42 THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF COFFEE. 



ashes, bone dust, or other alkali, and it is scarcely 

 necessary to remark that it is highly advisable that the 

 cattle pens should be regularly littered down with dry 

 grass, or other refuse, to absorb the liquid manure, and 

 to create the quantity. It is urged by some that the 

 latter is of equal value, when decomposed outside the 

 cattle pen, and that spreading it in the shed only adds 

 to the labour of cleaning out the sheds, without really 

 benefiting the manure made, but it will be found that 

 not only is the grass or straw more readily decomposed 

 by being trodden down, but at the same time, as already 

 shown, it imbibes the most valuable part of the manure, 

 and fixes the volatile salts contained in it. 



The ordinary phosphate of lime sold in England by 

 the numerous patent manure manufacturers, is a very 

 valuable compost, and may always be used with 

 advantage, although the cost in some situations is 

 almost prohibitory. Whilst all estates can be and, 

 indeed, must be manured in some way or other 

 to ensure their continued fruitfulness, the practice 

 of trenching or digging over the whole estate 

 can only be carried out in favourable localities, but where 

 properly performed, it will in a great measure obviate 

 the necessity of any extraneous application, and will 

 materially decrease the labour of weeding. 



It will be obvious that it is almost impossible to 

 trench the side of steep rocky hills, or of heavy forest 

 land, strewed with large trunks, and encumbered with 

 large roots and stumps; fortunately, however, these 

 are not the descriptions of soil which most need and 

 most benefit by this operation. The soil amongst large 

 rocks, or with loose superficial stones, is seldom hard 



