The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
The spot should be well dug to a depth of two feet before the trees
are planted out, and the earth pulverised and cleared from the roots
of rank weeds, but particularly from the coarse woody grasses with
which all parts of India abound.
The best manure is found in the decayed leaves that fall from the
trees themselves, to which may be added the weeds produced in the
plantation, dried and burnt. These, then, dug in, are the only manure
that will be required. Cow-dung is the best manure for the seed-beds.
The seed reserved for sowing must be put into the ground quite fresh,
as it soon loses its power of germination. Clean, well-formed berries,
free from injury by insects, or the decay of the pulp, should be
selected.
These berries must be sown in a nursery, either in small, well-manured
beds, or in pots in a sheltered spot, not too close, as it is well to
leave them where sown until they acquire a good growth; indeed, it is
better if they are removed at once from the bed where they are sown,
to the plantation. Here they should be planted as soon as they have
attained two years of age, for, be it remembered, that if they are
left too long in the nursery, they become unproductive and never
recover. The distance at which they should be put out in the
plantation need not exceed eight feet apart in the rows, between
which, also, there should be eight feet distance. The seedlings appear
in about a month after the seed is sown.
The culture requisite is, in the first instance, to afford shade to
the young plants; many consider that this shelter should be continued
during the whole period of their culture; but this is somewhat
doubtful, as it has been found that plants so protected are not such
good bearers as those which are exposed. The best plants for this
purpose are tall, wide-branching trees or shrubs, without much
underwood. The other culture requisite is only to keep the ground
tolerably clean from weeds, for which one cooly on from five to ten
biggahs is sufficient. He should also prune off decayed or dead
branches. This treatment must be continued until the fourth year, when
the trees will first begin bearing, and, after the gathering of each
crop, the trees will require to be thinned out from the superabundant
branches, their extremities stopped, and the tops reduced to prevent
their growing above seven or eight feet in height; the stems, also,
should be kept free from shoots or suckers for the height of at least
one foot, as well as clear from weeds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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