COFFEE PLANTERS’ MANUAL. 15 
you to plant. By this process the fallen underwood 
decays, adding fresh mould to the original soil, in- 
stead of burning away the surface soil as is the case 
with a thorough clearing on the burning-off principle. 
You save soil, and mikeit therefore by the prccess 
now described. And there is yet another way of 
PLANTING UNDER SuHAD=z. It is thus: cut down all 
the trees great and small, except a sufficient number - 
for the shade you require—say leave a tree at every 
40 feet or as near that distance as thé forest will 
admit of. Lop well the felled trees, cut them into 
handy lengths except the large s‘ems, which you will 
leave where they fell. Lop off all branches close to 
the stems, and cut them up into easy sizes for shift- 
ing. Lay them in rows between the lines of coffe. 
You will thus shelter the coffee, while young, from 
the wind; and when the rows of timber decay, which 
they will do probably in a year or eighteen months, 
they will have greatly added to the soil, for by their 
decay will be ieft in their place a top-dressing of 
fresh virgin mould. This mode is only advisable, how- 
ever, in dry and low-lying districts. In high and 
wet lands there is the danger of the piled timber 
washing out of its place and destroying the plants in 
its course, as well as of harbouring weeds which ie 
up so rapidly in a moist climate. 
Still another plan of CLEARING has recently been 
adopted in one district I know of, that of only FELL- 
ING THE ForEstT—not lopping or burning, or leaving 
shade. The tree hes as it falls, and its spread branches 
cover the ground till they join and entwine with those 
of the neighbouring trees—thus providing as is sup- 
posed a natural cover for the ground from the heat 
of the sua, and sheltering the young piants from the 
wind. This plan looks well in theory, and it doubtless 
is by far the cheapest. But to plant in rows amid 
the entangled branches, and to climb and hop over the 
mighty trunks of the fallen ‘‘monarchs of the forest ” 
is no easy task. It will in all probability lead to a 
shirking of systematic work in planting out, from the 
difficulty cf getting over the ground with the holing, 
as well as of placing out the plants in line. But 
perhaps ‘‘dibbling” is the mode of planting on this 
plan: and reonlarity of lining may not-be thought 
necessary. This mode is yet only experimental. The 
result will be ascertained hereafter. Meantime it 
appears on the face of it to have this difficulty and 
this inconvenience, the difficulty of keeping the clear- 
ing clean amid so much encumbering branch wood—anii 
the inconvenience of harbouring vermin such es rata, 
&c., which often prove destructive to the young plants. 
J have known a whole field of coffee devastated by 
