MARKING OUT OF PLANTING SPOTS. 293 



we may safely plant less close than if the plants were used singly. 



(xii) The ease and readiness with ivhich failures may be re- 

 paired. The more difficult it is to undertake or effect repairs, the 

 closer must we plant. 



In finally fixing upon the distance or distances at which single 

 plants should be put down, it should be remembered that it is as 

 great a fault to put down too many as too few individuals ; for 

 when the plants stand too close together, they remain underfed and, 

 unless thinned out early, become so weakened that the annual sum 

 of production falls below what the soil is capable of yielding, and, 

 in any case, since the number of plants increases inversely as the 

 square of the distance between them, there is an unnecessary waste 

 of material and labour, and, therefore, also of money. 



Under any circumstances the distance from planting spot to 

 planting spot in the square or equilateral triangle pattern ought 

 never to be less than 2 feet or more then 12 feet, the most advan- 

 tageous being perhaps from 4 to 6 feet. In the rectangular arran- 

 gement, the distance between the lines will, usually vary from 3 to 

 15 feet, from 6 to 12 feet being most generally adopted, while that 

 between the planting spots will range from one-sixth to four-fifths 

 of the former distance, from one-third to one-half being the most 

 common ratio. Exceptionally, in the case of fodder preserves or 

 when there is an abundance of useful growth already on the 

 ground, the distance between the lines may be 20 to 30 teet, with 

 5 and 10 feet respectively as the minima and maxima distances 

 between the. planting spots. 



SECTION VI. 

 Marking out the planting spots. 



ON LEVEL GROUND. If the area is large, it should be divided 

 into compartments of manageable size, each compartment forming 

 a unit of work. It is always advisable to have the compartments 

 in the form of squares or rectangles, the sides of which measure a 

 chain or some multiple of a chain, or better still some convenient 

 mutiple of the planting distances. By this means not only does 

 the actual marking out, but subsequently also the planting becomes 

 systematised, so that it is more easily, more economically and more 

 efficiently executed and supervised, and its progress from day to 

 day and hour to hour is exactly appreciated and regulated without 

 trouble. If the perimeter of the area is of an irregular shape, in 

 addition to the squares or rectangles as the case may be, in the 

 interior, there will be triangles and trapeziums along the outside ; 



