330 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1899. 
as they dry up, they encase the fibres as in a vice. Consequently, after heavy 
storms or hasty rainfall, planting has frequently to be suspended a few hours 
until the field gains its dryness and solidity. On light land with thorough 
drainage the land soon recovers its equipoise; it sustains the weight of the 
workman, and he is able to execute his task in a satisfactory manner. On 
heavy soil more patience is requisite. _ Where four hours may suflice in the 
former case, two days may be needed, in the latter. ‘This applies to planting 
and many other operations; and as in gardening time is often of immense 
importance, gardeners prefer to have light land to deal with, in general. Some 
heavy land on a large farm is no drawback, provided that the bulk of the holding 
is of a soil that dries quickly. Even on the same farm there cxists often a 
marked difference in this respect, and work may be continued on one side where 
the substratum is sandy, whilst it is impossible to proceed on another where the 
substratum is of clay. As a rule, no garden crop flourishes if it is planted or 
transplanted when the soil is overloaded with moisture, and it is often very easy 
to discern subsequently where work has been resumed too soon after the rain. 
The ground becomes like pie-crust, cannot be adequately stirred, and the plant 
is starved because its fibres are bound in and hampered. 
Horticultural Notes. 
By PHILIP MAC MAHON, 
Curator, Brisbane Botanic Gardens. 
Axovur the middle of September, when these notes reach the most distant 
reader of the Journal in Queensland, the weather will have become sensibly 
warmer—in fact, the semi-tropical spring will be well on the way. From August 
to September there is a rise of 6 degrees in the mean shade temperature at 
Brisbane, and from September to October a rise of 5 degrees. The average 
number of wet days are nine in September, and ten in October; and the mean 
average rainfall 2°07 inches for September, and 3:00 inches for October. 
You will have hurried up the preparation of all land for the cultivation of 
tropical and semi-tropical plants durimg the previous month, and be able to 
commence planting as soon as genial showers and increased night temperatures 
will enable you to do so with a fair chance of success. In our climate, often when 
it is quite hot in the daytime at this period of the year, it is quite cold at night; 
and this is very hurtful to a very large class of plants, of which crotons, coleus, 
and acalyphas may be taken as the types. When you have any planting on a 
tolerably large scale to do, it will always pay to do it with system. The position 
of every plant should be determined before it leaves the nursery. It is by far 
the better plan to place a stake in the position which each plant will occupy, 
and bear in mind when you come to look over these stakes, with a view to 
deciding how many plants you will require, the shape, size, colour, and habit of 
every plant, and arrange so as to have them harmoniously blended. What 
would you think of a painter who would set out to paint a picture which 
would do him credit and give pleasure to many, yet who would simply lay on 
whatever colours should happen to come handiest, and let the picture come into 
being somehow, just as things happened to turn out? Yet you have often seen 
gardening done like this ; in point of fact, it is rather rare to see 1b done in any 
other way. 
As root action increases, owing to increased warmth, the roots will begin 
to make large demand upon the soil for some nourishing material to drink, for the 
plant takes all the portion of its nutriment which it derives from the soil in a 
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