126 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE chap. 



manuring is very beneficial. As the plants are set close 

 together in the fields, catch-cropping cannot be recommended, 

 for otherwise the permanent cultivation will suffer merely to 

 benefit the temporary one. The plants will require much 

 attention for the first two years, by which time they become 

 firmly rooted, and then they are very hardy. 



Pruning. — When the plants begin to grow, they will 



throw out many branches, and when these attain to the 



T, length of six or eight inches it will be well to pinch off the 



Prune to ° ^ . '^^ 



induce a ends, SO as to induce a branching and bushy habit. This 



"^ ^ '^ ' ' pruning process, somewhat similar to the " handling " of 



coffee, may be continued until the third year, by which time 



the plants should be ready to give their maiden crop. 



Tea of com- The tea of commerce is simply the dry and prepared 



fVomlife°^ immature leaves, in fact the ends of the shoots advised to 



young be plucked off in the preceding paragraph ; the object of 



pruning, therefore, is to force the plant to produce successive 



growths of new shoots — and these are called Jlushes. All 



old wood, and badly branched stems, should consequently be 



cut away in the manner described in the chapter on pruning 



in the first part of this book. No precise directions can be 



given, for it is simply a question of judgment on the part 



Bushes to be o^ ^^ planter. Tea bushes should not be allowed to grow more 



foSfffet*^ than four feet high ; and they should be induced by proper 



high. pruning to spread out laterally, the central stem may be 



clean, up to about six inches from the surface of the ground, 



and then the more branches it has the better. 



Truninss to ^^ the branches pruned off must be buried between the 



betu"een^the ^^"'^^ before they wither, and this is important as they form 



trees. valuable manure, and just the right manure for the tea 



plants. 



Crops. — These commence at the third year and go on in- 

 creasing up to the sixth year, when the plantation may be 

 Return per Considered to be in full bearing. In India the maiden crop 

 ^'^^'^- gives from 75 to 100 lbs. of prepared tea to the acre, and 



