22 COFFEE PLANTERS’ MANUAL, 
ers operations: for the. difference between weeding 
an estate occasionally or whenever the weeds have 
attained to the flowering stage, and keeping out the 
weeds altogether, is th:t between a profit and a loss. 
Keep down the weeds say some. Keep out the weeds 
is more valuable advice, and much more economical 
work. You may keep them down by regular monthly 
weeding, so that at one part of each month few weeds 
are visible. But this may be ata cost of 30s. to 
40s., and even 50s. to 60s. per acre per annum, 
while by keeping out the weeds from the first you 
should be able to weed for ls. 6d. per acre, some- 
times less each weeding, or say 18s. per annum, some- 
times 15s., and I have even heard of 10s. sufficing 
for the year. But say 20s. as an average, and you 
will save at least 20s. or 30s. more by this system. 
That, on an estate of 200 acres will be, at 20s., £200; 
at 30s., £300, and so on. Nor need you wait till 
your land is planted before putting on a weeding 
force. Immediately your clearing is burned off, and 
before weeds have time to take root, commence weed- 
ing: and continue it monthly afterwards. The small 
jungle which first springs up, if the land have been 
forest, will soon give way; three or four weedings or 
at most half-a-dozen generally eradicate this descrip- 
tion of weed. It is not the worst kind, as it does 
not seed, and is easily pulled up by the root. If 
left, however, seeding weeds are apt to spring up, 
under its concealment, which give a world of trouble 
to get rid of. Those seeding weeds, especially one 
called the Hulantala, and another called the Span- 
ish Needle,—but notably the former,—are the plant- 
ers bane. Several grasses also, and some creeping 
weeds give much trouble to eradicate. To keep them 
out therefore is, or ought to be, the object of every 
prudent planter. A few regular weedings will make 
your field quite clean, and going over it once a month. 
will keep it so. Once arrived at that stage, you will 
want but a very small labor force for some time. 
One man will suffice to keep cle:n 10 acres, whereas 
in a weedy estate one to every 3 or 4 acres is about 
the force required. You can also weed by hand on 
a clean estate, which saves your soil from being wasted, 
and washed away, the resuit of continual hacking at 
it with the hoe. In every way therefore it is cheap, 
thrifty, and profitable to keep an estate clean from 
the commencement. Having arranged to give this 
work proper attention, you will now ask, what next? 
When the plants are a few months old, it will be 
well to keep a small party of searchers going over 
the fields occasionally, to pluck off suckers and any 
irregular branches which make their appearance about 
