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The method of planting will depend upon circumstances. In operations on 
the forestry scale, two or more men are employed, a slit is made in the ground by means 
of a spade, another man comes along and drops in a bamboo-tube with its plant and 
fixes the earth with his feet, or this is done by a third workman. It is very important 
te plant the tubes vertically, and to let the top of each be just below the surface. A 
farmer or other planter who wishes to put in only a few trees, may insert them with 
the trowel if the soil is sufficiently open. It is obvious that any man of common-sense 
will, according to his local circumstances, devise labour-saving methods for planting 
the trees thoroughly and cheaply, for forestry operations, to be successful, must have 
the cost of tree-planting cut down to the absolute minimum. I am not in favour of 
tree-planting by contract, except with a well-tried gang of men. 
Mr. Walter Gill, the Conservator of Forests of South Australia, has an excellent 
illustrated article on the subject in the Gazette for December, 1900, p. 1130. 
Tins in lieu of pots. In country districts, and particularly in the far west, 
neither flower-pots nor bamboo-tubes may be available, and yet it may be desired to 
raise a small stock of trees. In every place tins, e.g., jam tins, accumulate, often so 
much as to be a nuisance. These tins may be thrown aside till they are thoroughly 
rusted, and then used as pots for the reception of seeds. Their ragged edges 
and vertical sides prevent their contents being removed with facility as is the case 
with a flower-pot, but they can be buried with the plant, just as is the case with the 
bamboo-tube. If the tins be judiciously rusted, it will be found that when submerged 
in moist soil they do not long hang together, and the young tree pushes forth its roots 
through the holes which have rusted in various parts of the tin. 
In a paper " Pour remplacer les pots. Tubes de Roseau de Provence (Arundo 
(fonax)," in the " Journal de la Societe nationale d'Horticulture de France " (Nov. 
1012), Dr. George V. Perez proposes to extend the Bamboo-method to cuttings. The 
bamboo-tubes will have to be of a large diameter and the circumstances special, for 
this method of dealing with cuttings to be useful to us in Australia. 
Diagnostic value of seedlings. In Europe the characters of the seedlings of 
forest trees that are commonly planted are well known, but in Australia we have much 
to learn in this direction, particularly in regard to the seedlings of native trees. The 
seedling has its own diagnostic value, and it is for us to interpret it. Pictorial 
illustration is necessary to bring out the points, and I only wish I could reproduce 
the dried specimens of seedlings, and particularly the coloured drawings in my 
keeping, of the seedlings of native trees. 
Other literature. The following papers more or less deal with treatment of 
seeds, seedlings, &c., and will be found suggestive to Australians, although they are 
i >f course written for American conditions. 
1. " Tree-planting in waste-places on the farm," by C. A. Keffer (" Year-book 
of Agriculture," U.S.A., 1896, p. 323). 
2. - How to grow young trees for forest planting," by E. A. Sterling " Year 
Book, 1905, p. 183." 
