8O COFFEE I ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



ground is clear and there are nothing but big trees 

 to obstruct the view usually a sign that the soil 

 is good for Coffee but occasionally there are clumps 

 of tree fern, thickets of thorny bushes, or, worst 

 of all, dense bamboos ; and these offer immense 

 obstacles, not so much to the base line as to those 

 following. It may perhaps be suggested that it 

 were useless to peg out such places as they could 

 never be planted ; but the truth is every bit of a 

 clearing must be measured off in order that the 

 proportion between the succeeding lines shall be 

 ascertained. 



Another sort of obstruction which makes ''lining" 

 difficult in unfelled jungle are the deep and rocky 

 watercourses or nullahs. It does not do to stretch 

 the measuring line straight from bank to bank, as 

 that would distort the position of subsequent lines, 

 but it has to accurately follow the fall of the ground, 

 which would be an easy matter with trained English 

 labourers, but with thick-headed natives proves a 

 matter of great difficulty, and takes up much time. 

 For my part, I never could see the necessity of 

 having the lines of Coffee plants so exactly even 

 that from any point in the clearing one can look 

 up four neat roads, only terminated by the belts of 

 forest ; but it is the custom, and rigorously insisted 

 upon in most estates. As this work however is 

 difficult until it is properly understood, and a 

 source of constant mortification to the exact 

 when it has been mismanaged, I think I shall be 



