PRUNING. Ill 



once to cultivate some sort of shelter-belts around 

 the unfortunate garden. 



From 2 ft. to 5 ft., then, is the range of Arabian 

 Coffee on the hills of Ceylon and Southern India ; 

 it being borne in mind that by topping we induce a 

 tree to throw out lateral branches for crop bearing, 

 and keep it within a reasonable "get-at-able" size. 

 Regarding Liberian Coffee, one manager in the low 

 country of Ceylon says he holds topping these trees 

 at all to be a very objectionable operation. The 

 common Coffee plant can be forced into an artificial 

 form without sacrifice of any crop, because there is a 

 period, longer or shorter, between crop and blossom, 

 in which old wood can be eliminated ; but he does 

 not very clearly see how artificial form is to be 

 advantageously imposed upon a tree that carries its 

 full crop all the year round, and on which pruning 

 can only be carried out at a sacrifice of crop. One 

 object of forcing Arabian Coffee into artificial shape 

 is to get the whole growth under hand, whereby 

 facilitating and cheapening the gathering of crop ; 

 but the average Liberian tree puts out its first 

 branches at a height of stem little short of that at 

 which the Arabian plant is usually topped, so that 

 this end cannot be answered by topping at 6 or 7 ft. 

 High trees planted close together are apt to be thin 

 and unproductive about their lower branches. These 

 often are little more than long twigs, tagged with a 

 leaf or two, thus making the "umbrella trees" of 



deserted nurseries and abandoned plantations. They 



^ 



