II COFFEE toi 



required only for protection from high winds. But when the 



coffee trees are young some shade is almost a necessity, 



except in very sheltered and damp places. Plantains and 



bananas may be used for this purpose, but they must not be 



planted too close to the coffee. The pigeon, or congo pea Pigeon peas 



{Cajanus indicus) makes an excellent shade plant for the soil. 



young trees. This plant has the reputation of enriching the 



soil by throwing down large quantities of leaves rich in 



nitrogen, besides which its roots penetrate to a considerable 



distance, and thus when the tree is cut down — as it should 



be as soon as the coffee is well grown — the soil is improved 



by the decaying roots, and by the free entry of the atmosphere 



into the channels formed in the ground by such decay. 



When the coffee trees commence to bear, the shade plants 



growing amongst them had better be taken away altogether, 



for otherwise the coffee will become " leggy," that is to say Leggy trees. 



their stems will run up quickly with long intervals between 



the branches, the leaves will be larger and few in number, 



the stem will be weak, and the crops will be small. A fully Sun bene- 



grown coffee tree, in a good situation as regards soil and tuJg tree^^ 



climate, delights in the sun, and it is only in the case of the 



young and delicate plants that such shade is useful. 



Weeding. — After the young plants are established in the Constant 

 fields, they will require constant weeding and this necessity i^cessafy. 

 in the cultivation of coffee was recognized by the early 

 planters in the West Indies. Laborie, who wrote in 1797, Laborie. 

 a first book on coffee cultivation, entitled The Coffee 

 Pla7iter of Sa7i Domingo^ says, — " There is not perhaps 

 any plant which requires more purity of soil than the coffee 

 tree. Weeds keep it back, cause it to grow yellow, fade, 

 wither, and even perish."' The weeds may be put in heaps 

 to rot, and then they can be used to cover the roots of the 

 coffee trees, but they must be rotted before this is done, and 

 unless the earth be shaken out of the roots, and the heaps 

 turned once or twice, many of the weeds will live and grow 



