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444, QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1900. 
be found to suit members of the Fig family, such as the Moreton Bay fig; the 
roots of which forage for long distances near the surface of the earth, often 
actually travelling on the very surface when the soil is very shallow and moist. 
There are all intermediate stages between these two. No one who wishes 
keep his garden for the growth of the more tender and smaller plants W) 
tolerate one of those surface rooters in its vicinity. As I write, a small bed 38 
being turned up near my office. It is completely eaten out by the roots © 
cacti which grow quite near, and which have a habit of sending their roots fe 
long foraging expeditions. If you had much to do with plants, you could hardly iz 
resist the belief that the trees know in which direction food is to be found, 8° 
soon do myriads of tiny rootlets become developed where food is to be fount; 
but no doubt the roots forage in all directions, and become specially develope 
in the quarters in which copious supplies are discovered. 
Lawns which have been top-dressed and well rolled during damp weather 
will now be looking well, and should be kept closely cut, and this is 4 time 
when neatness in the garden is particularly telling. In the summer time Hot 
not perhaps in keeping with the riotous mood of Nature to have everything ee 
spick and span, but in the winter there is more of an English air about ° 
gardens, and neatness 1s indispensable. 
You have plenty of annuals to plant out if you have followed direction® 
You may save yourself much disappointment if you place around your new y 
planted annuals a “mulch” of manure or even short grass to conserve 
moisture in the soil. 
You will remember I mentioned last month that shrubs, roses, &e., sh 
be thinned out and shortened back with a view to the ripening of their W 
prior to the final pruning. ‘This final pruning may take place this mont” 
Mignonette may yet be sown out of doors in the position which it is to occupy: 
It often happens here that the winter season is considerably prolonged, 2”! is 
flowering annuals die out it is well to have some to take their place. A a 
boxes of the sorts recommended in a recent paper may be sown early 12 et 
month, and kept in readiness for such an occasion. They often come 
usefully. 
pin 
Last week we tried fumigating our greenhouses with cyanide of potted 
0 
The formula was that used in the ordinary work of fumigating, but a 
: fourth the strength—that is to say, we only allowed one grain of the cya” 
to a cubic foot of air space. The houses are not by any means airtight. They 
are full of openings. Four clay pans were charged at 5 p.m., the doors close 
and the place left until morning, when every animate thing was dead. Frog 
ants, cockroaches, lizards, &c., all perished, and any scale insects in the hia 
were, if not killed outright, greatly weakened. hose in the travelling stag 
were all killed. 
A curious observation made was that some of the very hardiest plants ea 
injured, and those reputed most tender escaped. Thus every plant of **.., 
muscosa, % common outdoor plant, perished; while delicate ferns and ¢X® 
patency not touched. Asparagus plumosus, a fairly hardy plant, swe 
severely. 
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