SELECTION OF SEED 121 



trees left then will be 1 metre apart, and these can 

 be drawn upon to fill vacancies in the field at any time 

 until the trees are at least four years old. If planting 

 is going on over a term of years, trees used to fill 

 vacancies should be older than the trees among which 

 they are placed, as they will be relatively backward 

 on account of previous crowding and of injury done 

 in transplanting. 



In many places, probably in most places, it is 

 customary to postpone transplanting from the seed bed 

 to the field until a year or a year and a half after the 

 nuts are placed in the bed. While no considerable 

 damage is likely to be done by transplanting nuts 

 whose shoot is not more than 15 centimetres in height, 

 without regard to the roots which may be broken, the 

 same thing does not remain true as the seedling 

 becomes more developed ; and it is questionable if it 

 is ever economically practicable in the establishment 

 of a plantation to keep dirt about the nuts when they 

 are transplanted into the field. 



If the seedlings are left in the bed until the shoots 

 are 50 centimetres high, they are damaged so much 

 by transplanting that they are likely to be overtaken 

 by plants transplanted at the same time, but which 

 have not reached more than one-third of the height. 

 If seedlings are allowed to develop in the seed bed 

 beyond the point where the first leaves begin to expand, 

 care should by all means be taken that transplanting 

 does not happen at or about the time that the last of 

 the reserve food of the nut is consumed. If they are 

 left in the seed bed until most of the food stored is used 

 up, they ought then to be left for a considerably longer 

 time to permit the plants to develop such strength 

 that they can recover from the injury of transplanting 

 without the use of the food in the nut. If the nuts 

 are placed closely side by side or if the seed bed is too 

 densely shaded this will never happen. 



The practice of delaying the planting of the nuts 

 in their permanent places reaches its extreme in the 



