﻿36 BULLETIN 9, "IT. S. DEPABTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



ever subject to depredations by rodents, and that gophers will not 

 gnaw their roots. 



After a plantation is established the natural way to secure repro- 

 duction is to depend upon self-sown seedlings. It is likely, however, 

 that these may come up irregularly, and that the use of the drill or 

 transplants may be necessary to secure a uniform stand. The 

 mere fact that acacias become naturalized and spread over waste 

 places in parts of India, Africa, Algeria, California, and the South- 

 west does not necessarily imply that well-stocked groves can be 

 produced invariably without aiding nature. 



The method of planting known in the Forest Service as seed 

 spotting, equivalent to planting in hills, has several advantages over 

 broadcasting. It saves a great deal of seed; it enables the planter 

 to pick out the best spots and to prepare them with some care; and 

 it greatly reduces the cost of subsequent thinnings. In many cases 

 land may be so well prepared that seed could be drilled in or sown 

 by hand in rows. Thorough cultivation of the ground is of course 

 desirable, yet excellent plantations have been established with less 

 cost of time and labor. For example, at Mount Benson, South 

 Australia, where the soil is very poor — the mere white sand of the 

 "fern hills" — double furrows 8 feet apart were struck out. Seed 

 which had been soaked in boiling water was drilled in and covered 

 with a harrow, 1 pound to the acre. In some places it would be 

 practicable to attach drill and harrow to the plow and complete the 

 whole planting operation at one time. One man and a team can 

 plant 8 acres a day. 



Use of Nursery Stock. 



Nursery methods are too expensive for the forester except to sup- 

 plement field sowing. They involve skilled labor and the use of 

 considerable material such as seed boxes and flats and pots, either of 

 paper or clay. In India sections of bamboo are used for the plants, 

 which are set in the ground as soon as the seedling is ready for the 

 field. In Australia stems of the reed Arundo dona.x have been used 

 at a cost of $1.25 a thousand tubes, this price including the cutting 

 of the reeds, filling the sections with earth, and setting out the plants. 



California nurserymen sow their acacia seed beds in June, July, 

 and August, and the plants are ready to be transplanted to pots or 

 to be set out the following spring. The seed-bed method entails a 

 heavy loss, and boxes, flats, or trays are usually preferable and 

 cheaper. These flats are generally 4 inches deep and contain 2 or 3 

 square feet. Each one will hold from 100 to 200 plants of transplant 

 size. Generally they are sheltered from sun and wind by lath houses, 

 by brush, or by being placed under large trees. One laborer can 

 care for many thousand of these small acacias in the flats, which 



