1 Noy., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 395: 
in any case, not many plants will be seen under three months. Six weeks ago 
a farmer came in who had sown seed a month previously. He had begun to 
despair of its coming up, and others may share the same fear; but there is no 
reason for such doubts, as the seed must have its allotted time to germinate. 
T have been asked the question, how old the plants should be before they 
are planted out. No definite answer can be given to this; when the plants 
have got four leaves besides the seed leaves, they are then large enough to 
handle; but, as to planting them out, that must depend upon circumstances. 
If the ground is dry, and there are no signs of rain, and if watering is not 
possible, then the work must be deferred; but where it is possible to water, 
even with a large amount of labour, the sooner the planting out is done the: 
better. The next best thing is to make up another bed, which will require to be 
much larger than the first seed-bed, and transplant into this bed, giving the plants 
more room than they had in the seed-bed, pinching off the point of the tap-root. 
This may seem unnecessary labour, but it will amply pay in the end. If the 
seedlings have been transplanted before they are permanently set out, there 
will not be many gaps to fill up. The pinching-off of the point of the tap-root 
causes them to fibre, a condition which has much to do with the ultimate 
success of the plantation. If this plan be followed, you can wait till the land 
and season are both suitable. 
As regards the preparation of the land, if it can be worked by the plough, 
then plough as deep as the good soil will allow, and keep a skeleton plough 
following to break up the lower soil as much as possible. After the land has 
been thoroughly cleaned and rolled smooth and marked out, the planting then 
can be done by a garden trowel. Plant diagonally, to insure the possibility 
of the horse-hoe doing most of the keeping clean for several years; but, where 
mulching can be done efficiently, neither horse nor hand labour will be required. 
I know that mulching can only be done by a cane-farmer who has a few acres 
under coffee. Where the land is scrub, full of stumps and probably stones, 
then the holing system must be adopted, but, where possible, I would still keep 
the plants in diagonal rows. When the plantation is to be on the side of a 
hill, and there are as many boulders as soil, then it will pay to terrace the 
whole, following the undulations of the surface so as to keep the terraces 
as nearly level as possible. It may be thought that this would bea very expensive 
work, but it is not so. With a proper tool, stones lying on the surface, and 
even when they are partly buried, are easily pulled down the hill and left in a 
row, making these rows 8 feet apart and the soil levelled down so as to have a 
level surface from one row of stones to the other. The advantage of this plan 
will be felt, as long as the plantation is in existence, in preventing the washing 
down of soil in a district where 6, 12, and even 17 inches of rainfall in twelve 
hours, as it has done here. Where a plantation is on the side of a hill and 
the incline is steep, washing down is a certainty; open ditches, where they are 
run with not much fall, will help, but they must be pretty close together to 
be effective ; and the opening of these costs money, and keeping them open is 
a, job that will last as long as the plantation, and in the end will have cost more 
money than terracing. But no hard-and-fast rule can be laid down in the 
preparation of a plantation—circumstances must be obeyed, and of course it is 
just here that a mistake may be made, and a start effected on the wrong lines. 
Tf the land is level, by all means do your preparation with the plough; but if 
on theside of a hill among stumps and boulders, then a different plan must be 
ursued, and it will be for the farmer to consider whether or not there is a 
chance of his soil being washed down. In such a case, he must adopt the best 
plan of preventing the calamity. In Scotland and on the Island of Arran, I 
have seen magnificent silver firs growing on the bare rocks, their great boa- 
constrictor-like roots clasping these rocks where not a particle of soil is to be 
seen within many feet of them, but there had been soil there, if it was but in 
the crevices, when the seed vegetated, and before these wandering roots found . 
openings to get below. But the coffee-bush has no such roots, and could. not 
withstand such circumstances. 
