You will probably not have the ground ready before the end of November (do not attempt more than you can do to that date), and then take care and keep the seed, as directed at page 55, until it is sown. For the part to be planted from nurseries the following June you have plenty of time. Nowhere have I, or anyone, seen large vigorous Tea plants under trees. It is therefore evident trees are hurtful, and no more should be left in a garden than are required for the labourers to sit under occasionally, and to collect leaf under before it is taken to the Tea-house. The trees that are left should be those on the sides of roads. One to every two or three acres is ample. After therefore cutting down all the low jungle, cut down all but the said few trees (it is cheaper in the end than ringing them), and then cut off and cut up all the branches into sizes that will burn readily. Cut up the large trunks also into lengths, for all that will not burn must be carried off later. Leave all so lying until February, then choose a day with a high wind and fire it from the windward side. It may burn some days. Then collect all unburnt into heaps, and fire again and again until nothing more will burn. Now take out all roots, big and small, and when well dry, stack all these, and what was left before, and fire again and again. The land should now be tolerably clear, and can be dug at once. The roads should be marked off before this, for they are better not dug. Now stake the land at the distances determined on, and a month before the rains, or even more, if you are so far advanced, make holes for the young seedlings at each stake, precisely like those recommended for “planting at stake,” page 59. Only, if possible, these should be a little larger each way than there advised, say 10 inches diameter and 15 inches deep. Read carefully the direction as to those pits, and follow them out here. Much of the success of your planting depends on these holes. At the first commencement of the rains transplant, as directed under that head in the next chapter. Any large heavy trunks, which cannot be easily carried off the land, may be placed longways between the lines, but the less of dead timber you leave lying about the gardens the better. FOOTNOTE: [24] In no case trust to the latter alone. CHAPTER XVII. TRANSPLANTING. If the pits for the plants have been all prepared, as directed at pages 59 and 75, this operation is simple enough. A fortnight or so before it commences tip all the seedlings in the nursery. Take off only the closed leaf at the head of each young plant (see a leaf diagram, page 104), so that the bud at the base of the next leaf be not injured. Doing this will make the seedlings hardier and enable them earlier to recover the transplanting.