for the newventure. Competition rvas keen, and the country was on the verge of a disastrous drought. But the critics failed to take into account the remarkable business

ability which Sir Arthur Trethowan brought to the direction of the company's affairs; and they underestimated, too, his unbounded enthusiasm and bulldog tenacity.

The company was registered on July, 18, 19 1 7, r,vith a capital of d100,000 in 100,000 shares of {1 each, and commenced business on November I of the same year under the title (since altered slightly) ol the Farmers and Settlers' Co-operative Grain Cornpany.

Sir Arthur lvas the company's first chairman and managing director, and retained those twin positions up to the time of his death 20 years afterwards.

The original intention olthe company was to handie wheat only, but it was soon realised that weighty advantages were likely to accrue from a bold expansion olactivities. So, in the second season after the formation

of the company, it was decided to add farm produce to the originai grain business, and in March, 1919, the directors decided to extend selling activities to cover practically all the agricultural and pastoral products of the iand.

The most important of these products was wool, and to faciiitate the setting up ol the necessary wooi-selling organisation it was arranged to purchase the oldestablished woolbroking business ol .John Bridge and Company, whose premises at No. 4 Albert Street, Circular Quay, thereupon became the Sydney headquarters of the company and remained so for the next 25 years. At the same time the capital was increased from d100,000 to {300,000, and the company took over as a going concern the Southern Riverina Farmers' Co-operative Association at Albury.

This was the first big expansion undertaken by the then infant company, and the boldness of the rnove, KnvrrNe

coinciding with the record drought of 1919, which imposed tremendous strains upon the entire rural community, convinced the commercial world that the company meant business and was not to be deterred by temporary setbacks. Still more was it a tribute to Sir Arthur Trethowan's faith in the ability ol the man on the land to help himself and weather catastrophe.

In that difficult year the company sold 57,775 bales of wool in Sydney and Albury for a gross value of {1,198,008, a remarkable achievement for an organisation having its first experience of the wool-selling business. On the other hand, the quantity of wheat sold was very small, owing to the drought; the company acted as asents for the Government and handled pooied wheat.

The rapidity of the company's gror,vth after that was

the taik of the business world. Sales and turnover

In

1922 the capital u,as increased from d300,000 d500,000 and the opportunity was seized in the following year to take over the business of the soared steeply.

to

weil-known stock

firm of \\'eaver and Perry. Five

years later the capital r'r'as still further increased to d750,000.

By norv the companr''s u,oo1 business had more than doubled; sales in 1927 totalled 134,890 bales, the iargest

quantitv sold b;- any woolbroker in N.S.\V. Starting from scratch, the company had become, in nine short vears, the leading lvool-selling brokers in the State, an achievement that established the firm in the business world and sealed the reputation of Sir Arthur Trethowan.

So rapid had been the growth of the company's wool

that by 1928 it had become impossible to all the wool in the original Pyrmont store. To obtain additional space, therefore, the business

accommodate

company purchased premises at Circular Quay owned

by Goldsbrough Mort and Co. Ltd.

In 1930 the company's wool sales totalled 160,000 bales; by 1932 they topped 170,000; by 1937 they were over 200,000. Thus, from the time Sir Arthur Trethowan launched the company into the wool-selling field in 1919 until his death in 1937, no fewer than 2,266,731 bales were sold by the company on behalf ol woolgrowers.

In addition, the company had by 1937 paid back d322,365 in dividends to its shareholders. These

numbered 11,323, compared with 1986 shareholders in 1918. It had also returned to growers d212,066 by rvay of cash rebates (popularly known as the grower's bonus). These rebates or bonuses were first paid in 1933, and in that year, and the following three years, they represented 20 per cent. of the commission charged by th. company as broker. This rebate is peculiar to the co-operative system and is one of its more tangibie benefits.

The strong position olthe company by this time may be eathered from the fact that in this 20-year period (1917-37) accumulated profits amounted to {913,840,

Dacnurna,1955

Yeomans Proprietar.y Ltd,

introduce t he

BUNYI P LEVEL to

Farmers, Graziers, Engineers, Plumbers, Builders, Landscape Gardeners

-and

to anyone who needs to

find a level for laying in contours, sloping drains or to determine a variation in height.

The Bunyip Level is simple and accurate,

foolproof and fast. Whilst remarkably low-priced, it will do the job more efficiently than the highest-priced instrument. As simple to operate in the hands of a 10-year-old as the quallfied engi neer.

rhe

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gypsum through a combine. When seed is sown with "Ag-Yo" and lime in the mixture the "Ag-Yo" and lime act as a starter for strong.germination and a good strike. "Ag-Yo" is the ideal bulking agent for the aerial spreading of fertilizers, inoculants, cultures insecticides and weedicides. It has many other uses.

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Fill in Coupon and send to us for full facts of the BUNYIP LEVEL and AG-YO.

First lot to farmers freight free. This price includes

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TEOMAN$ !lillrED PROPRIETANT

537 ELIZABETH STREET, Kevr-rNB

SYDNEY- MXl7d4'21

MXl884

- Agents throughout Australia Drcrlrnex,

1955

a total of d149,999 \r'as placed to general reserve and

pence (sterling) a pound, but provision was made for owners to share in profits from Government sales out-

{99,922 to insurance.

In the same

side the United Kngdom.

period the company expanded its activities in a great variety of spheres and store - fatestate stock, produce, station supplies, real and insurance, For 15 years in succession the company headed the list of sheep sales at Flemington. And a

In this year, the first of controlled wool sales, F. & G. set another record for wool disposals, with 201,021 bales in Sydney and 28,990 in Albury.

By 1941, the company's wool turnover had become that it was able to rebate to its clients 40 per

chain of country branches was established throughout the State.

The year 1937 brought a new era in the operations of the Farmers and Graziers'. Of course, the coming of the golden years gave the company strength as it gave strength to the growers, for the company's fortunes since its formation in 1917 had been, and will always be, welded into the fortunes of the men of the land. It had held on grimly with them in the lean years.

leapt forward to strength

in the first

It

so great

cent, of wool commissions,

Wheat, too, came under Government controi in 1940, when the Commonwealth Government acquired all the old season's wheat. Shipping shortages made

disposal of wheat difficult, but the company that year handled more than I I million bushels, topping the list

ofwheat agents.

An important development

now

post-depression

But 1937 saw another significant change in the company's administration.

Sir Arthur Trethowan, who pioneered the company 20 years before and guided its development through its difficult times, died. The task of management fell to Mr. E. A. Buttenshaw, M.L.A., then N.S.W.

company's pro-

building, and within a few years had pushed Goulburn wool sales up to five times their previous voiume.

Minister for Lands.

The company now sells each year between 50,000 and 60,000 bales from its Goulburn store, and in

Mr.

Buttenshaw took up his studies as managing director as the wool lorries began carrying the great 1937 clip to the railheads. The F. & G. brand on more than 184,000 bales of that clip was a tribute to the company's reputation and was evidence that in the minds of the company's clients Mr. Buttenshaw was a worthy successor to Sir Arthur.

As the wool trains converged on the selling centres, it became apparent that F. & G. had topped the consignments' tally. That year the company outpaced all its competitors, selling 155,518 bales in Sydney and 28,787 in Albury. The total was the greatest number of bales the company had handled in any year.

But not only wool swept into the company stores in this great volume. At Flemington, auctioneers lifted F. & G. to the top of the selling list of all stock agents, and F. & G. stores were crarruned with hides, sheep-

addition holds fat stock and skin sales there.

Since 1942 the company has established branches of the Goulburn Branch at Braidwood, Crookwell and

Taralga.

The boom in wool continued during the war. In to 15.453 pence (Australian). Near Melbourne, Sydney and Geelong, Australian mills, encouraged by Government war contracts, began processing an increasing amount of wool, The company's tally of w'ool disposals rose to 234,000 bales that year, and in 1944 set a new record with 244,914 bales.

Nineteen forty-five sau, N.S.W. wool production down by 15 per cent., and the company's disposals reflected the temporary recession with a drop of 30,000 bales. But in 1946 production from the land swung upward again. From the wheat country, 62.5 million bushels of wheat poured into the silos the biggest 1943 the appraisement value was lifted

skins and grain.

The golden era was marred by the setbacks of floods,

drought, and fire, and for six years was shattered by war. But not even these could throttle back the richness that poured from the land.

In those troubled times, the company held firmly to its policy of service to growers'and shareholders, and, despite the hampering effects of controls and

yield since 1939-40.

In

-

1947, the Government restored the system of rvool

auctions. A severe drought, however, cut back production. F. & G. sales in the first year of the free market fell below 200,000 bales and the wheat harvest was the smallest tor 27 years.

But these tvere temporary setbacks only. The next

shortages, ic contined to grow strong.

Nineteen-forty was the first year of acute trading difficulty. The war had swung from its earlier deceptive calmness to a state of fury and one of the first wartime controls was on wool sales.

The British Government acquired all Australian wool, except what was needed for home requirements.

The price was a flat rate for greasy wool. It was 10f Krvr.rNn

in the

its decision in 1942 to expand its trading operations. So much wool was flowing that the company's wool-selling centres could not accommodate it. So the company bought out the wool-broking business of Ray Bladu,ell and Co. at Goulburn replaced the Bladwell store with a large, modern gress was

year o[ real prosperity.

year, 1948, brought a bumper season with a record State wheat yield of 101 million bushels and wool prices soaring to all-time high levels.

The company's achievements in sharing the marketing of the products of that flush season were outContinued on page 48

,7

Decnnnnn,

1955

LAND DE.VE.LOPME,I\T Impressive figures : but, the professor warns, the conversion offertile land into dust and sand is the fina1 stage of deterioration. "Before that, the land shows the effect of misuse in reducing its yield. An acre of Indian

OHN YUDKIN, Professor of Nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College, the University of London, in a recent article in a specialist publication on "Food, Population and the Future", makes some interesting comments on land use, looking at the subject as a global whole.

"From the admittedly uncertain calculations we may make about food requirements, we can hazard something of a guess as to the amount of land needed to produce it. The most reliable of such guesses suggests that, if the land be reasonably fertile, reasonably

soil now produces l0 per cent. less rice than it did 40 years ago, whilst a country likeJapan has been able to increase its yields over that time by 20 per cent."

Professor Yudkin, after glancing at other sources of consumption of products food, such as the sea - '(theamounts at present to not of the sea and fresh water goes more than 2 per cent. of all food consumed" on to discuss population:

watered and reasonably cultivated, something between I$ and 2! acres is needed to produce adequate food for one person. If the diet were to consist of minimal animal products, it is possible that even as little as half an acre might be adequate.

"We must, however, accept that the great differences in national and individual habits, which are by no

"It seems probable that, in the nomadic and foraging period of his existence, man's family numbered something like 25 million. Numbers rose to something like ten times this in the period of the Roman Empire.

They then changed little until about the 14th century, rose slowly to about 500 million by 1650 and then began to rise with ever-increasing speed to the present

means easy to change, must imply production in relation to those habits as well as in relation to minimal nutritional requirements. We might therefore accept the figure of I] acres as being able to provide an adequate, though fairly restricted, diet for one person.

"Of the total area of the world's land surface, much is useless for food production, and likely to remain so.

There are some 14 acres of all lands per head for the present population; allowing for land covered permanentiy with ice, for mountainous regions, for deserts

time. In 1750 the population of the world was 750 millions; in 1850, 1160 millions, and today it is more than 2400 miliions. The present rate of increase is some 30 millions a year, or 70,000 a day.

"Everything," the professor thinks, "points to a continuing increase of the world's population in the next few decades, particularly in communities living in the less-developed countries. The crucial point is that at present the population of the world is increasing thster than its food supplies."

which can never be utilised, there remain

some 4 acres per head which might be cultivated. At present, there appears to be about 1] acres rvhich are actually

Yudkin develops his argument, with many qualifications, to a somewhat vague conciusion. But his quoted rerlarks do underiine and, so to speak, put in perspectrve, the recent work being done in land development

useful for land production-a figure which we have seen should perhaps be adequate. Yet, as we know, there is, in fact, a great shortage of food, It is clear, therefore, that the land is not giving us what we are asking from

in various parts of the world. To narrow the field Iittle, it

it."

a

major

work in some British Commonwealth countries.

Causes listed by Professor Yudkin are familiar to Australian readers : the ravages of man, faulty methods of cultivation, erosion : "North Africa was the granary

The United Kingdom, which derives only some 5 per cent. of its gross national product from agriculture, is today producing over 50 per cent. more food than before World War II, and is providing nearly half the

of the Roman Empire; Palestine was indeed flowing milk and honey. Truly it can be said that the nomad is not the son of the desert, but its father. And the rapidity with which man's efforts can produce deserts is seen in the middle west of the United States.

In that country, in a hundred years, three hundred million acres have been lost to production by soilerosion, and a total of eleven hundred million acres affected out of the nineteen hundred million acres under cultivation. Until very recently, the loss was eight r,r.ith

food for its population from its own soil, compared with only about one-third at that time. The declared

U.K. Government is a level of production at least 60 per cent. above what was produced before War II. As Sir C. Stanton Hicks commented in an article in Knvr-rNo, and as the chairman of the great chemical firm, I.C.I., also remarked when he objective of the

\\,as out here, Britain has learnt a bitter lesson from two

u,orld wars.

thousand acres every day. The Sahara is creeping south at the rate of one mile every year. In China, 25 per cent. of the cultivable land has been destroyed; the Yellow River itself carries out to sea some twenty-five

In a country such as Britain, which has been intensively cultivated for centuries, large-scale land development problems such as we have here scarcely arise. Britain's main contributions to the rest of the

million tons of soil every year."

Kpvlrlp

is proposed to here summarise some of the

23

Drcnl'rnnn,

1955

world are a tradition of husbandry and scientific and technical services.

The tradition soes back a long way. For instance, methods of sowing described by Thomas Tusser in a book pubiished in 1573, a{ter centuries of disfavour, have been proved by recent research to give excellent yields. Then there n,ere the lBth centtrry experimenters, Jethro Tull, Viscount Townshend, Coke and others.

Tull, r,r,ho is usually thought of in connection with his invention ofa horse-hoe and seed-drill, advocated deep pulverisation of the soil and seeding at two levels. Hii ideas paved the way for the four-course Norfolk rotation

and the high farming of the following century.

Torvnshend, of course, advocated the use of the turnip as a farm crop, and popularised the new fourcourse rotation turnips; barley and oats; clot er and rye-grass; and- wheat. Largely as a result ol this system, England became an important ra,rheat-exporting country and yield rose to at least 20 bushels an acre; double that under the open-field three-crop rotation system.

Coke's estate, when he went on it

a barren waste. He improved it

in 1776, was almost by heavy marling;

by a rotation of two strau/ crops and trvo years uncler I by heavy stocking with Southdown sheep and Devon cattle; by the wide use of drilled seeds; and by encouraging his tenants to lollow his example. good grass

Organised research, technical services and education helped to improrre land. The first Board of Agriculture, formed in 1793, initiated the county surveys, which

were, perhaps, the most thorough examination of regional farming ever made. The Royal Agricultural Society of England u,as founded in lB39 as the English Agricultural Society, tvith the motto ,,Science and Practice", and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, was founded

in 1845.

In last month's Knvr,rNr,, incidentalll,,

Bill

Ntlaxwell, an Australian graduate of'the Royal Agricultural College, described in a comprehensive article the methods of Professor Boutflour, ra,,hose successes

rvith commercial dairy herds at Cirencester

have

search Council; coliaboration n,ith similar research in other Commonr,r,ealth countries is one of the lunctions of the Commonwealth Bureaux and Institutes.

It is claimed, rvith some reason, that there is poor. liaison between the various bodies concerned with agricultural teaching, practice and research in Aus-

tralia: C.S.LR.O., Schoois of Agriculture

and

\,'eterinary Science at universities, State and Federal Departments of Agriculture, State Conservation Departments, Experiment Farms, Agricultural High Schools and Colleges, Sheep and \\rool Departments of technical colleges, and the like. Without attempting anything so ambitious as a comparison of these institutions in the two countries 1a,[i6[, to be fair, would have to take all sorts of- factors, such as the geography, and the political and administrative traditions of the two countries into account a brief - on soil account of the main LI.K. centres of research has a particular interest at this time; r.r,hen, for the first time, there is something like a general appreciation by Australians of the importance ol the soil and the consequences of neglect and abuse of it.

Rothamsted, of course, is famous wherever men talk agriculture. As mentioned earlier, Sir.l. B. Lar,r,es founded it in 1843. Lau,es paid for the work at Rothamsted mainly experiments on fertilisers for many years- out of his ou,n pocket. Then he established the

Agricultural Trust in 1BB9 with an endonment d100,000 to continue his rvork. Trust funds were later augmented b,v various gi{ts, and in 1911 the Development Commissioners made their first grant to the station. Since then Government grants have beelr made annually, and now over 90 per cent. of the funds come from the Government.

Rothamsted Farm includes the famous Broadbalk Field, rvith manurial plots for rvheat which have been farmed continuously for over 100 years. In 1926 the Woburn Experiment Farm in Bedfordshire was also Lar,r,es

of

taken over. So experiments can be made simultaneously on the light land at \toburn and on the heavy land at Rothamsted. \\rork on diseases of sugar beet (financed bv the Sugar Beet Research and Education Com-

astonished dairy men everywhere. Professor Boutflour, of course, visited Australia earlier in the year at the invitation of the N.S.\\r. Milk Board. Before the

mittee) is done at a field station at Dunholme in Lincolnshire. In addition to the r,vork at Rothamsted, Woburn and Dunholme, many fertiiiser and other experiments are made in different parts ol the country.

And, of course, work done at Rothamsted influences

During the 19th century requirements of sown plants were studied, and the use of fertilisers began to spread.

The first consignments of sodium nitrate arrived about 1830, and of Peruvian guano in about 1840. In 1843, Sir.J. B. Lawes, in conjunction rnith J. H. Gilbert,

research and practice all over the lv-orld. Post-graduate students go there from other countries and Rothamsted experiments are duly noted and discussed in such places as Australia's \Vaite Institute.

establishment of Cirencester, agriculture had been taken up seriously at Edinburgh Universit,v.

founded Rothamsted Experimental Station for the study of the soil and began to manufacture superphosphates at Deptford. He established the value ol ammonia salts as fertilisers. By 1870, wheat yield had increased to 30 bushels per acre.

Agricultural research in the United Kingdom now is planned and co-ordinated by the Agricultural ReKr:,vr,rNB

The work of the station falis broadly into

groups

tl"rree

:

1. Soil studies, including rock r,r'eathering, soil formation and classification; lertilisers and organic manures; soil structure; cultivation, water relationship and irrigation ; soil micro-organisms.

2. Biological problems relating to the growing of crops and the control of their pests and diseases.

Dr,ceuonn,

1955

I

I

3. Statistics, including the design and analysis of experiments, not only for the department at Rothamsted, but for the National Agricultural Adrrisory Service, and for much research work in the U.K. and overseas. Surveys of agricultural practices are undertaken.

'Ihe Soil Survey of England and Wales, the Commonr,r.ealth Bureau of Soil Science, and part of tire Research Institute of Plant Physioiogy of the Imperial

decided that soil survey should be regarded as a research project, and the Agricultural Research Council accepted responsibility for its supervision.

The main objective $'as to co-ordinate the soil survey of Great Britain. The Council set up a Soil Survey Research Board to act as an advisory body.

At the same time it was decided that the Soil Survey

of England and Wales should be carried on

at Rothamsted, the Soil Srrrvey of Scotland from the Ntlacaulay Institute.

The University of Cambridge has one of the finest Schools of Agriculture in the world, if not the finest.

In an1, case, it has a tremendous reputation. The University's Unit of Soil Physics is less well known,

College of Science and Technology are also housed at Rothamsted.

The Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, at Alrerdeen, Scotland, was founded in 1930 through the generosity of a Canadian, the Iate Dr. T. B. Macaulay.

The soil survey of Scotland. is based on the Macaulay Institute and is eneaged in mapping and identifying Scottish soils. In conjunction with the field rvork,

but is doing important work. Since 1938 the Agriculturai Research Council has provided equipment and made maintenance srants to the University of

studies are made of the fundamentai properties of soiis

Cambridge to support research work on land drainage

I

by mineralogical, X -ray, physico-chemical and analy-

and on the physical properties of soil. Expansion in this work since 1945 resulted in the setting up of a

I

Spectrochemical techniques are used to determine the mineral constituents of soils, plants, and animal organs, with particular reference to the so-cal1ed "trace elements". For instance, recent work has dealt r,r,ith cobalt deficiencv in certain Scottish soils.

Soil organic matter is investigated both chemicallv

tical methods.

small Unit of Soil Physics, r,r,hich r,l,orks in close liaison u,ith the Llniversity School of Agriculture.

The Grassland Research Station at Hurley, near N.{aidenhead, Berkshire, has been studying grass su'ard in relation to soil lertility since 1949; the Nature Conservancy, established in the same year, is concerned mainly with the scientific side of the conservation of native flora and fauna. Among its activities are investigation of tlie erosion of peat bogs anrl r,r,ater conservation in the Pennines, plant-soil relationship (especially tree-soil relationship), and studies of wind-blown sand in coastal districts. lVorks to reclaim land lrom the sea date from Roman times; the Romans are credited with building a 1or-rg embankment, most of which still exists, from Wainfleet to King's Lynn. Further work rvas done in the 17th century, lt,hen some 30,000 acres were enclosed. Subsequent reclamation schemes have been on a smaller scale, but at more lrequent intervals, the most recent being in 1948, 1950, 1951 and 1955.

Production on marginal lands is supported by Government grants : up to 50 per cent. of the cost to farmers; d2-j million went to help farmers carry out uneconomic operations leadine to increased production in 1953-54. Some d20 million is also available for the rehabilitation of livestock-rearing farms in upland areas, and a llill Farming Research Organisation (its functions were widened in 1953) investigates problems connected rvith farming in mountains, moorlands and heaths: these take up almost one-third of the total land surface of Great Britain.

Here. it is pleasant to note an example of private enterprise. Lord Iveagh inherited the greatest sporting estate in England, and turned it into the largest arable larm (managed as a single unit) in the country.

The estate was originally marginal 1and.

In Canada, land development and conservation work is the concern of both the Federal and Pro-

and micro-biologically.

The relationship between soils and plants is studied

in the Plant

Physiolog,v Department, which is especialll' concerned n,ith the uptake of nutrients by the plants and \4,ith clevelopine analytical methods to determine the quantities in rn,hich they are present

in plant

tissues.

The Department of Soil Fertility, working largely through field experiments supplemented by pot culture and laboratory studies, is improving methods of judging soil fertiiity and fertiliser practice. It has been

studying. in particular, problems ol phosphate

i ,

fixation, so that the best use can be made ol phos-

phatic fertilisers.

The Soil Survey of Great Britain is particularly interesting, since, here in Australia, rve are jnst beginning to realise rhe need for reliable soil maps.

Although the first systematic soil surveys in Great Rritain were carried out nearly 40 years ago, survey and mapping methods have become standardised only during the last 10 years. The earliest sL'rveys rvere based mainly on geology, and assumed that the map of the surface geologv could be translated, with due interpretaion, into the soil map. Thus, in these earlier surveys, the soil was not actually mapped, and profile characteristics were practically ignored.

In England and Wales the soil survev has grown out ofadvisory work. From 1930 onnards, soil survey rvork in England and Wales was co-ordinated under a Soil Survey Executive Committee, on which Scotland In 1939, the Ministry of Agriculture recognised the Soil Survey of England and Wales and appointed a Director of Soil Surveys. In 1946 it was

lvas represented.

KrvLrNe

Continued on page 28 25

DEceN{rnn.

1955

LAND DEVELOP MEI\T Continued from page 25

vincial Departments of Agriculture. The Federal Government is responsible for the administration ol two important Acts of Parliament : the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act, 1935, and the Maritime Marsh-

Iands Rehabilitation Act, 1948. The Provincial Departments, particularly the Agricultural Depart-

ments of Saskatchewan, Aiberta and British Columbia, carry out schemes for land development, including

irrigation, drainage and improvement, both independently and in conjunction with the Federal Government.

The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act

represents

a prosramme to tackle the problems of drought and soii-drifting on the CAnadian prairies. The PFRA administration uses money voted by Parliament for major irrigation and reclamation projects in the three prairie provinces and in British Colombia.

The chief of those in hand is the St. Mary Irrigation Project, in which a dam, creating a I7-mile lake

with a storage capacity of 320,000 feet, and associated u'orks on the St. Nlary River, Alberta, will eventuaily irrigate 519,000 acres. The Central Saskatchewan Development, a proposed irrigation project, will, it is considered, stabiiise agriculture in the southcentral area of the province by making fuli use of the Saskatchenan River's resources for irrigation, po\rer, and urban water supply. The proposed Red Deer River Development r,r''ill bring under cultivation over 500,000 acres ol land in the east central part of Aiberta.

Two major

land-reclamation projects are the Riding Mountain Reclamation Project in Ntlanitoba and the Lilloet Valiey Reclamation Project in British Columbia. Both joint Federal-Province schemes, the first minimises flood hazards and erosion of creek and

river channels, the second will ultimately reclaim some 14,000 acres of land.

In addition, 81 "community pastures", run on a co-operative basis, resulting in the utilisation of over lI million acres of "sub-marginal land", have been developed in connection with a Land Utilisation Programme under the PFRA. Improved practices adopted on all such pastures include: artificial regrassing; development of stock-watering sites; and pasture management and controlled grazing.

PFRA also encourages effort by individual farmers,

working alone or in co-operation. It provides engineering and financial assistance to farmers in the construction of water-conservation works within areas of the three prairie provinces subject to drought.

The Maritime Nlarshlands Act provides for agreements under which the Federal Government constructs or reconstructs protective works to prevent flooding by tide waters, and to allor'v cultivation, alter drainage, of the provinces ol Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Kn vr-rNr

Looking over most of the schemes lor land development in British Commonwealth countries, and in others, such as the U.S.A., one notices many variations due to local conditions, but something like a uniform pattern: an interlocking of Federal and Provincial authorities, and a fairly adequate scope for private initiative. In South Africa, for instance, any three riparian o\\rners may petition the N'Iinister ol Irrigation to form an irrigation district.

In Australia the position is sometimes complicated by the fact of State and Commonwealth demarcations of authority. Stiil, looked at soberly, r,r,e have done and are doing a good deal, both on the developmental and research side. Not, perhaps, as much as lve might have done, but there are signs of an increasing public interest in big schemes, such as the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Project.

The three major irrigation schemes are the Ntlurray

River Scheme, the New South \{ales-Queensland Border Scheme, and the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Tlie Murray River Scheme dates lrom 1914, the others are post-war concepts. In considering land development in Australia, the driest continent, one must take cognisance of water.

In research, of course, C.S.I.R.O. is the leader.

All the evidence points to the necessity for the Commonr'vealth Government playing an increasingly im-

portant par:t in developmental programmes and in resear"ch. But, at the same time, healthy growth of non-governmental organisations should be encouraged. It is, of course, significant that over the past few years several organisations r,l,ith the declared object of promoting better land use, in one form or another, have come into being. The Keyline (Research) Foundation is one of these, and il the prin-

ciples of Keyline Iand improvement are accepted, is logical to expect a considerable improvement in the effective use of land and rainfall in Australia over, say, the next 10 years.

it

How effective this improvement rt,ould be, in a national sense, r,r,ould naturally depend upon the number of or.r''ners who made use of the Keyline methods. It could be gradual. On the other hand, if it has yet to be disproved Yeomans's theory is right in any practical test a -planned development on a regional scale could change the picture dramatically.

A district of properties holding considerable quanties of water in strategically placed dams, with soil holding increased quantities of water from natural rainfall, and with pasture and soil fertility stimulated

by Keyline pattern irrigation, could cut like a green finger across a considerable part of otherwise poor country. Given a number ol such fingers, and the slower extension of flood-irrigated holdings nourished by the growth ol major irrigation schemes, and Aus-

tralia would have a pattern of agriculture which would lift production and go a long way to make this country secure in a dreadfully uneasy world.

Dr,crunrn,

1955

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Dncnuenn,

1

955

A LII\E on BOOKS C. E. MILLAR'S "SOIL FERTILITY'' E\,V ZEALAND scientists, reported as expressing

concern over the increasing use of molybdenum as a fertilising agent on the Dominion's pastures, may find some backing in C. E. Millar's Soil Fertilitlt (John lViley and Sons, New York; Angus and Robert-

son, Sydney).

Dr, Millar does not dogmatise on it, nor on any other of the endless interest-rousing aspects of his subject: without accepting anything as final, he lays down such facts as science has uncovered, and leaves conclusions to his readers and to tomorrow. llis - almost in the nature of a references to moiybden passing note in one of his crowded chapters can therefore be taken as fairly typical; and they- could possibly give a steadying effect.

Most workers in the fie1d of plani nutrition, he says, now list molybdenum as an essential element : there is definite evidence that certain plants require it. There is, however, little evidence of molybdenum deficiency in soils, although "in a few instances there have been indications of crop benefit from applications of the element." His quoted instances include "an apparent benefit" (Dr. Millar is nothing if not careful, in terms as in everything else) to severai legumes from application of molybdenum salts, and the finding of Anderson

in South Australia that "an increase in growth and

a

Tobocco showing obnormol development becouse of colcium deficiency (A) ond boron deficiency (B). Note how the bud leoves look downword when calcium is needed. A boron deftciency is monifested by a breokdown of the tissue ot the bose of the leoves.

in pasture grasses, alfalfa and subterranean clover" resulted from applications of "very smali quantities" of molybdenum to an ironstone soil. (The darker green

fact that Dr. Millar refers to the State as "south Australia," and in the same sentence in which he mentions West Virginia, should not, perhaps, be held too severely against him.) He then lists these steadying facts

:

"In England pasture grasses were found to contain sufficient molvbdenum to cause disease in cattle.

Britton and Goss found evidence of a similar difficuity in parts of California. It appears that cattle, especially jvoung dairv a.ni.mals, are sensitive to an appreciable molybdenum content in green plants, but are unaffected b1- similar quantities of cured hay . . . In studying the soil and piant content of molybdenum in parts of California rvhere cattie were poisoned by the element, Barshad found that growing plants and Iegumes in particular were able to accumulate sufficient moll'bdenum to prove toxic to cattle . . ."

llere,

as

throughout, Dr. Millar gives tables shouing

the nature of the soils and the kinds of grasses involved

in the

experiments he quotes. Studies of the moly-

bdenum content ofthe parts ofplants, he says, showed accumulation in leaf blades and growing parts : "plants also accumulate more of the element as they grow older." In one instance samples of vegetation grown on soils with a high selenium content were found to

contain large quantities of molybdenum; but "there is a question as to how much of the toxicity of such plants is due to molybdenum."

There is, however, also the fact of serious effects of molybdenum deficiency, though studies are too few to permit of the identification of symptoms in more than a few plants. Instances quoted include a curling of the

lower leaves of tomato plants, dropping of blossoms and poor set of fruit : "Similar symptoms have been reKnvr-rNl:

DrcElrron,

1955

ported for tobacco. Leaves of oats receiving insufficient molybdenum bent smoothly backwards, but later a break or'kink' developed at the affected point and necrotic areas appeared." Symptoms of the same sort are instanced for cauliflowers.

As in this comparative mere aside on molybdenum, manages to be at the same time exactly scientific and often almost picturesquely interesting on the literally scores of other elements of soil structure and fertility his book covers and the hundreds of examples

Dr. Millar

and experiments he quotes. Professor Emeritus of Soil Science, Michigan State College, he draws on a

lifetime experience of soil study and agricultural

teaching, and some practical farming as well.

Mostly his details of experiments, farm practice and the like are, naturally enough, drawn from American sources, but the nature of the general subject 4lsn6 the fertility element of the good earth; the interrelationships olsoil and growth gives virtually all of his book a universal application. -It was prepared, he says, as a textbook for students taking a course in soil fertility and as a reference-book for students in soil-management courses, but it has also its general interest for, say, anyone who brings an intelligent outlook to his farming or to whatever his particular association rvith the land may be.

FT#RF{AL MO{.YBNEN$M

LEAT

DETISIffiNT

Above: Couliflower leoves showing (left) normol development and (ri ght) molybdenum deficiency.

The author's qualifications include the running of two farms of his own, as practical working background to his scientific lore. He joined the faculty of Michigan State College in 1915, and for 20 years from 1930 till he retired lrom teaching in 1950 he- was head of - earlier book, its Department of Soil Science. An written in collaboration with L. M. Turk, Fundamentals of Soil Science, is in its second edition; and Dr. Millar, too, holds science degrees from a number of American

: Mixing superphosphotewith mdnureincreoses its eftctiyeness.

Leftt Phosphote wos mixedwith the soil before manure was odded.

Right: Phosphote ond monure were mixed before application,

Pelow

universities.

His latest book is not in any sense loosely o'popular,, : it is an exactly documented sci.entific volume, balanced, accurate and precise in qualifying almost every statement : yet it is all very clearly expressed, certainly

easy enough to follow; and it is further lightened by some historical and other touchts of general interest, apart from the special interest that most of its readers

will have in the absorbing subject itself.

For instance, as lvell as scattered references to results experiments there, Dr. Millar brings in some "general interest" details of England's Rothamsted, the oldest agricultural experiment station in existence in fact, going back to its original Celtic farmers : -"Two of their practices, the applying of chalk to the land and growing of small grains, are still followed.

The area was dominated by the Romans until the fifth century, and they were replaced by the Saxons

of

in the sixth

century. The Celtic farmers remained

during the changes in domination. At this time the farm was given the name of 'Rochamstede' so even the name is, in the English way, ancient and- traditional" ; and in the same fascinating vein the farm's story runs

on: Kr,

vrrxu

31

I)Ecrvenr,

I

955

Oronges showing

zinc

(right) ond normol

deficiency developntent

(/e[t). Note the smoll pointed leoves

with distinct colout pottern.

The

normol specimen come from o tree thot hod been treated a year eorlier

for zinc deficiency.

"In 1623 the estate was sold to Daine Armi, the daughter of a Flemish refirgee, and became the property of her son, John Whittewronge. In 1763, the manor passed

(1) thorough tillage, (2) green manuring, (3) crop rotation, (4) use of lime, (5) application of manure, and (6) growth of legumes for soil improvement."

into the hands of the Bennet family through

Also on this at least study-lightening side of his r,,ork,

the marriage of Elizabeth Whittewronge ro Thomas Bertnet. The marriage of Mav Bennet to Thomas Lawes transferred the property to the Lan'es family.

The son, .|ohn Bennet Lawes, inherited the estate in 1783, and his son, bearing the same name, became the or,vner of the 250 acres in 1834 ar-rd founded the experiment station. The station now comprises abor-tt 527 acres. Sir John Lawes was greatly interested in chemistry. In 1842 he obtained a patent for making superphosphate by treating mineral phosphates rvith sulphuric acid, a process devised by Liebig (making nse of bones), but not commercialised by him. Lawes later operated two large superphosphate fac.ories.

"By lB35 Lawes was carrying on pot experiments.

These were expanded into field trials and rapidly increased in number. Finding himself in need of assistance he employed a German chemist named John Gilbert in 1843, which is the accepted date of the founding of the experiment station . . . The two men worked together for nearly 60 years, Lawes dying in 1900 and Gilbert in 190i." And some olthe Rothamsted field experiments started in 1843 "are still in operation with only minor changes."

In this same incidental glancing at history linking many current developments away back in- a chainsequence of discoveries, corrected misbeliefs and improvements on the already known there are - experiment similar interesting details of American stations, some of which go a fair way back, too. Dr. N{illar, in this backgrounding, even draws a little on

Dr. N{illar scatters through all sorts ol engaging odds and ends ol scientific and other cririosa, not of much practical Lrse to anvbodv, perhaps, but entertaining.

I'or instance. the average dail,v increase in the length of the root svstem of a four-month-old rye plant has been reckoned to be 3.1 miles, "and if the length of the root hairs produced each 24 hours were added the

total would be 58 miles. The total length of the root system, excluding root hairs, \,\ras 387 miles." . . . "The

tip of a young cornstalk or the basal portion ol

leaves of cabbage and tomato 86 and 84 per cent. respectively." . . . "Radioactive phosphorus has been detected in tlie top of a rapidly growing tomato plant 6 feet high within 40'minutes after its addition to the nutrient solution." . . .

On the more "solid" side, the book runs to 19 ver.v tightly packed chapters, each subdivided handily into half a dozen or so neat plots. A few of'the chapter headings will indicate the spread of it : Essentials for Plant Growth; Soil Reaction and Liming; Soil Organic Matter; Nitrogen and Crop Production; Soil Deficiencies and Determination of Nutrient Needs of Crops; Rotation and Farming Systems; Contributions of Comrnercial Fertilisers to Soil Productivity.

Under these and similar headings Dr. Millar marshals a comprehensive harvesting of facts, adding up to an irnpressive and widely informative picture of accumulated scientific siftings from the soil, and findings thereon. No mere gleanings from it can represent the

the Romans: Cato "considered good ploughing more

effect and value of the complete picture, but the follorving, taken in a general ramble through its parts,

important than manuring"; and "Among the practices advocated in these Roman books may be listed :

KBvr-rxe

the

Ieaves may contain 92 to 93 per cent. of water and the

32

DEcelrnnn,

1955

rrray at least have some points of interest on their own

account

:

"In productivity studies soil moisture and air must be considered integral parts of the soil . . . One of the main.reasons for pruning fruit-trees and staking and trellising vines and vegetables is to obtain light on the leaves. Experiments in the spacing -o.." of rows-of corn and alternate planting of sets of rows of corn and soybeans are based on the need for additional light.,, . . knorvledge of plant-soil relationships in a,cid ."O.ursoils is by no means complete. In general, crops are more tolerant of acidity in moist and cool climates than they are in areas of higher temperatures and low

precipitation Many plants which giow quite well in strongly acid soils do not grow in that environment through choice, but because they are better able to

meet competition from other plants in such locations .

.

"Experience has shown that additions of lime sufficient to bring the pH of a strongly acid soil near or above the_neutral point may result in damage to some crops. The detriment results from the reduction in availabiiity of certain nutrients, especiaily manganese and boron, but sometimes potassium and possibly other elements . . . It is usually more advisable to reduce the acidity ofstrong acid sandy soils by steps,

through several additions of moderate quantities-of lime, than it is to make very heavy applicition at one time," . . .

"The fact that soils seldom contain more than a fraction ol a per cent. of nitrogen, even when appreci_

able amounts are added annually, indicates a consiclerable loss of the element. In fact the maintenance of'a desirable quantity of nitrogen in the soil is one of'the problems of good soil management . . .

"Carefui planning

in the time of application

b-e incorporated

into the soil. Furthermore, in warm

ciimates it is desirable-not to apply manure oi nitrogen fertiliser very long before the ioit i, to be occupied-by

grorving vegetation.

crops, especially

Fo_r

.cultivated -part in areas of high rainfall, it is better to ipply of the nitrogen as a side-dressing during ilr" giorving season than to apply all of it at or before planting timel "The great losses of nitrogen brought about by

erosion are more fully appreciated now ihan in earlier

years. Because soil erosion starts in the surface horizon, in which soil nitrogen largely occurs, the process necessarily results in much loss of this element.hlso particles of organic matter and clay particles with organic matter

adhering to them erode more easiiy thai the Iarger mineral particles of the soil. The use of soil-manage_ ment practices which have been shown to contiol

erosion

will reduce this nitrogen

loss . .

.

"During a l0-year period-a cropped to barley ^ six years and sudan grass for soil for fou. yeirs, and treated wi:lr. 2001b. of nitrogen per year in fertiliser, gained 6771b. of nitrogen when a winter cover crop oivetch was grown. Ffowever, when mustard was used as a Continued on Page 39

Below: Pototoes on on unproductive ocid Connecticut soir which wos high in soluble Mn ond Al. Treotments thot reduced the ocidity were beneficior.

Lime plus superphosphote produced normol growth. Ireotments from left to right were: None, superphosphote, hydroted lime, ond lime plus superphosphole.

Right: The left side o[ this tree hos received on insuffrcient suppty of nutrients ond hence hos dropped its /eoyes premoturely. Atthough moisture token

i

up

by ony port of the root sfstem is distributed through the entire plont, thte nutrients obsorbed by the roots ore delivered to the oeriol portions obove its point of ottochment only.

:i:t',.iiil

i{+,ii

,:ii:! !iril:

j,rr,,]ir,,i,,r.,.

i.

.,

;1.:1.,,

:t .:'; ,,:1. ,' l

tS:

I(s vr-rNr

l.

I

--

ffi

iH

ii'.ii1

ffi,

of

manures and nitrogen-carrying fertilisers wiil result in nitrogen conservation. When leasible it is best not to apply manures any great length of time before they can

Dncrlrtun,

1955

FT]RI\ISHII\G COI]NTRY HOME.S

By JOYCE BROWN

f I

F you live in the country it is probably in one of tu,,o kinds of houses. One kind clusters with other houses

round a country town, differs little from a city

house. The other kind is a homestead. This usually sits

alone in a paddock, and it poses decoration problems rvhich differ from those of all other houses.

I:[owever, let's leave the artistic side until later.

For, on the practical side, both homestead and countrytou,n house pose similar problems. If you've once tackled the job of furnishing either, you won't need me to tell you what class of headache it can give vou.

Main thing is, that 1,our head should ache to some purpose. Take a little care and you should still feel huppy u,ith your stuff twenty years from the day you bought it. But if you buy on looks alone the chances are you'll be anything but happy within twenty weeks.

Being a woman, I won't say for just how marry years I've helped people furnish their homes. But, taking country homes alone, I must by now have helped lvith many hundreds. Despite all this experience, hor.r,'ever, I still sometimes have a little bad luck with country

furniture. Since the causes of this bad luck are built into our climate, this is unavoidable. Beware of the kind of shop that promises perfection. You are safer with shops you know will stand by you if something does go wrong,

Nobody can ever be quite sure how wood will take a change of air. You can, however, learn to take all possible precautions against trouble. And you can alsr: learn in advance the best way to put things right should bad luck still come along.

First, let us take a look at the real cause of climatic bother. This springs less from change of temperature than from change in the air's moisture content. Most furniture is, ol course, made in our damp coastal air.

Since it is seasoned to match that air, it follows that if it travels to the dry inland, it must lose moisture. \,Vhen this happens, even well-seasoned wood tends to shrink.

Certainly there is one timber which shrinks less than most. IJnfortunately it is both scarce and costly. It is our red cedar.

't{ffi

Iirivr-rsu

I)Ecsrannn.1955

is.another possible way to prevent ,butThere it l'ould be so dear

shrinhage;

that nobody has even tried it.

\onetheless, since it will help to make clear the nature of the problem, f 'd [ke to till you about it.

The idea is this. First, the wood for your furniture

rvould be kiln-dried till it matched up with the air^ in your country town. That part is easy; but, unfortunately, it's not enough. Next, your furniture rvould have to be made by hand. you can,t mass_ produce stuff for a single town, let alone one order.

Handwork alone would multiply your price by goodness knows how much. The men would have to make your furniture working in an airtight room. The air pumped into this room would constantly be kept as dry as the-air in your town. Finally the compleied stuff

would have to be wrapped for delivery and sialed inside the airtight room. It would then have to be sent to ,vou in air- and moisture-proof containers. It might othenvise absorb moisture on the way, undo the

rvhole scientific circus. \.ou will see r,vhy this is a method with which nobody. .bothers.

Let us look at some easier ways to beat

Right: Cedor wordrobe-flush doors on wordrobes ond cabinets with veneered foce. Sotid timber olone will tiist ond crack ond must be ponelled-on old-foshioned method.

must be solid-core

Left: An exomple of o feoture-piece in morble,block iron ond bross_ heovy, but it by-posses timber_troubles.

Below: Twin maple wordrobes rather than one lorge piece moke for

eosy hondling. The doors ore set in ond

o

bose

(,4nthory Hortlern Photogrophs\

is preferable to legs.

6i;;11

Lt:ija.:

:;: ;;;l: 1a;i11

Kr,vr-tNr

35

Dncouor,n,

l9-5.-5

the climate. First, it is important to know the difference

probably know how ugiy this looks. Furniture begins to resemble fish being scaled.

In brief, then, if you buy veneered furniture watch

between good and bad veneers. For it is hard to furnish any house today without using at least some veneered

furniture. (A veneer is a thin layer of costly timber

for: (l) Solid-cores, and (2) Low or medium gloss.

Buy stuffof this type from a reliable firm and you have almost as good a chance to miss trouble as with most solid timbers. Indeed, even solid timber is not necessarily foolproof, as was shown by somethins that once befell, of all people, the manager of a furniture factory.

It was a good factory, well-known lor its top-grade stuff. So, naturally, when about to marry, the manager had his furniture made on the spot. You can imagine the care with which he picked his rvoods, the skill which went into the makine.

laid over cheaper stuff.)

Ask for solid-core veneers.

A solid-core veneer is just what its name implies. Instead of being laid over a hollow frame, as are the poorer ones, it has a base of solid timber. The sort ofwooden sandwich which results will take far more punishment than will the hollow or "drum" type of veneer. Remember, then, to insist on solid-cores.

So much for the inside of veneers. Now for the outside. Ffere, you can more easily judge for yourself.

You will be wise to steer clear of veneers that combine a very smooth surface with a high gloss. I don't mean you should look for coarse, unpolished woodsl but avoid the type of furniture in which you can almost see your face reflected.

The completed furniture looked really wonderful.

Then, only a few weeks after his marriage, Sydney struck the hottest day on record. The thermometer climbed to 113 degrees, and because never since has there been a hotter day it is still remembered as "Black Saturday". ft r.r'as not only hot; it was dry.

And the follorving week the manager's new rvardrobe had to go back to his factory. The door-panel had split from top to bottom.

To start with, in most country homes this type of glassy surface looks out of place. But, on the practical

side, there's also a disadvantage; a serious one. It results from the method by which the mirror-smooth surlace is often obtained. To obtain this finish, some makers sand-blast the ply over which the veneer is laid.

This produces a glass-smooth foundation over u,hich to lay the veneers.

You can, of course, sidestep the problems of wooden

furniture: in parts ofyour house at least. There are an increasing number of all-metal designs on the market. to move about, and if you live in the duststorm-belt this puts more rvork into housework.

llolever, much of this metal stuff is very heavy

Ifere's the catch: Sand-blasting not only smoothes

the surface; it also smashes the fibres which make up the ply. Since this weakens it, trying conditions rvill often later cause it to further disintegrate. When this happens, the outer veneer lifts and peels away. You

Moreover, after a brief popularity, many of the highly chromed metal desisns are already going out of fashion. Perhaps this is because there is a certain

,i;nr.

A desk of modern construction with

block

edge

-

oll lominoted

ply

except /egs.

KuvlrNe

JO

Drcruaon, l955

sameness about metal. One metal surface is very like another; whereas no two wooden surfaces are precisely a1ike.

Proper construction can give extra strength to wooden articles without in any way spoiling theii looks.

Particularly in the case of chairs should you keep an eye open for sturdy design. Chairs take more pr;.rirlr_

ment than any other article of furniture. Being sat on by the human body is hard work. This is a truth some over-elegant designers like to forget. Striving for new.designs they sacrifice strength. ln the country, spindly chairs are not even worth the price of their freight. They look wrong. They fall to bits.

So, no matter how much you're tempted by a chair,s looks, before you say "Yes" to the salisman test it for strength. This is quite easy. Indeed, to some extent, I9u can pick sturdy construction with your eyes alone.

Chair-legs should be joined together by raiis. And it is better if these rails form a square; rails that make a cross under the seat are weaker.

Now, for the next part, you must not allow yourself self-conscious by a brusque salesman. If vou're in a decent shop, he's there to help not brorvbeat people into buying stuffthey don,irvant.

Making no bones about it, press the chair firmly to the floor and see-saw back and forth. Noticeable movement means the chair is for your needs at least _

to be made

too flimsy.

-

Having done all you can to buy reliable goods, your next concern will be transport. It is not safe to send breakables by rail unless they are crated. Breakables include any article which has projecting pieces 'chair-legs, for instance. "packing" some firms mean a good layer of _By padding, hessian, and loolproof knots; others mean string and brown paper. Find out fir.st, not afterwards.

A cedor chest of drowers which disproyes the betief thot todoy,s furniture often locks quolity. lt is otl of solid cedar, the drowers ore dovetoiled by hond and bross screws ore used insteod of noils.

Whenever possible, pick up your goods from the station itself. This gives you a chance to inspect their packing. Severe blows received in transit ,.,rilly l"u,r" a. m-ark on the packing. If you find one, open that particular package on the spot. Railways u.. ..rpor.ribl. until goods leave the station; not after.

The much higher cost of road transport may be partly offset by the fact that no goods (except miriors) need be crated. With any kind of transport, goods may, of course, be insured against damage. lt is stil better io take,every possible precaution against damage before_ hand. But even though you're financially covered, it,s irritating to have to send things back to be replaced or repaired.

it. It is simply that the dry air has shrunk the dowels which hold it together at the joints. This shrinkage may be very slight indeed; but it is sufficient to crack the glue that holds the dowels in place. Once re-glued, you may safely expect the chair to hold together for a lifetime. Having adjusted to the change of climate it will stay adjusted.

However, as I've just pointed out, it's a nuisance to send things back to the city. Nearly every town has at

least one joiner living

Provided the mishap occurs soon after purchase, the firm from which you bought the stuffwill probably pay the joiner's bill (which should not, in any case, be

Now, having done your best to choose the most reliable furniture, there still remains the chance that you may have bad luck with some part ol it. This bad luck will usually show up, if it is going to show up, during the first hot dry spell your rt,iff rrrd".g,r.r.

If trouble does come, it is usually less serious than at first appears. It is possible lor a well-macle chair to fall to pieces and yet have nothing much wrong with KB vr,rNs

in it. And a joiner is quite

competent to re-glue the dowels into their sockets.

much!). Since all the care you take still can't rule out the chance of this happening, you see why it is so irnportant to deal with a trustworthy firm. Of course no firm can be held responsible for trouble that appears after five or ten years; but, as I've already said, if trouble is going to come, it will usualiy come quickly"

37

Decounrn,1955

Now for the artistic side of things, You will have noticed that in advocating plain surfaces and sturdy designs I have several times remarked that these are not only more practicable for the country, they're also artistically preferable. Good decoration grows out of choosing things which suit their surroundings. It also grows out of the styies and customs of those who have gone before us.

It is here that we

).):.

Y-:-',

L/-

{r-;>'7

in Australia are as yet a little handi-

capped. Our country is still too voung to have developed enough traditions ofits own. I once passed through the U.S.A., and near Hollywood visited some wealthl' homes of the ranch-type. These were decorated in a tradition which copied nothing from elsewhere in the world. Perhaps because they r,vere near Holiywood, I had half-expected these houses to have about them a touch of the bogus. I was wrong. If the atmosphere had been faked, the faking had been done with tact.

<:-

s:-

The decorator was lucky in having three quite separate traditions on which to drarv. These are the Indian, the pioneer, and the Wild West, Bright Indian rugs hung from the walls and splashed colour here and there on the floors ofpolished boards. Burnished copper-

Hor,r,ever, if it is not yet clear what is the best line to take in deeorating a homestead, it is, at least, quite clear what it is best to avoid. And, as usual, it is thc things which are not practical and a nuisance r,r,'hich

ware added more colour to the walls, and the Wild West note came from assorted guns, spurs and other

look artistically wrong as well.

Avoid curtains and coverings of fussy silks and satin.

cowboy paraphernalia.

Curtains should be simple : steer clear of dust-catching flounces. Not only avoid high-gloss veneers, but choose timbers in their natural colours. Natural-colour timbers do not shorv dust so mercilessly as do those r,vith a dark

You will see that this cannot be translated into Australian terms. Our aborigines didn't make rugs, and nobody is going to adorn a living-room with woodwork decorations on a theme of wichety grubs or with a statue of a bunyip. Moreover, aboriginal motifs often go with rather arty and extremely citified stuffofone sort and another.

As for guns on the walls, in Australia we no doubt make more use of guns than do California cowboys of today. But I thinl most of us would feel it

stain.

\Vall-to-lvall carpet can look very much out of piace.

Don't forget there has been a sort of iinoleum revolution and many attractive kinds are now on the market.

They make a suitable background for the choicest interior. Good, too, are floor-tiles now being made in all sorts of materials.

AIso, today's polishing machines have become highly efficient. They make light work of either linoleum or polished boards. Both kinds of floor mean less worry when men come in from the paddocks with dirty boots.

A homestead should fit an entirely different way of' life from that lived in other houses. The difference was

an affectation to make use of them as ornaments.

recently brought home to me by the plans for a homestead which I was to help decorate. Evidently the architect knew country life at first-hand. When the young couple showed the plans for their new homestead I tried to get my bearings, as one usually does, by establishing in my mind r,vhat part of the plan was the

I couldn't find it. At last I said "Where's the Iront door?"

The,v smiled. "f'here isn't one. Our architect said almost nobody ever uses the front door in our kind o1' front.

house. He left

it out."

I

--:.-J=--_-

realised their architect was quite right. When I I used to play with my brothers at ringing the front doorbell. This would throw my mother into quite a panic. For nobody but strangers to the district would dream of ringing it. I'm glad to say she would take suitable action when she discovered the truth. was a child

_

o\\ "You'd think they could offord more horses."

Kavr.rxr

3B

Drcruurn,

1

955

A LINE

ON BOOKS

continued from page

cover crop the soil lost 5231b. of nitrogen. This is a remarkable influence for a leguminous cover crop to exert on the nitrogen economy in a soil . . . It must not be assumed, however, that this will always occur, When the nitrogen content of the soil is low, nitrogen accumulation is likely to occur if legumes, especialiy those which have a sod-like habit of growth, occupy the soil frequently or for a period of several years. On the other hand, there is ground for the opinion that a soil high in nitrogen may change Iittle in its content of this element and may even lose nitrogen while growing

alegume...

"There has been a rapid increase in the use ofphosphate fertilisers in recent years. In fact the use of phosphoric acid in fertiliser including rock phosphate increased approximately 47.4 per cent. in the world during the period 19+6-19+7 to 1950-1951 . . .

"The practice of putting liquid phosphoric acid in the irrigation water has developed in the south-western States, largely in California. The acid used . . . is a concentrated fertiliser. It can be shipped in iron drums or iron tank cars if it remains in the containers for only a short period. When diluted by the irrigation water the acid has not proved corrosive to crops, and the

As a final gleaning: "In the year

assisting the development of a deeper biologically fertile soil, which will then continuously make -available to plants all these necessary elements from the ibrtile soil itself. (E/.)

continued from page 27

animal-stalls, poultry-houses and produce store-sheds; for the walls of all station buildings, including silos and tobacco-curing sheds, and so lorth.

It

can alio be used

for roads connecting or within the estate, footpaths, ramps, cattle-races and irrigation channels. Onie the

station-owner has tried it out and discovered the best proportion of cement to suit his particular type oI. soil in other r,r,,ords that which will give him'ample

- combined with the greatest economy _ he strength has gained for himself a valuable material, the tulk of which he digs out of his own ground. He no longer needs to put off building that tractor shed or sh.arJ.s, living quarters because of the high cost he can dig

There are many uses for terracrete besides the construction of walls. The countryman can use it for floors (the surfaces cement-rendered and then finished

KBvr.rNe

C.NI.

KBvr,rNr view is that the province of trace and major elemenfs applied to the soil as chemical I'ertiliser and where response is achieved is in

Terracrete 'uvalls are more than strong enough to support the heaviest roof, including a reinforced concrete roof. Regarding the all-important question of cost, it is here that the country-owner gains the greatest advantage, for, even close to the source of building materials, such as brickyards, terracrete can be built for half the cost of brick houses. For the man outback, where transport costs are so high, the difference in favour of terracrete building is very considerable.

as desired)

1950-1951,

produced."

it may be

EARTH

content" . . .

"Members of the Kansas station have studied the effect of returning wheat stubble in an area ol limited rainfall. Average yields of wheat ... for a 19-ycar period were I i.0 bushels when burning of the stubble

20,570,920 tons of fertiliser were prepared lor use in continental United States and 480,820 tons for the territories. The most rapid increase in production has taken place since I940,whenonly7,830,963 tons urere

advisable to devote an entire season to the growing of crops to be incorporated with the soil. Seldom, however, is such a practice warranted unless the land is being prepared for a high-value-per-acre crop . . .

So many factors influence the response ofcrops to green manuring that any general statement concerning the effect of the practice is of questionable value. For

WITH

will usually increase the yield of the following crop but will not appreciably increase soil organic matter

burned . . . there were four crop failures and six nearfailures in the 19 years . . . In three quite favourabie seasons, burning the stubble resulted in yields of 35.0, 27 .B and 41.3 bushels, compared to 30.7, 16.2 and 26.2 bushels where the stubble was not burned . . . Near Pullman, Washington, two tons of straw were used as a mulch following a faiiow rvith a resulting r,vheat yield of 28.7 bushels. Under similar conditions, but with the straw ploughed under, the wheat yield was 31.4 bushels. Hor,vever, burning the two tons of straw resulted in a;.ield of 34.3 bushels of wheat . . .

probably a greater depth than with solid phosphate fertilisers. It may also be applied to crops after they have grown to an extent which makes application of solid fertiliser impractical. The phosphorus is quickly fixed in the soil by combination with calcium. Sometimes the acid is applied in furrows by means of a special drill attachment" . . .

BUILDING

example, the ploughing under of a non-legume such as rye-grass for oats frequently reduces the oat yield unless a nitrogen fertiliser is applied. On the other hand a clover used in the same way usually increases the yield. Also any green manure rn,hich is allowed to grow until it is time to plant the main crop may reduce the yield unless timely rains fall during the grorving season. When well managed, however, green manures

was practised and B.B bushels when the stubble \,vas not

phosphorus is well disseminated through the soil and to

Using green manures: "Occasionally

33

in tlie house; for garage, implement-sheds,

up his own walls.

39

-

Daceunrn,

I 955

v-

years ago. Since then she has put a manager on the

property and moved into Brisbane to live. FIer two daughters are both rnarried, and she has six grandchildren.

Nominated by Holland, and her nomination supby the Scandinavian countries, she was accorded a very high honour in being elected rvorld president of an association numbering something in the

ported

neighbourhood of nine million members. Next year will take the chair at the association's international

she

conference

in

Ceylon.

Mrs. Berry is District Commissioner in Brisbanc lbr Girl Guides, and her election to her present world Country \{omen's ofhce resulted, in a way, from a tour

she made some years ago

in the interest of Guiding,

rvhen she became widely known and rvell liked in Europe and elsewhere. On her recent tour Hawaii honoured her with the title of Mumi Lani, which translates as Pearl of Heaven, a token of esteem the Island people bestow with discrimination.

A crowded few days were spent by Mrs. Berry in Sydney before going home to Brisbane; delay of the plane in which she travelled from Christchurch, N.2.,

an already overfull programme, which included an afternoon party arranged by her sister, Mrs. D. Currie, of Westmead, The sisters have similar interests, so the party was arranged to give Mrs. Currie's country women friends an opportunity to get telescoped

Mrs. Berry.

together with the world leader of organisations designed

to further their interests,

panions for the hats.

Ail

these things are most becoming

;

Roberta not only has nimble fingers; she has taste and judgment in ornament, and pieces bought as accessory for a special garment turn out to have most versatile uses, which is, of course, endlessly gratifying.

ra,

L

13, ,.,1. i i

!

I

i

Cos'runrr, .Jrwolr-nnv

The dark pretty girl in the photograph, Roberta Jones, makes distinctive and interesting costume

It has an exotic, fabulous quality suggesting a cross between pre-Tudor history and fairy tale. Plaits

Srr-nounrrrs or Snapes

of raffia and gold studded with pearls and dripping fringes of coloured stones are designed to circle the throat, and earrings like sunbursts of colour to flatter the ears and give interest to an evening hair-do.

It is nice to know that Mr. Dior has run out of fashion Iettersl The effect of the A-line and Hline was not reassuring: it conjured up horrid thoughts of what

jewellery.

lrNr

CouB

might happen when designers got round toJ, S, and D, The coming season will see the tunic making fashion news, and, although it is rather depressingly referred to as "the tube", it really has endless possibilities from which we may expect quite a lot of charming variations.

Waists will not be emphasised, but neither will they be entirely disregarded, and bosoms will be in, despite those raven-like croakings which suggested that fashion would dictate the flat-chested look once more. On the contrary, the new look for them is described as a "pouter-pigeon rottndness."

For summer cottons and beach frocks she is designing an engaging trifle for the neck of fine bamboo strau, threaded with colour and finished with a fringe of bizarre wooden beads. AIso for the beach are bamboo straw coolie hats which she dyes in exciting colours, finishes with a natural or different coloured straw fringes, and trims with beads and baubles all to make amusing and,useful trifles. Bags too, in Madagascar straw studded with artificial jewels, gold, and colours, cr:me from her nimble fingers and form excellent comKri v

ro

42

I)rcrnnrn,

1

955

There will be tunic suits, tunic blouses and a tunic lrock and the length of the upper garment will vary with each. Frocks will be shown with a seven-eighths tunic, a fer,r, inches of' narrow skirt peeping coyly

llb. puff pastry; llb. small nhite onions; llb. mushrooms; 4 medium potatoes diced; 2 eggs slightlv beaten; I cup of cream; 4 tablespoons milk; a heaped

beneath. This is the least attractive length for day wear, but at night, with a floor-length pleated skirt in some sheer fabric under a tunic in one ofthe heavy brocades or velvet, it is vastll, becoming to all save those with an outsized hip-measurement.

Divide each chicken into four pieces, season with sait and pepper and put in a big saucepan with butter. One of the enamel-on-iron saucepans is the best to use.

Cook gentiy for a few minutes without browning, add the eschallots minced finel;' and the flour. Stir until the butter and f{our form a smooth paste; cook for a few minutes, and then add first the chicken soup and

tablespoon salt.

Tr-rnics about six inches below the hips, made in fine rvoollen {abrics and worn with heavily pleated skirts, may partially replace the perennial pullover for orrt-of-

then the white wine, stirring all the time to keep it smooth. Bring slowly to the boil. Add the onions quartered, and cook gently for about twenty minutes,

town u'ear. The hip-length will be seen in blouses, shaped a little at the waistline, but not fitted or worn witl-r a belt.

than add the mushrooms. Cook for another ten minutes, and mushrooms. Separate the skin and bone Irom meat.

Have one very big porcelain piedish or tlvo smaller ones; place the meat, mushrooms, diced pork and potatoes in the dish, or dishes. Continue to cook the liquid part in the saucepan until it is of the consistency of cream, then add the cup of cream, try it for seasoning, and add more pepper and salt if necessary. Pour the sauce over the contents of the piedish and allotv to cool. Cover with puffpastry well glazed with the beaterr

or until the meat is tender. Remove the meat

T'he over-all line will stiil be straight, but not so straight that we need look like lengths of down-piping.

Australian women generally, while quite fashion conscious, tend to avoid any extreme of style which interferes with normal feminine charm. Still, I think they rvill like the Chinese-iook which in England is replacing for house wear the matador slacks and tailored housecoats. Mandarin jackets, another manifestation of the

tunic, are being offered there in fabulous-looking fabrics to be worn with straight little black or white

eggs and

trousers. No creased front seam, please.

llats, we are toid, will be pretty. Dior's

milk and cook in a hot oven until a

goori

golden brown. crescent

This is a really star dish for a cold supper served with salad vegetables, and quite delectable serwed hot with

will appear again, this time worn back to front; that is, with the gap at the back. It has, this way, a sort of pillbox effect that is becoming with suits and tailored frocks. Platter shapes, worn well forward with a swathed covering for the back of the head, look both shape

the usual trimmings.

comfortable and elegant.

Colours for the winter will be dark fern-greens, rich browns (for those who can wear them) and a warm, dark grey which will be easily worn by the majority.

Accessories with these will be in vivid, almost primary, colours, and should be kept to the minimum rrecessarv to complete a costume,

Roberto Jones,

t5,

Nuw Yr,an SprcrnrEntertaining friends or relations at the New Year?

Try this recipe from Masqlchusetts. It will serve eight or ten in the quantities f.;en here, and can be uJed either hot

o..old.

.t

s

"1

n

*

Four 2ib. broiling chickens or three larger ones; 4

$

rt

eschallots; 4 tablespoons of butter; 3 tablespoons flour; 1 cup of diced boiled salt pork; 2 cups dry white wine; tin of chicken soup; 1 teaspoon black pepper; Kri vlrNri,

+,)

Drcrunrn,1955

THE, E,NTHI_]SIASTIC

PRISONE,R A

SHORT STORY BY E. O, SCHLUNKE

ENRY Holden decided to get an Italian prisoner of war after he had seen several at work on Esmond's farm. Esmond was building a shed,

-,<:1_=:

/)u:

and it was beautiful to see how they ran to get the things he needed, how they rushed to carry anything he picked

up, and hou.'they seemed to take it for granted that

4/r

they were there to do all the heavy work while the boss gave the orders.

\Vhen the captain in charge of the P.W.C.C. had a eliminarv look over Henry's place he tactlessly asked m if he h-as an invaiid; he saw so few signs of work done and so many of neglect. He wasn't at all on letting Henry have a p.o.w.; he didn't think was the type to handle them successfully, but, on other hand, he was eager to get his "hundred".

r//

When the p.o.w. arrived Henry was decidedly disappointed with him at first sight.

He did not look obliging and polite; he didn't even look like an Italian. He had a tremendous amount of

{irzzy brown hair; his eyebrows were so large and dense they nearly surrounded his eyes, and thick hair grew all round his neck and jutted out of his ears. His small bright eyes glinted sharply from among all the hair; not at al1 like the large, soft and servile eyes of the Italians at Esmond's.

In fact, he reminded Henry of a big brown bear,

with his air of having great physical strength and tremendous determination. When the military truck drove awa1, Henry had an uncomfortable feeling of having let himself in for something.

He directed Pietro to his room and, while he was settling in, tried hurriedly to work out a plan of what to do with him. There was, of course, plenty of work to do, but it wasn't so easy to start a man who didn't understand English, or know Australian farms. In a few minutes Pietro appeared.

"Worrk," he said, briefly and determinedly.

Henry abandoned his half-formed plan to let Pietro have the first half-day off. He thought of a number of jobs, only to realise that he didn't have the necessary materials. In desperation h",.5ecided to repair a fence.

He pointed to the fence ai;i to some tools and tried

to explain to Pietro.

"Unnerstan', repatater" said Pietro.

He picked up a shovel and pick and started hunting for a "leva." Henry soon realised that he meant a crowKr vr-rNr

4+

Ducrunrr,1955

bar, but he couldn't remember where his was. Pietro

from end to end and a couple of sheets immediately

looked at him in astonished reproval. When they started

blew off the roof.

off, Pietro carrying ail the heavy tools while Henry carried the wire-strainer, Henry felt better, though he was sure that Esmond's men wouid have offered to

They spent the afternoon cutting trees in the scrub and trimming them for rafters, though nothing had been larther from Henry's intention and inclination.

He cut down a lew little trees while Pietro cut a lot of

carry the wire-strainer, too.

They did little good with the fence, although Pietro It really needed a lot of new posts and wires and Henry had neither. They tightened what wires were there and braced and stayed some of the key posts in a makeshift manner. Pietro liked the wire-strainer. Apparently he had never seen one before, and he was greatly intrigued rvith the way

big ones. Pietro always took the heavier end when they loaded the rails, but even so Henry became exhausted.

Round about four o'clock he decided to go home.

n,as obviously eager to work.

"Suffi.cientr" he said.

Pietro consulted a diagram he had made.

"No sufficiente," he said. "Ancora four."

They went on working.

it u'orked.

At tea .that night Pietro met all the family. There were a flapper daughter, three younger boys and a baby. He was particularly interested in the baby.

"\'-err- ni, very nir" he said.

But rr'hen they were going home for dinner

he

rla:rced disapprovingly at the propped-up posts. '(No

He made some queer foreign noises at it, and to everyone's surprise it showed unmistakable signs of affection for him. He asked Mrs. Holden if it was breastfed, and when she told him, in some coniusion, that it was not, he wanted to know why. Then he gave her

:ood- no good," he said.

Henry usually had a nap after dinner, which lasted rre11 into the afternoon if the day happened to be warm.

But Pietro apparentiy didn't know about dinner hours.

He rvaited outside the door for a while then knocked and said, quite politely but very firmly, "lVorrk."

detailed and intimate directions, mainly by signs,. about how to ensure an abundant flow for the next baby. The flapper daughter half smothered a lot of embarrassed giggles, and the boys nearly ','busted" trying not to laugh. Henry felt that he should reprimand Pietro for his indelicacy, but didn't know horv

Henry went out, and remembered the rvoodheap. cheered him immensely. He had recently brought in a load and it would take Pietro several days to chop it up. It would be a great standby. Pietro could work there all the afternoon.

He lay down while Pietro chopped with great vigor, but he could not sleep or even relax properly because of his problem. His wife and family, too,. kept asking him questions about Pietro; they were rather awed

by Pietro.

He heard the rumble of the wheelbarrow on the verandah several times and sounds of cut wood being tipped out. Then Pietro knocked on the door.

He pointed to the great pile of wood and said "Suffi-

It

he could make him understand.

The next day Henry Glt stiff and sore. He decided to relax, but Pietro kept calling him on to the roof; sometimes for advice, but mostly to help him in fitting rafters which were too big to be "Poseeble solo."

They finished reroofing the shed by the week-end.

Pietro wanted to know if they would cut some fenceposts next week to repair the fences. Henry thought of how he would suffer if he had to work on the other end of a cross-cut saw with a tireless bear like Pietro. He said "No, some other work."

But he didn't like the way Pietro looked at him,

ciente."

"No, not sufficient," said Henry. "Chop more."

so he decided to hide the cross-cut saw.

Pietro iooked at him with a blank expression.

"No understan," he said; and, before Henry could work out another way of expressing himself, he inquired, "Sufllciente one day? Two day? Tre day?"

"Tre day", Henry admitted reluctantly.

Pietro smiled broadly and looked surprisingly pleasant as he did so. "Plenty sufficiente," he said, closing the argument.

Henry went and got his hat. He could hear the wind banging a loose sheet of iron on the roof'of the machinery shed. They would begin by nailing it down.

But when they ciimbed on the roof Pietro discovered that half the sheets were loose. Henry gave him the nails and directed him to nail down the flapping sheet.

On Sunday Esmond's Italians came to visit Pietro, and told him all about what was going on at their place. On Monday morning Pietro wanted to know why Henry was not preparing his soil for his crops like Mr. Esmond. Henry looked a bit guilty, then tried to explain that he used different methods from Esmond.

Pietro was not satisfied.

"Mr.

Henry had to admit that Esmond's results were good. He also had to confess that his results were often bad.

"Provare similar

Mr.

Esmond," Pietro

suggested

enthusiastically. "Poseeble very good oat, very good

But Pietro was hunting round for

causes. He discovered that the rafters were rotting and demonstrated it by giving one a hard hit with the hammer. It split

KrYlrNu

Esmond good resultare? No good resultare?"

\,veet."

"Tractor broken," said Henry, IIe was

45

always

Dacnunnn,

1955

overwhelmed by a feeling of hopeless apathy in the autumn, and he'couldn't face the strain of all the preparations for his worn-out plant.

"Me look?"

only had the paint peeled olI, but much of the plaster was cracked and loose.

"No good paint," said Pietro. "Prima plaster."

asked Pietro, and was off before Henry

But the thought of all the work and expense involved

could say anything.

in plastering horrified Henry.

Pietro had a thorough look over the tractor and

He said, authoritatively, "Paint sufficient"; and he took a trowel and demonstrated how the rough plaster could be smoothed off.

scarifier. He made a list of all the new parts needed, which he laboriously translated into English with the help ol his little dictionary. He explained that he was not a mechanic, but he. had had a lot of experience

He handed the trowel to Pietro, who rnade what appeared to be a similar movement. But the result was vastly different; at least a wheelbarrow load of' plaster fell off the wall.

with military vehicles.

He suggested that Henry go ro rown and brr;- the necessary parts, and Henry went, glad to escape from the responsibility of Pietro for an afternoon. While Henry was away Pietro "polished" the toolshed and

"Plenty similar," Pietro said, and knocked off ancther sqrlare yard. Henry gave in.

the farmyard.

Henry was kept busy mixing the plaster and carrying it to Pietro. It had to be mixed in small lots and applied immediately, Pietro said, otherwise it would fall off just like the previous plaster.

When Henry came home, rather late in the evening and somewhat the worse for wine, he thought he had come to the wrong farm until Pietro emerged and carried his parcels for him. He was in an exalted mood, and gave Pietro an orange for his services. But Pietro spoiled the effect by telling him of several things he had forgotten to bring.

When it was finished Henry brought out the paint.

Pietro was very interested in the "colore," When he discovered that it was to be a drab, uniform stonecolour all his eagerness vanished.

At the table that night Pietro objected to Mrs. Holden giving the baby honey to stop "No good 'oni, no good," he said.

it

"No good, no good," he said. "Similar mud."

He wouldn't take the brush -"vhen Henry gave

crying.

him.

But she continued to exercise the lawful rights of

"Brush no good)" he said. "Troppo oid."

Henry tried the brush, and had to admit

a mother. Suddenly the baby vomited. Pietro made an

angry noise, jumped up and put the honey-pot awav in the cupboard.

it

it

to

was

worn out. He decided to go to town and buy a new one.

Pietro lranted to so, too, to have his hair cut. Henry

"No good, no good," he said so emphatically that

left him at the Control Centre and went to do

she was startled and impressed.

his

shopping.

Henry found that he couldn't tell Pietro much about overhauling farm machines. He stood by to explain where tools, parts and materials were kept, frequently he found it easier to fetch them than to explain; sornetimes when Pietro was held up he became so impatient that Henry found himself running just like one of Esmond's Italians, until he remembered his dignity as a "padrone."

When he walked intc the general store where he did most of his business he had an uneasy feeling that he was being followed. He turned and saw Pietro carrying the two big tins of stone-coloured painr. He had that brown-bear look about him which Henry hadn,t liked the first time he saw him.

The manager of the hardware store came up to them. He saw by the look in Henry's eye that he wasn,t sure of himself, so he turned to Pietro, who appeared

They had an auspicious rain when everything r,vas ready, and Henry's land was never worked into better condition.

to know exactly what he wanted. Pietro held up the

The tractor ran very rvell. Pietro assumed a jealous control of it, and appeared to be very huppy on it no matter how long he worked. The arrangement suited Henry extremely well.

The manager remembered having advised Hem.y against a uniform drab colour, and immediately set

cins.

"Colore no goodr" he said.

out to help Pietro. He quite ignored Henry's somewhat

He felt free for the {irst time since his prisoner arrived. He had plenty of time to turn over ali the vague plans he had in his head.

indistinct "No, it's all right.

I'11 keep it."

He showed Pietro a colour-card, from which

When Pietro finished working the land he suggested again that they cut some fence posts. But }Ienry was ready with his own plan. Pietro was to paint the house.

Pietro agreed heartily; the house certainly needed painting. They went to have a good look at it. Not

KBvr,rue

he

selected a very light cream, a bright blue and a black.

"One big creama, one little blu', one little, little

neror" he said.,

The manager was, as he would have said, intrigued.

He tried to discover what design Pietro had in mind, 46

Docrruuan,

1955

and Pietro demonstrated as best he.could, attracting a lot of attention from other shoppers who began to

But that day it rained, a splendid soaking rain, and during the night it cleared.

Henry was wakened early in the morning by the roar of the tractor starting. Ffe was puzzled and rather annoyed; Pietro was up to srtmething. Then he realised that Pietro had made the all-important decision of the year : to start sowing the wheat.

Henry thought, with some indignation, of the programme he had given Pietro, but he also realised that it was much more important to have the wheat

gather round.

Henry became most uncomfortable,

"I

won't have

it

at any price," he protested. "Everyone who goes past will die laughing."

"Ah, garn," said a big voice from the back, "let him have a go. It couldn't look any worse than it's looked for the last twenty years."

Then a couple of ladies joined in.

"How interesting!" said nne. "The Italians ale

sown while the soil was moist. He lay thinking for a long time of ways in which he could re-assert himself, and all the time he heard noises of Pietro's preparations.

He stayed there because he always hated the worry of

so

artistic, aren't they?"

The other one said

"I

remember seeing the adorable

working out the proportions of wheat and fertiliser and adjusting the machines accordingly, and all the other important details necessary for a successful

Italian cottages painted just like that. You must let us come and see it, Mr. Holden." She happened to be the wife of Henry's long-suffering mortgagee, and her word carried some weight with him. Quite a number of others voiced favourable opinions before Henry

I

sowing season.

When at last he went out Pietro hurried up to him, his face aglow with enthusiasm. "Oh, rain very nice," he said. "Poseeble very good weet this year, similar

and Pietro carried out the cream, blue and black paint.

Pietro took endless pains over the painting, and all the time he t,as at it Henry felt resentful, despite the fact that many people came and admired it. He comforted himself by compiling a long list of heavy jobs Pietro would have to do when he was finished. He had

Mr.

Esmond."

He pointed to the tractor hitched to the sowing combine and the farm cart loaded with supplies of seed, fertiliser and tractor fuel.

"After brekfus I take trattore and weet machine.

You bring carro. A1lora we commence before Guiseppe and Leonardo on farm Mr. Esmond."

"Yes, Pietro," said Henry.

the interpreter prepare a translation, and when at Iength the house was finished he gave Pietro a week's programme, consisting mainly of firewood-carting and post-hole digging.

By

SECRETARY'S NOTES

continued frorn page

a pioneer and summer grazing grass, and Hl rye and cocksfoot grasses with subterranean clover and lucerne as fallow on pasture to give autumn,

winter and spring

The visitors stated that they would be very interested i.:, :he results obtained with 33 acres of phalaris sown this lear. especially in about its third vear, when it had

tl

increase

in

pasturage,

in addition to the carrying of

more stock, will improve soil fertility by returning a greater quantity of humus to the land, particularly if

had dme to forrn a good pasture sod.

In a general summing up at the end of the day, Department oi -\griculture omcers stated that there is a definite place ibr the Keyline Plan and the use of the chisel-plough or1 \'er\- many properties throughout New South \\'ales. particularly those located on the coast, tablelands and slopes. The Keyline system is very simple of operation once the farmer has the basic idea, and particularly if the Keyiine has been located for him. Whereas "contour" or "pasture" furrows used

subterranean clover is the basis of the pastur.e moisture.

The deep penetration of moisture and air releases plant food frorh the lower depths of the soil, thus improving the quality of the pasture growth, whilsr the aeration from the deep working by the chiselplough, with the additional moisture conserved under. the Keyline PIan, encourages bacterial action, particularly of the nitrifying bacteria.

Mr. Yeomans demonstrated the Bunyip level, which was generally considered simple in operation, and excellent as a farm level for use in connection with the Keyline Plan. A similar level, which is most popular, has been in operation in Western Australia for some years. The farmers have found it to be speedy and ideal

considerable

voiume in wide, solid furrows, the Keyline system has the adlantage of distributing th'e lvater over a much wider area and in less volume, This means that the pasture land is more evenly watered, with the result that the grorr'th over any paddock will be much more

KBvris:

ir."

Plan. As a corollary to the conserving of moisture, more and better pasture growth results, which in turn gives a better soil cover, thus preventing soil erosion. The

pastures'"vere showing the benefits of the Keyline work.

in

Bulle

will suflbr early from a dry spell" To the Department visitors this conservation of moisture was the outstanding feature of the Keyline

At the time of the visit, though only 23 points of rain had fallen in the previous three months, the

usual methods retain moisture

"'Ihe

regular, and not have patches that

feed.

in

permissittn oJ

for contour work.

47

DBr:nunrn.

1955

BUSINESS PROFILE

continued from page

standing. It handled more wheat than any other wheathandling firm. It topped the list of fat stock sales. Its wool went under the hammer for 100 pence and higher on 62 occasions. It paid its clients d45,000 in rebates of

wool commissions.

It showed a record trading profit of {109,000 and paid a dividend of 6 per cent. equal to the highest dividend it had paid since its -formation.

In 1949 the company's wool sales' tally reached 213,896 bales, 240 separate lots bringing prices from 100 to 189 pence. Trading profit jumped to d122,000.

Nineteen-fifty saw the upward swing in wool reach

new levels.

F. & G. that year sold227,52B bales. Its trading profit rvas a record of d275,945; it paid a record dividend of B per cent.;

it

rebated to clients a record amount of

{60,715.

In the 15 years from ig37 to 1952, the company sold and appraised 777,580 bales of wool. Apart from opening its new branch at Goulburn and its three satellite stores, the company's development had bought, in 1946, Sirius House, Macquarie Piace, Sydney, now F. & G. headquarters; established in 1949 a travel

THE

BIG

SCRUB

introduction ofclovers to the pasture is advised. Special bacterial cultures are being isolated to assist the clovers, particularly the subterranean, in establishment under the hot summer conditions.

A means of sowing the clover so that it might satisfactorily establish without altogether disturbing the present pasture had to be devised.' The practice of "sod-seeding" was introduced,

Wherein lies the solution of the probiem of restoring

and improving the fertility and productivity of thii naturally endowed area?

that appeals is a wellplanned programme of conservation farming which combines the most advanced methods of storing moisture in the soil with increasing the organic content ofthe soil.

Controlled rotational grazing, subdivision, water reticulation and improved pastures are understood already and will undoubtedly play a big part. common-sense approach

However, the soii itself must be made to absorb and Knvrrrur.

and service department; opened

in 1950 branches

at

Gunnedah, Griffith and Narrabri.

Behind this record lies the work of four men, who,

with Sir Arthur Trethowan in the original board of directors, fathered the infant company and brought it to manhood Fitzpatrick, of Junee; the late E. J. Gorman,-John of Berrigan, a staunch advocate ol co-operation, who did much in the early days to help make the company a success; the iate H. S. Secomb, who also managed the Tamworth branch lor many years and the late W. W. Killen. Mr. Kiilen was an outstanding personality who contributed a great deal to the company's development.

The dominant personality in those golden years, however, was Mr. Buttenshaw, whose virile management from i937 until his death in 1950 was reflected in the success the company enjoyed.

Since Mr. Buttenshaw's death, the management of the F. & G. has been in the hands of another practical man of the land, Mr. G. D. Bassett, M.L.C.

Mr.

Bassett has been on the board of director.s since

i926. He is a grower of wool and wheat, a fat-lamb breeder, and an irrigationist.

continued from page,l2

The decaying excess growth wili, in turn, become plant food. Better water reticulation improves evenneis ol grazing. The dangers of overstocking are pointed out.

To further improve the organic content of the soil,

A

22

retain more moisture, because seas.onal heavy laius are followed by dry periods.

To do this the organic content of the soil should be increased and the soil loosened, preferably, or course) in such a manner as to prevent run-off.

Where trees once flourished, let them once again draw food from the deeps below the topsoil, and let them top-dress the pastures wherever the wind will carry their leaves.

Let the square shape ofthe paddocks be superseded by a pattern more co-operative with Nature alone

the contour or keylines.

Anyone wishing to buy a farm in the Big Scrub area lvould be well advised to select one that .has been allowed to run down; where the pastures have grown unchecked.

Good or bad as any atea of the Big Scrub may have been in the past, sensible land management will be the

keynote in the restoration and improvement of its fertility in the future. Perhaps there are trace elements that will assist; perhaps calcium and phosphate will play a part eventually. But let us hope it will not be iong before the farmers are saying:

"You know, when I was a boy the it does now."

grass

didn,t grow

as vigorously as

Dlr-,runr.r,

1955

lVIore Less

o

Aeres

o

Initial

Cost

r Man Hours

, fuel [onsumption

'1hg -rpeed and economy of spraying rr-ith this unit is amazing.

Broad srrathcs (in excess of 40 feet) rlean I'er.er trips. Higher

speeds rrith no cumbersome boom to control mean savings in tirne and labour. Installation and operation are easy aud fast.

Price

Complete

f,17'Lo'-

Seaeral Sprayers in. One

Distributors for Vic. and Riaerina:

The "\I'elco" Boorn Jet can be instantly converted tiom a pasture or ro\r' cr{rp sprayer: to a roadside or hedge-row sprayer and r:an be litt.ed rvith a hand gun lbr spot spraying

WtrLCH PERRII\

or jetting.

48 Queen's Bridge Street, South ilf elbourne

Nozzles Neuer Clog

&

CO. PTY. LTD.

The "\\ielco" Boorn .Iet .brings you complete, trr.ruble-free spraying. Nozzles never clog. There is no boom tn str"ay, lrend

or break. It offers dependable and superior application.s of all tvpes of l.eetl killerrs, insecticides, etc.

No Curnbersorne Boorrt Ilhrstrated leaflet g-ivirrg lirll particulars available on application-

Waite

& Bull Pty. Limited,

Syilney

Distributors for N.S.W.

THE DAIEN

:

CORP()RATION PTY. LTD.

22 King Street, Sydney

,i;iiiiiili:ilt;

I

STRAIGHT

FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

\O.SINASERIES

O\

SOIL EROSION

\)ry/ Yes, tirere'd be no crops to harvest once that top-soil eroded away. The man on the land knows that the good earth is the basic asset of his farm. rJ7ithout it there would be no farm.

Contour-working is achieving wonders in conserving soil in Australian crop-lands which otherwise might have become eroded beyond recovery. Wise crop farmers have adopted contour-ploughing as one more way to preserve their greatest

,I

I I

l

asset, the soil.

Wise farmers, too, insist on C.O.R power kerosine, motor spirit or Diesoleum fbr their tractors. These C.O.R quaiit-v fuels mean easier starting, smoother running and greater economy Available

in luel c<-rnsumption. in clean 44-gatlon drums from

C.C).R Depots and

Agents in rural areas throughout Australia.

*As

by The C.O.R Ltd in its High-speetl lgnition Handbook, ctaailable on request

recommended

Compression

from all C.O.R branch offices"

THE COMMONWEAI,TH OII, REFINERIES

TRACT(IR IUETS P0WER KEROSINE o DIESOLEUM*

AND

INEIGOL

r M0T0R SPIRII

LusnlcaNrs

an associate of The British Petroleum Companv Ltd i

i

,,

I