GENERAL PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 171 



these richer portions were allowed to go down to the bottom, those 

 substances would only sink deeper into the ground, a large pro- 

 portion of them beyond the reach of the roots of the young plants. 



If the operations preceding the tillage have not already re- 

 moved the low ground vegetation, this should now be got rid off. 

 Amongst native gardeners and agriculturists it is usual to burn off 

 this vegetation. Such a plan is, however, to be deprecated (ex- 

 cept on acid or stiff clayey soils, which indeed should, in the first 

 instance, never have been chosen). Its only recommendation is a 

 very petty economy, while it destroys all the organic matter in. 

 the top layer of the soil. All the rubbish should be cut or pulled 

 up by the roots. It should then be collected into small heaps up 

 to a foot high equally distributed all over the area, and fired on a 

 calm, dry day, so as to ensure complete combustion. Half-burnt 

 remains of the rubbish would be strongly acid, and their subse- 

 quent decomposition would overheat the soil and injure the roots of 

 the young nursery seedlings. The succeeding tillage operations 

 will suffice to mix the ashes thoroughly with the soil. 



The soil should be cultivated as deep as possible, for this is the 

 only way to kill out all existing growth and make a clean, whole- 

 some, soft, well-aerated and well-drained bed for the seedlings to 

 spread their roots in. A loose soil is constantly improving under 

 the fertilising influence of the air which penetrates it and by the 

 process of nitrification. Moreover in such a soil dew forms even, 

 at very low depths and an equable favourable temperature is main- 

 tained. 



Theoretically speaking, the pick or hoe is the best implement to 

 use. But work with those implements is necessarily so slow and 

 costly that, except on narrow terraces on steep hillsides where no 

 other implement could be employed, they must always yield the 

 place to the plough. Whatever the pattern of plough adopted 

 and this will vary greatly in different parts of India the share 

 mast enter the soil deep enough to tear up and kill all vivacious 

 roots and underground stems. A few fragments of these, it left in 

 the ground, would multiply very rapidly and render the nursery 

 work impossible. The creeping roots of woody species that throw 

 up suckers cannot, however, always be entirely got rid of with the 

 plough, as they often (e.g. those of Plu/llanthus Emblica, Boswellia 

 serrata, Ougeinia dalbergioides Diospyros Melanoxylon, &c.,) go 

 down to a depth of "2j feet and more, and hence they must often 

 be dug out with a pick or hoe, whenever and wherever a sucker 

 betrays their presence. 



