22 THE BANANA 



to 90 per cent, of first ratoons should give bunches.* 

 Taking a seven-year period, the yield should be 330 

 payable bunches per acre per annum. 



On the south side after lining at 15 ft. by 15 ft., the 

 irrigation canals would be laid out and water supplied 

 to young plants every five or six days, to ratoons every 

 ten days, at the rate of two to two and a half cubic yards 

 to each acre. No plough is used for the first three years 

 on this light soil, but instead the hoe and the Assam fork. 



PREPARATION OF LAND 



Clearing. In ground covered with forest or woodland 

 some are content to cut down and burn, leaving the stumps 

 to decay ; but it is better, if it can be done, so to cut the 

 trees that they will tear up their roots in their fall. The 

 trees should be carefully selected, marked and cut up for 

 their special uses timber, posts, piles, tramway sleepers, 

 firewood, &c. The underwood and brush can be used to 

 burn up the roots and the trunks of useless trees such as 

 Guango, Bastard Cedar, &c. 



The ground should finally be carefully stumped. 

 Machines, e.g. Trewhella's "Monkey Winch," can be 

 obtained which facilitate the work of stumping. Even 

 if the land is virgin soil and does not require ploughing, 

 it is better to stump at first. The plants can then be put 

 in at regular distances at once, an important matter in 

 many ways ; and if ploughing is necessary at a later 

 period, there is no delay caused by digging out stumps. 

 Stumping also facilitates cutting and carrying the fruit. 



If the land is not the virgin soil of a forest, and especially 

 if it be old cane land or pasture, it should be first thoroughly 

 ploughed at least 9 in. deep and harrowed. If the situation 

 is on hill -sides where the plough cannot be worked, the 

 pick-axe for stony ground and the fork for soft ground 

 should be used. 



* " Bunches," " payable bunches," and " straights " are terms used 

 to signify bunches of nine hands and over. 



