FILLING UP VACANCIES.
So difficult is this to do, that I have heard several planters declare
they would attempt it no further, but, on the contrary, accept the
vacancies in their gardens as an unavoidable evil.
That it is difficult I, too, can certify. Seedlings put into vacant
spots year after year die, either in the rains they are planted or in
the following spring. If, however, a few yards off a fresh piece of
land is taken in and planted, the plants live. What is the reason? It
can be nothing connected with the soil, for on adjacent spots they live
and die.
It puzzled me a long time, but I _believe_ I can now explain it.
_First_, seedlings planted in vacant spots in a garden are never
_safe_. When in the rains there are many weeds in the gardens, and it
is being dug, the young seedlings are not observed, are either dug up,
or injured so by the soil being dug close to them, that they shortly
after die. This is, I believe, the _principal_ cause of the failure,
and it may be in a great measure, if not entirely, obviated by putting,
_first_, a high stake on either side of the seedling, and taking care
it remains there all through the rains. _Secondly_, as an additional
precaution, and a very necessary one, before any such land is dug, send
round boys with “koorpies” to clean away the jungle round the young
plants, and at the same time open the soil slightly over their roots.
Doing this “cultivates” them, and the plants being apparent, with the
newly-stirred vacant spaces round them, are seen by the diggers, and
are not likely to be damaged.
The second cause of failure I attribute to the old plants on either
side of the young seedling, taking to themselves all the moisture
there may be in the soil during any drought. The young seedling, whose
tap-root at the time is not a long one (for it is in the spring of the
year following the year of planting that this occurs), is dependent
for life entirely on the small amount of moisture that exists in the
soil, at that insignificant depth (say 8 inches). But on two sides
of the said seedling’s tap-root, and in fact surrounding it, if the
neighbouring Tea bushes are full grown, are the feeding rootlets of the
big plants, sucking up all the moisture attainable (the necessities of
_all_ plants being then great), and leaving none for the poor young
seedling, which consequently dies in the unequal contest.
This last evil (in climates where there is a deficiency of spring
rains, and, in fact, more or less in all Tea localities, for in none
is there as much rain as the plants require in the spring) there is
no means of avoiding as long as seedlings, after transplanting, _lose
time_, the effect of the transplanting, and thus fail to attain a good
depth before the said dry season.
In fact, unless something is devised, I believe with many, trying to
fill up vacancies is a loss of time and money.
The pits to plant in, advised at page 59, should of course be made in
these vacant spots, for they help much towards the early descent of the
tap-root. Still they can scarcely avail sufficiently to avoid the evil,
if the plant is lying inert, as is generally the case for two or three
months after planting; this delay being, moreover, in the rains, the
best growing time.
If we can devise any means to avoid this delayed growth in the young
seedling after it is transplanted, then the tap-root, before the
drought of next spring, will have descended low enough to gather
moisture for itself; that is, from _lower_ depth than the greater
number of the rootlets of the neighbouring big plants traverse. Could
this be done, and if the means above detailed are resorted to, to
prevent the young plants being injured when the gardens are dug, I see
no reason why vacancies should not be successfully filled up. Then
might be seen, what nowhere can be seen now, a Tea garden full of
plants, that is, with _no_ vacancies.
When it is considered that many gardens in all the districts have 30 or
even 40 per cent. vacancies, none less than say 12 per cent., we may
strike a fair average and roughly compute the vacancies in Tea gardens
throughout the country at 20 per cent. In other words, the yield of
Tea from India, with the _same_ expenditure now incurred, would be
one-fifth more were plantations full!
I have shown how the first evil can be obviated. I _think_ the
following will obviate the second.
Get earthen pots made 7-1/2 inches diameter at the head and 7-1/2
inches deep, like the commonest flower pots, only these should be
nearly as wide at the bottom as at the top. A circular hole, 2 inches
diameter, must be left in the bottom. Fill these with mould of the same
_nature_ as the soil of the garden where the vacancies exist. Put two
or three seeds in each, all near the centre, and not more than half an
inch below the surface. Place these pots, so filled, near water, and
beneath artificial shade, as described in Chapter XIII.
When the seeds have germinated, and the seedlings have two or three
leaves, so that you can judge which is the best class of seedlings in
each pot,[29] root out all but one, the best one. Now remove the shade
gradually, water from time to time, and let the seedlings grow in the
pots till the rains. Having, before the rains, made the holes at the
vacancies as before described, after the first fall carry the pots to
the garden and place each one near a hole.
Then plant as follows. Stand the pot on the brink of the hole, having
previously with a hammer broken the bottom. Then crack the sides also
gently, and deposit pot and all in the hole at the proper depth. If
not enough broken, the sides of the pot may now be further detached,
nay, even partially removed. Now fill up with earth to the top. Pieces
of the pot left in the hole will do no harm; but it, the pot, must
be sufficiently broken at the bottom to allow of the free descent of
the tap-root, as also enough broken at the sides to allow of the free
spreading of the rootlets.
If all this has been carefully done, so that the mould in the pot shall
not have been shaken free of the rootlets, the seedlings will not even
_know_ it has been transplanted. Its growth will not be delayed for a
day, instead of two or three months; and by the time the dry season
comes, the tap-root will have descended far enough to imbibe moisture.
Another plan to effect the same object. Instead of pots, use coarse
bamboo open wicker-work baskets. The split bamboo forming the said
wicker-work about half an inch wide, the interstices about one quarter
of an inch square. Let the diameter of the basket be the same at top
and bottom, viz., 9 inches; the depth of the basket 10 inches.
When the seedlings in the nursery are large enough to enable you
to select a good class of plant, transplant one into each basket
previously filled with soil.[30] This being done when the plants are
very young, and there being _then_ no difficulty in taking them up
with earth attached to their short tap-roots and rootlets, they will
scarcely be thrown back at all. Being near water they can also be well
tended. Put basket and all into the vacant hole at the beginning of the
rains, and fill up as directed for the pots. The interstices will allow
the feeding rootlets to pass through, besides the basket rots quickly
under ground, so quickly it cannot impede the plant.
Seed is not sown at once in the baskets as in the pots, because the
baskets would not last so long. Even putting the seedling in it during
(say) February, the basket, with the occasional watering necessary,
will, more or less, have rotted before it is put into the hole.
I have concluded a contract for ten thousand pots and five thousand
baskets at half an anna each for both kinds. Two pice, to ensure the
filling up of a vacancy, is not a large outlay.
Since writing the above I have had experience of both the above plans.
The pot system is far the better, and answers very well.[31] I am
now trying to improve this still further by making the pots a little
larger, and placing a thin inner lining of tin inside each about half
an inch from the sides. This space is first filled with sand, then the
pot is filled with mould, and the tin pulled out. The same tin will
therefore do for any number of pots. The seed is then put in.
I think by this plan if, when about to plant, the mould in the pot is
well wetted, that it, with the seedling, can be turned out whole in one
piece, and then put in the hole _without_ the pot.
The same pots would then answer year after year, and the expense would
be quite nominal.
If well done, the seedling in this, as in the former case, would not
even _know_ it had been transplanted.[32]
FOOTNOTES:
[29] By “best class” I mean the most indigenous class.
[30] Mind again this be of the same nature as the garden soil.
[31] The baskets are too frail; being often wetted, they fall to pieces
before the planting time.
[32] It may be that the transplanting and transporting tools invented
by Mr. Jeben (see page 79) will solve the difficulty of filling up
vacancies.