VI 
CINNAMON 
213 
and watered. They should be planted from 8 to 12 in. 
apart, and require some amount of shade. The poorer 
the soil the closer they should be planted. 
Planting Out . — The plants are taken out of the 
beds with a ball of clay round the roots, for planting, 
but before this is done the ground must be clean of 
weeds, hoed and holed. Lining is important, as it 
saves time eventually both in getting about among the 
trees, and also in weeding, and it is also easier to block 
out portions of the estate so as to give the coolies task- 
work in cutting. The ground is then marked out with 
pegs 6 ft. apart. In native cultivation the plants are 
often put so close -together that the whole is nearly 
a dense mass of cinnamon bushes, but it is better 
to allow sufficient space to move easily about between 
the bushes. The small plants are often planted singly, 
in holes 1 ft. wide and as deep, in which leaf-mould, 
dead leaves, etc., are mixed with the soil dug out. The 
plant is put in the centre and the soil firmly pressed 
down. Cultivation from seed in this manner and 
planting singly is slow, the first crop taking from two 
to three years before it can be harvested. Most planters, 
therefore, urge planting several seedlings together in 
one hole. A Ceylon planter, in the Ceylon Observer 
(April 1, 1881), condemns single planting very strongly. 
“ The plant,” he says, “ would be fit for cutting in three 
years. Each stock would then have put out a couple 
or so of suckers, which in their turn would be fit for 
cutting in a couple of years. The clumps or bushes 
would thus be gradually pruned and would take ten or 
twelve years before the cinnamon would pay for the 
cost of weeding.” 
An experienced planter, in the book All about Spices^ 
however, demurs to planting a number of plants together 
on the ground that there are several useless varieties 
which, getting into the estate, could not be removed if 
intermixed with the good plants. There are two varie- 
ties especially common, called respectively the Korahedi 
and the Velli. They occur on all estates and on some 
