340 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast of Cbiapas. 



Mr. William King makes mention of a plantation in Ceylon in 

 which the vegetation growing in swampy places is cut down every year 

 before the gathering of the crop, piled in heaps and left to rot, and, 

 when the coffee crop is gathered, spread as a fertilizer around the 

 trunks of the coffee-trees. 



Salts of Ammonia. These salts make an excellent manure; but 

 owing to their great solubility and their affinity with water they are apt 

 to be absorbed by the soil before they can reach the roots of the coffee- 

 trees, or washed away by the rains, so failing in either case to benefit 

 the plant. 



Wood-ashes. This fertilizer has the advantage of being very cheap 

 and very easy to obtain. It is also a good substitute for lime in local- 

 ities where this is not found. The ashes must be buried in the earth, 

 as, if left on the surface, the wind would blow it away. 



Burnt Clay. This has been used in Ceylon with very good results. 

 It has for us the additional advantage of being very cheap and very 

 easily procured in Soconusco. 



Lime. This is to be used, spreading it over the ground, once every 

 five years. A good mixture would be half a pound of lime to an 

 almud * of pulp for every tree. 



Guano. This manure was at first used in Ceylon unmixed with 

 any other substance ; but, being very active, it should never be used 

 alone. Guano acts quickly and produces a very good crop, but its 

 good effects pass quickly, and trees manured with guano soon lose 

 their productiveness, which can be restored only by manuring them 

 with cow-dung. This effect of guano is more noticeable in light 

 soils; in compact soil and applied in small quantities its effects are 

 permanent. It is more prudent, however, never to use guano alone, 

 but mixed in small quantities with other fertilizers. Guano has 

 almost entirely ceased to be used in Ceylon, and has been replaced 

 by bone-dust. 



Mixtures of these Substances. Mixtures of the various substances 

 mentioned have been used as fertilizers. A good mixture is a layer of 

 cow-dung, another of mana" grass, and another of the pulp of the fruit of 

 the coffee-tree, and so on alternatively, leaving them to be assimi- 

 lated. To render this mixture more active, each layer may be sprinkled 

 with sal ammonia, lime, and bone-dust. 



At present, however, such fertilizers as are considered most suitable 

 to the soil, without any mixture, are preferred in Ceylon. 



b. Manner of Applying Fertilizers to the Soil. The best way of 



using fertilizers is to dig a hole in the earth at least eighteen inches 



from the plant and place the fertilizer in it. Care must be taken, in 



digging the hole, not to injure the tap roots of the tree; the small 



1 Almud, dry measure : 0.86 of a peck. 



