40 CHINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA. 
mould. Our experience with the first seeds plainly indicating that the 
Chinchonas are very impatient of an excess of moisture, great care was 
taken in the preparation of the soil used in this sowing. ‘The leaf- 
mould was, in the first. instance, exposed to the sun for two or: three 
days, and thoroughly dried ; it was then heated to about 212? Fahr.; in 
order to destroy all grubs and larvae of insects; after being allowed to 
cool, it was brought into the potting-shed and watered sufficiently to 
make it moist, but only to that degree of moisture that the particles of 
soil would not adhere to each other when pressed firmly with the hand ; 
that is, the earth, on being laid down, was sufficiently dry to break 
and fall into its usual form. The leaf-mould and sand in this state of 
moisture were mixed together and the pots filled, the surface lightly 
pressed down, and the seeds sown thereon being lightly covered with a 
sprinkling of sand. The pots were then plunged into beds of moist 
sand, on a bottom bed of about 72° Fahr.: these were never watered in 
the strict sense of the word ; when the surface became dry, they were 
merely sprinkled with a fine syringe, just’ sufficient water being given 
to damp the surface, but never to penetrate or consolidate the soil; 
under this treatment the seeds began to germinate very strongly on the 
“sixteenth day after sowing, and still continue to germinate. 
principal art appears to be to keep the soil in a uniform state of mois- 
ture, but never wet. "The least excess of moisture causes the seeds to — 
mould and damp off in thousands ; while, as a matter of course, if kept — 
too dry, they become parched up. As soon as the seeds germinate, 
they are carefully pricked out into fresh earth (prepared as above de- 
SEN NU ee es 
i 
scribed) ;—this operation is a very delicate one: the radical, being - 
carefully raised out of the original seed-pot, is removed to the new pot, 
being carefully covered with soil, while the seed-lobes are kept well — 
above the surface. In this way twenty-five to fifty seedlings are trans- 
planted into a five-inch pot, and then treated in every respect the same 
as the seeds ; that is, they are never watered, the surface being merely 
sprinkled, and the pots plunged in beds of damp sand, as above de- 
scribed, to keep the soil in that medium state of moisture in which’ it — 
was when first placed in the pots. The necessity for this care is to prê- — 
vent the seedlings from damping off, to which they are much inclined 
when treated otherwise: it also greatly facilitates their growth, and the 
formation of roots: the earth in which they are placed being so per- - 
fectly open that it is readily affected by the action of the atmosphere, — 
