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anxiety as to whether the growth of the tea roots will be interfered 

 with, are in far and away the best position in this matter, but 

 wherever the water level approaches within measurable distance 

 of the surface during the rains, it must be recognised that its highest 

 level represents the usual limit of the root development, a limit which 

 cannot be increased except by deepening the drains or by getting 

 rid of the ground water by another method. 



If the drains reach the ground water at 3 feet 3 feet 6 inches, or 

 4 feet, then, though tea grows, and in many cases grows very 

 luxuriantly, the depth is not such as to produce a permanently 

 healthy plant, and certain diseases like canker (Nectria camelliae, 

 Watt) are probably very closely connected with this restricted root 

 and with the presence of the ground water. In such cases the only 

 means available of increasing the dryness of the soil or subsoil in 

 the wettest part of the year is,by deepening the drains to the utmost, 

 an operation essential under such circumstances. 



CONSERVATION OF SOIL MOISTURE, 



We are not in quite such a helpless condition when the ques- 

 tion of the conservation of soil moisture during the periods of 

 drought is to be dealt with, and yet, in spite of this, the damage 

 annually done by the drought in some districts is very great, and 

 this principally occurs where root development is only shallow as 

 a result of hard subsoil or a ground water level near the surface 

 as above described. There are probably no districts in India 

 liable to be worse affected by droughts than the bheels of Cachar 

 and Sylhet, where the ground may become so dry as to actually burn 

 bushes and all, and yet here the creation of the garden has been 

 only possible by draining in a thorough and monumental fashion 

 unknown elsewhere, and where, in the strictest sense of the word, 

 the depth of the drains indicate the possible depth of the root 

 development of the plant. 



Th?t crops with shallow roots will be likely to suffer from 

 drought would be naturally to be expected, but it is not so generally 

 known how even annual plants grown in the cold weather usually 

 protect themselves from the drought. Such crops as mustard, 

 mati kalai, etc., grown in native culture at that time of the year, 

 naturally form a much deeper root than when grown at other seasons, 

 as for instance for green manuring in April, May and June, and it 



