BKGTJLAE VCrSUS IKREGULAR PLANTING. 285 



find them all again unless they are arranged according to some 

 definite order, and the task becomes impossible, if there is some 

 self-sown advance growth already on the ground. 



(iv) Facilitation oj maintenance operations. This follows as a 

 consequence of (in). 



(v) Rapid growth of the young plants, since they can nowhere 

 get overcrowded before the entire crop as a whole stands in need 

 of a cleaning (See Part III). 



(vi) Complete utilisation of pre-existing forest groivth. A. 

 regular arrangement of the planting material allows of its being 

 put down only where, owing to the absence or insufficiency of that 

 growth, it is actually required. 



(vii) Possibility of utilising the area between the lines. On the 

 intervals grass may be exploited or field crops raised, the proceeds 

 from the sale of which may be debited against the expenditure on 

 planting, thereby turning to account and making the most of 

 resources that would otherwise remain unutilised. 



(viii) Facility in mixing species. In reference to this the re- 

 marks on p. 280 on mixed sowings should be read. 



As against these very important advantages, regular planting 

 presents certain disadvantages : 



(i) It produces continuous alleys for the entrance and un- 

 checked passage of winds, which must sweep away the dead fallen 

 leaves and contribute powerfully to the evaporation of soil mois- 

 ture. This danger can, however, be minimised by running the 

 lines at right angles to the direction of dangerous winds, and 

 planting closer and thereby creating protective curtains along the 

 edge of the area and along roads and other cleared lines. 



O o 



(ii) Where large game abounds the animals generally convert 

 the lines into beaten tracks. Thus the soil round the plants gets 

 trodden down into a hard pan, and the plants themselves are 

 'knocked over or broken, if they are not also browsed down. 



(iii) The planted crop presents a uniformity of aspect and 

 growth which is not favourable to the drawing up of the trees and 

 the formation ot clean long boles. 



These three drawbacks are of course real and serious ; neverthe- 

 less the vast superiority of regular over irregular planting is 

 beyond question, and the former should invariably be adopted, 

 save where the area to be filled up by planting is so small that a 

 regular arrangement becomes unnecessary or superfluous, and even 

 difficult to follow, particularly if it comprises numerous little 

 blanks in the niid^t of an otherwise complete young growth. 



