April l, 1899.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
677 
And on the top a mixture of finely powdered sand 
and Godavari silt, in the proportion of two to oae, 
is spiinliled, forming a layer half an inch thick 
over them. In this plot, four feet sqaare, somethiug 
lilie 2,UU0 seeds are placed. (Tlie cost of 2,OU0 seeds 
is at the most Ks. 5.) The bed is watered daily 
both in the morning and evening, and covered with 
dried leaves. At the end of a montii some seeds 
begin to germinate, and the sprouting is all over 
before the expiry ot the second montii. They are 
allowed to grow in the bed for four or five mouths 
till they attain a height of six to eight inches 
when they are ready for temporary transplanting 
6. Temporary Transplanting. — For this purpose 
another bed is prepared a mouth or twa prior to 
the operation, which should be done in June, by 
thoroughly tilling and heavily manuring. The 
manure generally applied is a compost of the ex- 
crements of sheep and goats. Five or six days 
before the temporary transplanting, the bed is 
levelled and pits are dug half-a-yard distant. Each 
pit is four inches square and six inches deep. Then 
the seedlings are removed from the nursery and 
planted in these pits. They are watered well, es- 
pecially in the first month. The whole bed is shaded 
by means of a pandal of one yard in height above 
tne ground. The pandal is removed at the expiry 
of the first summer, when the plants are about half 
a yard high. Then the bed is well hoed (with hand 
hoes) and another application of manure is given. 
In the months of May and June, the bed is watered 
by lifting water from a well, as in all other months 
water is available in oanals which irrigate the lands 
by gravitation. Even in these two hottest months 
a watering once a weeli will suffice for the plants 
being very thick and close together, the moisture 
is retained well throughout the week. Thus proper 
precautions being taken, the plants will be ready 
tor permanent transplanting at 'the end of the third 
and fourth years, by which time the plants leave 
a stem of nearly one and a-half to two feet. 
7. Tennanent Transplanting. — In the land prepared 
for permanent transplanting, in the manner described 
in para. 5, pits are dug nine to ten feet distant. 
The pits are one foot cube, and are dug in S3'm- 
metrically parallel rows very close to the plantains 
already occupying the ground. The plants from 
the second nursery are then taken, fixed in thess 
pits permanently, and the earth round these plants 
13 well consolidated, and for one week they are 
watered both in the morning and evening. Generally 
they ate planted in the month of July, so that 
they may have the advantage of the south west 
monsoon- If there be no rain they are watered 
once in two days and the stems are well covered 
with country date leaves. So far the operation of 
ihe first year. 
In the succeeding years the operations consist only 
of ploughing and watering in summer. The covering 
of the stems is removed in the third year. Practically 
no manure but green manure is applied. At the end 
of this year the plantains are all removed ex- 
cepting those in the central strip marked in the 
diagram. It is only in the fourth year that the stems 
are exposed to the sun. 
8. aiages of Growth. — Four to five years after the 
permanent transplanting the majority of the plants 
attain a height of eight or ten feet when they begin 
to flower. For two or three years after the first 
flowering a very satisfactory yield cannot be ex- 
pected. In the majority of cases from the tenth year 
of permanent transplanting a steady and good yield is 
given. Thus it takes not less than twelve years 
tioin the growing of the seed to get a good yield. 
Proper care being taken for watering and uuuuuiug, 
the plantation givus a uuiloi i:i yield lur forty years, 
■\vhcu the plants are forty to fitly feet high. The 
maximum lilo of the palm is said to bo 75 years, 
but 1 have not been able to see planla over sixty- 
livo ) ea.r3 old. 
y. lUpianling.— In th« generality of cases, in tho 
fortieth year ot tho permanent transplanting, another 
sol of aroca plants la plauled, tho new plants being 
placed at a distance of a half a yard from '^'^^ 
ones. When this new Plantation : i i; , ,* )' "W« 
the old trees are removed. I have seen a plautatio 
thus renewed for the sixth time. 
10. Mamire.— llhti practice is invariably to pen 
sheep and goats in the garden. We have to pay 
one rupee for every oUO auiiaals folded for one night 
in the garden. Qsually we spend as much as fitty 
rupees for this item ; this is the only uianuie as 
far as I know. At a lecture on Agriculture, 1 learnt 
that white castor cake might be applied to the 
areoa-nuts, whereupon I tried the cake successively 
for three years on 20 trees, as my people did not 
permit me to apply it to the whole garden. The 
fcHeot of it was that the trees went on growing 
very luxuriantly, but with no good yield. Even now 
thtse are the only trees in my garden which are 
the tallest aud least yielding. 
11. M atcring.—Xhe garden is watered only in the 
months of May and June by lifting water from a 
well_ but in all other months the anicut water is 
used, for which aia annual tax of ten rupees per 
acre has to be paid. Those who cannot get anicut 
water have to irrigate the gaidens by fitting water 
from Sivaratri (March) to Karkataka aaukramanam 
(July) for about 5 months. In these mouths they 
should be watered daily in the morning. In the 
mouths of May and June, on such days as are ex- 
cessively hot, watering twice a day is essential. By 
one single mhote, working six hours a day, the 
whole plantation can be watered. 
12. J/iscellaneous Crops.— A fairly good sum ia 
realised by growing vegetables in the garden, These 
are generally briujals, snake gourds, bitter gourds, 
ribbed gourds, and melons. Once in three years 
in half of the land under areca-nut, root crops like 
ginger are put in. 
13. Harvest.— The harvest season is generally in 
the mouths of August, September, and the first 
half of October, liie mode of collecting the mature 
clusters is very interesting ; the clusters of old trees 
are cut by a man who remains on the stem of a 
stout tree in the middle, with a long bamboo having 
an instrument resembhng a reaping-hook at tho 
top. In plantations of thirty to forty years old, 
a boy of fourteen or fifteen goes to the top of a 
tree, plucks out one or two fruits from a bunch 
peels it with his teeth to see if the bunch is ready 
tor being plucked. If it is ready, he removes tho 
bunch and throws it down. (The^e bunches thus 
removed are gathered by boys especially employed 
for the purpose.) Then he bends the tree on which 
he has clinibed and gives it a to-and-fro motion 
until he gets hold of the next tree, which he first 
clasps with his hands, and then draws his feet to 
the same from the other. Thus the tedious business 
of climbing each and every tree tiom bottom to top 
is overcome. The passage from one tree to another 
in this way is very easy, as the trees bend with- 
out difficulty. In this way two boys can go round 
the whole garden in four hours. Atter leiuuving the 
clusters the fruits are separated from the peduncles 
by beating them against the stem of a tree. The 
next operation is to remove the auter bark of the 
fruits. For this purpose thirj are experts who can 
do it with the greatest ease. There are certain 
women who can remove the outer covers of the fruits 
most skillfully, aud can decorticate in one day about 
sixty Madras measures of fruit, which yield about 
25 Madras measures of the decorticated uuts (one 
Madras measure equals 120 rupees in weight . They 
are paid at the rate of one pio for every measure 
of decorticated nuts. These nuts are again cut iu 
the middle into, two for which the rate is two annas 
fjr every twenty -five measures of the nuts cut. Tho 
nuts thus cut are boiled in cartheru pots bavin" a 
capacity of 10 measures with two measures of wtue'r 
and a little chunani (lime) for about two liours over 
a fire of cowduug cakes. As soon as a red froth 
appears over the nuts in the pot, it is removed aud 
lUo uuis are dried in the sun oa palmyni, mats. But 
on rainy days they are dried on a raised platform 
specially constructed with bamboo over a tuo pre- 
