150 Coffee Planting. 



Belts of jungle are sometimes left standing in likely 

 situations, to protect the coffee from the wind, but 

 opinions differ as to the probable advantage of this 

 course, some planters holding that more harm is likely 

 to result than good, the wind being thus frequently 

 concentrated into eddies or whirlwinds, instead of 

 taking its natural and more equable course. This, 

 however, is a question which can only be decided 

 by local circumstances in each case. It is not 

 uncommon in Europe, when plantations have been 

 made in exposed situations, to put in edges, or rows 

 of some hardy quick-growing shrub, to protect the 

 plants during the first few years ; and I remember 

 a case in which a Ceylon planter constructed a wall 

 or barrier of posts and brushwood, some eight feet 

 high, along the most exposed part of his estate, with 

 the same object. All operations of this kind, how- 

 ever, are costly and laborious, and seldom produc- 

 tive of much permanent benefit ; and as the result 

 of experience, I believe it will probably be wiser not 

 to plant land where they are required. At the most 

 they can only mitigate the evil complained of. In 

 moderately sheltered situations, staking combined 

 with low topping ought to be sufficient to secure 

 the stability of the plant ; where they are not, the 

 situation has little to recommend it for coffee 

 culture. 



