92 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



means above detailed are resorted to, to prevent the young 

 plants being injured when the gardens are dug, I see no reason 

 why vacancies should not be successfully filled up. Then 

 might be seen, what nowhere can be seen now, a Tea garden 

 full of plants, that is, with no vacancies. 



When it is considered that many gardens in all the dis- 

 tricts have 30 or even 40 per cent, vacancies, none less than 

 say 12 per cent., we may strike a fair average and roughly 

 compute the vacancies in Tea gardens throughout the country 

 at 20 per cent. In other words, the yield of Tea from India, 

 with the same expenditure now incurred, would be one-fifth 

 more were plantations full ! 



I have shown how the first evil can be obviated. I think 

 the following will obviate the second. 



Get earthen pots made *]\ inches diameter at the head 

 and *j\ inches deep, like the commonest flower pots, only these 

 should be nearly as wide at the bottom as at the top. A 

 circular hole, 2 inches diameter, must be left in the bottom. 

 Fill these with mould of the same nature as the soil of the 

 garden where the vacancies exist. Put two or three seeds in 

 each, all near the centre, and not more than half an inch 

 below the surface. Place these pots, so filled, near water, and 

 beneath artificial shade, as described in Chapter XIII. 



When the seeds have germinated, and the seedlings have 

 two or three leaves, so that you can judge which is the best 

 class of seedlings in each pot, 1 root out all but one, the best 

 one. Now remove the shade gradually, water from time to 

 time, and let the seedlings grow in the pots till the rains. 

 Having, before the rains, made the holes at the vacancies as 

 before described, after the first fall carry the pots to the garden 

 and place each one near a hole. 



Then plant as follows. Stand the pot on the brink of the 

 hole, having previously with a hammer broken the bottom. 



1 By ' best class ' I mean the most indigenous class. 



