312 PLANTING. 



and because the manure brings plant-food within easy reach of the 

 roots. They may be made with augers (Figs. 94 and 95) or with 

 conical transplanters with a long blade. The last mentioned tool 

 would be the most handy, if the soil, as is often to be recommend- 

 ed, has been previously worked up. In other respects the pro- 

 cedure is similar to that in the preceding case. 



PUTTING DOWN THE PLANTS. The manure used must be either 

 surkhi ash prepared from a loamy or clayey soil, or unburnt loam 

 or clay mixed with wood ash or with any other manure. Clay 

 and loam, or, expressed in more general terms, a clayey earth is 

 employed instead of a sandy soil simply because the former retains 

 the manure sufficiently energetically to prevent rain water from 

 carrying it away and the plants from taking it up too rapidly and 

 thus assuming an abnormal rate of growth, only to succumb as 

 soon as it is exhausted. This is also a reason for using only weak 

 manures (Fig. 105, a) 



A handful of the manure is first put up against one side of the 

 pit. The plant is then set up against this manure and another 

 handful (b) is dabbed on, on the opposite side. The rest of the 

 pit is now filled up with ordinary soil (o) and the whole is then 

 pressed down with the foot in the direction indicated by the arrow. 



VALUE AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE METHOD. The use of the 

 manure has the effect of an early and vigorous development of 

 roots and the rapid striking of the young plants, a circumstance 

 specially favourable for material raised in the rich well-prepared 

 soil of a nursery. But it is evident, from the mere description of 

 the method, that it is adapted only for small plants, or, at the out- 

 side, for the lowest category of those of middle size, and it is an 

 essential condition of the method that manure shall be available in 

 abundance and at cheap rates. The method is especially suitable 

 for putting out bamboos and teak and other species which, 

 like the teak, develop at first a thick strong taproot with only a 

 few insignificant side-roots. It is of course impracticable in 

 shallow soils with a hard or impermeable bottom. 



ARTICLE 4. 

 PLANTING IN HOLES. 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. The essential characteristic of this 

 method is that the planting material is inserted into narrow holes 

 made, according to the depth required, with an ordinary stake or 

 the soil dagger (Fig. 82) or the stake dibber (Fig. 83) or the mal- 

 let dibber (Fig. 84), or with some similar implement. The soil in 



