1 Dec., 1899. | QUEENSLAND AGRICULLURAL JOURNAL, 605 
Horticultural Notes. 
By PHILIP MAC MAHON, 
Curator, Botanic Gardens. 
Tre hottest day on record in Brisbane occurred during the month of December. 
It was on the 26th December, 1893, when the mercury stood at 105-9 degrees in 
the shade. The mean shade temperature of the month is 73 degrees. On the 
average more rain falls than during the preceding eight months, but less than 
in January, February, or March. 
Sunlight is a great chemical agency, and the more land is exposed to it the 
better for the land. It will be well, therefore, to have all land not in actual 
use thrown up roughly, so as to get the benefit of the air and sunlight. These 
agencies assist in breaking down the insoluble materials of which the soil is 
composed, and rendering them fit to become the food of the plants which you 
will presently entrust to it. Every foot of land which is out of crop should be 
ridged up in the hot weather. Land which is allowed to lie with a caked 
surface is worse than idle. It is deteriorating. 
You may soon expect heavy tropical rains, and it behoves you to see that 
your drains are in good order before they begin, because you cannot make a 
good job of them when it begins to rain, and the necessity is brought home to 
you in a very unpleasant way. You will have noticed that land which is exposed, 
from its conformation, to the constant washing of water from higher levels is 
always barren, but land upon which the water is allowed to deposit the materials 
which it brings from these higher levels, and then permitted to pass gradually 
away, is always rich. 
Too much scour is as much to be deprecated as want of drainage; and 
what is often described as “magnificent drainage” simply means that every 
facility is afforded for the water to carry the plant food from the soil and 
deposit it somewhere else, generally where it is no good to anyone. Rain 
water itself contains a good deal of plant food; and if you can bring it into 
intimate contact with the soil before it pecan from your garden or farm, you 
are simply catching so much manure, for which you would have to pay money 
if you procured it in any other shape, and storing ‘t up in the soil to be 
converted later on into crops which you can sell. 1 nave asked hundreds of 
the most intelligent of the State school pupils why land is drained, and they have 
all answered that it was to get the water away from the soil as quickly as possible. 
The object of intelligent draining is to pass the water slowly through the land, 
forcing it to leave its enriching qualities behind, and just so much of itself as 
the land is able to absorb and retain without crowding out the necessary 
quantity of air. The engineer’s drainage is, therefore, different from the 
farmer’s. ‘The former wants to get rid of the water before it has had time to 
enter the surface of his roads or other works; the latter wants it to soak in, 
and then to get rid of that portion which cannot be beneficially retained. 
Keep the surface of your land well stirred. Do not always stir to the same 
depth. Lf you do, you are likely to form a “pan” or caked surface beneath 
the layer of loose soil. It is a good plan to alternate a light hoeing with a 
deep hoeing, and it is also well to use a pronged tool for breaking up the 
surface. I haye had some capital tools for this purpose made by saving worn- 
out digging forks and getting the blacksmith to turn down the tines at right 
angles. They are then fitted with convenient handles, and a thoroughly good 
and cheap tool is available. Where the “ Avery” cultivator is used it 1s well 
to put on the tined tool occasionally instead of the hoeing tool, so as to break 
np any “pan” which may have been formed, 
