03t. 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 741 



It must not be concluded from this that shallow holes >-hould be dus: for 

 small l>ulbs. Tn every case the hole should be at least 15 inches deep, and the 

 bottom should in addition be broken up with a pick or mattock. The bulb 

 is then set on this loose bottom, a few inches of soil being thrown in in the 

 case of small bulbs ; the soil is finally filled in over the bulb so as to give the 

 3-inch covering referred to. ' 



The importance of this will be seen if we point out the effect of planting 

 too deep. It has been observed often, that if a sucker is set too deep, 

 instead of rooting from the bulb (the natural place; it sends out roots from 

 the stem by splitting the trunk at 3 inches below the surface, and forming 

 a sort of false bulb at that level, while a constriction develops below which 

 makes it impossible for the plant to utili^te the plant food stored in the 

 proper bulb. This, of course, means that the sucker is at a standstill until 

 such time as the false bulb and roots have developed, which involves serious 

 loss of time during the growing season and results in a plant distinctly 

 weaker than it might have been. 



AVe cannot too strongly stress the care that should be exercised in planting 

 the top of the bulb at no gi'eater depth than 3 inches below the soil level. 

 Sometimes it is even necessary after a severe rainstorm to go round and 

 remove some of the soil that has been washed in, covering the bulb to a 

 greater depth than the correct one. 



Pruning or Suckering the Banana Plant. 



Pruning — or suckering, as it might just as well be called — is neglected by 

 some, and imperfectly understood and practised by others. Some growers 

 are content to give little attention to it, while others either do it to excess 

 or at the wrong time. 



Pruning is carried out for three principal reasons : — 



1. It conserves plant food. 



2. It resuhs in larger branches and better fruit. 



3. It ensures fruit when prices are high. 



The removal of such suckers as are not required to produce the crop of 

 fruit is nf'cessary, and should be done when the suckers are not more than 

 1 foot high. The larger the sucker grows the more food it takes from the 

 parent V)ulb, and the more do its young roots interfere with the roots of the 

 parent sucker, a reduction in the size of the bunch of fruit being the ultimate 

 result. 



It has been proved often enough that the more suckers there are to a stool, 

 the smaller will be the size of the bunches, and the longer will it take for the 

 suckers to mature fruit. The reason is palpable— the suckers are competing 

 with the mother plant for plant food in the soil, and are actually partly fed 

 by it. 



The influence upon the price obtained from the fruit is even more 

 interesting. Growers generally are content to market their crop every montli 

 and any month in the year, without much attempt to regulate the bearing 

 season. It will be admitted, however, that the height of the summer— the 



