20 
Cultivation. 
stir the soil, not dragging it out, as if he does so 
he will break the laterals. If the steeper por- 
tions of the garden are hoed or forked once a year, 
it is quite sufficient. As if much hoeing is done, in 
the rains the topsoil is soon washed away, all 
the laterals exposed and the bush stands up from 
the soil with nothing but its tap root to feed upon 
pieces of tea of this sort, can be seen on any of 
the older hill gardens, and of course the yeild 
from these pieces is miserable and scarcely worth 
plucking. The best thing to do is to sickle all the 
steep pieces, and earth up all the bushes, as much 
as possible, and whenever you have spare labour 
carry soil and place it round roots. If the cross 
lines of the trees are fairly straight, terrace 
wherever it is possible, and build up walls in all 
the very steep portions to prevent wash. On 
many gardens which have been badly cultivated, 
the soil two inches under the surface is as hard 
as bricks, and the coolies will be only able to do 
very little work. But if you can afford to spend 
the money on deep cultivation, do so and the 
return in yeild of leaf will much more than repay 
