246 Coffee Planting. 



the combustible constituents of the berries, but 

 also the materials composing the wood and leaves 

 of the tree. The principal mineral waste obviously 

 consists of phosphoric acid, potash and lime, and 

 it is consequently substances containing these, in 

 combination with organic matter, which are re- 

 quired as manure for Coffee, if the soil is to be 

 maintained permanently as far as possible in its 

 original condition. 



Although no land is capable of going on yielding 

 crop during a succession of years without renova- 

 tion, still land really suitable for coffee ought to be 

 able to dispense with manure till after the second 

 crop, or say for at least three years and a half from 

 the time of planting. Of course poor lands, such 

 as produce merely scrub jungle or grass, require 

 manure at the outset to render them suitable for 

 cultivation at all. 



However authorities may differ as to the value 

 and effect of different manure substances, there is 

 one of these upon the merits of which no variance 

 of opinion has ever existed. I refer to cattle-dung. 

 In his well-known Essay on this subject, written in 

 1857, Mr. George Wall of Ceylon says, "It would 

 be mere waste of time to descant on the virtue of 

 this manure ; its value being universally acknow- 

 ledged. I believe that a cooly load, that is an 

 ordinary basketful, of cattle manure applied to 



