Practical Sylviculture. 



603 



FIG . a 



STRIP S Y STEM 



loosened no seedling' can grow, moisture cannot penetrate, nor can 

 the tender roots get deep enough down to withstand drought. 



To take up an area of, say, a thousand acres and sow the seed 

 broadcast would be an expensive method to adopt, and might prove 

 imsuccessful, as the ground would have 

 to be broken up, and even then the 

 seedlings would stand a good chance 

 of being choked. The best system to 

 adopt in a case of this sort is to sow in 

 strips. The land being broken up in 

 lines some two to three feet wide, and 

 four to six feet between the lines, 

 the seed is sown in them. They can, at 

 little expense, be kept free from 

 injurious growth, and where the seed 

 had failed, could be resowu. If the lines 

 are not too far apart the young trees will 

 soon, by the meeting of their crowns, form 



IT 1 • 1 -n^, 1 x: • 1 i. J.1 A. — Planted Area. B.— Unplanted Area. 



a shade which will be benencial to them 



by keeping down and eventually killing all weed growth between the 

 lines, and prevent the sun destroying the humus caused by the 

 decaying vegetable matter. 



In marking out the strips care will have to be exercised to run 

 them in such a manner as to lessen as much as possible the chances of 

 denudation by rain. On steep slopes the strips must be run horizontally 

 and as level as possible ; on flat land it is immaterial which way they 

 run, but they ought always to be parallel to each other. Owing to the 

 rapid growth of the eucalyptus this system is one that is likely to 

 pi'ove most successful in Victoria. 



Soifiny in Patches. — This is a cheaper method than the strip 

 where the ground is much broken or of a rocky nature. The patches 

 can be of any shape or size, according to the style of country, neither 

 is there any regulation distance between them ; in fact it is, where 

 adopted, a case of plant where you can. Some patches may be only 

 3 feet X 2 feet or 4 feet x 4 feet, others run to 10 feet x 1 foot or 10 

 feet X 5 feet, again they may assume the shape of an irregular strip. 

 The soil in every case will have to be broken up by some hand 

 instrument, such as hoe, pick, or digging fork, and of course the 

 resulting growth will be in groups. 



FIG 3— PATCH SYSTEM. 



A.— Planted Area. B.— Unplanted Area. 



