i Auvge., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAN. 231 
The more raised portions it was decided to cover with couch-grass (Oynodon 
dactylon), and a piece of sandy ground where this grows very freely was 
stripped. A chopper in the shape of the letter S was made of steel by the 
blacksmith ; a floor was made of three planks; the couch-grass was thrown 
upon this, very quickly cut up by a man, put into sacks, taken to the ground, 
and sown broadcast over the surface, which immediately prior to the sowing had 
been harrowed to allow the roots to find a hold in the earth. The whole was 
then rolled. As most of the work was done to a great extent by machinery, it 
was not a very formidable matter, and the appearance of the ground even now 
is so much improved as to be worth the trouble. 
Before this ground had been cultivated in the way above described, it 
would have been necessary to employ a pick to penetrate 6 inches into it. 
But the writer has thrust his walking cane into it at random since cultivation. 
to a depth of from 1 foot 6 inches to 2 feet, in the presence of several readers 
of the Journal. When the weather gets warmer, say towards the middle of 
September, especially if there is a reasonable prospect of being able to obtain 
a sufficiency of water, we may begin to plant out tropical plants, especially the 
large variety of tropical flowering and foilage plants which lend to Queensland 
gardens a beauty not rivalled elsewhere in the colonies. 
Ferneries will require overhauling, top-dressing with a mixture of sandy 
loam and leaf-mould, staking up of some plants, and thinning out of others. 
Emancipate yourself from the common method of tying up such plants by 
gathering them into a wisp, and making what should be a thing of beauty into- 
a hideous besom-like burlesque of a plant. A plant when tied up should 
look just as if the stakes had been there to begin with, and the plant had 
taken advantage of their presence to support itself. In this matter, asin all 
gardening, “ art should conceal art.” 
Your roses will all have been pruned by the time these lines reach you, 
but take a look at them every now and again, and encourage them in the way 
they should go by rubbing off here and there a shoot with a tendency to grow 
in and crowd the centre of the bush, or as a fine young shoot begins to grow 
ahead, you can cut off the hide-bound branch which it is replacing. Let this 
rocess be gradual, and you will find that when pruning time comes you will 
Hee no need to hack your pets about. This kind of pruning may be adopted. 
yery largely with all classes of plants. 
A table of the months is appended, showing temperature, rainfall,. 
corresponding months in Europe, &. You will find this useful. It may be: 
mentioned that the Australian Spring commences on 23rd September at 4 p.m.. 
_— Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | April] May | June July | Aug. | Sept.) Oct. | Nov. | Dee. 
No. of Wet Days (average of 14 15 ih 14 10 8 8 7 9 10 10 12 
38 years) i 
Mean Rainfall (average of| 7:10! 7:69 | 6:56 | 4:44 | 2°94 3°7 | 2°59 | 2°63 | 2:07 | 3:00 | 3:86 5:14 
38 years), inches : 
Mean Shade Temperature, 76 75 73 70 61 60 58 60 66 71 75 73 
degrees 
Highest Temperature 94 90| “88] *95 86 78 79 79 84 87 83 91 
(typical year 1896) | , 
Lowest Temperature 63 65 57 54 47 36 33 36 38 47 54 58 
(typical year 1896) { | 
Ce | ot) A a id | i sD 
Seasons = os ive Summer Autumn Winter Spring Summer: 
Corresponding Months in| July. Aug.| Sep. Oct. Nov. | Dec. Jan. Feb. | Mar. April May}! June 
Europe 
* Taken on an abnormally hot day in this monthin 1896. The average is 83. 
