44 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



suring work and picking leaf, great advantages therefrom. In 

 gardens where the lines are not regular portions are continu- 

 ally being passed over in leaf-picking, and thereby 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 preventing the en- 

 croachment 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 lints 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 the less will be the wash, for stems and roots retain 

 the soil in its place, and the more there are the greater the 

 advantage. 



Where slopes are steep (though, remember, steep slopes 

 are to be avoided) terracing may be resorted to with advan- 

 tage, as the washing down of the soil is much checked by it. 



