84 ESSAY ON FUEL PLANTATIONS. 



thrown into beds, if level, and each bed to be 3i feet broad, 

 and from 10 to 30 feet long. 



The seed obtained from the best and mosb mature trees 

 should be sown early in March, for, if put down in January 

 or February, the young plants may be cut down by frost. 



It should not be buried deeper than three-eighths of an 

 inch, and should be in rows about 6 or 7 inches apart. 



When the young plants are 9 inches high, they should be 

 taken out, and the tap-root cut to a length of not more than 4| 

 inches, so that lateral rootlets may be thrown out all round. 

 This is done with a two-fold object. In the first place, the 

 Canarese or other cooly, if left to his own devices, is certain, 

 in planting out, to trust the wretched plant into the pit 

 anyhow. The consequence is, that the long tap-root gets 

 doubled back, and the plant languishes and dies, or, if it 

 does succeed in growing at all, only produces a mis-shapen, 

 stunted, weakly tree. When, however, the tap-root has been 

 cut, innumerable fibrous roots are thrown out in every 

 direction, principally laterally, and these seize upon and 

 extract the nourishment which they find in the surface 

 humus thrown into the pit. 



After the tap-root has been shortened, the plant should 

 be put either into a small bamboo basket, or tied up with 

 humus round the roots, and wrapped in a bit of old gunny 

 bag or moss, and tied round with " Nar" (bark). It can 

 then be replaced in the bed. 



In the first burst of the monsoon these young plants, 

 which, by that time, will have grown to a height of 12 to 18 

 inches, will have thrust their roots through the fibrous 

 covering which envelopes them below. They are now ready 

 for planting out. 



Of course, by this time the provident planter has had his 

 land cleared, burnt, lined, and pitted 6 feet x 6 feet, also 

 fenced.* He only waits for the first burst of the monsoon, 

 when the ground has been thoroughly saturated. Coolies 



* A lino of acacias G feet deep ought to surround every Eucalyptus plantation 

 to keep the wind out. 



