68 PLANTING IN UGANDA 



season is over. This will give the young plants a 

 chance of becoming established before the next dry 

 season comes. It is much less risky to plant trees 

 a little too early than to wait for them to reach 

 the proper size, if the latter course entails plant- 

 ing near the end of the rainy season. 



If care is taken in choosing suitable planting 

 days, watering in the field, or shading, need never 

 be resorted to, except in the case of Cocoa, which 

 must be shaded with palm leaves or grass as soon 

 as planted. 



The actual planting of the trees should be done 

 only by the most experienced men. Each man 

 takes his own line right through the field, and the 

 headman in charge ought to know the planter of 

 each line so that bad work can be checked. The 

 planter will be preceded by men who fill up the 

 holes for him. This is done by scraping in surface 

 soil until the hole is half full. It should then be 

 trodden firmly, and the hole filled loosely with good 

 soil. Another gang of men will be employed in 

 carrying plants from the nursery to the planter. 



The planter will need to provide himself with a 

 trowel with which he makes a hole in the loose 

 soil large enough and deep enough to take the 



