198 



The saplings are conveyed from the nursery to the plantation usually 

 during the months of December and January, the most suitable time 

 between these limits will depend almost exclusively on relative medium 

 temperature of the site, and must be regulated accordingly. Thus on 

 heights between 820 and 1,640 feet the removal of of the sapling from 

 the nursery should never be deferred beyond the first decade of Decem- 

 ber, whereas on low-lying plantations the removal may be safely under- 

 taken even as late as the end of January. As these dates refer 

 exclusively to the warm and sunny clime of Sicily they are quoted as 

 embodying certain principles accepted by experience as regulating the 

 proper season for the installation of the young trees when conveyed 

 from their nurseries to their definite abode ; the dates, however, as 

 stated would only be approximately exact under similar climatic con- 

 ditions. It will be seen from these few remarks that excess of heat as 

 well as extremes of cold must be avoided, the first by over-stimulating 

 and accelerating the circulation of the sap envenoms those slight in- 

 evitable injuries cause by the hoe or spade in the removal, and, more- 

 over, renders the plant, I should think, more susceptible to external 

 influences, and requiring instant and copious nutrition which can only 

 be supplied through the roots after the tree has fully taken ; on the 

 other hand extreme cold, when it penetrates and pervades the subsoil, 

 may paralyse the underground ramifications ere they have taken root. 



In addition to these casual precautions employed in behalf of the 

 young trees on their removal to the plantation, the Sicilian gardeners 

 are in the habit of submitting their trees to an ordeal of darkness before 

 committing them to the soil. This ordeal consists in first placing 

 the young trees within a darkened enclosure to which they are conveyed 

 in roughly-made wicker baskets filled with loam, while they are always 

 kept moist during a period of about 15 days, after which they are 

 exposed to a half-light for a further space of 5 days, whence they are 

 conveyed to some well-shaded spot where they are left for a month 

 before they are considered ready and fit to be planted, should any tree 

 show any symptom of sickliness it must be re-conveyed to the dark 

 recess and kept there during a further period of 8 days or more. It is 

 said that trees which have been subjected to this long preliminary proba- 

 tion rarely, if ever, fail to take speedy root and to thrive. 



The cavities dug for the reception of the saplings in Sicily average 

 about 40 inches in depth, and are dippled at distances averaging between 

 4J to 5 yards, the former being 1 the medium distance between each plant 

 on an incline, and the second on a level, many cultivators, however, 

 prefer to adopt the perhaps more practical system based on actual 

 measurement instead of assuming as correct a, mean distance, which 

 may prove defective on trial. This is performed by a very simple 

 method as described by an excellent authority on the question. 



There being a certain correlation between the underground and aerial 

 ramifications, 'twixt the spread of the roots under the soil and the 

 expansion of the branches above ground, the actual circle required for 

 each adult individual can then be ascertained easily enough by dropping 

 a plumb-line from the extremity of the long horizontal limb of some 

 well grown and full grown tree, measuring the distance thus intercepted 

 between the end of the plumb-line and the foot of the trunk of the tree, 



