230 , Coffee Planting. 



embarrassed, but Nature makes no such blunders ; 

 and if such happen to be the unintentional effects 

 of art, Art must redress them, as we shall see in its 

 place. It must also be observed that, the tree being 

 in its natural state, two branches seldom grow from 

 the same eye or bud. 



" Now I suppose the tree to be about four or five 

 feet high. The boughs near the ground will extend 

 wider, as they are nearer the source of vegetation, 

 so that the shape of the tree is pyramidal. All 

 those branches of three orders or more garnish it 

 richly, but as all are horizontal from below upwards, 

 all diverging from the centre more or less ; all placed 

 either at the four faces of the trunk (and these at 

 distances at least eight or nine inches from each 

 other at the same face), or both sides of the mother 

 branches, the profusion of Nature can neither be 

 perplexed nor intricate." 



All shoots produced by the main trunk, other 

 than lateral branches, are known as suckers. 



With the above picture of the coffee-tree in a state 

 of nature, the object of the pruner in all his opera- 

 tions should be to preserve as much as possible this 

 symmetrical form and arrangement, or to restore it 

 as far as 'may be practicable when that form has 

 been marred or lost under artificial treatment, the 

 additional consideration being borne in mind, i. e., 

 the desirability of inducing the tree to yield a 



