LAYING OUT A GARDEN. 45 



supervised, the cheaper it is worked. Still do not, with a 

 view to this, take in any bad land, for bad land will never 

 pay. 



Let your lines of Tea plants, as far as practicable, run 

 with geometrical regularity. You will later find, both in 

 measuring work and picking leaf, great advantages there- 

 from. In gardens where the lines are not regular portions 

 are continually being passed over in leaf-picking, and there- 

 by not only is the present flush from such parts lost, but 

 the following is also retarded. 



If your different gardens are so situated that the roads 

 through them, that is from one garden to the other, can be 

 along the side of any garden without increasing the length 

 of the road, by all means adopt that route. There is no 

 such good boundary for a garden as a road that is being 

 continually traversed. It will save many rupees by prevent- 

 ing the encroachment of jungle into a garden, and more 

 space is thus also given for plants. It is, however, of no 

 use to do it if a road through the middle of a garden is 

 shorter, as coolies will always take the shortest route. 



The lines of plants on sloping ground should neither run 

 up and down, nor directly across the slope. If they run up 

 and down, gutters or water-courses will form between the 

 lines, and much additional earth will be washed away 

 thereby. If they run right across the hill the same thing 

 will occur between the trees in each line, and the lower side of 

 each plant will have its roots laid very bare. It is on 

 all slopes a choice of evils, but if the lines are laid diagonally 

 across the hill, so that the slope along the lines shall be a 

 moderate one, the evil is reduced as far as it can be by 

 any arrangement of the plants. No, I forgot ; there 

 is one other thing. The closer the lines to each other, 

 and the closer the plants in the lines to each other, 

 in short, the more thickly the ground on slopes is planted 



