PLANTING. 99 



out of the nursery beds their side roots are lightly 

 trimmed and their tap roots cut off about ten inches 

 below the green bark with a sharp knife. They 

 grow somewhat slowly after their transplanting for 

 twelve months, but then put on a spurt and generally 

 outdistance seedlings that have come earlier into 

 the clearings. Hot weather and drought affects 

 them less than the smaller plants. Probably most 

 managers would prefer to plant with stumps, only 

 it will be understood they represent on high estates 

 an extra season's growth, and it is not everyone 

 whose nurseries are started sufficiently early to 

 render this waiting possible. 



" It should be borne in mind," Mr. A. L. Cross 

 observes, " by planters in high districts, that 

 nurseries sown with seed, though put in in March, 

 would be of little use for a clearing till they were 

 eighteen months or two years old, so that a nursery 

 of seed put in, say, in March, 1886, would be unfit 

 for use till August, 1887, and by that time the 

 planting season, for plants, in districts getting the 

 south-west monsoon would be nearly over. For 

 the second year, if the nursery has been thinned 

 out, the plants will be in excellent condition. I 

 have found it best to make two nurseries the first 

 year, one of seed, and the other of seedlings, brought 

 from some other estate." 



" Planting baskets" should be used whenever 

 possible. Their initial expenses are often covered 

 by the absence of " failures." The plants may be 



