rough bark, and generally cleaning and rubbing
down the trees is a work of very great importance, and should be carried
out once every two or three years. The injury arising from moss is too
well known to call for any remark, but the reason why the removal of rough
bark, and especially rough bark at the head of the tree, and at the
junction of the topmost branches with the stem is of such importance is,
that it is in the crevices of the rough bark that the Borer fly lays its
eggs. When thus removing the moss and rough bark, the eggs may often be
destroyed, and in the absence of rough bark to shelter them, it is
probable that the insect would probably not lay the eggs at all, or that,
if it did, they would either become addled, or fall to the ground. I may
add here that we have found a piece of square tin the best thing for
scraping down the trees, and that the hair-like fibre of the sago palm is
an excellent thing for rubbing down the stems.

Though moss thrives best in damp situations, and on northern aspects, it
sometimes exists on open and eastern aspects, and, when the latter is the
case, the moss is certainly due to poverty of soil, and in such cases, in
addition to scraping the trees thoroughly, an application of top soil
mixed with lime, or bonedust, should be applied to the land. I may add
that I have seen trees on a dry knoll, and with no shade over head,
covered with moss, and this was no doubt owing to poverty of soil, which
caused the bark to be in an unhealthy condition, and therefore a suitable
home for the growth and spread of moss.

Digging and working the soil in order to keep it in an open condition is
of great importance, because, to use for the second or third time the
words of Sir John Lawes, "it is the physical condition of the soil, its
permeability to roots, its capacity for absorbing and radiating heat, and
for absorbing and retaining water, that is more important than its
strictly speaking chemical condition." In other words, a moderately
fertile soil, if maintained in fine physical condition, will give better
results than a rich one which is in a hardened state. But to keep the
soil in good condition, and yet comply with the fruit cultivators' chief
axiom that, "from the time of blossom till the crop is ripe the roots
should not be disturbed," is a matter of great difficulty--I might almost
indeed say an impossibility. For, from the trampling of the people in
their passage up and down the lin