39 



has to be sought to meet requirements. One often hears a 

 young man, say, " wait until my place is all planted up and 

 then I shall have lots of time to amuse myself/' What is 

 the experience of those who have tried the experiment ? I 

 maintain that a great deal of the future prosperity of an 

 Estate absolutely rests 011 the treatment that it receives 

 after the first full crop. This is the turning p oint at which 

 to watch and assist the young hand, but how few deem 

 assistance necessary and how many a flourishing property 

 has been almost entirely ruined by want of experience at the 

 critical moment ? How many an Estate has been literally 

 hacked to pieces under the so-called operation of pruning ? 



About this period all errors, faults and omissions 

 "show up." One place has been too much opened up 

 another too much, sheltered. Here the plants have been 

 topped too high, and there perhaps too low. The rainfall 

 is probably found to be less than was expected growth, is 

 found either more or less luxuriant than was arranged 

 for and the trees are consequently found to be either too 

 close or too far apart. Shelter in one place has to be ar- 

 ranged for and shade is found indispensible in another. 

 Such and a hundred other things come somewhat hard on 

 the young hand and require of course to be met with cau- 

 tion, judgment and energy. Many estates have passed 

 through this trying time without skilled supervision and the 

 result has been that such have been either permanently in. 

 jured or absolutely ruined. Much attention has often beeto 

 transferred to extension and the making of new clearings 

 when such should have been directed to the trees already 

 established and in this way I may almost certainly say that 

 nearly every Planter has a thorn in his side somewhere. 



I feel assured therefore that should I attempt to endea- 

 vour to touch on subjects connected with the formation of an 

 Estate I should, most certainly fail ignominiously, seeing 



