COFFEE PLANTERS’ MANUAL. l} 
who have not had experience of the fierceness and 
destructiveness of monsoon winds in exposed situa- 
tions. Wind is undoubtedly the greatest enemy of 
the planter. You may have a poor soil: that can 
be improved by manure. You may be in a wet dis- 
trict: seasons change and you may have a dry sea- 
son after a wet, or a course of them. You may have 
an invasion of bug: it will go away. An incursion of 
rats: they will retire having left their mark. Beetle, 
borer, grub and all the enemies that have ever ap- 
peared in Ceylon may be got rid of or cured. But 
you cannot cure the wind, so ‘‘ what can’t be cured 
must be endured,” 7%. ¢., if you have already got a 
windy estate. But if not, give it a wide berth: for 
although, in general, estates get used to the wind, 
and after six or seven years, gain stamina sufficient 
to resist, it 1s not the thing for a man of small 
means, as I suppose the beginner to be, to tackle. 
Instances are not rare, however, of estates that suf- 
fered much in their infancy, even to abandonment 
in fright by their early owners, coming to the front 
at the sixth or seventh year, and bearing heavy and 
paying crops for many years thereafter. It is enough 
to know this, if you be so unfortunate as to find 
yourself possessed of such a property, only do not 
get possessed of it if you can help it. How shall I 
avoid it? do you ask. This is easier asked than 
answered, as the currents are sometimes vncertain 
and deceptive; but what has been will be. The sea- 
sons follow each other with the regularity of the 
sun. Look at the forest you have selected, or may 
select, walk through it, mark the bearing and inclin- 
ation of the trees. If these, though tall and straight, 
have a leaning to one side, depend upon it the wind 
is hard upon them on the opposite side: or if they 
are short and stunted, or gnarled and distorted, you 
may be sure the cold biting wind has done it, for 
there is no part of Ceylon sufficiently elevated to 
prevent trees going straight and strong, but for the 
wind, which represses their growth, warps and twists 
them out of their original shape, and curtails their 
natural proportions. Your land may be as good as 
can be got, your lay may be perfection, your alti- 
tude be the most approved—but watch for this enemy. 
If you have neighbours whose lands adjoin yours, 
and have been earlier opened, this will lighten your 
task. Mark how or whether the wind affects them. 
If it does not, see if there be circumstances in their 
ease differing from yours, such as another aspect, 
higher land to windward, or a sheltered position ; 
and if none of these be at variance, you may rea. 
sonably conclude that your clearing should, all othe; 
