314 NILGIRI HILLS. growth, size, softness of leaf, and great productiveness of the indigenous. It seldom bears sufficient seed to hinder its out-turn of leaf, and yields more than twice as much leaf as the China plant. It is also possessed of a more vigorous constitution than the indigenous plant of Assan, and is less liable to disease. The impression that the tea-plant succeeds best in a cold climate is erroneous. Tea-plants do not grow freely or mature their seed so well at a high elevation as they do lower down; and the plant raised from seed so grown shares to some extent the weakness of the parent plant. In the western half of the Nilgiris the plantations are, as a rule, situated at high elevations. Their growth and yield are curtailed by the cold damp winds of the south-west monsoon, and by the sharp dry winds and nightly frost of the cold season. The severity of the climate there checks the plants to such an extent that bushes five years old show less vigorous growth and constitution than plants of half of that grown at the same elevation on the eastern slope of the hills. The lands best suited to successful cultivation of the tea-plant lie along the southern and eastern slopes. One of the safest tests of the suitability of a plot of land for tea cultivation is a luxuriant growth of the common bracken fern (Pteris aquilina), as it indicates sufficient moisture and richness of soil, with good drainage. In regard to the lay of the land, the less the slope the better; flat lands possessing good drainage and not subject to frosts, are the most suitable The first operation performed is the clearing of the natural growth on the land to be opened out. It is necessary in forest lands to leave belts from 20 to 30 yards wide on all exposed ridges; or on the more open lands, to plant belts of quick-growing trees (Eucalyptus, etc.), to check the violence of the monsoon gales. Steep slopes are terraced ; and drained at intervals to break the force of the heavy rainfall. The spots chosen for the reception of the plants are then marked out with pegs or slips of bamboos. Cylindrical pits of 18 inches in width and depth are dug at a regular distance apart, generally 4 feet by t. When the holes have been exposed to the air for a short time, and the monsoon rains have set in, they are refilled, care being taken that only the best soil is returned and that it is free from roots, weeds, stones, etc. The soil is heaped to some height in the centre. Planting is effected in either of the two following ways (1) planting the seed in situ, and (2) transplanting seedlings from nurseries. In situ planting is performed by sowing three or four tea seeds, germinated or fresh, in each pit, and subsequently thinning them, when 2 or 3 inches high, leaving the strongest grower in the pit. Those removed serve to fill up vacancies, or are planted in a nursery for use during the following season. A practice now coming into favour consists of raising germinated seed in small baskets of split bamboos, and afterwards
