SOIL. 33 



To be avoided are stiff soils of every kind, as also those 

 which when they dry, after rain, cake together and split. 

 Avoid also black-coloured, or even dark-coloured earths. 

 All soils good for the Tea plant are light coloured. If, 

 however, the dark colour arises from decayed vegetation, 

 that is not the colour of the soil, and, as observed, vegetable 

 matter is a great advantage. Judge of colour when soil is 

 dry for even light-coloured soil looks dark when wet. Soil 

 which will make bricks will not grow Tea ; and though I 

 have sometimes seen young plants thrive on stiff soil, I do 

 not believe in any stiff soil as a permanence. 



Stones, if not in excess, are advantageous in all soils 

 inclined to be stiff, for they help to keep them open. But 

 then they must not be large, as if so they act as badly as a 

 rocky substratum preventing the descent of the tap-root. 



The reason, I take it, why Tea thrives best in light soils 

 is that the spongioles or ends of the feeding roots are very 

 tender, and do not easily penetrate any other. 



There is more nourishment in stiffer soils, but for this 

 reason the Tea plant cannot take advantage of it. 



If a chosen soil be too stiff, it may be much improved 

 for Tea by mixing sand with it. However, even where 

 sand is procurable near, the expense of this is great. When 

 done, the sand should be mixed with the soil taken out of 

 the holes in which the plants are to be placed (see Trans- 

 planting), and it may be done again later by placing sand 

 round the plants and digging it in. All this though is extra 

 labour and very expensive, so none but a good Tea soil 

 should ever be selected, and it is very easily found, for it 

 exists in parts of all the districts discussed. 



