NOTES ON TREE PLANTING AT SAN JORGE, URUGUAY. 227 
good firewood ; as a post, it does not last in the ground, but it 
splits up most readily into the light bars, through holes in which 
the wires of our so-called swinging or elastic fences are passed, 
and for which there is a considerable demand. It would saw up 
into useful planks at ten years old. Poplars sell easily for hut or 
rancho roofs, and if allowed to grow long enough, would doubtless 
give good planks for flooring, for sheep-hurdles, etc. A four or 
five year old poplar plantation, at 4 feet between the trees, 
breaks the wind admirably, even when the trees are bare. 
Poplars suffer from ants, but generally manage to survive their 
attacks ; they are most easily planted, and reproduce themselves 
manyfold after cutting. The same is true of the blackwood, and 
this, according to our experience, does not suffer from black ants, 
though I am told that some people have found that the ants do 
cut the leaves of this tree. 
Firewood is always saleable. Quick-growing trees that reproduce 
themselves are of course best for this purpose. Acacia mollissima 
(silver wattle) is, I think, the quickest grower we have, unless 
it be Acacia lophantha, and it reproduces itself when cut in good 
season ; but it is especially persecuted by ants, which makes it 
a very expensive tree. The same holds good of the Eucalyptus 
family, so far as I have tried them; moreover, these do not seem 
to reproduce themselves when cut; they are susceptible to frost 
in low grounds, and when well grown, trees are troublesome to 
split for firewood. Pinus pinea grows handsomely, but is greatly 
troubled by ants, as are also P. insignis, P. maritima, P. 
canariensis, and others I have tried. The only conifer I have 
that the ants don’t attack is a small but healthy specimen of 
Norway spruce brought from Chester nine years ago, and now 
about 5 feet high. If Acacia lophantha will not suit, I believe 
the best trees to grow for firing purposes will be found to be 
blackwoods and Carolina poplars. 
The indigenous trees grow very slowly when transplanted from 
their natural habitats, the occasionally submerged margins of 
streams. Ants damage some of them, but not very much. The 
moist air along the river banks, and the cooler ground under the 
trees of the native woods, must offer to a young tree a pleasing con- 
trast to a hill-side, or even valley, in the open ground, where no 
trees keep the soil cool or retain moisture, and where the heavy 
rains tend to carry fertilising vegetable matter to the river-courses, 
where much of this is deposited among the growing trees and 
VOL, XIII. PART II. Q 
