12 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[July l, l90l. 
the Kcecllingf-', sliadiiif? and mulching. Lining. 
The trees were placed 21 feet apart, which gives 
98 trees to the acre. 
Two men and a hoy are required for each 
gang of liners. Each gang has a rope — or better 
still a surveyor's chain, which will not stretch 
nor shrink with the weather — with a piece of 
turkey red tied on ac the required distauees. 
The gang is also provided with three or tour 
bamboo flags or rai)ging rods ; attached to each 
gang are two extra men with grass-kni\ es, who 
go ahead and clear a line through the long grass. 
These men work singly, not two together in one 
line, anfl have flags to keep them straight. 
JNo large clearing operations were undertaken 
before laying out. There was no time for this 
in the first place ; secondly the ground in every 
direction was occupied with native patches of 
muhogo etc ; thirdly, in the case of trees placed 
so widely apart, it is not necessary to clear all 
the ground at lirst. Lines were set cut parallel 
and at riglit angles at convenient places and 
marked off into 21 feet spaces for keeping the 
liiiers straight. When they came to know their 
work, a gang and two leaders could do 300 pegs 
a day, though at first they could not do half 
that number. 
The lining cost R38, vhich is at the rate ot 
nearly E6 per 1000. 
Holing was performed with English spadeS 
and small crowbars. The spades proved by far 
the better implements of the two. The men 
averaged 19'2 holes per day per man ; a full 
day's task for an ordinary man was 20 to 30 
holes according to the nature of the soil ; boys 
Jess. The holes were IJ tt. broad at the top, 
1 ft. at the bottom, and 1^ ft. deep. The last 
three days of planting we reduced the dimen- 
sions of the holes to 9 inches wide and increased 
the task to 60 per man per day, as we were 
pressed for time and wanted to make the most 
of the rain. Holing cost 1172-10, a little over 
KU per 1000. 
Filling-hi. This should be done at least a 
fortnight before planting is begun, but owing to 
lack of time we had for the most part to plant 
immediately. The soil had therefore not sufficient 
time to settle in the holes and form firm com- 
pact beds for the reception of the young plants. 
The soil will now settle after the trees have been 
planted, instead of before, and thus disturb the 
roots. Filling-in cost K34-7-9 or per 1000 
and the fiUers-in averaged 45 holes per diem. 
Collecting the Plants. We had at the time 
very few plants in the nursery, so we sent into 
the plantations for self-sown trees and in this way 
collected 10,513 seedlings; 7,072 came from Machui 
and 3,441 from Mbweni. The latter we purchased 
at the rate of Kl per IGO. Most of the young 
trees we gathered into the nursery, watered and 
hardened them to the sun. A fortnight of this 
treatment enabled the young trees to develop new 
root growth before being left to themselves. It 
also weeded out those that drooped and died. 
AVe found the advantage of this after the clearing 
was finished, as the percentage of deaths among 
those trees so treated is at present very small. 
l,r/)ij trees were however put straight into their 
holes without being nursed. The weather was 
at the time very wet and excellent for planting. 
The contra:^t between the trees nursed and those 
planted straight-away is very marked. The for 
met" for ihu nwHt part look extremely healthy 
and resumed their growth almost immediately 
they were put out, while the latter drooped ut 
once and I believe that a considerable proportion 
of tliem will die. It is too early yet to count 
the number of deaths altogether, as many of 
those whose leaves have drooped will doubtless 
recover. 
The fact of our having collected 10,500 young 
trees in so short a time speaks well of tlie re- 
sources of the plantations if they were put to 
account. Most of the trees we planted had two 
years' growth, some three. Arabs, I believe, prefer 
to plant trees 3 to 4 ft. high. The method of 
lifting the trees in the plantation explains how 
it comes to pass that in Arab plantations several 
trees, sometimes as many as 7, are planted to- 
gether. Self-sown clove trees often grow very 
thickly together. In lifting the trees the men 
carve out a cylinder of soil about 5 inches in 
diameter to preserve the soil intact about the 
roots, and as many trees as hap))en to be within 
that area are lifted and planted together. 
The actual planting of the trees extended over 
10 days and occupied on an average 4J men a 
day. Thus each man planted on an average 145 
trees per day. On April 10th 1225 trees were 
planted by 5 men, and on April 12th 1100 by 
7 men. 
The total number of trees collected into the 
nursery was 9013 ; ot these 5050 were planted out 
and 2812 arc still living in the nursery. Thus 1151 
have died, a proportion of 12.7 per cent. 
The plants cost R1.9 per 100 to collect. 
Shading and Mulchi/ig. — This work is still 
continuing. After the first two days we ceased 
shading the trees that had come from the nursery, 
as it was found the exposure did not hurt them, 
that, in fact, they seemed to be better without 
the ferns. Bat the trees that were lifted and 
planted at once soon began to droop under the 
sun, and these were immediately mulched and 
afterwards shaded. We shall mulch all the trees, 
clear a large ring around them to let the air in, 
keep the soil round the roots well cultivated, and 
this will be all that they will require till they 
begin to bear, when the whole ground will have to 
be cleared. 
TOTAL COST OF THE PLANTATION. 
Nursery 50 — 9 
Lining 38 
Holing ... 75 10 — 
Filling in 27 13 3 
Collecting 102 5 0 
Planting 19 4 9 
Shading and mulching 23 3 6 
General transport ... 7 19 
Boys extra 13 2 — 
Outside labour extra 11 11 0 
Purchase of plants .. 44 7 — 
Total. ..R412 11 6 
The average coat per tree is therefore 4,03 pice. 
The plantation is 66.8 acres in extent and con- 
tains 6550 trees, planted 2i feet apart. 
We are still lining and holingfin preparation for 
filling up the gaps among the big trees and the 
space that intervenes between them and the new 
clearing in order to bring the cloves together 
into one block. There are probably 1500 to 2000 
more trees to plant, but it will depend upon the 
weather whether we do it now on later. 
K. LYME. 
Dunga, April 35th, 1903, 
