We cut down trees, and then spend a great deal in blowing out or tearing out the stumps. A machine for taking down the trees, stumps and all, has been invented in Australia. Perhaps it would cost less to saw off the stumps after the tree fell than to blow them out afterwards. However, the machine is thus described :

" A machine, or rather apparatus, for pulling down trees has recently been introduced with success into Queensland. The machine consists of chains, iron rods, a powerful lever, and an iron plate with holes in which to place iron pins on which the lever works. A ladder of 20 or 30 feet in length is also necessary for placing the chain sufficiently high on the tree to be pulled down to enable a good strain to be obtained. The whole affair can be easily carried about on a light spring cart, and only weighs about 3 cwt. The rods are not more than five-eighths of an inch in thickness, the chain links are about the same, while the rods along or at each side of the iron plate are three-quarters of an inch in thickness. The first experiment was made with a tree about seventy feet in height and six feet six inches in girth, which yielded quickly to the strain which the lever brought to bear upon it, was very shortly removed out of its equilibrium, and fell to the ground with a crash in a few minutes from the commencement of the trial, bringing the roots out of the ground with it for a depth of three feet and several feet in circumference. Another tree of larger proportions and apparently a more difficult one was next tackled.

It was a closely-knit box tree, situated on the side of a hill and evidently had a firm hold of the ground by the extensive roots attached. In twenty minutes after the chain was put around it this monster of the forest, which must have reared its head and withstood the storms of many years, was laid level with the ground. In another instance the doomed tree withstood an enormous tension. Three times was the length of the lever plate (which is 7 ft.) exhausted before its roots would give up their hold of the ground. It at last, after having been held by the branches of a neighboring tree, fell to the ground. An examination of the powerful roots showed the cause of the great pull that was required to unseat it. On applying the tape it proved to be 66 feet long, with a girth of 4 1/2 feet, and the wood was of a most tough description. The machine was manufactured at Cam-perdown, in Victoria, in which district similar machines have been at work and have done such effective service that they have earned the name of 'The Forest Devil.'"