Choose a level site, with, if possible, the command of water at a higher level—anyhow with water handy. Either irrigating or hand-watering for seed beds is a necessity if vigorous and well-developed plants are to be looked for.

The soil should be of the light, friable kind recommended for the Tea-plant (see “Soil”) and of the same nature as the soil of the garden, the ultimate home of the plants. This latter is all-important, for seedlings will never thrive (probably not live) transplanted into a new kind of mould, particularly a poorer kind.

If possible, the soil of the seed beds should be poorer than the soil of the garden—on no account richer. Taking care it is of the same nature as the garden soil, choose the poorest you can find. The principle is well known in England, and it applies equally to India. From poor to rich soil plants thrive, but never the other way.

For the above reason, if you manure seed beds, do it very sparingly.

Artificial shade for seed beds is a necessity; at least very many more seeds will germinate when it is given.

Natural shade over seed beds is very bad; for, firstly, “the drippings” are highly injurious; and, secondly, shade is only required till the plants are two or three inches high; after that any shade is bad, for plants brought up to the time of transplanting in shade are never very hardy.

Seed beds, where water is handy, should not be dug deep. If so dug, and the soil is consequently loose a long way down, the tap-root will descend quickly, and will be too long when transplanted. As water can be given when it is necessary, there is no need for the tap-root to go down low in search of moisture.[21] A long tap-root is generally broken in “lifting” the seedling from the bed.

Seed beds raised, as is the usual custom, above the paths that run between them, are objectionable. They part with moisture too freely. They should, on the contrary, be below the level of the paths, and there is another advantage in this, for the said paths can then be used partly as supports for the artificial shade, and thus do away with the expense of long wooden stakes.

As the seed beds are only required until the beginning of the following rains, there is no possibility of their suffering from excessive moisture. When they are required to remain later, of course this plan of making the beds lower than the paths will not do.

Seed is best sown in drills, six inches apart, and each seed two, or if space can be got, even three inches from its neighbour. This facilitates each seedling being taken up later, with more or less of a ball of earth round the roots—an all-important point (see Transplanting, page 76).

The length of the beds does not signify, but the breadth must not be more than five feet, so that a man on the path on either side can reach to the middle while hand-weeding or opening the soil.

After what has been said no lengthy directions for making the beds are necessary.

Cut down, burn, or carry off all jungle, and then take out all roots, whether grass or other. Now make the surface level. After this mark off the beds and paths, the latter one foot broad only, with string and pegs. Then raise the path six inches above the spots marked off for the beds. This latter must not be done by earth from the beds, but by earth from outside the intended nursery. Next dig and pulverise the soil of the beds to a depth of six or seven inches, no more, and level the surface.

All is now ready for the seed. A string, five feet long, with a small peg at either end, is given to two men who stand on the path at either side of the bed. Each man has a six-inch measure. The string is laid across the bed, beginning at one end and pegged down on either side. A drill is then made along the string about one inch deep, and this done the string is, by means of the six-inch measure on either side, removed, and pegged down again in the place for the next drill. Seeds are then sown or placed along the first drill made, two or three inches apart, and the earth filled in. This is repeated again and again till the whole bed is sown.

If the character of the seed is doubtful it must be laid in thicker, but with good seed two-and-a-half to three inches is the best distance.

The sowing finished the artificial shade has to be given. Along the paths, at five feet apart, put in forked stakes, two feet long—viz., six inches into the path, and eighteen inches above it. Connect these with one another by poles laid in the forks; now lay other (but thinner) poles attached to the first poles at either end across and above the bed; and again across these latter, that is along the length of the beds, split bamboos, and then bind the whole framework here and there. The said framework made will then be two feet above the beds—viz., eighteen inches of stake support, and the six-inch raised paths. The eighteen inches of opening all round, under the frame, that is, between the frame and the path, allows the necessary air to circulate; while the expense, danger from high winds, and the objectionable entrance of the sun at the sides, all of which high artificial shade is subject to, are avoided by this low frame-work.

Mats are the best to cover the frame-work. In case of accidental or incendiary fire they are not so objectionable as grass, for they burn less and slower, but mats are expensive. Any coarse grass (freed from seed) will answer, and it should be laid on as thin as will suffice to give shade.

The beds may be watered, if there is no rain, a fortnight after the seed is sown, and from time to time during the dry season, whenever the soil at a depth of three or four inches shows no moisture.

The soil should also be kept free of weeds, and after the plants are three or four inches high, the spaces between the drills should be slightly stirred every now and then.

After the seed has germinated, and the seedlings have, say, four leaves on them, the artificial shade should be taken away. But it must be done gradually, taking off portions of the grass first, so that the young seedlings may by degrees be inured to the hot sun.

Though cultivation, as described, by watering and opening the soil at times is well, these should not be done much, or the seedlings will be too large when the time comes to transplant them. Large seedlings do not, as a rule, thrive as well as moderate-sized ones, after being transplanted.

Among the many very absurd mistakes made in the cultivation of the Tea plant, none exceeds the ridiculous way Tea seed used to be sown in the Government plantations in the North-western Himalayas. The seed was sown in drills, as I have advised, but in six linear inches of the drills, where it is right to put two, or at most three, seeds, perhaps thirty were placed! I do not exaggerate; the drill, six inches deep, was filled with them. Many and many lacs of seed, in those days worth many thousand rupees, were thus sacrificed. Private planters in the Himalayas, taught by the Government method, once did the same. I believe the absurd practice is exploded now.

Seed cannot be sown too soon after being picked. It is ripe early in November, so the beds should be all ready by November, and if the seed has not far to come it can thus be sown early that month.

To each maund there are in round numbers 30,000 seeds, (see page 56). The number of plants it will take to fill an acre depends, of course, on the distances they are set apart (see page 72), but having decided this point, also the area to be planted, and consequently the number of maunds of seeds to be sown (see page 56), the following table will be found useful in calculating the size of nursery required:—

If nurseries for more than ten maunds are required, then allow 100 yards to be the breadth, and for each extra ten maunds add respectively for 3 or 2 inches (see 1st column) 50 or 33 yards to the length. Thus fifty maunds will require nurseries 100 yards by 250 yards, or 100 yards by 165 yards, according as it is decided to plant the seed 3 inches or 2 inches apart in the lines.