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  TREES that were on land originally timbered were part of the natural soil development. In no circumstances is the complete destruction of all this timber necessary or desirable for farming and grazing pursuits.

  There is probably no other land development work that has been so completely unplanned and haphazard as that of timber killing and clearing and no factor of fertility so completely ignored.

  In order to grow crops and satisfactory pasture on forested country, clearing of timber is necessary. Gradually more and more timber is cleared because of the disadvantageous effect of trees on crop land.

  However, like cultivation, clearing has been overdone, with the result that soil fertility eventually suffered and crop and pasture yields were affected.

  Grasses and timber do not usually grow well together. A large tree will all too often affect quite a sizeable area of crop or pasture land and the tendency is to get rid of the tree.

  On some farming lands trees are left scattered about. These trees, no longer living in forest conditions, tend to die out. It is often observed that the upper and outer branches are dead; the trees are slowly dying together. On some farms they are already dead.

  Properties which contain some steep country are often cleared to allow all the flatter country to be cropped. The steep land is left timbered and used as grazing areas.

  The general practice of leaving all steep country in timber to protect it from erosion has not been successful, nor has this practice improved the timber. Steep country, left fully timbered, is often the greatest bushfire hazard and the worst area for pests. A fire in a timbered area, followed by heavy rain, is one of the causes of widespread land erosion.

  To derive the greatest benefit from timber for soil fertility and better farm working and living conditions, trees must be left to serve the whole of the property.

  Properly located trees cool a property for stock in summer and warm it in winter. They protect the land from winds and in their widest aspect may be capable of some overall improvement in climate.

  Keyline timber clearing is planned to derive the greatest benefit from trees for the whole of the farm.

  First, trees are left in strips or belts wide enough to keep some semblance of forest conditions in the timber for its normal healthy growth.

  Steep country is not left in full timber, but partially cleared and timber strips are left to serve as wind protection for the property.

  The Keyline is again the planning guide for clearing. The first timber strip half to one chain wide is left just below the Keyline and forms a Keyline Timber Strip.

  In most areas the lower side of this timber strip is suitable for a farm road being drier generally than the land above the timber strip. Crop or pasture suffers more from the effects of moisture lost to the trees on the lower side of a timber strip. However, when a road follows along the lower side of the strip the little extra water run-off from the road causes both grass and crop to grow well right up to the road.

  The timber strip or the road along the timber strip forms a permanent guide for Keyline cultivation.

  From the Keyline both up the slope and down the slope of the land, timber strips are left (or planted) on the contour at regular vertical intervals apart. The important guide for determining this vertical interval between timber strips is related to the height of the trees. If trees are 45 feet high the timber strips could be 40 feet apart vertically. This provides some overall wind protection for all the land and locates the timber strips closer together in the steep country and farther apart as the country flattens.

  Even in very flat country of low scrub or mallee only 10 to 15 feet high this formula for clearing will provide greatly improved farm conditions. The only trees that are necessary other than those on this pattern are the ones left around the boundary of a Keyline paddock area.

  Timber strips left as described are a valuable aid to soil fertility, apart from the supply of the deep minerals which they bring to the surface. In wet weather cattle will only stay on soft pasture ground long enough to feed and then return to the firmer ground in the undisturbed soil of the timber belt.

  The two most efficient land compacting implements are the sheep-foot roller and the multiple pneumatic wheel roller. The farmer has to contend with his own efficient compactors, which are his stock and wheeled farm implements. The comfortable conditions of the timber strips will keep his stock off wet, soft ground to a large extent. The farmer, of course, should leave his wheel machinery in the machine shed when the land is wet. Thus compaction of the soil, one of the great destroyers of soil fertility, is minimised.

  By clearing the steep country on this pattern, more and better grass areas are available and better timber will grow in the timber strips.

  Very short steep slope country is always of greater value when cleared and Keyline developed. Suitable timber strips are left on the flatter top country above.

  Keyline Absorption-fertility methods above the timber strips do, by the greatly increased moisture-holding capacity of this land, provide the timber with better moisture. Timber growth is considerably accelerated.

  Timber strips will prevent land slips on country that would tend normally to slip when fully cleared and saturated in heavy rains. The timber strip is a definite and effective anchor, holding the land together.

  Land that has been Keyline cleared, when subsequently subdivided into paddocks will have some shelter timber in all paddocks. Every paddock, whether in the steeper slopes or the flat country, can be rotated to grasses and crops in turn.

  The only way to ensure perpetual timber is by providing conditions that allow trees of all ages to grow together.

  If each paddock in turn is closed to stock and cropped for two years or more in each ten or twelve years, young trees develop in the timber strips and permanency of timber belts is secured.

  To sum up the simple plan of Keyline timber clearing:

  Decide on the location of the largest paddock areas--see further comment in the chapter headed "The Plan"--and locate the Keyline or Common Keyline of this section. Then peg or suitably mark a strip or belt from 30 feet to 60 feet wide parallel to the Keyline below it. This belt is to remain in timber.

  Next mark out the first timber strip above the Keyline by pegging or marking a contour line at a vertical height above the Keyline approximately ten per cent. less than the height of the Keyline trees. Mark another contour line above this one 30 to 60 feet wide. This pegged area is the timber strip which is to be left there.

  Continue this contour marking, both above and below the Keyline.

  The contour marking of the tree strips leaves the strips themselves of uneven width.

  If tree strips of even width are desirable, then a contour line forms the lower line of the strips above the Keyline. A line, parallel to this, forms the upper line. Below the Keyline the upper line of the strip is on a contour and the lower line is parallel to it.

  A strip of trees may also be left around the boundary of the area.

  When the country is cleared on this pattern, the timber strips form permanent markers for all Keyline cultivation.

  No land could be more spectacularly beautiful than the timbered undulating country of Australia which has been cleared and developed by Keyline planning.

  However, large areas of land that will come up for Keyline development have had too much of their timber removed without plan, and the growing of timber strips will be a necessary part of the best Keyline development.

  Generally a small Australian native tree will cost a little over one shilling to plant, but may cost over one pound to maintain for a year. While the cost of planting is not so serious and can be reduced by growing the young trees on the farm, the cost of growing timber strips of thousands of trees is impracticable unless some cheaper and easier methods are devised.

  Keyline planning and development will permit the closing of paddocks from stock for two or three years while crops are grown. This time will allow a planted or "induced" timber belt to develop to a stage where the trees will survive without attention.

  In large or small paddocks without trees that are to be Keyline conversion-cultivated a timber strip 4 to 10 tree rows wide can be planned. After the paddock has been completely cultivated tree rows are marked; the first row by a deep single rip cultivation parallel to the Keyline or Guideline. The distances apart of the further rows of trees are gauged by the tractor that will later cultivate between these rows. The following procedure has been found suitable.

  After completing the full Keyline conversion cultivation of the paddock, mark out by a single rip the first tree row position. A single shank is allowed to penetrate deeply through the plowed soil. On the return run with the tractor, place the higher side rear wheel in the lower wheel track of the first run and travel the tractor back without ripping. Turn and again with the uphill side rear wheel in the lower track of the last run, mark out, by ripping deeply, the second tree row. Repeat to the number of tree rows to be planted. This row spacing will allow the tractor later to cultivate satisfactorily between the tree rows. One or two cultivations are advisable during the first year.

  This work is done some months prior to the time for planting the young trees, so as to collect as much deep moisture into the earth as possible. The object is to improve the soil and to provide sufficient moisture in the soil before the planting of the young trees, so as to avoid entirely the necessity for watering later.

  Australian native trees should be planted when a few inches high and a few months old, and planted directly from the tubes as used by the Forestry Nurseries. Plant the young trees well into the moisture zone without breaking the tubed soil in which the tree was raised. Press the soil down very firmly around the trees.

  Trees can be planted very quickly into this deep moist soil with very few losses and without the addition of any water. The distance apart of the trees in the row may be closer than is intended for the developed trees. Spacings of eight feet are suitable for a variety of tree species. Planting time varies in different districts.

  If watering and hand cultivation can be avoided, the chief cost of growing the trees is also avoided.

  A tree strip on a Keyline may sometimes be satisfactorily grown by planting the tree seeds directly into the paddock.

  Trees can be induced to grow by a variety of means without the actual planting of young trees or tree seeds, by merely leaving a strip of country out of plowing when the paddock is closed for cropping. Tree growth will often flourish on the untouched strip and form a valuable tree strip.

  Two interesting incidents are recorded here to show that other low cost means of growing valuable timber strips are available to the farmer:

  1 . During the construction some years ago of several water races, the completed drains, all except one, were harrowed and fertilised. A directive was given that this one drain was not to be treated or touched in any way, in order to see just what would grow on it. A variety of rubbish grew quickly on this exposed subsoil. Three years later a row of trees 20 feet high, all of one species, covered the drain.

  2. During a very dry period several runs with a heavy road plow were made to form a fire break. Later the dry grass of this fire break strip was burned off. The paddock was not stocked heavily during the following two or three years. At the end of this time the fire break strip alone was then well overgrown with trees all of one species. The trees here were a different species entirely from those which were growing in the drain less than a mile away.

  From these happenings it can be seen that whenever a treeless paddock is to be closed up for cropping for two years or more, a suitably marked and planned strip of land should be left untouched, or perhaps given some special attention so as to allow a timber strip to develop of its own accord. Once the trees are two or three years old the majority will survive stock damage.