1.38 ESSAYS ON THE BEST METHOD OP PLANTING 



species of tree if possible ; but, if the land is sandy and 

 all land selected for Casuarina is mostly so other species 

 will make but poor growth, unless such sandy land is situ- 

 ated on the bank of a river, where I have found that the 

 trees previously mentoned will succeed. 



FUEL PLANTATIONS ON THE NILGIRIS. 



The Australian trees introduced into the Nilgiris are by 

 far the best to plant for fuel purposes. The indigenous 

 species of fuel-trees cannot, in any way, be compared with 

 them, as they are, one and all, so very slow in their rates of 

 growth compared to the introduced trees. 



Though many species of Eucalyptus have been introduced, 

 E. Globulus has taken most kindly to the soil, and has pro- 

 duced the most astonishing results. The two Australian 

 Acacias, Melanoxylon and Dealbata, are both excellent, espe- 

 cially the flowering Acacia or Wattle of the Australian 

 Colonists, and are of quick growth. Melanoxylon, in addition 

 to its producing good fuel, is an excellent timber, known 

 in Australia as blackwood, and much used and valued 

 there. 



On the Nilgiris many of the indigenous sholas have 

 been utterly destroyed in order to create fuel plantations of 

 the above three species of trees, and this is a shame, for the 

 Eucalyptus, especially, thrives exceedingly well on grass 

 land, though not so well as on shola, and the Acacias, Mela- 

 noxylon and Dealbata, also succeed in grass-land, especially 

 in rich hollows. 



The thousands of acres of grass-lands in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Ootacamund, if planted up with a, mixture 

 of E. Globulus and Acacias would have supplied the whole of 

 the fuel requirements of Ootacamund for ever. 



The * Wattle has the habit of throwing out suckers from 

 the roots, often at a distance of seventy yards from the main 

 stem, in surprising numbers ; and a single tree will, in a few 



* A Melanoxylon does the samoj but not so freely. 



