740 XLVI. VERBENACEAE 



and it means all the difference between success and failure. If the burning is 

 not thorough, half-burnt logs and stumps encumber the ground, preventing 

 regular planting and hindering subsequent weeding. Thorough burning 

 consumes all the felled trees and many of the stumps, as well as the seeds of 

 A\-eeds and cHmbers, prevents regrowth from felled trees and bamboos, and 

 enriches the soil with the ashes. In order to ensure thorough burning the forest 

 growth should be felled early in the cold season, and the felled material 

 should be carefully protected from fire through the cold and hot seasons. 

 It should then be burnt late in the hot season, by which time it will have 

 become reasonably dry, but care should be taken not to delay the burning 

 imtil the early showers preceding the monsoon, otherwise complete burning 

 may be impossible. In this way a fierce conflagration results, and the feUed 

 material is thoroughly burnt ; any material which is not consumed is collected 

 into heaps and burnt again. 



As soon as the burning is finished the lining out is done, bamboo stakes 

 being inserted in the ground at the required distances. The teak seed is then 

 sown, three seeds as a rule being sown at each stake and very hghtly covered ; 

 the sowing should be completed before the monsoon breaks. At the same time 

 a small nursery is made at a convenient place in the clearing from which 

 seedlings are obtained to fill up gaps where failures occur. The field crops, 

 which are sown about the same time, vary ; hill rice is the commonest crop, 

 but in some localities maize, sesamum, or other crops are grown. The lines of 

 young teak require to be kept free from suppression by the crops and by weeds ; 

 the cultivator attends to this. About December or the beginning of January, 

 after the field crop is reaped, the lines of teak are cleared by the cultivator 

 or ^a-cutter, to give him his usual name and all bamboo stakes which have 

 been lost are replaced by fresh ones. An enumeration is then made of all the 

 living plants and all the blanks or dead plants ; this enumeration is carried 

 out under close supervision by men provided with split bamboo tallies on 

 which each plant is nicked off in turn. Payment is made to the ^a-cutter 

 usually at the rate of one rupee for every hundred living plants found at this 

 enumeration. With a spacing of 6 ft. by 6 ft. the number of plants per acre 

 is approximately 1,210, and the cost of formation for a completely stocked 

 plantation, including weeding during the first season, amounts to about Rs. 12 

 per acre. In localities where there is much demand for taungya land the initial 

 cost can be reduced or even eliminated altogether. In the northern parts 

 of Upper Burma taungya-auitem are paid nothing ; they do all the clearing, 

 burning, and weeding during the first year without joayment. 



The system of forming taungya plantations varies in detail, but that just 

 described is commonly in vogue in the forests of the Pegu Yoma. In some 

 localities the area is cultivated for two years in succession, teak seed being 

 sown the second year. The weeding and cleaning of taungya plantations is 

 a matter of great importance, and is referred to below imder ' tending '. 



The cost of taungya plantations has varied considerably in the past, but 

 it should be comparative!}^ small if the work is properly- carried out and 

 su])ervised. 



In the case of the Tharrawaddy plantations the average cost, as worked 

 out a few years ago, is as follows : 



