BUCKLANDIA 495 



from heavy rain, from frost in the winter, and from a hot sun in the summer. 

 The seedHngs are usually kept in the nursery until four years old, by which 

 time they are about 3 ft. high and are large enough to plant out into the 

 forest ; they can be transplanted when three years old, but they are usually 

 somewhat small and the extra cost of cleaning makes it preferable to keep 

 them a year longer in the nursery. 



Transplanting is usually carried out in the rainy season from June till 

 early August. A break in the rains is considered the best time, as plants 

 pitted out in rainy weather are apt to become water-logged and to die owing 

 to an accumulation of water in the pit. Nursery plants often have too much 

 foliage, and this should be reduced at the time of planting to prevent excessive 

 transpiration. Winter planting is possible, but the risk of frost damage makes 

 rains planting preferable. In places subject to severe frost it is customary 

 to protect the plants during the first year after transplanting, usually by means 

 of a leafy branch stuck in the ground beside the plant and broken over it. 

 The plantations require to be fenced against deer. 



In the Mongpoo plantations of the Cinchona Department a different 

 method is adopted. The seed is sown in March and April in well-manured 

 seed-beds under the shelter of double bamboo mats. When about 3 in. high 

 the seedlings are pricked out about 3 in. apart : they are kept well weeded 

 and watered, and by the end of June in the second year are about 8 or 9 in. 

 high. The shelter of bamboo mats is then gradually removed and the seedlings 

 are transplanted with balls of earth, the planting holes being dug to a depth 

 of 18 in. at least a fortnight in advance. The plants are tended carefully for 

 the first year or so after they are put out, and when there is danger of drought 

 the ground around their roots is covered with grass. When the ground becomes 

 hard it is forked up all round the plants. Under this treatment the growth is 

 fast, the plants attaining a height of 20 ft. in seven or eight years on good soil. 



Fig. 190 shows a young plantation, and Figs. 188 and 191 show older 

 plantations. 



SiLVicuLTURAL TREATMENT. Tile best treatment for Bucklandia is to 

 grow it in dense pure crops with sufficient side shade to prevent the formation 

 of side branches but with abundant overhead light to promote height-growth. 

 The tending of natural plants or crops as well as of plantations requires to be 

 carried out with this object in view. 



Rate of growth. Young plants ordinarily reach a height of 3 ft. in 

 five years and 8 to 15 ft. in ten years. At fifteen years the height is about 

 15 to 25 ft., and at twenty years about 30 to 40 ft., with a girth of \\ to 2 ft. 

 According to Gamble the radial growth is 6 to 7 rings per inch of radius, repre- 

 senting a mean annual girth increment of 0-9 to 1 in., which is fairly fast. 



A plantation below Rangirum in the Darjeeling hills, shown in Fig. 191, 

 was measured in 1917 with the following results : 



A thinning carried out that year gave a total of 1,632 cub. ft., of which 

 timber amounted to 878 cub. ft. 



