494 MANUAL OF THE NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CH. XXViil. myself or seen it doue, I cannot say if it has answered. One planter 

 in Ceylon proposed to take out a patent for prevention of wash 



Cultivation, by means of cylinders, made of wood, earthenware or iron, but 



the project fell through. 



As coffee is very intolerant of constant damp at the roots, it 

 is an absolute necessity to deeply drain the swamps, which, when 

 thus treated, grow magnificent coiiee and yield very heavy 

 crops. 



It may seem presumptuous, in the face of so many authorities 

 who are strongly in favour of drains, to speak against them ; but 

 my experience shows me that on the steep slopes which charac- 

 terize most of the coffee plantations water does not stand but soon 

 ruTis off ; and whilst it is true that estates which are exposed to the 

 full fury of the south-west monsoon do suflFer from damp, I 

 can only explain the seeming anomaly by saying that it appears 

 to me that the excessive moisture is in the air, and that the best 

 plan to counteract this is to keep the trees thoroughly well weeded 

 and handled. 



—handling When the plants are about two and a half or three years old 



and pruning, (though this depends in some measure upon the climate, soil, and 

 situation of the plantation), the trees will need topping to prevent 

 their growing any taller. Coffee trees are usually topped at 3^ 

 to 4 feet, but in windy or exposed situations they should be 

 topped at 2 or 2 i feet in order to protect them as much as possi- 

 ble against being blown about. If a lowed to grow at its own 

 pleasure — and this is to be seen in native gardens — coffee will 

 grow to a height of 15 to 20 feet with a number of stems and but 

 few lateral branches. This is the plan followed in Arabia, where 

 the berries are not picked as with us, but shaken off when fully 

 ripe on to mats placed beneath the trees and then dried in the sun. 

 Handling — an operation performed by hand and not with a knife — 

 consists in pulling off the suckers or shoots which spring out from 

 the stem, and which, if allowed to grow up, would grow into 

 stems, and also in stripping off all the lateral branches (within a 

 radius of 6 inches from the stem) sent out by the primaries, so as 

 to allow of air and light reaching the centre of the tree. If cut 

 off with a knife these suckers shoot out again with redoubled 

 rapidity. Pruning, or the use of the knife, if systematically 

 carried out from the opening of the plantation, is comparatively 

 a simple operation, and consists in checking the tendency of the 

 tree to run to wood and leaf instead of fruit, and the severity or 

 leniency of pruning must, to a certain extent, depend upon climate. 

 The coffee tree throws out pairs of lateral branches at right 

 angles to each other and at distances of about 6 inches apart, which 

 branches are called primaries and should never be cut off. These, 



