PLANTING-OUT 95 



dig holes for them. The chankolling, which will of necessity 

 have been done to clear the ground of lalang, and otherwise 

 prepare it, even if the soil has been virgin jungle, will have 

 sufficiently loosened the soil. All that is therefore necessary 

 is carefully to deposit the seeds about 2 to 3 inches be- 

 neath the surface of the soil, regularly in line and at the dis- 

 tances decided upon, the exact situation of which should be 

 carefully marked out with small stakes stuck into the ground. 



In the cases of basket-plants or poeterans, and of stumps, it 

 is necessary to have holes dug in advance. These holes should 

 be dug at least three or four weeks in advance of planting-out, 

 so that the soil may become sweetened by the sunlight and airi 

 This sweetening of sub-soil is very important and cannot be 

 too well attended to. Next to prolonged and unseasonable 

 droughts the chief cause of the failure of seedlings and stumps 

 is the sourness of sub-soils, and for this sourness light and air 

 are the great and almost only cure. 



One effect of leaving holes open for three weeks or longer is 

 that the soil beneath becomes aerated and the bacteria actively 

 colonize the deeper soil below the roots of the young plants 

 and greatly add to the fertility of the soil. 



The usual depth to which holes are dug is 2\ feet, and the 

 width and breadth are usually 2j feet also. As exposure of 

 sub-soil to light and air is the best means of sweetening the sub- 

 soils, it is evident that for the sanitation of the young plants the 

 width and breadth of the holes cannot be too great. Digging 

 a wide and broad hole gives an opportunity to detect and re- 

 move any decaying roots. It also so loosens the soil all round 

 the young plant that the surface rootlets expand more quickly 

 and more widely than they would otherwise do, and this greatly 

 assists vigorous growth in the young trees. 



On an estate in North Sumatra the manager caused all the 

 holes for young plants or stumps on a certain considerable area 

 to be dug 6 feet square by 2 feet deep. The manager reports 

 that the growth of the young trees on this area has been sur- 

 prisingly good and has quite exceeded expectations. 



If it is found in the interval between the time the holes are 

 dug and the time for planting-out that the soil at the bottom 

 of the holes has become hardened under the influences of 

 tropical sunlight, it will not take more than a minute for a 



