40 THE NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF COFFEE. 



black and falling off before they are matured, followed 

 frequently by the decay of the shoots, and in some 

 cases by death of the tree, the cause being evidently 

 too much moisture and lack of cultivation; the remedy, 

 therefore, is obvious. Planters are still divided both 

 in opinion and practice on the subject of weeding. On 

 some estates it is only practised twice a year, the tall 

 rampant weeds being cutonce or twice in the interim with 

 sickles, and the land being only hoed over once before 

 and once after crop, but the majority of experienced 

 cultivators endeavour to keep their estates perfectly 

 clean, hoeing up the weeds not less seldom than once in 

 two months, and then burying both weeds and pruning 

 between the coffee bushes. 



The practice of manuring is of late years attracting 

 considerable attention. In former years when land 

 was comparatively cheap, and labour abundant, it was 

 not thought worth while to work up estates, but as 

 soon as the crops declined below the average, fresh 

 virgin forests were felled and the old cultivation 

 abandoned. The increased value of land, however, 

 and the great expense now attending fresh clearing and 

 planting, causes more attention to be paid to the up- 

 keep of the land in cultivation, and small cultivated 

 estates are more desired than large tracts yielding but 

 little and comparatively worthless. Manure, as the 

 most powerful agent in increasing the produce, requires 

 every attention, and notwithstanding any goodness of 

 soil should always be provided. With care much may 

 be done on the estate to provide this requisite, in the 

 shape of the decomposed pulp, wood ashes, decaying 

 heaps of grass and weeds, and in many cases by the 



