318 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast of Cbtapas. 



b. Manner of Digging the Holes. In order that the holes may be 

 made in the exact spot marked for them by the stake a circle should 

 be traced around this before it is removed, care being taken that the 

 hole be made in the centre of the circle, for if there should be the 

 slightest deviation the furrows would not be straight. 



The holes are generally dug with the machete. There is an Ameri- 

 can borer which works well and quickly in ground that has no stones. 



The clay which is dug out is to be heaped up on the lower side of 

 the hole, so that the rains may not wash it in again. 



Exposing the earth dug out of the holes to the air, sun, light, and 

 rain greatly improves its quality. 



The task for small holes is 250 per day. 



c. Size of the Holes. The size of the holes depends upon the nature 

 of the ground in which they are made; the more compact and the 

 poorer this is the larger should be the hole, and vice versa^ the richer 

 and looser the soil, the smaller should be the hole. Its size also should 

 be regulated by the size of the trees to be planted. 



If the nursery be still small, or, as they say in Soconusco, of two or 

 three crosses that is, if each plant has only four or six branches, which, 

 growing in opposite directions, take the form of a cross, as has been 

 already explained, when speaking of the nursery the holes should not 

 be larger than a quarter of a yard in depth and a quarter of a yard in 

 diameter. 



When the soil of the nursery is black or when the young plants are 

 of more than three crosses, the holes should be larger; for as black 

 earth is very crumbly, the lump of earth attached to the roots of the 

 plants will be larger than when the soil is clayey. 



The general size of the holes in Ceylon is eighteen inches in diame- 

 ter and eighteen inches in depth. 



d. Planting without Holes. In lands where the soil is loose, the 

 young trees may be planted, introducing a long, thick stick in the hole 

 left by the one which served as a mark, and moving it in every direc- 

 tion, to make a larger hole for the plant. The hole is filled up with 

 earth, which must be pressed down with the foot to make it firm. 



This mode of planting has the advantage of saving labor and 

 money; but it has also some disadvantages, which will be mentioned 

 when speaking of planting in slips. 



5. TRANSPLANTING. 



Transplanting coffee, or setting the trees in their places, which is 

 the operation that follows the opening of the holes, is done in one of 

 three ways, to be indicated further on. 



A. Time for transplanting. 



B. Transplanting with the earth adhering to the roots. 



