arket.
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.

[Illustration: (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.