CHAPTER VI. 



DIRECT SOWING AND PLANTING COMPARED^ 



Whether to sow or to plant in any given case is a question that 

 does not always admit of a ready or a certain answer, particularly 

 in a continent like India with its every imaginable variety of soils 

 and climate and its enormous number of woody species, including 

 more than four hundred important ones, some of which are distri- 

 buted over a wide horizontal as well as vertical range and often 

 undergo, with change of station, almost specific modifications of 

 both habit and requirements. 



The essential difference between the two artificial methods of 

 creating or regenerating forests lies in the fact that in the one the 

 seeds and, after them, the resulting seedUngs are exposed to every 

 possible risk and danger in the most exaggerated form, whereas in 

 the other we use only material that has either not to pass through 

 (cuttings, rhizomes and root-suckers), or has successfully passed 

 through (seedlings), the most critical period of plant-life, viz., 

 that including the seed and germinating stages and the time im- 

 mediately following germination ; and not only this, but in many 

 cases the plants are of an agS and size to be on the point of be- 

 coming established. But, on the other hand, whereas in direct 

 sowings the seedlings are able to adapt themselves, from the mo- 

 ment they are produced, to the surroundings in which they are to 

 pass all their existence, in planting, on the contrary, the seedlings 

 and other schooled material, after being carefully fostered and more 

 or less forced, or at least after having been growing under favour- 

 able conditions, receive first of all a shock to their growth in being 

 lifted up, transported and handled about while being put into the 

 ground, and may then be given perfectly dissimilar surroundings, 

 to accustom themselves to which a severe call is made on their 

 adaptiveness, some species being frequently unequal to this effort. 



The difference between direct sowing and planting is least, and 

 even absolutely slight, when germ plants are used of species that 

 germinate readily. Bearing the preceding facts in mind, we may 

 now proceed to compare the two methods from the several points of 



