CHAP. 
166 SPICES 
9 in. or 1 ft. above the level, to allow for sinking of the 
loose earth. 
Buee describes and figures a planting machine in 
the form of a split cylinder with two handles which is 
put round the little plant and pushed into the ground 
as deep as it will go, the cylinder being closed round 
the plant and its soil. The earth outside the cylinder 
is dug away with a trowel till the bottom of the 
cylinder is reached, and the trowel being pushed beneath 
the base of the cylinder the whole is lifted. The cylinders 
are carried to the place where the plants are to be set 
and pushed into the planting -hole, the wire which 
closes the hinge of the cylinder withdrawn so that it 
partly opens, and it is then pulled out, leaving the 
plant in its place. 
The objection to this system of plant shifting lies in 
its rather unnecessary complication. It would be con- 
sidered too slow nowadays by the modern planter, who 
finds that by due care the small plants can be lifted 
from the bed, especially if not too closely planted, with 
a trowel only, with perfect success. 
Tile pots made of two half cylinders of baked clay, 
or joints of bamboo split in two lengthways, may be 
used if the nursery is too far from the plantation. In 
using these, the half cylinders of tile or bamboo are tied 
round at the top and bottom with a piece of split rattan 
and filled with soil, in which a seed is inserted. The 
pots are stood in rows till the seed has germinated and 
grown to the required height, when it is transferred to 
the planting-hole, into which the cylinder is inserted, 
the rattans cut and the half cylinders drawn out, leaving 
the plant with its soil in its place. 
Another method is to use sections of common tin 
piping cut in halves, lengthways, and fastened as before 
with split rattan. The plants grown in piping or tile 
pots are sunk in the ground, so as to keep them cool, or 
loose soil is banked up round them. Grown in this way 
they are very portable for planting out. 
Cylindric or cone shaped baskets of split rattan or 
