Relation of Weather to Crops 73 



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

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

 while } ear-old plants of E. rosiraia were nearly all frozen to the 

 ground, the minimum therm.ometers registering 15° F. at the 



t> 



o 



round, 10° V. in tl:c gc\ernmcnt shelter, and 24^^ F. at the Weather 



Bureau. All arc more or less checked in their growth by the heat 

 of midsuir.mcr, E. pulyaiilluijia being allected perhaps the least of 

 any cf the species mentioned. Some species grow best in a moist 

 atmosphere, but most of them prefer a dry atmosphere. 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 sow^n 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 fla\;s 

 should be covered with one or two thicknesses of newspaper un.il 

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

 wise they will be attacked by a damping-off fungus. \Vhen th^ 

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

 containing 5 or (3 inches of fine, sandy, loamy soil; and they should l;e 

 watered regularly. About 100 plants m^ay be set in a flat 12 1// 

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

 should be cov^ered with fine wire screen or mosquito netting to 

 keep June and Goldsmith 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 Eucal)'^pts 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. nidis, E. tereti- 

 cornis, 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. riidis at the Farm measured 1 foot in diam- 



