IMPORTANCE 

 OF FREQUENT 

 TILLING. 



days, to save the freshly planted saplings from the 

 scorching rays of the mid-day sun. Great care 

 should be taken in carrying the plants from the 

 nursery to protect the roots from exposure to the 

 sun. As the coffee plant is a tap- rooted shrub, it is 

 of the utmost importance that this root be straight 

 and carefully put into the ground. The plants 

 should be set firmly and not too deeply — not deeper 

 than about one and a half inches above the nursery 

 mark on the stem. Wit^ some it is the practice to 

 plant up with nine months old plants, keeping them 

 shaded until they are firmly established, but the more 

 general custom is to use hardier plants and do with- 

 out the shading. 



Frequent tilling or cultivation is essential to 

 the healthy life of a plantation, more especially in 

 those districts where the rainfall is scanty; and, as 

 a matter of fact, in those parts where the rainfall is 

 heavy frequent cultivation cannot be avoided, as if 

 left to themselves the coflfee plants would soon be 

 buried under weeds. Weeds harbour injurious 

 insects and are the source of infection of fungoid 

 diseases. In a neglected plantation diseases of one 

 sort or another soon make themselves evident, and 

 the planter has only himself to blame if he suffers 

 through neglect to keep the plantation clean. 



YIELDS. 



Though East African coffee planters differ in 

 their views on many points connected with the 

 cultivation of the plant — further experience being 

 necessary to prove or disprove the value of theories 

 still subject to experiment — there is unanimity of 

 opinion as to the necessity for and value of skilful 

 pruning. No finality as to the best methods of 

 pruning has yet been reached, however, and the in- 

 experienced planter would be well advised to give 

 this branch of his work close study. In an excellent 

 pamphlet on coffee cultivation and diseases recently 

 published by the Department of Agriculture, the 

 subject is exhaustively dealt with, and a copy of the 

 pamphlet should be in the hands of every intending 

 planter. 



Except at the highest altitudes where coffee is 

 successfully grown, a "fly picking" or "maiden 

 crop" is obtained in the third year. This seldom 

 amounts to more than three or four hundred weight 



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