1840.] on the Tenasserim Provinces, fyc. 169 



It ought also to be ascertained, whether there be a sufficient 

 stratum of subsoil two or three feet thick, not rock. 



Undulatory, slightly sloping hills, and of these chiefly the part 

 near the bottom of the valley, will be the best situation. 



Places must be avoided where the waters have not a natural 

 outlet, otherwise they accumulate during the height of the mon- 

 soon ; besides a noxious inundation, the plantations are liable to 

 be carried away with the good earth ; the formation of terraces, 

 and the digging up of trenches and drains, would be for the first 

 settlers a too expensive operation, where unlimited quantities of 

 unoccupied land can be chosen in the first instance. 



Particular care in the selection of the locality should be 

 taken to establish the plantation not far from the sea coast, 

 from a navigable river, or at least near a creek communicating 

 with the sea, or river, there being no roads in the country, 

 and the easy transport of the produce being a matter of im- 

 portance. 



Localities should be chosen where the forest is high. The 

 more primitive woods are grown up, the more they possess of 

 accumulated humus, and the less they have of underwood; — 

 the more underwood, the less good the soil, and the greater 

 the number of white-ants, the greatest enemies to a plantation 

 in tropical countries. 



After having selected the proper locality, the cutting down of 

 the forest is the next operation. It can only be performed 

 during the dry season, from November to April ; trees cut down 

 during the monsoon do not burn well, this is a fact of which it 

 is difficult to account satisfactorily. 



The great art in cutting consists in felling the trees in such 

 a manner that they fall in heaps ; when they are lighted they 

 burn the more freely, for the greatest trouble does not consist 

 in felling a forest, but in burning it. 



A month before the setting in of the monsoon, the whole area 

 cut down is burnt in one day ; after this, the always considerable 

 remainder of the branches and smaller trees is cut again, and 

 brought on new heaps, which are repeatedly burnt down, until 

 nothing remains but the bare large trunks, which are never 

 consumed by the fire. 



