Part IV.] Russell & Teague : 'Artificial Regeneration of Sal. 23 
boxes so that the balls of earth are kept intact, lifting by the collar 
of the seedling being avoided at all costs. 
Tending .—The amount of tending necessary depends on the rate of 
growth of the species and on whether the intervening spaces are occupied 
by well cleaned field crops or by jungle. Under a good field crop practi¬ 
cally no special tending of the forest plants is necessary except the 
loosening of soil about their roots, at any rate in the case of fast growing 
species, provided that two years’ cultivation can be arranged for. In 
the case of sal grown with field crops, some forking or weeding may 
be necessary and climber cutting will have to be done in the third year. 
If the area is not under field crops, jungle must be kept sickled back 
well away from the plants; two weedings will be necessary during the 
first rains, one in the second and one in the third In the case of sal 
even more weeding will be necessary. 
Weeding and cleaning is best done at the beginning and the end of 
rams. If only one cleaning is to be given it should be at the end of the 
rains. It is a good plan when making this final cleaning to spread 3 or 
4 inches of cut jungle over the forked-up “ thali ” as a mulch and to cover 
this with a thin layer of earth. Only such jungle as will decay quickly 
should be used Illami (Aggeratum species) forms an excellent mulch 
and is generally plentiful. Mulching is particularly advisable on dry 
ridges into which the roots have not penetrated to any great depth so 
that the trees are likely to die off through lack of moisture in the dry 
weather. 
The result of this tending is that most of the small trees go away 
with a straight leader and form symetrical trees such as are not always 
seen in plantations set out with one or two year ofd seedlings. 
General .—As a general rule the quicker the saplings can be established 
the cheaper and more satisfactory will the work be, and labour is more 
economically employed in forcing the plants on in their early stages than 
in keeping them alive once they have had a set back. In experimenting 
with untried species it may be taken as a rule that the seed and not the 
whole fruit is what should be sown, and, if the seed does not ripen at 
such a time as to allow of plants six to eight inches high being produced 
by the beginning of August (in the plains) or the middle of July (in 
the hills), experiments in storing the seed should be made. In most cases 
thoroughly dried seed can be stored for some time if it is not exposed 
to extremes of temperature or to damp. 
The commonest mistakes in nursery work are :—bad organization 
(e.g. insufficient pricking-out beds for the number of seed beds), beds 
too narrow, paths too numerous and narrow, shades too low, over watering 
and under weeding. The commonest mistakes in planting are:—too 
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