ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 



covered one quarter of au inch deep; fresh seed germinates 

 more quickly than old; ripe seed produces better plants 

 than green. Be very careful to select your seed from 

 the strongest growing trees; should your lazy gardener 

 go to a stunted tree loaded with seed and you use it, be 

 sure your plantation must fail, aa surely as if you had 

 bred from a diseased and stunted [animal; in nature, like 

 produces like. Having sown your beds, (cover them with 

 pandals made of light brushwood to break the heat 'of the 

 sun, water every evening and lightly, do not deluge your 

 beds but keep the surface moist, in a few days the plant 

 should appear above ground, when six inches high, shift 

 them to another bed, having first carefully cut back the tap- 

 root to four inches, to enable the plant to throw out bushy 

 roots and thus take up more soil. A single root like a carrot 

 takes up no soil, has no lateral roots foi\feeders,"and]once 

 damaged recovers with difficulty ; further when you plant out, 

 there is no tap-root to turn up. Place your plants six inches 

 apart in the beds, when they are one foot to eighteen inches 

 in height, put them out into the pits. Select showery, cloudy 

 weather, heavy rains are not good for planting out. The 

 best time in most places is probably July. The plant then, 

 has six months before it to make roots before the dry 

 weather sets in. The pits should be at least eighteen inches 

 cube. In lifting plants from the beds, use a transplanter, 

 they are far cheaper and quite as good as baskets. A cooly 

 will carry a dozen at a time, and the plant is deposited in 

 its pit without any disturbance of its roots, consequently 

 there are no failures. On the careful lifting will depend 

 the amount of watering they will require in the dry weather, 

 for should'they be safely deposited without any disturbance 

 of their roots, they will go on growing and elongating their 

 roots in search of water, and soon reach the desired object ; 

 whereas, if the roots are damaged, the plant has^to renew 

 them, and before this can be done, the hot weather arrives, 

 und to koop it iilivo, heavy watoriugs aro necessary. The 



