172 SYLVICULTURE IN THE TROPICS PT .n 



rainy season, or if it has been specially prepared so as 

 to hasten germination, just after the rains have begun. 

 On tilled land, however, it should not be put in while 

 the ground is still over-saturated with moisture, as it 

 will make the harrowing and rolling impossible. 



Although this system of sowing is cheaper, it usually 

 gives very uneven results. Even where conditions are 

 otherwise favourable the seedlings are apt to come up 

 very irregularly, some places being almost overcrowded 

 with seedlings while others have few or none at all. 

 Broadcast sowing without previous preparation of the 

 ground is only suitable to very few localities in the 

 Tropics, such as have a sufficiently moist ground during 

 the process of germination and only a scanty crop of 

 weeds. Such are, e.g., the low, muddy banks of a river 

 from which the water recedes during the dry season, 

 but which retain enough moisture during a sufficiently 

 long time to permit the seedlings to establish themselves. 

 Generally speaking, broadcast sowing is most likely to 

 succeed in areas which have been under cultivation for 

 some time, and are therefore comparatively free of 

 weeds. It may also be possible to sow tree -seeds 

 broadcast, together with seed for an agricultural crop ; 

 and if this is repeated for two or three years a sufficiency 

 of seedlings may be obtained after this process, provided 

 that ploughs be not used after the first sowing. 



When sowing in strips the seed is not scattered 

 over the whole area, but along lines which are marked 

 out on the ground. Along these lines the seed is put 

 in either continuously or dibbled in at regular intervals 

 in furrows or trenches or along ridges, or there may be 

 a combination of trench and furrow or of trench and 

 ridge, or even of all three. The lines may be single 

 between uncultivated strips, or, especially if there are 

 many invading weeds in the uncultivated strips, there 

 may be several lines in each cultivated strip. 



When sowing in furrows, it is intended that the 

 seed should lie only deep enough below the surface to 

 be covered with a layer of earth up to ground-level. 



