TRBE CULTURE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 49 



This done, I would advise that the grouad be then thoroughly 

 ploughed as far as possible to a good depth, and afterwards summer- 

 faUowed (say by two ploughings and harrowings) one or two 

 seasons, in accordance with whether the old crop was thick upon the 

 ground or not. If the ground cannot well be spared lying idle for such 

 a length of time, it may be cropped once with nice clean wheat, which 

 should be taken off in the form of hay, and then ploughed, 

 harrowed, and ploughed again that season before it is planted with 

 trees. By this time the soil will have become nicely mellowed, and the 

 rain having percolated through it charged with the sweetening and 

 renovating gases from the atmosphere, it will now be fit for planting 

 purposes once more. 



Where the situation is of such a character as will not admit of its 

 being ploughed and treated in the manner just described, the following 

 mode of procedure must be adopted : — 



After the site has been freed of all the branches and other rubbish 

 left upon it from the old crop, holes or pits for the young trees 

 should be prepared as early as possible, so that they may lay open 

 for a period of not less than three or four months before planting. In 

 making these pits great care should be exercised to see that aU the old 

 roots are removed for some distance round the space to be occupied by 

 each plant, and that they are at once burned or otherwise removed from 

 the ground. These pits ought not to be less than 30in. square on top, and 

 about 20in. in depth. Should the ground be more than usually hard 

 round the spaces thus opened for the plants, it should be loosened on the 

 surface with the pick for a breadth of about 2ft. round each hole. The 

 plants used in a plantation of this kind, where the soil cannot be 

 ploughed, should be of the very best description and possess plenty of 

 fibrous roots, with a fine strong and healthy habit throughout. 



