Seed Sowing 1 1 



face conditions. Deep ploughing and cultivation before planting 

 means an accumulation of rainfall which will enable the young 

 tree not only to live, but to continue growing and root-making 

 right through the long dry winter. Shallow, three-inch plough- 

 Ing means a hard impermeable pan just at that depth, and the 

 whole root area as dry as a bone during the first and succeeding 

 winters. The young tree may possibly live, but growth stops, the 

 bark becomes Abound, a stunted, gnarled specimen is produced 

 which may or may not recover when the roots, in a sheer struggle 

 for life, have managed to penetrate the hard pan in the search 

 for moisture. At the best, two years of growth is lost for ever. 



Plough deeply then, in the Summer or Autumn preceding the 

 planting year. Break down the furrows roughly before winter 

 with a lieavy disk harrow. The Winter will then get in and con- 

 tinue the breaking down process, sweetening and aerating the 

 soil. At the first Spring rain cross-plough and harrow down to 

 as fine a tilth as you give your Maize fields, and the land is at 

 last fit for planting. 



Now is the time to fence, just before planting not just after. 

 We have said just now that some of the failures in tree grow- 

 ing were caused by the depredations of cattle. Goats are par- 

 ticularly destructive to young trees, but nearly all domestic ani- 

 mals will destroy trees either by eating the young twigs, or by 

 breaking and trampling them down. The trees will need pro- 

 tection for five or six years. It is worth while erecting a strong 

 fence at once, with the lower strands close enoiigh to keep out 

 the smaller animals. 



CHAPTER IV. 

 SEED SOWING. 



WE must now go back to the Autumn preceding the planting time, 

 for while all the land preparation is going on our young trees 

 should be getting ready for transplanting from the Nursery tins. 

 Perhaps the growing of the young trees from seed is the 

 greatest aversion to the farmer who wants to have a good plan- 

 tation. It is small, tricky work, requiring a lot of care and 

 patience. It is not " in his line '' at all. Wherever possible he 

 prefers to send along to his Nurseryman and buy the seedlings 

 all ready for planting out. Where this is possible it is by far the 

 best plan for many reasons. It is doubtful whether any farmer 

 can grow the transplants at as small a cost as the Nurseryman 

 sells them at, for the latter has every possible convenience, 



