6 COFFEE PLANTERS’ MANUAL. 
up by intervening valleys. In the latter case the 
hill is divided into suitible sections, and each felled 
in its order. Suppose the hill or the part of it thus 
niched to be of the form of a cone. The last tree 
at the top is not only nicked, but cut so far through, 
that it yields to the weaker, or lower side, falling 
with a loud noise. In its fall its extended branches 
catch the adjoining and neighbouring trees imme- 
diately below it, and drag them along. One tree 
grapples another, and the impetus given by the fall 
of the first bears away those lower down the hill on 
either side of it. They, in turn, their neighbours 
below them and on either side, they theirs, and so 
on till the whole hill-side goes down with a tre- 
mendous roar. This is but the work of a moment: 
and from the fall of the topmost tree to the levell- 
ing of the whole hill-side takes much less time than 
does this description. It is a thrilling moment: and 
there is something majestically grand in the whole- 
sale crash with which the giant trees salute their 
mother earth. One of the oldest and most respected 
Planters who has now ‘‘ crossed that bourne whence 
no traveller returns,” in an Ode published some 
years ago under the signature of Aliquis, has thus 
graphically described this exciting scene :— 
‘* The axe resounds on the gum trees tall, 
‘‘ They stoop, rend, crackle, and crashing fall. 
“* See that monarch of ages, o’erlooking the glen, 
‘* As a chieftain predominates over his men ;— 
** Around and beneath him, on either hand, 
‘*Great trees, though half severed, still motionless 
stand— 
‘* Now watch for the blow which shall lay him low—: 
‘* A forest goes down in his overthrow ! 
‘* Roaring and thundering down they swing ! 
‘*'their mightiest branches splinter and ring ; 
‘* With an earthquake’s dint they smite the ground, 
‘** And down, in their fall’s far-echoing ‘sound, 
‘* The cheer of the wood-cutters crouching around.” 
Thus is the forest felled. The operation of Lopping 
follows. Experienced Planters generally wish this 
work to follow close on the heels of the felling; 
because, while the wcod is green, the branches are 
easier cut than after the tree has got seasoned and 
tough. Some require the fellers to stop felling every 
week : some let the contractor choose his own time : 
some leave the lopping till the clearing is all felled. 
These last do not certainly act judiciously : nor is it 
good for the contractor himself to leave the wood to 
harden ere he begins to cut, for it makes the work 
much harder on his men and more expensive to him- 
self. I prefer to do the lopping every day; either 
