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SOWING IN SITU. 
(a) SOWING ON LAND THAT HAS NOT BEEN CULTIVATED. 
Natme staits hex new crops without cultivation. She has no ploughs, or 
harrows, 01 lolleis. But she prepares the soil for the infant plants by enriching it 
with decayed leaves. In many instances what is so abundantly possible to nature 
is possible also to us, hut we must make no errors. Some genera can start and 
grow where the ground is heavily shaded; others require a great deal of light. 
Eucalypts are light demanders. A little shade is good for them when they are 
young and tender, but they soon require the open sunlight. The seed can germinate 
and grow quite well in a thin sward of grass or in open scrub, but it will fail 
wherever the ground is very closely covered with tall vegetation. Fire is the arch 
destroyer of plant food; but we often cannot avoid its use in bringing land under 
economic control. Heavy scrub must be cut down and burnt; and the stronger 
and cleaner the burn the better will be the prospect for a good take with tree 
seeds, as in the case of clovers and grasses. Nature usually provides an abundant 
supply of seed, either preserved in a dormant state upon the ground or fresh from 
the trees. In surface sowing upon unworked land we must imitate her generosity 
and make sure that the conditions are right for germination. The method is 
recommended only for places where the plough cannot be used. Another method 
adapted to unploughable country is to sow the seed in spots regularly spaced and 
prepared by grubbing or by turning of the sod. 
(5) SOWING ON LAND THAT HAS BEEN PREPARED BY CULTIVATION. 
In raising tree plants in situ the ideal method undoubtedly is to sow the seed 
on land that has been thoroughly cultivated. In both Islands there are splendid 
stands of eucalypts that were started in this way. But the land must be clean as 
well as worked to a tine tilth. The words “thoroughly cultivated” must be 
understood to mean that weeds of all sorts have been either killed right out or 
reduced to a negligible amount. Eucalyptus seedlings are at the start small and 
weak and slow of growth. They cannot tight their way through a mat of sorrel 
and twitch and yarrow and lotus. A very thin sprinkling of grass will shelter 
and help them; but a dense carpet of tangled weeds laid over them while they are 
still only an inch or two high will be fatal. Wet land must be drained; sour land 
must be fallowed and sweetened as well as cleansed of weeds. Land naturally 
very poor or badly impoverished by cropping should have a generous dressing of 
manure. A mixture rich in phosphates and nitrogen will be best for the purpose; 
and to create quite ideal conditions the manure should be distributed, not with the 
seed, but just before the last harrowing in the preparatory cultivation. 
When the land has been thus thoroughly prepared and the time has arrived 
for sowing, half a pound to a pound per acre of fresh clean seed should be 
distributed regularly on the surface ; either over the whole area or in lines ten to 
twelve feet apart. The arrangement in lines is much to be preferred. It permits 
of the plants being cultivated for a year or two, and is convenient when the time 
comes for thinning or clear cutting the crop; hut it is not absolutely necessary. 
For facility in sowing, either by hand or with a drill, the seed may be mixed with 
dry sand or fine dry earth. If no manure or insufficient manure has previously 
been applied to the land, quite dry blood and bone may be mixed with the sand and 
seed immediately before sowing. If the ground is heavy and damp, the seed will 
