Nursery Plants. i r 7 



hours' sunshine intervene, however, before they have 

 taken root, the danger is they will at once begin to 

 droop and lose their leaves, if not die altogether. 



Nursery plants of the first season are still more 

 unsafe, if there is a long dry season to be under- 

 gone within the first year, as their roots will not 

 be sufficiently deep to obtain for them the necessary 

 moisture. Moreover, they are somewhat too easily 

 choked up with weeds, which unfortunately cannot 

 always be kept down, especially at low elevations 

 and in bamboo or " chena " lands. 



If it is intended to put out plants that have 

 grown for three years in the nursery, I should 

 recommend their being cut down to stumps in the 

 beds, in the December or January before the 

 planting season ; they will then throw out " suck- 

 ers," which by the time July has come round (say 

 six months later), will be nine or ten inches high. 

 When these plants are put out, a couple of the 

 most promising suckers may be selected, the rest 

 being ptilled off. These two (being those nearest the 

 roots) may then be suffered to grow together for a 

 month, after which the weaker of the two may be 

 taken off, the other being left to develope into the 

 tree. I have tried this plan most successfully, in 

 one case having been able to pick a maiden crop 

 of two to three cwts. per acre off plants that had 

 hardly been eighteen months in the ground. 



