



With the first object we will deal later on. The other two 

 may perhaps almost be considered as one, because if there was no 

 danger of a natural hard " pan " forming and so preventing the descent 

 of the roots in a normal fashion, there would be little need for hinder- 

 ing the formation of laterals in the first foot of the soil. In this matter 

 one may so easily become too dogmatic. After visiting Tezpore one 

 would be inclined to say that the presence of lateral roots in the first 

 12 or 15 inchesof the soil is distinctly inadvisable, and for that soil with 

 its hard though very good subsoil one would be right. On the 

 other hand, where there was perfect freedom for the roots to descend 

 to any extent, and where no tendency to form a shallow root system 

 occurred, as on the sandy parts of the Doom Dooma ridge, the ques- 

 tion as to whether the laterals should be formed at 6 inches, at 

 9 inches, at 12 inches deep, or even lower, is really a matter almost of 

 indifference. For, primarily, the object of preventing the formation 

 of trunk lateral roots near the surface is to force the roots as 

 a whole to penetrate the hard subsoil or hard pan which already 

 exists. Where, therefore, will the exceptionally deep cultivation 

 which has formed so marked a feature of planting at Tezpore be 

 necessary or advisable? Simply and solely where there is a hard 

 subsoil, a hard " pan," or where there is a tendency for such hard 

 subsoil or hard pan to form. In other places an ordinary "double 

 hoe " should be enough every year, and even where the exces- 

 sive 1 5-inch to 1 8-inch hoe is given, it should only be used 

 once in three years at the most. 



On soil such as I have described with a tendency to the formation 

 of a hard pan subsoil one may consider deep cultivation as ab- 

 solutely necessary in all new land and young tea. To save money 

 by avoiding what appears to me to be an obvious duty is a suicidal 

 policy, and I cannot urge too strongly that when one is forming the 

 plant's root system during the first three years of its life, the war on 

 all lateral root growth near the surface should be continuous, By this 

 means a kind of root such as is desired will be formed, and 

 little difficulty will afterwards be found in retaining it. A very 

 different problem is shown by old gardens on these hard sub- 

 soillands which have already grown and been used for many years 

 without any effort to produce the best class of roots. Is it worth 

 while in these cases to carry out very deep cultivation at all costs, 



