102 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE chA'P. 



The weeds to vigorously notwithstanding that they have been dug up. A 

 better way is to bury the weeds, and thus turn them into a 

 green crop manure. The holes should not be dug too near 

 the coffee trees, and the weeds must be buried in a different 

 hole at each weeding. This is really by far the best system 

 of disposal of the weeds, and it should always be adopted 

 when possible. 



Topping. — If the coffee trees be allowed to grow unre- 

 strained they will become very tall ; indeed, the Liberian 

 Advantages species has been known to grow forty feet high. In these 

 the trees"^ cases it is very difficult to pick the berries, for the trees, as a 

 rule, bear mostly at the top, as, frequently, many of the lower 

 branches die out as the trees increase in height. The sys- 

 tem of topping has therefore been devised, and it consists of 

 cutting off the top of the tree after it has attained to such a 

 height as will allow all the berries to be picked without 

 difficulty. Besides this advantage, the topping increases the 

 spread and the fruitfulness of the lower branches, and pre- 

 vents strong winds from having as much effect on the planta- 

 tion as they would if the trees were higher. In exposed 

 situations in the mountains, the trees may be topped at three 

 feet, and in shady places where the soil is good, they should 

 never be allowed to grow higher than five feet. In some 

 windy places in Ceylon the trees in a few extreme cases are 

 topped at one and a half feet, but this is certainly too low 

 Trees in the for any coffcc Cultivation in the West Indies. It has been 

 to^beTopped! recommended, in the case of coffee planted on lowlands, 

 that the trees should be allowed to grow up unrestrained, as 

 they are then more fruitful, but in this case the berries 

 will have to be picked with the aid of step-ladders ; for 

 if the branches be pulled down, the stems are liable to break 

 or split. 



The import- PRUNING. — Proper pruning of coffee trees is very import- 

 anceof ^j^j. f^j. j£ ^^ley are allowed to grow unchecked they will 



pruning. ' -^ ° ■' 



become a tangled mass of stems, branches and leaves, and 



