COFFEE PLANTERS’ MANUAL. 30 
ful therefore that you do not strip off anything that 
will be necessary to yield another crop. You must 
always have wood for two crops on your trees, that 
now bearing and that reserved to mature against next 
year, as wood hardly ever bears till the second year. 
In very fine soil, or with a very forcing climate, you 
may require a third handling before crop. And so 
important is this operation, that if you are not disposed 
to handle when necessary, you may as_ well not 
prune; for the pruning forces ont the life of the 
tree, which left neglected grow to wood instead of 
fruit. ’ 
MANURING is as necessary in a coffee plantation 
as in any other culture. From the inaccessible posi- 
tion of some estates however, it is not always prac- 
ticable at a cost which would be warranted. But 
where it is so, it will always pay. A great impetus 
has been given to this branch by the opening of the 
Colombo and Kandy Railway. Previously transport 
from the sea-coast to the interior was so expensive as 
to be almost prohibitory to the use of imported man- 
ures, while those that can ke made on estates are 
in general far from sufficient to meet the planters’ 
requirements. Cart roads too—which under the wise 
and liberal administration of some of our Governors, 
and markedly of the late Sir Henry Ward and the 
present Sir Hercules Robinson, have been carried out 
during the last few years, into every producing dis- 
trict,—have most materially aided the planters’ efforts 
in this direction. So much is this benefit apparent 
that manure, which could not formerly have been 
transported from Colombo to Kandy under £3 to £4 per 
ton is now carried up by railway for 12s 6d. As 
a consequence many new manures are finding their 
way to the interior, and it seems if a new era in 
coffee culture had been commenced since the intro- 
duction of the railway. The Mode of Application de- 
pends much upon the nature of the article to be applied. 
if it be cattle dung—and I know not of any manure 
yet manufactured or introduced more generally effect- 
ive than this good old staple—you will require large 
holes. A basket containing about half-a-bushel is 
gencrally considered enough for one tree; although 
some planters appiy two, and I have been told with 
adequate results. This way takes so much longer 
time however to go over a field than by the single 
basket process, and is so much the more costly, that 
most planters are satisfied with a dose of one basket 
and going over the field the oftener. Once in three 
years is generally thought sufficient. But in hungry 
soil I should like to have half of my estate manured 
every year. To contain a basket of either cow-dung 
