316 TEAK PLANTATIONS. 



upper stem in plantations of the last year's growth, if they were 

 saturated with rain, and a squall of wind followed, they would, I 

 think, run much risk of injury by the tops of the plants being 

 broken off: both experience and careful superintendence on the 

 spot would at such times be necessary.* 



" The plants generally averaged twenty feet high at four years 

 old ; it is at this period (or, perhaps, during the previous year) 

 of the growth of a plant that a knowledge of the proper means 

 of counteracting its rapid growth in height is necessary. Thin- 

 ning the plants, and allowing the air to circulate around them, 

 gives encouragement to the lateral branches to shoot out, and 

 by the sap flowing into them the inclination of the plant to 

 spire up is checked ; great care is necessary that this process 

 should be gradual, and carried out cautiously as required. 

 When the lateral shoots are well pronounced, all having a ten- 

 dency to grow upwards should be cut off, a judicious selec- 

 tion of the main branches to be left should then be made, and 

 the smaller branches pruned. On selecting the height on the 

 boll of the plant, at which the first lateral branch should be 

 allowed to stand, consideration must be given to the natural 

 height to which a teak tree grows, and the branches should be 

 left on the four sides, so as to counterpoise one another, and to 

 stop the upward growth of the tree until its roots take a firm 

 hold of the ground, and are able to supply a sufficient quantity 

 of sap for its nourishment, so that the plant may gradually in- 

 crease in substance in proportion to its height. In the use of 

 instruments, a sharp knife is necessary for pruning plantations ; 

 in all such cases a clean cut must be given, so as to prevent the 

 tree from being wounded. The rude instruments I saw in use 

 will never answer in a well-conducted forest or plantation, where 

 clean sound timber is to be produced. In the case of pruning 

 natural-grown forest trees, a saw may be necessary for amputat- 

 ing a large limb, but the wound should be dressed over by the 

 clean cut of a knife, or small axe, or some sharp instrument, to 



* During a gale of wind, two years ago, several hundred trees were broken 

 or blown over in this plantation. Much mischief is also caused by troops of 

 monkeys springing upon the topmost branches, often breaking the leading 

 shoot.— H. C. 



