MANUAL OP THE NtLAGIRI DISTRICT. 489 



4 feet in width and 10 or 12 in length with trenches between, CH. XXViii. 

 down which the water may be led, so that there may be coffee 

 no difficulty in watering the plants. If cattle manure is easily Cultivation. 

 procurable, it would be well to scatter a quantity broadcast over 

 the beds and then dig it well in. The seed should be pushed in 

 with the finger about an inch below the surface of the soil and 

 carefully covered over, and when the seedlings spring up (which 

 will vary very much in time according to locality,) and are about 

 2 inches above ground, they should be transplanted out at 

 distances of about 6 or even 9 inches apart, so as to allow of 

 their growing into healthy, sturdy plants. The nursery should 

 be kept carefully watered and weeded, and a sufficient number 

 of coolies should be told off specially to this duty. Some people 

 erect a pandal or grass covering over their nurseries, but I 

 think this is unnecessary if there is plenty of water. My own 

 experience of planting seed is very unsatisfactory. A quan- 

 tity obtained by me from one of the finest plantations on the 

 Coonoor side was carefully planted in December 1874 — a very 

 large percentage of the plants threaten to turn out chicks — 

 all were severely affected with leaf -disease {Hemeleia vastatrix), 

 and a large quantity of the seed came to nothing. A friend in 

 South Waindd, who obtained carefully selected seed from Ceylon, 

 where they profess to have comparatively few chicks (so called 

 from Chickmuglur, from which place this miserable species has 

 unfortunately been introduced), assured me that a very large 

 percentage of this seed turned into chicks. Were I to plant 

 seed again, I should be very much inclined to obtain either 

 •some of the renowned Cannon's Mysore, or else some from 

 Travancore. My advice to a young planter would be, buy good 

 plants, if you can, and, if this is impossible, plant seedlings in 

 your nursery, taking care only to obtain those growing under or 

 near fine healthy trees; and these seedlings, if well and carefully 

 planted and tended in the nursery, ought to be ready for plant- 

 ing out in about eight months. A good, though rather 

 expensive, plan is to plant the seedlings in small cane baskets, 

 and then they can be planted out in the pits just as they stand, 

 the basket soon decaying. This plan has the additional advan- 

 tage that plants in baskets will stand a good deal of dry sunny 

 weather without dying, and so can be planted out during the 

 early showers in April and May, whilst as supplies amongst 

 old coffee they are much more likely to succeed than any other. 



Before going any further, the planter should make up his —shade. 

 mind whether he will make a clean sweep of the forest or leave 

 some trees standing for the purposes of shade. The idea seems 

 to be gaining ground that shade of one kind or another is the 

 only real safeguard against attacks of leaf-disease, borer, and a 



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