TREE CUITUKE IN SOUTH AUSTKALIA. 57 



A period of two years ■will now elapse before the same part can be 

 operated on again for stripping purposes. Thinning again the year 

 immediately following the first operation woiild be injudicious, and a 

 waste of material. 



When the trees are seven years old, therefore, they will have to be again 

 dealt with for stripping purposes. In doing this, it will be matter for 

 observation on the ground as to whether a thinning only should be done 

 at this time, or that a complete clearance of the whole of the remaining 

 trees shoidd take place. No rule can be laid down for this, as it might be 

 found, on an inspection of the plantation, that the trees had come to 

 maturity, and that to leave any of them on the ground for another year 

 would only be the means of deteriorating the commercial value of the 

 bark, and therefore occupying the ground unprofitably ; while again, 

 it might be that a thinning simply would be not only an advantage 

 to the district at large, in order to leave some trees on the ground foi 

 shelter, but it might be better in a pecuniary sense as well were the 

 trees still in rapid growth and therefore daily putting on a greater bulk 

 of good bark. 



Again, from the different habitats of the wattles named, we shall 

 probably find that one will have arrived at maturity long before the 

 other has attained the period of its most vigorous growth. In this 

 case it would be absurd to lay down a rule as applicable to both. This, 

 therefore, is a matter for settlement on the ground. 



Once get a crop of wattles fairly established on the ground, and it is 

 my opinion that no difl&culty will afterwards be encountered in keeping 

 up a regular crop of them on the ground by natural reproduction. 



