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root; they spread the roots near the surface. They were sown two years ago 

 last month (September), and some of them are 12 feet high, without any 

 shelter. They are the best to remove. I planted an acre with young trees 

 taken out of them twelve months since last March. I took them without any 

 soil, and there is not one dozen in the whole lot that have died; but I find 

 that after you plant any of the Acacia tribe, they do not commence to grow 

 till twelve months after they are planted. I have no doubt that they will grow 

 much better under the baniboo system. 



In another letter my correspondent says : 



Trees four years old are 15 to 28 feet high, and 5 inches in diameter at 3 feet 

 from the ground. They had no shelter. 



The following interesting observations of Mr. William Bauerlen are 

 instructive, as showing the advantages of cultivating natural seedlings of 

 wattle instead of allowing them to take their chance in other words, they 

 are responsive to any attention. At the same time this method is most 

 eucccessful in rainy, rather cold districts. 



Major's Creek, near Araluen, New South Wales, planted Green Wattles 

 from seedlings in August, from 12 to 15 inches high. 



Height. Girth. 



6 3 r ears old ... 1 ... 25 feet ... 30 inches, 3 feet above ground. 



Do ... 2 ... 28 ... 24 



Do ... 3 ... 21 ... 21 ,, 



4 years old ... 1 ... 20 ... 24 



Do ... 2 ... 18 ... 20 



2 years old ... 1 ... 15 ... 11 



None of the wattles from the place from which these were taken for plant- 

 ing (and some even exceed six years in age) exceed 15 feet in height and 10 

 inches in girth. 



In the same locality, there is a tree ten j-ears old, which is 30 feet in height, 

 and has a girth of 3 feet 7 inches. The tree is remarkably straight and 

 healthy, the bark on the trunk having quite a smooth, young appearance yet. 

 A tree of the same dimensions out in the bush would have a dark, rough, 

 furrowed bark, and would doubtless be twice the age. 



Mr. Evan Francis, when at Eega, also experimented with bush seedlings, 

 and this is what he says: 



In six months the trees ranged from 10 to 15 feet in height. The taller 

 trees were in the more sheltered positions. Single specimens in open ground 

 did not succeed half as well as those in the centre of the grove, where they 

 were mutually sheltered. A distance of 9 feet, plant from plant, seemed the 

 correct thing. 



At two years the trees were fine saplings of about, on an average, 20 to 2.1 

 feet high. " We estimated that a yield of from 30 to 40 Ib. of dry bark would 

 be given by these trees at four years old, but they reached their prime at six 

 years, when the bark at the lower parts of the trees had great substance, and 

 the yield of dry bark would be fully 60 Ib. ; and I am sure selected trees would 

 have reached 100 Ib. 



My Forest Flora is not a work on wattle cultivation; that part of the 

 subject and the quality of wattle-bark has been very fully gone into in my 

 special work on the subject (" Wattles and Wattle Barks," illustrated, 3rd 

 Edition. Government Printer, Is. 6d,.), which has been written for 

 growers, bark-strippers, merchants, tanners, and naturalists. _, 



