The difference between very small and very large profits is represented by 18 and 25 flushes, so I strongly advise all planters to cultivate highly, and to get all the manure they possibly can. If even procured at a high figure, it (the manure) will pay hand over hand. FOOTNOTE: [33] Where new gardens are made on rich virgin soil, to manure them at all for the first few years is, I think, unnecessary. But the richest soils on Tea gardens get exhausted in time, and manure should be applied _before_ this point is arrived at. CHAPTER XXIII. LEAF PICKING. The first consideration is how to get the largest quantity of leaf without injuring the trees. To a certain extent, it is true that the more a Tea bush is pruned and picked the more it will yield. It appears as if Nature were always trying to repair the violence done to the tree by giving new mouths or leaves to breathe with in place of those taken away. I may exemplify my meaning in another way. A Tea bush which has as many leaves on it as _it requires_ will throw out tardily new shoots, and their number will be small. In other words, a plant which is not pruned, and from which the young leaves are not taken, grows gradually large and bushy, and then gives up flushing altogether. It has all the leaves it _requires_, and it has no necessity to throw out more. If, however, Nature is too much tried, that is, if too much violence is done to her, she sulks and will exert herself no more. Up to this point, therefore, it is well to urge her. How can we know when we have reached it? Only general rules can be laid down. Experience is the great _desideratum_ on this and many other subjects connected with Tea.[34] If the plant can always be kept in such a state that the foliage, without being _very much so_, is still less than Nature requires, I conceive the object will be attained. The greatest violence is done to the plant when it is pruned, and reason would seem to argue that when this violence is repairing, that is, when the first shoots in the spring show themselves, and until new mouths (or leaves) in sufficient quantities exist, until then but little leaf should be picked. Fortunately, moreover, while in the interests of the plant this is the best plan, it also is the mode by which the largest yield of leaf will be secured in the season. I go to show this.