WATTLES AND WATTLE-BARKS. 



PART I. 



" . ,ihe soil, .;.'' j : ; '\ 



(.) GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



No one who has troubled to make the observation can fail to notice how 

 wattles frequently nourish naturally on the poorest soil, and thus it is that 

 land can be utilized in this industry when it can scarcely be put under any 

 other cultivation, and where not even grass grows. At the same time, bark 

 richer in tannic acid and maturing earlier, may be obtained from trees 

 growing on richer soil. 



"The bark obtained from trees growing on limestone* formations is 

 greatly inferior in tannin to that of trees grown on any other formation." 

 (" Eeport of Wattle Bark Board," Melbourne, 1878.) Pew observations of 

 this kind have been made, and more are required ; nevertheless, I do not 

 hesitate to recommend farmers to utilize any poor land that they may have 

 for wattle culture. 



" Sandy soil is best, lying upon a clay subsoil. ... I do not think 

 that taking a crop of wattles off land renders it useless for other crops ; 

 but I consider it an advantage rather than otherwise, from the deposit 

 of leaves, which manures the land for other crops. There is nothing to 

 prevent one crop of wattles following another immediately ; you may 

 take three or four off without interfering with the productiveness of the 

 soil." (J. E. Brown.) 



As regards the Southern Coast districts of New South Wales generally, it 

 does not appear that wattles grow more plentifully or more luxuriantly on 

 one geological formation than another. It may be that wattles do not 

 grow so densely on the rich chocolate soil as on poorer ground, but this may 

 be owing to the fact that bush fires do not occur so often on such ground as 

 in the more open localities of usually poorer soil. 



Following is a communication kindly made to me by Mr. Alfred Cadell, 

 of Vegetable Creek, N.S. W., in regard to the geological formations on which 

 wattles flourish, or the reverse : " I noticed that no bush wattle (or scarcely 



* " Nevertheless wattles grow exceedingly well on limestone country in South 

 Australia." (F. Wurm, in Journ. Bureau Agric. 8. A,, April, 1890.) See also some of 

 my analyses of barks grown on limestone country. 



