32 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



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 Transplanting), 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 ex- 

 pensive, 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. 



