1 88 COFFEE : ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



or grass, the whole of which is used either as 

 fodder or as fuel. This latter does not apply to 

 many districts. 



The plan of letting straw and cow -dung 

 accumulate under foot for days or weeks, and 

 then liberating vast bodies of gases by its 

 removal, though it may secure reasonably good 

 manure, cannot but be hurtful to the unfortunate 

 cattle, and is not to be recommended in a tropical 

 climate. 



The opinion of Mr. Robertson, of the Sydapet 

 Farm, Madras, whom we have quoted before, 

 differs from ours here ; he says : 



"Our manure is made in cattle-boxes under cover, 

 protected alike from sun and rain. It consists of straw 

 used in bedding, and the excrementitious matters of the 

 cattle, which being allowed to accumulate in the boxes 

 during two or three months, layer by layer, and being con- 

 stantly subjected to the pressure of the animals' feet, 

 becomes a rich homogeneous mass of a dark brown colour, 

 fitted at once for use, without undergoing any preparatory 

 process. 



" We find that in an average year we obtain twenty 

 cartloads of this manure for each working bullock housed 

 in these boxes ; and this is only the manure made at night 

 and during the day when the cattle are not engaged in 

 field labour. Thus, for every pair of working cattle we employ 

 we can calculate on obtaining forty cartloads per annum of farm- 

 yard manure, or, as it should more strictly be called, box 

 manure. 



" We now use this manure direct from the cattle-boxes ; 

 formerly I had it carefully stacked in pits in the different 

 places in which it would be needed, but I was obliged to 

 give this up, as the manure in a dry season suffered so 



