LAY OF LAND. 39 



very well. Table land cannot be too flat, for the natural 

 drainage is so great no stagnant water can lie. 1 



Valley land is not good if it is perfectly flat. It will then 

 be subject to inundation and stagnant water. There is 

 nothing that kills the plant so surely and quickly as the latter. 

 Even quite flat valleys can be made sweet by artificial drain- 

 age, but to do this a lower level, not too far distant, must 

 exist, and the danger is not quite removed then. Valleys in 

 which no water- course exists, and which slope towards the 

 mouth alone, are to be avoided, for the plants near the mouth 

 always get choked with sand. The best valleys are those 

 with a gentle slope both ways, one towards the lowest line 

 of the valley, be it a running water-course, or a dry nullah 

 which carries off rain, the other towards the mouth of the 

 valley. Such valleys drain themselves, or at least very little 

 artificial drainage is necessary. A valley of this kind, with a 

 running stream through it, is most valuable for Tea, and if the 

 other advantages of soil and climate are present it is simply 

 a perfect site. Such however are not frequent. If in such 

 valleys, as is generally the case, the slope from the head to 

 the mouth is enough, the running stream can be ' bunded ' 

 (shut up) at a high level, and brought along one side at a 

 sufficient elevation to irrigate the whole. 



I have never seen but one garden in a valley that fulfils all 

 these conditions exactly. It is in Chittagong ; the soil is good, 

 labour plentiful, and manure abundant. It ought to do great 

 things, for the possibility of irrigating plants in the dry season 

 (which, as observed, is very trying in Chittagong) will give 

 several extra flushes in the year. 



Of course in the wet season on such land the water must 

 be allowed to resume its natural course. 



Narrow valleys are not worth planting. No narrow tracts 



1 I am now commencing a second garden in the Western Dooars on flat table 

 land, and the site is an exceptionally favourable one. 



