5Q 

 ^^,.,.^..j — ■ [March 6, 



Shortly before sowing in tlie open, the ground 

 should be ploughed crosswise, that is in both direc- 

 Sowing in tiie tions, and reploughed lightly in furrows 1.5 metres 

 open. apart. The seeds should be carefully deposited every 



two steps (or at intervals of 1.5 metres) and covered 

 with a thin layer of fine earth. Of course, this entails irregularities in 

 the interspacing of the shoots, as manj' seeds do not germinate, being 

 blown or washed away or washed under, and the young plants of the 

 same species grow more or less rapidly, according to the quality of the 

 surface soil, and in a lesser degree to the nature of the subsoil in various 

 places in the same localities, and moreover the growth is less rapid for 

 some time than when young shoots are planted. This sowing in the open, 

 which should take place at the beginning of the rainy season, appears to 

 be cheaper than sowing in pans and planting out the young trees a few 

 mouths old, the labor being so much less, but in the end it is dearer as 

 so many seeds do not germinate, and the sowing has to be renewed fre- 

 quently. 



The seeds are preferably sown in pans or boxes, and 

 Sowing in pans the young trees planted out at the proper age and 

 to plant out the season. 



siioots. "Prepare a compost of vegetable mould and river 



sand very finely sifted. Fill the pots of 0.15 metre in 

 diameter, press the earth lightly and evenly with a small zinc cylinder of 

 about the same diameter as the pot. Scatter the seed on the surface so as 

 nearly to cover the whole of it, then, with a very fine sieve, which may 

 be a zinc cylinder similar to the other but perforated with very minute 

 holes, sift just enough of the compost on the seed to cover them and no 

 more. Press this surface again lightly with the first cylinder and water 

 with a watering pot, the rose of which is perforated with the smallest 

 holes which it is possible to make. This should be done in early May, so 

 that the trees may be planted out at the first rains of autumn when the 

 ground is moist. Within fifteen or twenty days tlie seeds will have 

 germinated, and in about six weeks the plants will be ready to put out. 

 Weed off as soon as the trees have produced four leaves, and transfer to 

 other pans of 0.1 metre in diameter, to be kept in a shady place for the 

 first day or two, and tlien transfer to a sunny position ; water during 

 the summer just sufliciently to prevent them from dying. The great ob- 

 ject is to retard their growth during the summer so as to keep them small 

 and prevent their roots from becoming matted inside of the pans. 



A second sowing may take place about the middle of September, so 

 as to obtain young plants ready to be put into the ground about the be- 

 ginning of spring. In some respects this plan is preferable to the other, 

 and it is always so when the plants can be Avatered in summer. The 

 young trees have a shorter time to remain in the pans, and their roots 

 run less chance of becoming matted ; but often, when the rains cease 

 early in the year, they have not become gutficientlj- rooted in the open 



