TECTONA 735 



of weeds and climbers is likewise luxuriant, and hence weedings and cleanings 

 in plantations on ground formerly occupied by evergreen forest are a specially 

 heavy item. Plantations can be formed with great success on well-drained 

 alluvial ground, as witness some of the plantations of Burma and Nilambur ; 

 early prognostications not -withstanding, the trees on such ground have satis- 

 factorily maintained their soundness throughout their life, and are in some 

 cases approaching maturity. On alluvial ground, however, great care is 

 necessary to carr^^ out repeated climber-cutting operations, as climbers often 

 grow in great profusion in such places. Savannah lands are, as a rule, unsuit- 

 able for the formation of teak plantations. 



The size of a teak plantation is, from a financial point of view, a matter 

 of great importance. In Burma, with its wealth of plantations, a cardinal 

 mistake has been made in scattering these in numerous isolated j^atches, some 

 only one or two acres and others several acres in extent, in the midst of natural 

 forest. Many of these have been lost sight of, and have perished owing to the 

 rapid encroachment of the surrounding bamboos and jungle. Those which 

 survive have been saved only at the cost of periodical cleaning of their boun- 

 daries at frequent intervals, the surrounding jungle being thus kept at bay. 

 In the case of small scattered plantations the cost of such work soon outweighs 

 any possible return to be derived ultimately from the plantation ; on this 

 account many of the Burma plantations must be written down as a financial 

 loss, while many of the smaller plantations have disappeared entirely, their 

 site being marked only by the remains of the boundary -boards, which serve 

 the purpose of tombstones. In a moist climate like that of Burma, where any 

 clearing is quickly invaded on all sides by the luxuriant surrounding forest 

 growth, and where the boundaries of plantations have to be repeatedly cleared, 

 it is well to fix a minimum area to plant up in the course of one or more years 

 in one self-contained block. Only by this means will the boundary be short 

 enough, in comparison to the area of the plantation, to bear the cost of periodical 

 clearing. In Burma this minimum area was fixed some years ago at 25 acres. 

 In this respect the Nilambur plantations have been formed on sounder lines 

 than the majority of the Burma plantations, as they are for the most part 

 comprised in blocks of considerable extent. This defect in the Burma planta- 

 tions has been due largely to an exaggerated notion that no forest should be 

 cleared for the formation of plantations which contains any teak trees. This 

 argument, however, can hardly hold in view of the fact that in place of a few 

 scattered teak trees the ground will be made to support perhaps forty trees 

 of valuable species to the acre at maturity, allowing for a suitable mixture of 

 other trees besides teak where the bee-hole borer is to be feared. The sparing 

 of a few isolated teak trees can certainly never ju.stify the financial loss involved 

 in scattering the plantations in small isolated blocks. In dry climates such 

 as those met with in many of the teak-bearing tracts of the Indian Peninsula, 

 this rule regarding the size of plantations would not hold to the same extent, 

 if at all, except in so far as concentration for purposes of tending and upkeep 

 is concerned. 



Spacing. The spacing now almost universally adopted in Burma is 6 ft. 

 ))y 6 ft., this giving even growth all round and being close enough to produce 

 a complete canopy in a few j^ears. In the earlier plantations in Burma spacings 



