56 TREE CULTURE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



■iipon it. The selection made, men will go along each furrow and pre- 

 pare spaces for the plants, say at 8ft. apart. The young trees having 

 been planted in these places, the filling up of the ground with the 

 wattles, or nurses, should now be gone about. This shoxdd be done by 

 the men going along each furrow abd dropping in seed at about 2ft. 

 apart. These operations all completed, the ground will now be planted 

 with young trees 8ft. apart, and sown with wattles as nurses to 2ft., 

 plant from plant, over all the ground. 



Putting in a Wattle Crop with the 5^flc?e.— There will, pf course, be 

 certain spots on a farm which it may be advisable to put under a, crop of 

 ;w'attles, but which are of too rough a character generally to admit of 

 the plough being used on them in order to stir up the soil sufficiently 

 for the proper covering of the seed. In such cases the spade will have 

 to be employed for this purpose. 



In preparing the ground for the reception of the seed by this system, 

 the men will, first of all, go along and stir up the soil to about a spade's 

 breadth, at from 2 to 3ft. apart, over all the ground, and those of one 

 row to alternate with those of the other next to it, as in the manner 

 already described. This all done satisfactorily, the seed can be sown as 

 already described. 



Management of Wattle Plantations. — We will suppose that plantations 

 of wattle have been formed as described, and that a fair crop of young 

 plants is the result. The first operation of management which wiU have 

 to be attended to is that of going along each row and thinning out the 

 weakly and most unpromising plants from each space sown, so as to 

 leave one good strong plant only in each to form the crop upon the 

 ground. 



As soon as the young plants left from the thinning operation, 

 described above, have begun to grow freely, it will be necessary to go 

 over them once more and do what pruning is required, in order to direct 

 their growth into one stem as much as possible. This will be the means 

 of producing more bark, and make it easier of being stripped at maturity. 



Beyond paying attention to keeping the roads ploughed in the summer 

 time, so as to avoid risk from fire, no further expense need be incurred in 

 these plantations, until the period arrives for the first general thinning 

 operation upon them. 



No definite period can be stated hero as to when the trees will be 

 in the condition necessary for the first thinning. This will depend 

 altogether upon the species of wattle grown, and the growth of the 

 plants throughout. As a rule, however, where they have been healthy 

 and of vigorous growth, we may calculate upon this coming off about 

 the fifth or sixth year after the period of sowing. 



Bark containing the most tannic acid is that stripped from trees 

 between the ages of five and eight years. 



The first thinning should consist of every alternate tree in the rows. 

 This would then leave those remaining on the ground at from 4ft. to 6ft. 

 apart over all. 



