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(b) The planting of experimental areas suggested. 
In order to give my suggestions a trial, certain experimental areas could be set 
apart by the Western Land Board. In the meantime maps could be rendered available 
of the shifting sands ; then depots could be established in various districts, each depot 
being in touch with an experimental area or group of such areas. Each depot should 
be in charge of a skilled gardener, a really good man and we have many such in this 
State. While he is making his plans for the levelling and sowing of the experimental 
areas, he would carefully collect seeds of the different kinds of vegetation found in the 
district, and carefully preserve them as gardeners know how. Then at any time judged 
to be desirable, he could make his sowings. 
He could also, if deemed desirable, establish at each nursery a small experimental 
nursery. Probably his trees, &c., would have to be raised by the " bamboo method," 
as flower-pots would be out of the question, and other receptacles (tins for jam, fish, 
meat, &c.) would be comparatively few. And here I may make the observation that 
in the afforestation of the Western country old tins would be valuable, and these articles 
should, as far as possible, be carefully preserved for this purpose instead of being thrown 
out as at present. 
The gardener-in-charge of each depot would also encourage the native grasses 
and other tussocky and creeping-stemmed plants to spread. He would plant cuttings 
of saltbush and other plants. The work of one gardener would be compared with that 
of another, and they should be encouraged to emulate each other. A good gardener 
(and let me say that we must have trained men, and not mere labourers, however willing) 
would master the planting of any sand-dune. He would also be a focus of information 
for a district, instructing anyone who might seek knowledge. By degrees, under the 
lee of the sand-dunes and in other favourable places, he would gradually experiment 
with other plants and would do something towards forming oases in the desert. Person- 
ally, I am often in a position to supply seeds for experimental purposes, and if the matter 
were seriously entered upon, our numerous exchanges with foreign countries would be 
requested to supply seeds, &c., to further this national work. These depots woxild be 
outposts to reclaim these desert areas, and are as necessary as means of communication. 
Droughts would recur, and even the depots would sometimes have a hard fight to exist, 
but unless it is thought that nothing can be done to re-establish and improve the vegeta 
tion on the shifting sands, an opinion that, if held, I do not share, let us systematically 
set to work. I am perfectly certain that if anything can be done in this direction good 
gardeners can do it, and preliminary work can afterwards be extended to any desired 
extent. There is no necessity to supply a long list of plants for experimental cultivation, 
either native or exotic. I will content myself with very few. If I were permitted to 
'carry out my plans, I would attach the gardeners-in-charge of the proposed depots to 
the Botanic Gardens for a brief period, in order that they might critically examine 
all plants likely to be useful for their purposes which are growing in the Garden, and for 
