To spare time, expense, and labour, we planted the _caà_ within sight of the Guarany Reductions, and from them, in a very short time, the largest forests have arisen. If the Spanish agriculturists would but imitate this piece of industry, how much would their fortunes be benefited! But the planting of woods of this kind requires art, and patience, and the labour of many hands. The seed of the _caà_ being exceedingly glutinous, must be washed in water till that native gluten be thoroughly removed; which if you neglect, your time will be lost, and your hopes frustrated. The ground in which you mean to sow the prepared seed must be copiously drenched with water, and almost rendered muddy. These premises having been cautiously attended to, you may think yourself fortunate, if, at the end of four months, any sign of germination appear; the seed being sown very deep. While the plants are yet young, they must be transplanted, and set at great and equal distances, lest one impede and injure the other. A ditch, two feet deep and as many broad, must be dug, to receive and retain the rain-water; and in the middle of each ditch the plants are to be placed singly. As long as the plants are tender, they must be defended against the hoarfrost and cutting south winds by a little thatched tent. This is moreover indisputable, that the trees which are planted and reared by human care, never grow so high as those of nature's own setting in the forests. Those however which are planted and cultivated by us, in three or four years time produce a plenteous crop of leaves, so that the labour attending artificial woods is sufficiently repaid by the after-profit. Woods are likewise sown by various birds, which swallow with great avidity the seeds of the herb-tree; these being, by reason of their natural gluten, indigestible, pass through them, and falling into moist ground, become the daily origin of new trees, and gradually of forests.