Excerpt from Tree-Planting, 1899: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Best Trees to Plant
In forming a plantation, the first and most important point to consider is the preparation of the ground. Unless this be carefully done the planting will certainly be a failure. It is useless to plant any trees until the scrub and indigenous vegetation have been eradicated. The simplest way to do this is of course to burn, plow, and cross-plow. This will cost about 30s. or ?2 per acre, unless there are a good many roots to be got out. The plowing, except on sand, should be as deep as possible: and if one or two crops can be taken off the ground, it will be all the better for the planting afterwards.
In ground that cannot be plowed - hilly, stony, or full of roots - digging by hand must be resorted to. This is very expensive; but the cost may be reduced to ?4 or ?5 per acre by partial digging and throwing up the ground into ridges or mounds. When this is done, each sod as it is taken out with the spade is laid roots upwards on the adjoining ground. This kills both the vegetation in. the sod and the ground covered by the inverted sod. Unless the ground wants draining, both the ridge and the hollow can be used for planting. If it does want draining, then only the ridges or mounds can be used. Mounds are best in marshy places, and then the higher they are made the better.
The same object, i.e., the destruction of the indigenous vegetation, is obtained by digging shallow pits and throwing out the ground over the herbage around, the shallow pits being afterwards used for placing the young plants in. Shallow pitting with convict labour on the stony slopes of Table Mountain averages ?4 per acre, spacing 4 ft. x 4 ft.
Higher up the mountain where the ground is too rocky even for shallow pits, the sods are simply turned over and seed sown on the inverted sod.
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