MANUAL OF THE NtLAOIRl niSTRICT. 405 



in their turn, pendont alternate smaller branches called secondaries, CH. XXVIII. 

 and these, if allowed, throw out tertiaries. The tertiaries and q 

 every alternate secondary should be cut off, and occasionally from Cultivation. 

 overbearing or weakness the ends of the primaries will die, when 

 they should be cut back to the live wood. Some planters scarcely 

 prune at all for two or three years, and then cut the trees to 

 sticks ; but the best plan is to prune steadily and regularly 

 so as to ensure, as far as possible, a regular fair average 

 crop instead of a bumper every now and then, with intermediate 

 years of very small crops and rest for the trees. In old plantations 

 where regular pruning has been neglected, drastic measures are 

 often necessary, and in one notable instance, the planter gradually 

 went through the whole of his plantation stumping or cutting 

 down the trees to within a foot of the ground and then manured 

 those stumps, and he has been nobly rewarded, for his planta- 

 tion is now one of the finest in the district. The usual plan is to 

 prune as soon as crop is finished and before the coolies leave for 

 their country, and this plan has been strongly recommended ; but 

 if the planter has permanent labour always at command, pruning, 

 in my opinion, should be deferred till showery weather, as the trees 

 then bleed less, or, in other words, lose less sap than in hot sunny 

 weather. The prunings should be carefully buried. 



This is a subject on which there are perhaps more differences of Manuring, 

 opinion than on any other connected with planting. The best 

 kind of manure, the best mode of applying it, as well as the quan- 

 tity necessary, are still and are likely to remain vexed questions. 

 Up to within the last few years high cultivation was quite the 

 exception instead of the rule, and the results of this negligent 

 treatment of the soil are startlingly put forth by Mr. Eobertson, 

 of the Model Farm in Madras, and in Mr. Schrottky's late work. 

 Coffee-planters might, perhaps, have gone on for some time longer 

 following the old plan despite the warning of bug and borer, but 

 that fearful pest — the Hemeleia vastatrix — has startled them from 

 their lethargy, and most are now awake to the fact that the choice 

 only lies between high cultivation and ruin. 



This is generally allowed to be the best manure, and is said to —cattle, 

 contain almost if not all the ingredients required by coffee. The ™^""^®* 

 complaint made by some planters of its bulky nature and conse- 

 quent expensiveness scarcely needs an answer, but the most 

 telling argument against it is that grazing is limited ; that only a 

 certain number of cattle can be maintained on the grass -land 

 usually attached to each plantation ; and that until some such 

 fodder as the prickly comfrey {8ymi-)hytu,m aspervimum) or the 

 Sorghum saccharafum, which are sr/id to floui-ish without manure 

 and yield large quantities of food, are widely introduced, stall- 



