NOTES AND GLEANINGS

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 376, 12 June 1889, Page 3

NOTES AND GLEANINGS

Felling Tjbkes by Electricity. — Hitherto machines for felling trees have beon driven by steam power, bat this is sometimes inconvenient, especially in thick woods, and electric power has recently been adopted in the Galician forests. Usually in such machines the trunk is sawn, bufc in this case it is drilled. When the wood is of a soft nature the drill has a sweeping motion and cute into the trunk by means of cutting edges on its sides. The drill is actuated by an electric motor mounted, on a carriage, which is brought up close to the tree and shackled to it. The motor is capable of burning round its vertical axis ; and the drill is geared to it in such a manner .that it can turn through an arc of a circle and make a sweoping cut into the trunk. The first cut made, the drill is advanced a few inches, and another section of the wood removed in the same way until the trunk is half severed. It is then clamped to keep the cut from closing, and the operation continued until it would be unsafe to go ' on. The remainder is finished by a handsaw or an axe. The current is conveyed to the motor by insulated leads brought through the foresb from a generator placed in some convenient site. Pall Mall 'Gazette. Broad Wheel Tikes. — A three or four inch tire is looked, upon by many rural travellers with something akin to amazement. And yet such a tire not only does nob damage a road, whether it be hard or soft, but it actually improves it, rolling it and making it hard, smooth and firm. And, moreover, the load is drawn with

greater ease. In field work the advantage is equally great. The wheels do not sink through an ordinary sod and very little in a stubble ; while two horses will draw about 30cwt. of manure upon freshlyploughed land with Tour-inch tires on the waggon wheels, they would be unable to move half that amount upon IJ-inch wheels. As showing a practical recognition of the enormous difference it makes in the wear and tear of roads where broad tires are used, we may state that the New York turnpike law allows six-inch wheels to pass at half price, and twelve-inch wheels to pass free of toll altogether. The Inuian Wheat Crop.— The following is a summary of the first general report on the prospects of the next Indian wheat crop, issued by the Indian Government Agricultural Depaibment : — The area under wheat in tho Punjaub was about 6,046,200 acres in November, or about 2} per cent. less than that of la^t harvest. The "normal" area is 6,765,000 acres. Apparently, since November, the area has been increased, but to what extent is not estimated. The prospects are described as good throughout the province. In the north-western province and Oudh the area is c&timated to be libtle larger than that of 1888, but rain was badly needed in some districts when the report was issued. The season has also been unfavourable in the Central Provinces, where the wheat area is less than usual. Prospects appear to vary a good deal, and the report is somewhat confusing. The Bombay report represents the area of the crop to be aboub 2,527,000 acres, or 600,000 less than that of last year. Prospects are good in some districts and poor in others. In Berar, again, the area is diminished, while the condition is generally good. In Central India, Rajputana, Hyderabad, and Mysore, the outlook is generally favourable ; but in Northern India the crop was in jeopardy from want of rain when the report was issued.