Relation of Weathkr to Crops 73 



injured, one to four inches of the tips being killed. December 14, 

 1901, slight injury was done to the tips of E. rudis and E. leucoxylon, 

 while vear old plants of E. rostrata were nearly all frozen to the 

 ground, the minimum thermometers registering 15° F. at the 

 ground, 20° F. in tl:-.- go\ernn-cnt shelter, and 24' F. at the Weather 

 Bureau. All are n ore or less checked in their growth by the heat 

 of midsummer, E. pilyanihcjiia being affected perhaps the least of 

 any cf the speci^-S mentioned. vSome species grow best in a moist 

 atmosphere, but m-ost of them prefer a dry atm-osphere. With mod- 

 erate irrigation, the Eucalypts noted above will endure well our 

 hot, dry atmosphere. 



Eucalypts may be grown from seed in a frame lattice house, 

 the sides of which should be more or less protected with vines. 

 The seeds should be sown by the middle of April or early in May 

 in flats containing about 3 inches of clean fine sand. They should 

 be scattered on the surface and covered with a thin layer of sand. 

 The water used in irrigating should be free from alkali and the flats 

 should be covered with one or two thicknesses of newspaper uniil 

 the seedlings are mostly up. They must not be kept too wet, other- 

 wise they will be attacked by a damping-ofi fungus. When th^ 

 small plants have 4 or leaves they may be transplanted in flats 

 containing 5 or 6 inches cf fine, sandy, loamy soil; and they should l;e 

 watered regularly. About 100 plants may be set in a flat 12 by 

 20 inches in size. From July 1 to August 15 the flats of seedlings 

 should be covered with fine wire screen or mosquito netting to 

 keep June and GoldsmJth beetles from depositing their eggs in 

 the moist soil. The larvae of these insects eat the rootlets cf 

 young Eucalypts and may do a great amount of damage in a 

 short time. The Eucalypts may remain in the lattice house during 

 the winter season and be set out the following spring. 



Eucalypts, like citrus trees, have two periods of thrifty growth, 

 one from March to June, and the other from the latter part of 

 August to the latter part of November. A little growth is made 

 here by a few species during the hottest weather of summer, and a 

 few make some growth during the coldest weather of winter. 



The most rapid growing Eucalypt {E. globulus) does not endure 

 well our extremes of climate, but the growth of E. rudis, E. tereti- 

 corniSy and E. rostrata is fairly rapid. Judging by their growth 

 upon the Farm and elsewhere, they can be counted on to attain 

 a height of 30 feet and a diameter of 6 inches in four or five years, 

 and a height of 50 feet and a diameter of 1 foot in six or eight years. 

 A five-vear-old E. rudis at the Farm measured 1 foot in diam- 



