270 DIEKCT SOWING. 



flat bottom and more or less vertical sides, while in a hollow the 

 sides slope gradually from all four sides towards the middle, which 

 is therefore the deepest portion. 



The dimensions, including their depth, of pits or hollows are in- 

 fluenced by the same considerations as those which determine the 

 width and depth of trenches or furrows ; but just as the cross dimen.- 

 sion of a patch generally exceeds the width of a strip, so the cross 

 dimension of a pit or hollow may exceed the width of a trench or 

 furrow. 



Pits and hollows are prepared with hand tools and generally in 

 the same way as trenches, except that in their case the rubbish 

 may be heaped up on several sides, according to the several quart- 

 ers on which shelter may be required. The soil at the bottom 

 may be top-dressed with manure. 



Pits are more expensive than hollows, which indeed cost very- 

 little more than patches, and may in the plains of India be em- 

 ployed, with even superior results, in nearly every case in which 

 these last succeed. In a hollow, the tools reach and work up a 

 deeper layer of the soil than in a patch, the young plants are better 

 protected against drought, insolation, frost and injurious winds, and, 

 thanks to the sloping sides, the seeds are severally placed under 

 diiferent conditions, so that the chances of success are multiplied. 

 Pits should take the place of hollows only in _ very dry or frosty or 

 hot, stony localities, or when the upper soil forms a hard pan 

 through which the delicate roots of young seedlings cannot work 

 their way before they get beyond the reach of drought. Pits and 

 hollows possess all the advantages over trenches and furrows which 

 patches possess over strips, and they are, even more so than patches, 

 out of place in wet soils. Pits worked deep and filled with ma- 

 nured soil would answer capitally in grass lands in the case of 

 hardy species, like sissu, sal, Hardwickia binata, &c., the yearling 

 of which sends down a long thin tap-root, or in that of delicate but 

 fast-growing species, which, hke tun, grow all the better for some 

 protection given to the root-collum and the lower portion of the 

 stem. 



ARTICLE 12. 

 SowiNa IN Holes. 



Holes are simply pits of reduced diameter (fi-om 2 to 5 or 6 

 inches), but in which the soil is generally loosened to a great depth 

 (from 2 to 4 feet and even more), in order to enable young seed- 

 lings to at once send down their roots beyond the reach of drought 



