PREPARATION OF THE SEED-BEDS. 183 



are to spread their roots should be thoroughly sifted or screened, 

 so as to free it from all gravel and coarse grit. 



As iu each case only a certain maximum length of roots is 

 required, it is clearly an advantage to prevent the roots from 

 going down beyond the fixed depth. The roots can of course be 

 shortened by actual amputation (to be described lower down), 

 but where excessive moisture is not to be feared, it is frequently 

 advisable to form, at the required depth, a hard floor through 

 which the roots of the seedlings will be unable to penetrate. This 

 floor may be made of kankar or gravel or broken bricks and tiles 

 well-ram me 1 down ; but the very best materials, both on account 

 of their porous and absorbent nature and manurial qualities, would 

 be pounded charcoal or coke or coal cinders. A masonry floor or 

 one of flagging would be objectionable, as it would be impermeable 

 to water and the seedlings would suffer from wet feet. Moreover, 

 by reason of the organic acids they contain, the roots would 

 ultimately eat their way through masonry and thus necessitate 

 frequent renewal or repairs. After the floor is forme -1, the sifted 

 soil should be put back. The surface of the beds should always 

 be carefully levelled with a rake or any other convenient imple- 

 ment. 



Simultaneously with the levelling the necessary manure should 

 be raked in. In very free soil the manure ought to be kept near 

 the surface, while in stiff soils it should be mixed with the soil 

 almost as far down as the roots of the seedlings are required to 

 penetrate. The stiffer the soil is, the more energetically does it 

 retain soluble and insoluble matters mixed with it and prevent 

 these from reaching roots outside it ; whereas in free soils, rain as 

 well as irrigation water can carry manure from near the surface 

 down to the lowest roots, and manure raked in deep would either 

 be lost or encourage the roots of the seedlings to go down too 

 deep. 



For the very reason that stiff soils retain extraneous matters 

 with great energy and yield them up with difficulty to plants, 

 they should also be manured more heavily. 



B. Cylindrical tubes let into the ground. 



These tubes are either formed of two setnicylindrical tiles of 

 sheet iron, tin or porous earthenware bound together, or consist 

 merely of hollow bamboo internodes. The only advantage their 

 employment offers is the easy removal of the seedling*. But as 

 there are very few species that cannot be transplanted from an. 



