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MANUAL OP THE NILAGIRI DISTTirCT. 



CH. XXVIII. feeding to any large extent is out of the question. It is quite 

 Coffee possible that ere long^ under tlie pressure of reduced crops with 



Cultivation, increased expenditure, planters will follow the advice offered them 

 by Dr. Bidie in his able and interesting Report on the Ravages 

 of the Borer and Review of the existing Systems of Coffee Culture, 

 and, abandoning the poorer portions of their estates, concentrate 

 their efforts and expenditure on the finest fields of coffee. The 

 abandoned fields might then be planted up with these much- 

 praised fodder plants, and the herds of cattle might be largely 

 augmented and stall-feeding become general. Cattle-manure 

 should be well pulverized and mixed with jungle soil and a bushel 

 applied to each tree, and even though the cattle may have been 

 fed upon nothing but grass, the effect upon coffee is little short 

 of marvellous. The usual plan is to apply manure after the crop 

 season is over and before the coolies depart to their country, but 

 if possible it should, in my opinion, be put out between the end 

 of the monsoon and the picking season. In those very excep- 

 tional cases where the coffee grows on a very gentle slope there 

 can be no better mode of application than to scatter the manure 

 broadcast and then dig it well in, the mere forking or trenching 

 of the ground where practicable being of great assistance to the 

 trees ; but I believe that this method is out of question on the 

 generality of coffee estates. Whilst some bury the manure to the 

 extent of two and even three bushels in the renovation pits and 

 others dig shallow semi-circular pits above the trees, the plan I 

 think most effectual is to remove the soil above the tree with a 

 manuring fork, put in the manure, and replace the soil. The 

 showers will soak through and carry the virtue of the manure 

 to the lower roots. From all that I can read and learn, horti- 

 culturists ever strive to make fruit trees as much as possible 

 surface-feeders, even to the extent of forcing them to do this by 

 paving the subsoil with broken tiles, &c. 



—composts. Some planters, however, do not own any grass-land, and are 

 thus practically debarred from using cattle-manure; but it is 

 always open to them to utilize the weeds, pulp, line refuse, 

 ash, &c., which, with the aid of lime or chunam to hasten 

 decomposition, make a valuable manure, and the planter cannot 

 do better than study the Prize Essays on Manuring written by 

 Mr. Arnold and Mr. G. White, both of Ceylon, which were pub- 

 lished by the Planters' Association of that island. 



— poudrette. Some planters in Wainad used to obtain poudrette prepared 

 with ashes and dry earth from Ootacaraand. Planters near 

 Coonoor purchase the right of cleaning out the latrines, and 

 use this manure in a liquid state more or less. It appears to 

 me that the manure is moie efficacious when used in a liquid 

 state- 



