ALBERT AND GABRIELLE HOWARD. 7 



might be carried to other cultures. x\fter transplanting, the soil 

 in the boxes is thrown awa)^ and the boxes washed. These pre- 

 cautions have proved successful and in no case has any mixture 

 of the cultures been discovered. 



The second difficult}^ in growing the experimental cultures is 

 met with in transplanting. It is the usual custom in Bihar to 

 plant out the seedlings in the afternoon, to immediately water 

 them and to cover the plants with leaves during the hottest part 

 of the day until they are established. Numerous losses result 

 and it is necessary to fill up the vacancies with fresh plants. 

 With many hundreds of experimental cultures it is obvious that 

 even if every care is taken there is a possibility that in a few 

 cases plants from the wrong box might be taken, and mixed 

 cultures obtained. Even if no mixing took place, the replacement 

 of dead plants leads to unevenness in the rows. These transplant- 

 ing difficulties were successfully overcome by the adoption of a 

 system of furrow irrigation. After the final preparation of the 

 field, furrows about 18 inches wide and 4 inches deep are laid 

 off at the proper distance, so that there will be a furrow between 

 alternate rows of tobacco (see Plate I). These furrows are then 

 filled several times from a distributing channel which runs at 

 rio-ht anirles to the rows. The water percolates laterally and 

 soon the soil is well moistened between the furrows. Transplant- 

 ing is now carried on in the soil, moistened by lateral seepage from 

 the trenches, and the young plants are covered with niiii {Mdia 

 indica) leaves during the day which are removed at night. No 

 direct watering is necessary at planting, so the formation of a hard 

 lump of soil round the plant resulting from direct watering is 

 avoided. The check due to transplanting by this method is very 

 small and the plants quickly establish themselves. The loss due 

 to transplanting in 1908 at Piisa, a year of exceedingly short 

 moisture, was about 1 in 200. Most of the losses tcok place 

 where very few seedlings were available and where consequently 

 very small plants had to be used. It was found, however, that these 

 small plants could be efficiently protected by {lacing over them 

 small perforated earthen saucers which kept off grasshoppers, 



