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are sown in carefully prepared and thoroughly well-tilled nursery beds, situated so that 

 the plants can readily be watered. It is necessary to afford shade to the young plants, and 

 this can be done by arranging coarse matting, palm leaves, etc., on a framework three or four 

 feet above the ground. When the plants are about one to two feet high they are transplanted 

 to their permanent situations, this being done at a season when showers are frequent. Before 

 transplanting the shade is gradually removed and the plants hardened off exactly as in this 

 country one would prepare seedlings for the difference in climate between a frame, or green- 

 house, and a situation in the open.. After being transplanted temporary shading is afforded 

 by palm leaves, leafy branches, or in other ways, each country and sometimes each estate 



QUEENSLAND. COFFEE EIGHTEEN MONTHS AFTER BEING PLANTED OUT 



having its own method in these matters of detail. The distance between the plants varies, but 

 from ten to fifteen feet apart may be taken as about the average planting distance. Catch 

 crops can be cultivated between the rows whilst the coffee plants are young and small. In 

 Brazil, for instance, maize and beans are planted between the young shrubs. These give a 

 useful crop and at the same time serve to shelter the coffee from the sun. Bananas and plan- 

 tains are commonly employed in a similar way. As soon as the coffee plants become well 

 developed and begin to bear fruit, the other plants should be removed unless there are special 

 considerations which render their retention advisable for a longer period. 



Weeding is of great importance in the coffee plantations and requires great care, for in 

 regions of such luxurious growth grasses and weeds display an extraordinary vitality and 

 vigour. In Brazil, with its dry climate, where the coffee-shrubs are planted at sufficient 

 distances from one another, mechanical weeding-knives drawn by negroes are used to clear the 

 plantations, a method which is very little known in other countries. 



