Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/189

 through all the difficulties and hardships of the pioneer, and there-fore I give all plans, ways and means of working through them.

One way of getting rid of stumps is by burning, piling up small wood round each and making the fire at the roots after digging well round and under them, but this is a slow process, and it is almost better to cut them out with pick and axe. I have seen them very successfully burnt out by covering entirely with clay (a sort of oven in fact) then lighting the wood low down so that the fire will burn under the clay till every particle of stump is consumed. There are ways, too, of blowing them or bursting them up with dynamite or gunpowder, but they should not be attempted by an inexperienced hand. There are also stump extractors, machines made for the purpose, and in some districts they go round with them clearing land at so much per acre.

When the land is cleared it is ready for ploughing if our young farmer has a plough or can get the loan of one. If he can do neither at present, I would suggest his getting one crop off the land in the meantime. Maize is the best crop to grow on unbroken land, and to plant it he will have to hoe patches here and there all over the ground, keeping them as well as he can in line, make them raised somewhat like little hillocks, and plant three or four grains in each, this crop will loosen the ground for the plough. And while it is growing he may as well build his fowl house. Poultry will do no harm to the corn once it is well above ground, and by the time he has other crops in he must have a closer fence to keep out other animals than fowls, if his farm is to be for general stock. As time is money to a man beginning as I am describing, his fowl house should be on a plan quickly built, by and bye when he has things in full swing he can build a large house, and the old one will come in for a turkey house. If my young farmer lives in New South Wales or Victoria, where there is a fair proportion of very cold weather every year, he must make his fowl house close instead of open. And if he has plenty of small saplings he cannot do better than utilize them for his walls. First he must put up eight or ten posts to form a circle, as this shape is best for a small house. In the centre have a post at least three or four feet higher than the others (see diagram next page). Fix the wall plates on to the posts, and from each post to the middle post fix smaller saplings, or battens if he has them, to form the roof, and nail all securely. To make the walls of the building dig a small trench round the outside, and having prepared the saplings by cutting off all twigs, and cutting them all the same length so that they will reach to the wall plate easily. Now put the one end (the thickest) into the trench, jambing them as close together as possible, and at the top nail each sapling to the wall