AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VI, Issue 60, 22 July 1897, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Spotted Gum. From the Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. It is only recently a coachbuilder, who has been using a large number of spotted gum hubs, gave it as his opinion that the days of elm hubs, even for the lightest wheels, will, as far as Australia is concerned, soon be at an end. So satisfactory have they been found that it only remains for commercial enterprise to step in and put colonial hubs on the market, seasoned and in mortised the same way that American hubs are, to completely displace the latter. It is now clear that liability to check while seasoning i 3 not a fault peculiar to Australian timbers, but that it is common in foreign woods also, and that the prevention of checking in Australia is as elsewhere only a matter of care exercised in storing and seasoning. O Brush Box. Mr. Forester Brown, of Port Macquarie, writes : ‘ I find that, besides the many valuable uses to which brush box is put, the following may be added, gleaned from Mr. A. Jennings, Port Macquarie. A countershaft, which drives from the main countershaft, also drives a planing machine, band saw, and two gulleting machines, is fifteen feet long. The centre bearing is of brush box end on. It has been in use twelve months and shows no perceptible wear, whilst the bearing at one end of brass has been renewed in nine months, and now shows one-eighth of an inch wear. The other bearing of cast-iron, which has been renewed twice in twelve months, also shows one-eighth of an inch wear.'