260 Coffee Planting. 



course one of the best applications for coffee estates, 

 for it forms sixty per cent, of the ashes of the 

 plant. Doctor Gygax, who analyzed the wood as 

 well as the berries, was of opinion that one cwt. 

 per acre of lime would generally suffice. The 

 difficulty is to get the lime ; for, although excellent 

 dolomite abounds in many parts of the coffee 

 districts, the expense of burning, carrying, and 

 applying, has hitherto in most cases been found 

 too high. It, however, becomes quite a different 

 matter where planters are told that the quartz and 

 gneiss, which are found on every coffee estate, are 

 when pounded valuable as constituents of manure. 

 This accords with experience, for the finest coffee 

 grows among masses of gneiss, gradually decom- 

 posing from the influence of the climate from its 

 felspathic constituents." 



Sulphate of ammonia and other chemical salts are 

 all valuable manures, entering as they do largely 

 into the constituent parts of vegetation, but, as Mr. 

 Wall observes, " their solubility and affinity for 

 water makes them liable to be carried down below 

 the reach of the roots, or swept away by the rain 

 before they have been absorbed." They should be 

 used in combination with vegetable matter, which 

 they would rapidly assist in decomposing. 



Mdna and other hard long grasses, consisting 

 principally of woody fibre, are in their natural state 



