12 WATTLES AND WATTLE-BARKS. 



lumps, &c., which are apt to stick in the tubes and prevent them from being 

 properly filled. The soil is then thrown into the bed and scraped backwards 

 and forwards with a piece of board, used edgewise, until all the tubes are 

 filled, when the whole should be well watered and allowed to stand for about 

 an hour. Then throw on more soil and sweep the bed w r ell with a stiff 

 stable broom, thus leaving each tube clearly defined. Drop into each tube 

 two seeds the seed having been previously prepared by soaking and sweat- 

 ing. The bed is then covered with a mixture of two parts soil and one part 

 well-rotted stable manure or wood-heap refuse. The cost of cutting, filling, 

 and sowing 500 tubes amounted to 2s. Gd., the work being performed by 

 one of the cadets on this reserve, a youth who had no previous experience 

 in this work, and was further handicapped by having to use a very bad saw ; 

 so that I do not think it would be an under-estimation to put down the cost 

 at 5s. per 1,000. The most advisable time to sow would be February, 

 planting out about July or August if the season were a late one." 



A wattle-planter in New South Wales substitutes little twists of brown 

 paper for the " bamboos," and doubtless other simple expedients are in use. 

 The brown paper is rolled round a stick, screwed at the bottom, filled with 

 earth, and the seeds planted therein. The paper attracts w r ater to the soil 

 during the dry season, and prevents too much water getting at it during the 

 rainy season. As the industry gets established on a firmer footing, " bam- 

 boos " will be available (they grow like weeds in damp localities not too 

 cold) ; meantime, any ingenious man can get over the lack of them. 



(e.) BROADCAST SOWING. 



Mr. Gr. S. Perrin, State Conservator of Forests, Victoria, recommends 

 half a bushel of sand to be mixed with each pound of seed sown, and after 

 treating the seed with hot water, as before described, to broadcast thoroughly, 

 as in sowing wheat. He justly remarks that, if done with discretion, much 

 after -labour will be saved in the thinning process. 



Mr. F. Abbott recommends that the seed be soaked and simply sown 

 broadcast on ploughed ground. 



In soaking seed (as directed) for sowing, sufficient only should be pre- 

 pared for one day's sowing at a time. Where seed has been soaked and 

 sown, it must be covered immediately with soil, say by means of light 

 harrows. 



In planting with wattles that wretched desert country near the Melbourne- 

 Adelaide Eailway, from Bordertown to Murray Bridge (hitherto considered 

 useless for any purpose), Mr. J. E. Brown, in giving evidence before the 

 abovementioned Commission, stated his intention simply to roll the scrub 



