62 ‘THE COFFEE PLANTER OF CEYLON,” 
to say what knowledge of science and the arts would 
not be useful to the coffee planter: perhaps above all 
he ought to be a good financier, for it is clear that 
a coffee estate of 200 acres cannot be brought into 
cultivation (say in four years) at a less expenditure 
than from £25 to £30 an acre—from £5,000 to £6,000 
in all after allowing for the proceeds of some crop 
in the close of the period. That fact must be faced, 
and borrowing as much as possible avoided. How to 
obtain money is about the only thing which Mr. Sa- 
bonadicre does not teach. On most of the other sub- 
jects we have iniicated, his book will greatly aid 
the neophyte planter; while experience (short or long 
according to the man’s own intelligence and industry) 
will do the rest. We meant to enter more into de- 
tails, but the reflections which a perusal of the work 
and our own experience and observation have forced on 
us must sufiice for to-day. We hope to have some- 
thins more to say in our next issue with reference to. 
the useful book which forms the subject of remarks 
already more extended than we contemplated. But 
the enterprise of which it treats is of paramount 
importance to Ceylon, and with the r-turn of peace 
we trust this enterprise will become still more im- 
portant, and a good deal more profitable than it has 
lately been to those engaged in it. 
Second Notice. 
‘To justify our s'atement that to be a coffee planter 
it is necessary that a man should be possessed of 
knowledge v:ried and comprehensive, we have but 
to quote the headings of the chapters into which Mr. 
Sabonidiére’s book is divided :— 
‘‘ Introductory Remirks, Selection of Land, Soil, 
Hlevation, &c.; Felling, Clearing, and Loppinz, Nurse- 
ry, Lining, Holing, and Planting ; Roads and Drains; 
Weeding, Topping, Pruning, and Handling; Manur- 
ing, Trenching, &¢.; Picking, Curing, and Despatching 
Crop; Bungalows and Lines; Stores, Pulping Hous,, 
and Barbacues; Tools and Machinery ; the Enemies 
of the Coffee Tree; the Malabar Cooly ; Estimates.” 
The great feature in the present edition is an en- 
tirely new chapter on Manuring, which embodies the 
large experience the author has obtained in the use 
of artificial manures applied to the extensive proper- 
ties un‘ler his eharge. Mr. Sabonadiére’s experience 
has led him thoroughly to believe in the vast benefits 
of judicious manaring when combined with draining 
and trenchzig, and we know that he traces the short 
crops of the present season to meteorological influ- 
ences and not to manuring, although, of course, harm 
has been done and ‘can be done by the ill-advised 
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