WEEDS. IO5 



the hottest weather. If we turn up a mat of weeds, 

 even though their surface is fully exposed to the 

 sun, yet the soil beneath them will be wonderfully 

 fresh and pleasant. 



Coffee has proved itself to be an exhausting 

 growth ; all trees or plants which are kept without 

 undergrowth and weeds must be so, as whatever 

 they yield in fruit or leaves is removed. Jungle 

 fertilizes itself by the leaves and rotten debris of 

 ages. " Keep the jungle quite clean below, and you 

 would soon see how even scrub would, in ten or 

 twenty years, grow feebly where Nature sows her 

 seeds and reaps her fruits for consumption on the 

 premises nothing is lost. No doubt heavy manur- 

 ing will give you crops of anything for a time, perhaps 

 occasionally for ever, but people will not make fortunes 

 out of land that requires it" Still! we weeded our 

 own estates according to the prevalent fashion, and 

 can only advise that if we must destroy the natural 

 protection of the soil we should encourage good 

 and substantial shade for it, with careful draining 

 across the slopes. When land has been burnt, 

 for the first two or three months there are 

 practically no weeds to contend with ; but after 

 the first rains they appear, straggling out from 

 the surrounding jungles, creeping up from water- 

 courses, and stealing along under shelter of the 

 great fallen logs. Then is the time to keep the 

 upper hand of them. Once let skirmishers of 

 the advancing army enter into undisputed posses- 



