216 COFFEE AND TEA CULTIVATION, 
line is therefore a continuous tea hedge, In the extract 
given above itis recommended to place the lines ‘‘dia- 
gonally across the hill, so that the slope along the lines 
shall be a roderate one,” but they do not follow out 
this plan in Java. They run the lines there right a- 
cross the slope of the hill, I believe the diagonal plan 
isthe better, but the measures they take to prevent 
the wash do away with the objection. 
‘‘Between the lines, 4 feet apart from centre to centre, 
holes are dug two feet long, one foot wide, and 15 
inches deep. In the spaces or rows above and below, 
the said holes are opposite the sound portions. Do 
you understand ? Every third row has the holes op- 
posite the first: those of the second and fourth like- 
wise agree. Thus, whatever wash there is must be 
caught by the holes, if not in the row where it ac- 
cumulates, in the second, and necessarily no injury 
from the wash can take place. The earth taken out 
of the said holes is piled up, loose, between the 
holes. 
*¢ Asan extra precaution (because with heavy rain the 
holes fill and overflow), catch-water drains are dug dia- 
gonally across the hill, 30 or 40 yards apart. 
‘¢ Pwice a year the holes are filled up, and new holes 
are made in the in the intervenning spaces, so that virtu- 
ally the whole of the soil between the tea hedges is 
stirred and opened out twice a year. The same thing 
is done, where the land is flat, or nearly so; only 
there, as there can be no wash, the catch-water drains 
are omitted. 
‘‘ The advantages claimed for the plan are threefold. 
First: no injury from wash can take place, inasmuch 
as the soil is not washed down the hill and the roots 
of the plants thereby laid bare. Secondly : the man- 
ure supplied is kept on or near the spot where it is 
laid, and sinking with the water into the holes, is 
brought into connection withthe roots of the bushes, 
Thirdly : the whole of the soil, to the unusual depth 
of 18 inches, being twice a year, exposed to the action 
of the sun and air isa most efficient mode of cultiva- 
tion,— may be styled, indeed, ‘ air manuring,’ and tends 
to heavy flushes. 
‘“‘The plan, as described, is followed out exactly as de- 
tailed by the largest, and on dit the best tea planter 
in Java. He has, in his several gardens, about 1,000 
-acres under tea; and if ‘‘ the tree is known by its 
fruit,” the modus operandi, to be judged of by its 
result, we must conclude his system is a good one. 
From his 1,000 acres he manufactures and sends to 
the London market, in round numbers, eighty thousand 
pounds of tea: ten maunds tea per acre,—a result not 
yet achieved in India? 
