38 BULLETIN 9, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
best acacias thrive in California, and that they will grow on poor 
and arid soils, where there is little or no frost. Beyond this there is 
not much information, and some misinformation. For example, 
they are commonly bracketed with the eucalypts in the minds of 
many persons, simply because the eucalypts and most of the acacias 
come from Australia. The place occupied by the acacias, however, is 
as distinct from that of the eucalypts as both are from oaks or from 
conifers. 
To successfully develop commercial plantations of acacias in the 
United States, at least three problems will need to be solved. First, 
the behavior of the trees under close-planted commercial conditions 
must be known, and this can be learned only from experimental 
plantations. Second, the various labor-saving economies will have 
to be studied, and methods standardized, because American economic 
conditions are markedly different from those of Natal, Hawati, the 
Transvaal, and Australia. Third, and probably most important 
and difficult, will be the problem of marketing the products in com- 
petition with those produced cheaply abroad. — 
It will probably be very easy for American planters to duplicate 
the working plans of acacia growers elsewhere, or even to improve 
upon them as far as American conditions will induce changes in 
details. Successful acacia culture depends primarily upon good 
farm practice. Hard-working, practical men, even without special 
training in forestry, have created great plantations. It is likely that 
the same thing will occur in.this country. At the same time the 
true spirit of scientific Investigation, the power of observing and 
drawing correct conclusions are essential to the development of this - 
industry along new lines. 
O 
