not only are we assured of our share of Britain's and 

 the world's trade, but the present difficulty in regard 

 to drying the bark is automatically solved. In such 

 a case, who can believe that an industry requiring so 

 little skill, labour or experience, and giving such 

 returns, will be allowed to flag? 



Since 1864 when, we are told, the first seeds 

 were planted in Natal, how many fortunes have been 

 made from wattle bark? And those based on five 

 year old trees being five inches in diameter, and 

 yielding five tons of bark per acre valued at £s per 

 ton. When we consider that in this country we 

 have cheaper labour, that in five years trees are six 

 to eight inches in diameter, and upw-ards of 90 feet 

 in height, while the analysis of bark shews the per- 

 centage of tannin to be four to five per cent, higher 

 than that from Xatal — there seems no reason why 

 fortunes should not be made in this country. 



It has been stated that very little time or labour is 

 required for wattle growing — how little is hardly 

 realized by people unfamiliar with such a district as 

 Limuru for instance, where it is only necessary to 

 cut the bush close to the groiuid with matchets or 

 pangas, and, when dry, burn off. When the long 

 rains have set in, pinches of seed (previoTisly steeped 

 in boiling water and allowed to soak for 24 hours) 

 are planted just below the surface of the soil at dis- 

 tances of four and a half feet apart. Within a week 

 or ten days the seeds germinate and shoots appear 

 above ground and are allowed to grow to a height 

 of two or three feet. They are then thinned out : 

 only the strongest one to each hill being left. 



For the next eighteen months it is necessary to 

 keep the vicinity of each young tree free from weeds 

 and bush, entailing cleaning perhaps three times in 

 that period. Thereafter the overhead foliage begins 

 to form a canopy that soon excludes the light 

 necessary for other forms of plant life, and the 

 plantation can be left until the third year, when it 

 is desirable to further thin out alternate trees, 

 leaving the space nine feet by nine. The bark from 

 these thinnings is reckoned to pay the expenses of 

 the estate to date, and the wood is useful for fuel. 



During the next two or three years nature does 

 all that is needed on the plantation, and the owner 

 is free to take up other work. 



r.5 



