TECTONA , 739 



keep the seedlings for a year in the nursery before planting them out. The 

 seedlings are usually pricked out 6 in. apart in the nursery about June or July 

 of the first year, when 2 or 3 in. high, weeded regularly and watered in dry 

 weather, at first frequently and later as sparingly as possible. They are 

 planted out early in the following rainy season, when about a year old, the 

 stem being, as a rule, pruned down to about 2 to 3 in. from ground-level and 

 the root being trimmed. 



A plan which has been adopted in some places is to sow the seed in the 

 nursery beds about the beginning of the rainy season and to do no watering 

 until about February or March the following year ; this induces germination 

 within a short time, and the plants reach a height of about 9 to 12 in. by the 

 beginning of the rains, when they are planted out. 



Transplanting natural seedlings. The transplanting of natural forest 

 seedlings, to supplement dibblings, has been carried out with success in the 

 Katha district of Upper Burma. A remarkably successful experiment was 

 carried out several years ago in the Tharrawaddy forests by Ranger Maung 

 San Lon. He cleared and burned a small patch, and in it planted the thickened 

 root-stocks of young natural teak plants which had been killed back repeatedly 

 by fire or suppression ; the stems were pruned down, the roots were trimmed, 

 and the thickened root-stocks were planted somewhat after the manner of 

 potatoes. The result was a flourishing plantation of vigorous plants. 



Ranger J. D. Rego ^ has described the success attending the transplanting 

 of natural teak seedlings in the Mundgod pole forests of North Kanara, par- 

 ticularly in patches where the refuse of fellings had been burnt. It was found 

 that natural seedlings dug up and transplanted showed better growth, probably 

 owing to the loosening of the soil, than natural seedlings left in situ and tended 

 by mulching in the manner already described on p. 723. For this purpose 

 small seedlings 2 to 3 in. high are found to be best ; these are found in large 

 numbers at the beginning of the rains on fire -lines and roadsides, and the 

 supply is augmented by creating small nurseries in the coupes by burning 

 leaves and brushwood and sowing seeds on the burnt patches. The best 

 results of all are attained by transplanting seedlings into burnt patches, in 

 which case they attain a height of 1-2 ft. in the first year, and no weeding is 

 necessary. Seedlings planted on unburnt ground require weeding for two and 

 sometimes for three years. The method of burning adopted is to collect all 

 the brushwood and felling refuse into heaps, which are burnt during the hot 

 weather immediately after a shower of rain, when there is little fear of the 

 fire spreading. 



The Burma taungya system. This is the system which has been almost 

 universally employed in Burma for many years past, and has proved a most 

 efficient and economical method of forming teak plantations. It consists in 

 dibbling teak seed along with field crops in temporary forest clearings and 

 tending the crop of teak after the field crops have been reaped. One of the 

 most important operations connected with this system and the same applies 

 to any system of clearing forest land for plantation purposes is to secure as 

 complete and thorough a burning of the felled material as possible before 

 sowing the crops and the teak. This is well understood by the taungya-cuiteis, 



1 Ind. Forester, xliii (1917), p. 197. 

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