FORESTS, ARBOR DAYS, AND MANUEINa FOREST TREES. 793 



horticultural societies offer premiums to the men who properly plant the 

 greatest number of trees during the next three years, or at any District 

 Arbor Day ? And would not such Arbor Days soon be welcomed with as 

 much zest and enjoyment as they are now in most of the United States 

 (and here in South Australia), even where there is no great scarcity of 

 trees in the neighbourhood ? Each year larger and larger numbers 

 interested in previous plantations, which may be near or adjoining that 

 to be planted, will meet there and enjoy both this meeting with old 

 school-fellows, and also be pleased with the growth of the trees they had 

 formerly assisted in planting. 



To encourage the best growth, it seems to me not out of place now to 

 refer to manuring. Only quite lately Belgium, Denmark, and Germany 

 have commenced to fertilise the land upon which forests are to be planted, 

 or even established forests. Formerly nursery plots for forest trees were 

 usually manured vnth dung, but in 1869 Peruvian guano was first applied 

 and soon afterwards other commercial manures. It was not, however, 

 till 1880 that this became at all general. Photographs taken of young 

 trees of the same age have convinced me that the increased number and 

 size of the roots produced in fertilised nurseries gives them a better chance 

 when transplanted, and Dr. Smets states in his pamphlet, " La Culture 

 du Pin Sylvestre en Campine," that " if you sow Pines, as so often is 

 done, in a nursery with impoverished soil, you can only obtain sickly plants, 

 which will have little chance of success." M. Martinet also says : " It is 

 a wrong idea that young seedlings should be acclimatised and made 

 hardier, so that, if intended for poor soil, they may be satisfied with the 

 local conditions. Pines one or two years old take out of the soil from 

 24 to 28 lb. of potash, 20 to 24 lb. of phosphoric acid, 60 to 64 lb. of 

 lime, 16 to 20 lb. of magnesia, and 56 to 64 lb. of nitrogen per acre, so 

 that it is an undoubted fact that after the removal of the seedlings from 

 the seed-beds the soil is so impoverished that mere stable dung and green 

 manuring is not sufficient to again raise strong seedlings from beds which 

 must of necessity be used again and again." 



Dr. Giersberg, of Berlin, from whom I take the particulars as to the 

 manuring, recommends for nurseries the use of fi*om 640 to 800 lb. of 

 Thomas phosphate and the same quantity of kainit, the latter to be applied 

 long before the sowing of the seeds for green manuring. The crop 

 should be ploughed in when in full bloom and the first pods are formed. 

 Without green manuring, nitrate of soda should be applied between the 

 rows in one or two doses, according to the quantity which seems neces- 

 sary, from 80 to 1601b. Dr. Giersberg also thinks it advisable to put a 

 portion of the Thomas phosphate into the subsoil, and the rest, before or 

 after sowing or planting, int6 or on the surface soil. In nurseries on 

 peaty soils in Denmark and in Schleswig-Holstein the ground is dug at 

 least 13 inches deep in autumn, and then receives 640 lb. of kainit and 

 400 lb. of Thomas phosphate of 17 per cent, per acre. In May 200 lb. 

 of Lupines are sown and ploughed under as before mentioned, with 

 1,200 lb. kainit and 800 lb. Thomas phosphate again applied. This may 

 seem too much, but when actually 3,200 lb. of each were applied the 

 seedlings throve well and were certainly not damaged. Frequently up to 

 160 lb. of nitrate of soda is given later on, and even a second dose. 



