SXXU APPENDIX. 



increase the rapidity of early growth in this almost desert 

 country. 



A perfunctory soil preparation is most generally attended with 

 failure. Dibbling teak in Burma, patch sowings of sal, broadcast 

 scattering of miscellaneous seeds in the Saharanpur coppice coupes 

 have generally utterly failed either from this cause or from subse- 

 quent neglect of weedings. In Etawah complete failure involving 

 the loss of a large sum of money was the result of employing an 

 incompetent officer. Innumerable instances could be given of the 

 importance of adequate soil preparation ; enough has been said to 

 show that the success or failure of artificial reproduction is very 

 largely dependent on this cause. 



(3) Seed supply. 



It is manifest that to obtain success in this work good seed 

 must be used. This is insisted on by every authority on the subject. 

 Seed may appear perfectly good and yet not be worth sowing. 

 The first seed that ripens is frequently unfertile and useless. The 

 seed of Anogeissus lati/olia which is collected before the end of 

 March is worthless ; sissu seed should never be collected off the 

 ground and the same remark applies to the other species and is 

 especially true in the case of small seeds. Thus in 1919, seed of 

 Anogeissus Holoptelea and Dalbergia collected by sweeping up the 

 seed on the ground gave very poor results. In the Afforestation 

 Division it is a standing order that sissu seed is always to be 

 collected off the trees and never from the ground. Some of the 

 larger seeds such as teak, Gmelina, sal, Odina may be collected off 

 the ground after they have fallen. Babul seed, which has been 

 eaten by and passed through goats, has been found to have a very 

 high germination per cent. Some seeds such as ash only germinate 

 in the second year, babul does the same in years of deficient rain- 

 fall when the seed remains dormant in the soil. Some of the 

 larger seeds such as teak require special treatment to induce early 

 .and even germination, without such treatment many seeds fail 



