70 DIBBLING AND STAKING. 



nursery for about three years are dug up and pruned 

 back leaving only about six to eight inches of stem ; they 

 are hardier and safer in a general way than whole plants, 

 more especially in uncertain weather, as they will strike 

 readily, even without rainfall for some little time after 

 being put in, provided the ground has become sufficiently 

 moist to prevent their being burnt up, but they cannot be 

 used in districts where a long period of drought may be 

 expected to succeed to a wet season. The planting of 

 stumps is performed in the usual way, the plants send up 

 several shoots from the parent stem of these, the finest 

 are retained to form the future tree and the rest are 

 pulled off carefully. The shoot that is left grows rapidly, 

 but from the way it springs from the stem it is liable to 

 be accidentally broken off either by a high wind or by 

 the weeders. The crookedness of the stump from native- 

 grown seed renders them very inferior ; the best size for 

 stumps is the thickness of a common pencil. 



When the land is very rich and friable holing may be 

 replaced by the less expensive plan known as " dibbling," 

 which is performed in two ways : (i) by the aid of the 

 spade-bar is made a sufficiently deep hole into which the 

 plant is dropped, and secured by treading the earth lightly 

 around ; (2) a patch of ground measuring about one 

 foot each way is thoroughly loosened without the soil 

 being taken out, in the disturbed earth a hole is made 

 with the hand, the plant is then inserted and trodden 

 around as before; the latter method is preferable. 

 Dibbling is only practicable in exceptionable cases, and 

 is, moreover, open to objection, as a hole is often left in 

 which water may accumulate and rot the plant, and the 

 roots are more liable to injury than in ordinary planting, 



