In the above plant a stripper-harvester has been allowed for, but if a stripper and winnower be used instead, the cost for implements would be about $120.00 less. On the other hand, more labour would be required to work them. The utilisation of the stripper-harvester is the most popular method of taking off a wheat crop.
The stripper is an Australian invention. It is a machine drawn through the ripe standing crop by three or four horses attached to its side. The horses walk in the stubble of the harvested portion. The ripe ears coming within reach of the machine, which has a 5-ft. cut, are gathered by a comb, and directed to a cutting plate, where the beater drum cuts them from the straw and threshes the grain out. At the same time the grain, with the chaff and some straw, is thrown into a receptacle at the back of the machine. When this is full the stripper is driven to a picked place in the paddock and emptied. Here a winnower has been placed, and the mixture of grain and rubbish out of the stripper is put through this winnower, which cleans and bags the wheat ready for market. In fair crops one winnower, with four men to work it, will keep two strippers going.
The stripper-harvester is another Australian invention. It is an improvement on the stripper, and is now in more general use. It is really a combined stripper and winnower. It takes off the heads of wheat, and also threshes and cleans them as it goes along, and delivers the grain into bags at the side of the machine. This reduces the cost of harvesting, as less labour is required. Two men can work a harvester, one driving the machine while the other removes and sews up the bags. The machines cut 5 to 6 ft., but 8-ft. machines have proved successful of late, and with them a good area can be handled in a day. The smaller machine will strip about 10 acres of a fair crop in a working day.
(1) Steam Thresher. (2) Stook-building. (3) Harvest Picnic. (4) Baling for Export. (5) Stooks ready for Carting.
[WORKING THE WHEAT FARM.]
The settler having acquired his land, he will require to fence in his holding, and also subdivide it into convenient paddocks or fields. All Australian farms are fenced, and in districts in which the rabbit is a menace the boundary fences are wire-netted. Unless timber is very plentiful wire fences are almost universal. Posts, which are obtained from timber on the farm that is fallen, and split into the necessary lengths, are erected 9 or 11 ft. apart, with six or seven wires running through them. Sometimes the posts are put at a greater distance apart, and "droppers" placed between them at distances of 7 or 8 ft. Some of these droppers are of split timber, but patent droppers, made of wire and iron, can be obtained. Where timber is scarce such fences are cheaper. The droppers hold the wires to which they are attached in their place, but are not sunk into the ground. Fencing costs about $144.00 to $168.00 per mile. Netting the fences to keep out the rabbit costs an additional $192.00 to $240.00 per mile. If the new farm consists of improved, that is, cleared or partly cleared land, the settler will probably get his crop in before he does his fencing. It would be better for him to do that than leave his sowing till unduly late.
Where green timber has to be cleared off the land it is ringbarked first, and the trees allowed to die before they are grubbed out. Ringbarking consists of cutting a small strip of bark from around the trunk of the tree to prevent the flow of sap keeping it alive. After ringbarking, the trees usually throw out young shoots or "suckers," which have to be broken off. Usually this has to be done twice, and is called suckering. The deeper the trees are ringbarked, the bigger the piece of bark removed, the sooner it will die, but there is then a greater tendency to throw out suckers. The trees take two or three years to die, then they are grubbed and burnt. It is very seldom that the green trees are cut out at once, as this is very much more expensive, and for some time after removal the ground is too sour to be good for wheat or other crops. When the country is ringbarked the ground sweetens, and by the time the tree is dead is ready for cropping. While the trees are dying the country is usually used for grazing sheep and other stock, as it will be carrying good pasture. Of recent years a system has been tried, with considerable success, of poisoning the green timber with a mixture of arsenic and soda and water. A ring is chopped round the tree, and the bark thus makes a rough cup, into which the mixture is poured. This treatment has proved very effective.
The cost of ringbarking and all similar operations, of course, depends upon the amount of timber on the country, but it usually costs from 24 cents to 30 cents per acre, while suckering costs 8 cents to 12 cents per acre. After the trees are dead they are grubbed or burnt out, all roots to 12 or 18 in. depth being removed, and this work costs from $2.80 to $3.60 per acre. In some cases the country is what is known as "Yankee-grubbed," in which case the trees are cut off level with the ground, and roots allowed to remain in below the surface. When the country was used for grazing only, this was found a cheap and efficient method, but nevertheless only a small proportion of Australian wheat country has been so treated. To cultivate "Yankee-grubbed" country what are known as stump-jump implements, ploughs and cultivators are used. These are available on the market, and as "Yankee-grubbing" is certainly cheaper than the usual method of grubbing, it has some attraction to the man with limited capital. The more careful farmers, however, do not advocate this method.