180 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. fl Fer., 1900. 
When this is well in hand, when we have adopted practical measures fot 
recovering our denuded mountain areas with plant growth and for protecting the 
forests we have left, a persistent effort should be directed toward the bridling 
of our torrents and the conversion of every mountain canyon into storagt 
reservoirs. In this way only will our water supply be sensibly augmented al 
a large portion of the wealth of water annually wasting into the ocean or sinkile” 
in the deserts be retarded and retained for useful ends. 
HOW TO TRANSPLANT YOUNG TREES. 
Too much care cannot be exercised in taking up a young tree for the purposed! 
transplantation. If it be taken up roughly many of the young feeding rool 
will be destroyed, an! without these the necessary amount of sap cannot 2” 
supplied to the branches and buds, yet the tree will continue to evaporate 
large amount of water. The consequence of this evaporation and failure ©” 
supply is that the tree will often fail, or will remain for a long time a sickly, 
struggling object, unless assistance ix given by removing sufficient branches ec 
buds to compensate for the loss of roots. In any case, the damaged roots shou! 
be cut off clean with a sharp knife. In taking up the young tree, first remove 
all the surface soil down to the root system. Then dig a trench round it ®” 
some distance from the extremities of the roots. If the weather be dry, it | 
good plan to water the roots copiously, to cause the soil to adhere. Then, wih 
a sharp spade, cut under the roots and loosen the boll of earth from that below 
The tree may then be safely removed, the tender roots having received very 
little damage ; and if it be carefully replanted, success will be almost assur) 
In the latter process, the roots should be spread out evenly on a loose bed, a 
the soil pressed firmly upon all the fibres, thus excluding air as much as poss! K 
The depth at which the young tree is planted will depend upon the nature 
the soil in the new location. If the latter is of the same quality as that f0! 
which the tree was taken, then the depth should be the same ; but if the soil a 
heavier than the former, then the plant should be set shallower in the grout’ 
and on the other hand, if lighter, then it should be planted deeper. On fin’ 
filling in the hole, the surface soil should be fine and light, because moistur 
can then not escape by capillarity. i 
A good plan for transplanting palm-trees from the scrubs is to dig 10 
the palm at a distance from the roots, and then to insert a box underneath 
roots, one end of the box being first taken out. The removed soil is the! 
replaced, and the tree is left till next season, when it can be safely removed 1) 
simply lifting the box in which it will have been growing. | 
THE FORESTS OF CENTRAL QUEENSLAND. ] 
Tux Capricornian Christmas number thus describes the forest west of Rock 
hampton:—The country between Rockhampton and Emerald is in the ns 
heavily timbered with ironbark, bloodwood, spotted gum, and other wo?) 
Giant trees rearing their trunks out of a dense undergrowth of tulipwe™ 
native beech, sandalwood, and numerous varieties of the smaller timbers, Se | 
out any extended view of the landscape when crossing the Gogango Ra x 
As we near Duaringa we enter open forest country, well grassed. The tim il 
industry gives employment to a number of people round about Duarin a, aD 
the localities a few miles further west. The principal sawmill is at Wallat, 
7 miles beyond Duaringa. A great portion of the timber required for Mo 4 
Morgan mine is obtained from this locality. During the years 1897-8 they 
were 4,659,912 feet of hardwood, valued at £24,173, and 917,790 feet of 8? ‘| 
wood, valued at £4,467, cut in the Central Division, ‘Timber, howevers “dl 
product which has so far been only slightly worked, ‘he fine foresta WH" 
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