106 HUMUS AND THE DEFERTILIZATION, &C. 



steep slopes, but recently burnt, is likely to cause damage 

 and loss of much valuable surface soil. 



The operations of the coffee planter on steep slopes are 

 often so carelessly carried on that as much or more damage 

 is done by him in a shorter space of time than even by the 

 koomaree cultivator. 



Many a planter opens up a much larger area than he has 

 the capital to cultivate properly. The steepest slopes and 

 ridges are recklessly denuded. The soil is continually and 

 diligently dug up and pulverised just at the time of 

 heaviest rainfall and may be seen during a heavy storm, 

 hurrying in a coffee-coloured torrent to the sea. In ten 

 years, he undoes the work of centuries, and finally abandons 

 the impoverished soil covered with a wretched growth of 

 thorns and brambles. On such steep slopes landslips may 

 be confidently expected, and must in the nature of things 

 occur. 



Having ruined one block of valuable forests, he hastens 

 to ruin another. A marked contrast to the careful and 

 scientific planter who having selected land with a gentle 

 slope works on a rational method, saves his soil in catch- 

 drains or soil-pits and manures liberally, returning to the 

 soil a fair equivalent of what he has taken from it. It is 

 said that the man who makes two blades of grass grow 

 where only one grew before is a benefactor to mankind; 

 but he who destroys a valuable forest and leaves it a wil- 

 derness of thorns and weeds cannot be considered such. 

 The ignorant and careless planter not only ruins the land 

 actually cultivated by him, but frequently damages the 

 surrounding forest as well by allowing the fire from his 

 felling to extend into it by which number of trees are 

 scorched and killed and others seriously injured. The fell- 

 ing is frequently so situated that wind enters and uproots 

 the trees all round near its edge, and these with those 

 already fallen, furnish the materials for a firo that still 

 further damages tho forest. 



