ssible to
where the plantation is to be. It should be on a slight slope to insure
drainage, and free from rocks and stones. The soil should be ploughed or
dug over to the depth of one foot and made as fine as possible. Beds
should be thrown up six inches high and three feet wide. The surface of
the beds should be made quite smooth and level; the seeds should be
planted six inches apart and three quarters of an inch deep. A good way
to ensure even and regular planting is to make a frame three feet wide
each way. Pegs, three quarters of an inch long and five eighths of an
inch diameter, should be fastened to one side of the frame, placing
them exactly six inches apart. The frame, thus prepared, is placed, pegs
down, on the bed. A slight pressure will sink the pegs into the soil.
The frame is now lifted and you have the holes for the seeds all of one
depth and equi-distant from each other. The seeds can now be dropped one
in each hole. The seeds should be placed flat side down, and covered by
brushing over the surface of the bed. If the weather is at all dry it is
a good plan to mulch the surface of the bed with dry grass or fern
leaves. The soil should be kept moist, and if there is not sufficient
rain the beds must be watered. In six or seven weeks the seeds should
sprout and show above ground. The mulching should now be moved from over
the plants and arranged in the rows. It has been the practice of some
planters to plant the seed much closer than six inches apart, but it
will be found that plants at six inches apart can be more easily and
safely transplanted than from close planted beds. It will be advisable
in taking up plants from the beds, to take only every other one, this
will give the remaining plants more room to develop and grow more stocky
than would be the case if all the plants were taken up from each bed as
they were required.

CLEARING THE LAND.

The next thing for the planter to do is to get his land cleared. This
can be done more satisfactorily and cheaply by contract than can be done
by days' work. Gangs of Chinese and Japanese undertake the clearing of
land and will make a contract to clear the land as per specification. In
the Olaa District land costs from $20 to $50 per acre to clear,
according to the kind of clearing done. The land is forest land and some
planters have the trees cut down and everything burned making the land
quite clear, while others just have the vines and ferns cut and the
tre