10 



The greatest damage from animals is done by small rodents at the 

 time when plantations are being started. Rabbits, rats, and ground 

 squirrels frequently eat the leaves and young shoots of small seed- 

 lings or bite their stems off close to the ground. Gophers often eat 

 their roots. If unchecked, this damage may be serious. When the 

 ravages of animals are noticed in a plantation such methods of 

 poisoning as are familiar to every rancher should be used. 



A single fire will frequently ruin a eucalyptus plantation. Fire 

 protection must therefore be assured. When fire gains access to a 

 plantation the oily litter burns so fiercely that it can scarcely be 

 extinguished before the whole grove is burned over. In this way the 

 litter is destroyed and the soil is exposed to drying, while the bases 

 and roots of the trees are generally so much injured that the stand 

 will slowly die. After a severe fire it is advisable that the burned 

 area be cut clear, even if the trees are not yet of merchantable size. 



A practical way of protecting small groves from fire is to plow a 

 strip of land around them during the summer dry season. Larger 

 groves should be divided into blocks by occasional roads which may 

 be kept cleared to serve as fire lines. Should fire enter a grove, every 

 effort should be made to confine it to a small area by raking the 

 ground clear of litter, so as to form a temporary fire line. 



After a few years' growth eucalyptus plantations generally become 

 so dense that the trees cease to increase rapidly in diameter. Fuel- 

 wood groves will not require thinning, but in timber plantations 

 which are to grow more than from six to ten years thinning is neces- 

 sary, in order that the individual trees may have sufficient growing 

 space. Thinning will be followed by faster growth. The inferior 

 trees should be selected and so cut that no large openings are left in 

 the stand. 



After a grove is cut the stumps send up a great number of sprouts. 

 If the grove is intended for fuel wood production it may be repro- 

 duced after cutting by the growth of the sprouts. Natural thinning 

 of the sprout clumps should not be awaited, but all except three to 

 five of the straightest and most vigorous shoots should be trimmed 

 from the stump after the first year's growth. If the grove is to be 

 devoted to timber production all of the sprouts except the one show- 

 ing the most thrifty development should later be removed. 



When sprout reproduction is desired the proper time for cutting is 

 in the winter rainy season, between the months of November and 

 April. At this season soil moisture is abundant, and hence the 

 stumps sprout vigorously and are not likely to dry out and die. When 

 trees are cut in the late spring or summer sprout growth is less vigor- 

 ous and groves are likely to become less productive. Sprout growth 

 is most vigorous from low, clean-cut stumps, and care should there- 



[Cir. 59] 



