52 



ting has to be made, and another row should be driven in OQ 

 the lower> or outer side, indicating the height to which fche 

 revetment has to be raised. A Ceylon Road tracer is in- 

 valuable for this sort of work, and after a little practice 

 much extra labor and confusion may be avoided. If the 

 ground is naturally very steep, it may be necessary merely 

 to make small terraces ; but where the ground permits, it is 

 always better, in forming a permanent Nursery, * tnake 

 each terrace as wide and regular as possible, as in future 

 years the land may then be cultivated or prepared with the 

 aid of the plough and harrow, which of course, mix and pul- 

 verize the soil much better, than if done by manual labor, and 

 also perform the operation much more economically. Previous 

 to making the " cutting/' all jungle and surface soil shouM; 

 be heaped in a long mound in the middle of the space pro-, 

 posed to be terraced ; the "cutting" is then made, and the 

 formed or lower side is raised with the SUBSOIL until it covers 

 the row of pegs ; or until the terrace is formed, having a slope 

 inwards, of at least one in forty,, to allow for subsidence. -The 

 upper half is then freely dug over with the pickaxe, after 

 which, the mound of surface soil is levelled evenly over the 

 whole. In this way the whole terrace is covered with good 

 soil and the plants near the cutting grow as large as those 

 near the revetment. The terrace can now be laid 

 out as desired; the favorite method being, to make the 

 beds 4 feet wide> running across the terrace, each sepa- 

 rated by a small tronch-like path of one foot nine inches in 

 width, and about six inches in depth, so as to carry any sur- 

 face drainage to a trench made on, the inner side of the ter- 

 race. All the beds being raised, and prepared, a lining rope 

 is stretched transversely, from end to end of the terrace, and a 

 line of men or boys with marnoties cwt a small drill about two 

 inches deep ; the rope is then removed six inches, and tho 

 operation is continued until the lower end of the bed is reach- 

 ed. A gang of women then remove all clods from these drills! 

 nicely round off the intermediate space?, In this operation 



