उपवनविनोद (आचार्य शार्ङ्गधर - वृक्षायुर्वेद, भू-जल संधान एवं उद्यान-विज्ञान सटीक)

SCIENCE OF ARBORI-HORTICULTURE IN ANCIENT INDIA 73
51. First of all one should take well-matured seeds of fruits of the
season, sprinkle milk and clarified butter over them, keep them for five days
(in this condition), and then fumigate them with frankincense. Or,
52. One should besmear these seeds thus sprinkled with milk, with
powders of Vṛhatī and sesamum mixed with ghee, dry them and besmear
them again with cowdung, and then fumigate with fat of some animal. If
the seeds thus prepared are sown they sprout in a single night.
53. After besmearing with cowdung the seeds sprinkled with milk,
one should dry them and besmear them again many times with powders of
Viḍaṅga mixed with honey and sow them ; and they will sprout very soon.
54. The seeds of Jambū, Panasa, Cūta, Sarala, Lakuca should be treated
with milk and sown with ghee, cowdung and Viḍaṅga dust mixed therewith.
55. A person (the master of the household) after taking ablution and
putting on well-washed clothes, and after worshipping the gods, and making
obeisance to his Guru (spiritual preceptor) and giving away earth or money
to a qualified Brahmin, and making obeisance again to the presiding deity of
foundation (Vāstupuruṣa) should himself sow seeds. His attendants should
follow suit.
56. One should first of all sow seeds in the seed-bed, spread grass over
it and sprinke milk and water, and then when the seeds germinate, remove
the grass, dry the earth a little, and transplant these sprouts together with
their roots and the earth attached thereto.
VI. HERE BEGINS THE SECTION CALLED ROPANAVIDHANAM—
THE PROCESS OF PLANTING
57. The process of planting trees is being laid down, because the trees
when planted irregularly lose their beauty and vigour.
58. Dhruba (Rohiṇī, Uttaraphalguṇī, Uttarāṣāḍā and Uttarābhādrapada),
Mṛdula (Citrā, Anurādhā, Mṛgaśirā and Revatī), Mūla Viśākhā, Puṣya, Śravaṇā,
Aśvinī and Hastā—all these constellations are characterised as mild, and they
are favourable to the planting of trees according to the sages.
59. When a sprout planted after being sprinkled with milk grows one
cubit in length, one should dig it out together with the earth attached thereto
and then apply to it roots of Uśīra, Viḍaṅga and ghee pasted together and
then replant it in a pit together with cowdung.
60. One should plant a tree (seedling) in a pit two cubits in depth, well
watered, filled with fine dusts of earth free from sands, and filled with
cowdung. Plantain sprouts and kṣīrī (with milky sap) trees should be
planted after applying only cowdung to their roots.
61. First of all one should knead well a ripe plaintain fruit and besmear
a long straw rope with this paste (thus prepared), then put the rope (thus
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