Part VIII] Smythies : 1 Afforestation of Ravine Lands 
13 
seedlings can penetrate easily. The same method of preparation is 
employed in the ravine also, wherever the ground is at all flat or gently 
sloping. 
(2) Preparation of the steep slopes in the ravines. 
With an almost vertical slope, little or nothing can be done, but 
with all slopes up to 60°, shallow platforms, or ditches and ridges 
are made on the contour, as illustrated. 
The ditches act as silt and water traps, and the mounds as efficient 
seed beds. Petty irregularities in the surface are at the same time 
eased off as far as possible, pinnacles of earth knocked down, 
knife-edged ridges flattened, runnels eroded by rivulets smoothed off, 
and so on. 
All this surface working, bandhing, ditching, etc., has a striking 
effect on the catchment of the rainfall. For whereas in untreated 
areas (as already mentioned) the maximum penetration is only 10 
inches, in worked areas the soil after a year shows moisture down 
to 5 feet, and after two or three years when vegetation has been 
established the water penetration increases up to 10 feet. After two 
years practically no water escapes the lowest bandhs. The whole 
surface of the country in fact after two or three years appears 
altered, the harsh contours are smoothed out, the ravines silted up, 
the bare craggy banks softened with vegetative growth, and what 
was a short time ago a pitiless scene of desolation has become a gentle 
undulating fertile landscape. 
19. This preparation of the land is completed by May. In June 
„ . , when the rains break, babul, shisham, and 
Sowing and weeding. 
other seeds are sown on the ridges, babul 
and Cassia auriculata on the steeper slopes and the worst and driest 
areas, the more valuable species mixed with babul (which acts as a 
nurse and protection against grazing) in all the best areas, but babul 
is not introduced in the hollows where frost is possible. The species 
sown in 1919 were as follows :— 
Babul, Shisham, Cassia auriculata , Teak, Gmelina, Tun (Cedrela 
Toona ), Haldu ( Adina cordifolia), Holoptelea, etc. 
Germination of seeds takes place within a few days of the first heavy 
rain. If followed by a long and pronounced break in the rains the 
seeds which have germinated wither up, thus a bad break may neces¬ 
sitate resowing. Inadequate and scanty rain ( e.g ., 1918) result in very 
little seed germinating, and the seed may be dormant in the bed and 
germinate in the following year. This happened in 1919 with babul 
and teak, 
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