REPORT ON THE EXCURSION TO GERMANY. 181 
their land requires that it may produce the best crop. Our farmers 
at home would be very much benefited by such institutions to enable 
them to ascertain what their land requires in order to grow the 
different crops to the best advantage, and thus be the means of 
preventing them from spending money uselessly, as they doubtless 
in some instances do, in applying to their land a substance which 
it really does not require, or in giving more than is necessary of any 
particular dressing. 
We then visited the State Forest of Lintzel. This is an object- 
lesson which our Government might copy with advantage. The 
State has purchased a large extent of moorland, and has already 
planted over 11,000 acres, and operations are still going on, But 
the State has not merely engaged in planting operations on its 
own account, it has also adopted measures to encourage private 
owners of waste lands to plant. A fund has been created from 
which private owners of land ean borrow money at a low rate of 
interest for the purpose of planting; the only condition being that 
the management of the woods shall be subject to the approval of 
the State Forestry officials until the money is repaid. By this 
means, we were told, over 16,000 acres of moorland have been 
put under trees. 
In the Government plantations several methods of sowing and 
planting have been tried. In all cases the land has been ploughed 
to a depth of from 16 to 24 inches, the light sandy nature of the 
soil being very well adapted for such culture. In some cases they 
plough the whole surface, and in other cases they plough only strips 
84 feet wide, leaving 44 feet unploughed between the ploughed 
strips. We could not. see that there was any necessity for plough- 
ing, as there was very little appearance of “ pan” where the ploughs 
were at work. The turning up of the light sandy land would 
make the soil liable to be very easily dried up to a considerable 
depth during a dry season, and would thereby cause a large 
percentage of deaths among the plants or seedlings. Our opinion 
was that the greater bulk of the land could have been planted by 
the Scotch notch or T system, and would eventually have produced 
as good timber, with fewer deaths among the young plants, and at 
a very much less cost. If that system had been adopted, the 
surface herbage would have prevented the soil from being so 
severely dried up during the summer months as it would be after 
having been ploughed. We were more confirmed in this opinion 
after having seen several very thriving seedlings growing upon 
