178 PERMANENT NURSERIES. 



broad enough for only a single cart, the width being increased at the 

 extremity and, if necessary, also at certain other points, to enable 

 carts to turn or cross. The road should be metalled and have a 

 slightly convex section. It ought also to be raised somewhat above 

 the level of the adjoining soil on each side, and be protected with 

 well-made side-drains. One corner, generally the shadiest and 

 most protected of the nursery, ought to be specially set aside for 

 preparing and storing manures. 



The next step is to lay out the paths and nursery beds. These 

 latter should be just broad enough for a child 9 or 10 years old to 

 easily reach the middle without having to step or rest on them. 

 A breadth of 40 inches is very convenient. Their length would 

 be limited only by the shape of the ground and the number of 

 plants of the several species to be raised ; and they ought always 

 to be rectangular. The beds must be divided off from each other 

 by paths about a foot wide. These would be more or less parallel 

 to each other and comprise two sets crossing one another at right 

 angles, one set abutting perpendicularly on the cart road, when 

 there is one. 



When the nursery is to be irrigated, the paths running parallel 

 to the longest dimension of the beds should follow horizontal lines, 

 and the water, instead of reaching the beds directly from the source 

 whence it is obtained, should previously come down a primary or 

 FEED channel, of sufficient width and depth, from which it would 

 be diverted at right angles, to the right and left, into smaller se- 

 condary or DISTRIBUTING channels about 6 inches wide and 4 inches 

 deep, and running between each bed and the path immediately 

 above. In Europe the paths running parrallel to the beds serve 

 themselves as distributing channels ; but in India, where a large 

 quantity of rain often falls within a limited time, the paths, if used 

 as watercourses, would often be rendered quite unfit tor circula- 

 tion, and, if used for circulation, would be rendered unsuitable for 

 irrigation. Hence in this country it will not unfrequently be expe- 

 dient to beat the paths firm and to cover them with gravel, clinkers, 

 coal cinders, &c. It is evident that midway between every two 

 successive paths of the series running at right angles to the lie of 

 the beds there will be a feed channel, and that every distributing 

 channel will terminate at the path on which it abuts. 



In the percolation system of irrigation the surface of the beds 

 ought evidently to be slightly raised above the paths, say about 2 

 inches. This is easily done by cutting a portion of the top soil 



