42 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



LAYING OUT A GARDEN. 



BY this I mean, so dividing it when first made into parts, 

 that later the said parts shall be easily recognised, and 

 separately or differently treated, as they may require it. 



The usual custom is to begin at one end of a plantation, 

 and dig it right through to the other. In the same way 

 with the pruning and plucking, and I believe the system is 

 a very bad one. Different portions of gardens require 

 different treatment, inasmuch as they differ in soil, and 

 otherwise. One part of a plantation is much more prolific 

 of weeds than another how absurd that it should be cleaned 

 no oftener ! This is only one exemplification of difference 

 of treatment, but in many ways it is necessary, most of all 

 in plucking leaf. 



All parts of a plantation, owing in some places to the 

 different ages of the plants, in others to the variety in the 

 soil and its productive powers, in others to slopes or to 

 aspect, do not yield leaf equally, that is, flush does not 

 follow flush with equal rapidity. In some places (supposing 

 each part to be picked when the flush is ready) seven days' 

 interval will exist between the flushes, in others nine, ten, 

 or twelve ; but no attention, as a rule, is paid to this. The 

 pickers have finished the garden at the west end, the east 

 end is again ready, and when done, the middle part will be 

 taken in hand, be it ready or be it not ! It may be that 

 the middle part flushes quicker than any other ; in this 

 case the flush will be more than mature when it is taken, 

 in fact it will have begun to harden ; or it may be the 



