122 Coffee Planting. 



should it not be bound together by roots, should it 

 be void of stones, and should there not be a gravel 

 or clay sub-soil within a couple of feet (a happy 

 combination not likely to be often met with), then, 

 perhaps, pitting may be dispensed with. 



In bamboo districts, where a dense jungle will 

 spring up within a few weeks after the land has 

 been cleared, the ground becoming thickly clothed 

 with a crop of fine and luxuriant hay, it will be 

 evident that the surface must be little other than 

 a web or mat of roots, and " pitting " is consequently 

 absolutely indispensable. Even on forest-land, and 

 where after a good burn the blackened surface 

 will remain clear of vegetation for a long period, 

 " dibbling " will, in the vast majority of cases, be 

 most inadequate and unsatisfactory. This may be 

 easily proved by digging a pick into the ground, 

 when it will, in all probability, either be met with a 

 stout resistance or be found firmly held by a tangled 

 mass of forest roots and stones, among which a 

 coffee plant unaided would have but a poor chance. 

 Dibbling should therefore never be adopted except 

 as a last resource, and unless the land possesses an 

 unusually deep, friable soil, and where it will be 

 practicable, at an early subsequent date, to loosen 

 the soil round each plant by digging or trenching. 

 In any case dibbling with the crowbar is a very 

 objectionable system, as the hole formed by this 



