245 



Colony, so that this is one of the least of our anxieties. The details in 

 this report would therefore be unnecessary, but for the fact that as the 

 experiment will be tried on an important scale, and many of the plants 

 till fall under the care of less capable hands, it is advisable to give very 

 clear instructions. 



Potting. — On the arrival at their destination the plants must be care- 

 fully potted in garden mould, to which a little old farmyard manure 

 should be added, and the pots must be moved from time to time to pre- 

 vent the plants striking a tap-root through the hole at the bottom of 

 the pot into the soil, in which case they will certainly perish. They 

 will not require very much water, in fact the climate of South Africa 

 so much resembles that of Naples that were it not for the clay which we 

 must send with them the plants would scarcely require water at all in 

 the Cape winter. If, however, this clay gets hardened it may kill the 

 rootlets which by that time will have spread into it, and give the tree 

 a worse chance, so that the clay must be kept moist. It may be de- 

 sired to plant the trees out at once, but this should not be done in 

 windy weather, and on the whole it will be safer to pot them, at all 

 events for a few months till they can recover from their journey. 



Seedlings. — With regard to the seedlings, they should be sown in pots 

 "with proper drainage, and in garden mould, with a slight sprinkling of 

 old, short, farmyard manure. The greatest care must be taken to move 

 the pots often enough to prevent a tap-root being struck through the pot 

 into the ground beneath. Experiments may safely be made by sowing 

 seeds in the spots where they are intended to remain, and grafting them 

 when the plants cc me to maturity, but this should be done in enclosed 

 garders or places where the plants can be guaranteed from being 

 choked by weeds, nibbled by sheep or game, or otherwise harassed in 

 their early years. The carob grows freely in dry soils, but, economi- 

 cally speaking, it has been found preferable to raise them in pots. The 

 seeds will be sent out in the pods, as this has proved to be the best me- 

 thod for their preservation. It is desirable to remove the beans from 

 the pods, and soak the beans for four days before sowing them ; the feeds 

 thus gets softened and germinates more rapidly. At Naples the seeds 

 are sewn in February and March, but they are apt to sprout very un- 

 equally. The majority grow freely and well, but some come up as late 

 as October, and then generally develop weak plants. The strongest 

 seedlings may be potted at the end of the first year, or even as early as 

 [November ; the weaker ones at the close of the second. I hey must be 

 kept in pots till they are finally planted, as they will not bear transplant- 

 ing, and windy weather should be avoided for these operations. The 

 experiments couducted here show that it takes a minimum of four years 

 and a maximum of seven to pToduce a plant. A stong plant maybe 

 planted out in safety in five years, but mnch depends on the skilful 

 care of the seedlings in the nursery. 



Cost of plants. — Each plant brought to maturity in this country is 

 calculated to cost 8d., and it has been found by experiments that it is 

 cheaper in the lorgrun to grow the plants in the nursery than to sow 

 them in the open ground. They are not particular as to soil, and grow 

 freely in clay, if not too wet, in sandy soils, and in the clefts of rocks, 

 where of course holes of about a cubic yard must be dug for them and 

 filled up with soil, drainage being provided in the ordinary way. 



