DIMORfHIC BRAlSfCHES OF COFFEE. 



37 



a fresh condition, but may need some process of curing after they 

 are cut, such as would allow new tissues to form on the cut surfaces 

 before they are placed in the ground. In the successful cases of 

 propagation from cuttings mentioned al)ove, the wood had come 

 from old trees that had been taken out of the plantations. Time 

 may also have elapsed between the cutting of the stakes and the 

 setting of them in the ground. 



RELATIOX OF BRANCH DIMORPHISM TO THE PRUNING OF COFFEE. 



The habits of growth and cultural requirements of coffee, and espe- 

 cially the principles of the art of pruning, can not be clearly under- 

 stood without the recognition of the 

 two kinds of branches. Planters 

 who reason in a general waj^, with- 

 out taking into account the di- 

 morphism of the branches, often 

 suppose that the pruning back of 

 the uprights at the growing ends 

 will cause them to send out new 

 lateral fruiting branches lower 

 down. This is a mistake, for new 

 lateral branches are formed only on 

 young, growing uprights, and then 

 only two of the laterals from each 

 joint of the upright. 



Additional development of lateral 

 branches is to be obtained from 

 mature uprights only by forcing 

 the primary laterals to send out 

 secondarv laterals. If the pri- 

 mary laterals have been cut off no 

 secondary laterals can be formed. 

 Severe cutting back of the main 

 trunks or upright branches is usual as a means of forcing more vege- 

 tative growth in the lateral branches. If the pruning is too slight 

 it may have the effect of merely causing the primary laterals to 

 elongate without forcing them to send out secondary lateral branches, 

 for it is not a normal habit of the coffee tree to produce branches 

 from the laterals. Left to itself without pruning, coffee usually 

 produces only simple laterals and forms new lateral growth only 

 through the medium of new uprights. 



When all the axillaiy buds of the main stem have been eradicated 

 no new uprights can be formed. If the tree continues to thrive, it 

 spreads out on the ground as a tangled mass of slender decumbent 



198 



Fk;. G. — Diagram of a coffee tree with 

 two upright branches and numerous 

 lateral branches. 



