ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 



little money on it, and assisting nature as much as possible. 

 Many of these natural scrub jungles appear to be thickly 

 wooded ; but directly they are cut into, it is surprising to 

 find how little wood they really contain. Where an artificial 

 plantation of thirty years of age will contain 4 or 500 tons 

 of wood per acre, the natural jungle crowded with uinbrella- 

 shaped trees will scarcely produce 100 tons. What we re- 

 quire is a tall tree carrying plenty of wood, and occupying 

 but a small space, or, that the acre shall carry two to three 

 hundred tons instead of one hundred. It will be necessary 

 to dig a well in some favorable spot, as it is intended when 

 the soil is very favorable, and facilities for watering are 

 available, that nursery plants should be put in ; as these 

 spots will be rare, we must adopt another style of planting 

 for the greater part of the fuel plantation. On the square 

 mile we shall keep a head gardener and two men. It will be 

 their duty to trim and lop trees, and cut out where the trees 

 are too thick, (as it is as bad to have the trees too crowded 

 as to have too few). They will put out plants, keep the hedge 

 in order, make charcoal, dig holes, and put out seeds in the 

 proper season. It may appear a very simple matter to drop 

 a seed into a hole and leave it to grow; but, unless due pre- 

 cautions are taken, not five per cent, of the seeds will grow, 

 and we require at least 90 per cent, of the seeds to succeed. 

 There is one advantage in planting by seeds, that we can 

 always put out three or four thousand seeds to the acre and 

 then cut out the surplus plants; but where plants are put out 

 singly in pits and require to be watered the first year, to plant 

 close becomes a very expensive process, nor is there anything 

 gained by it. The best mode of planting seeds in situ is as 

 follows : On the first heavy rain, when the ground is soft, 

 let the men go round with the crowbars and make holes six 

 inches deep and as wide as possible by working the crowbar 

 backwards and forwards; the holes to be three feet apart. 

 Prepare your seed by keeping it in damp-sand, exposed to 

 ahot sun until it grrmiimtes. In the meantime if another 

 shower hus i'ulk'ii, the holes will be partially filled in by 



