. MANURING. 101 
oceasion, will be in occasionally clearing them out, 
and that is but very trifling where they are placed. 
so close together. Thus effectually protected from 
wash you may apply your manure. If cattle dung, 
or pulp, er bulky compest, pare down the surface of 
the soil all round the tree to the distanee ef a foot 
er more from the stem. To each tree apply a basket- 
ful er less of the manure, spreading it equally over 
this pared surface. Over the manure thus deposited, 
put a thin layer of earth taken over the raised sur- 
faces generally found in the middle of the rows, and 
the job is done. If the coffee to be operated on has 
its reots already exposed, as will be the case where 
it has suffered formerly frem big manure holes or 
wash holes, the roots require simply to be covered 
with the manure, and this last with the thin layer 
of earth to keep it compactly together and prevent 
evaporation. After this treatment, keep your fields 
free from weeds and watch the result. In much less 
time than under the holing system you will find the 
coffee improve, and the improvement will be progress- 
ive, for you have preserved your manure and your soil 
too. The manure has been placed in a position where 
it i3 equally accessible to all the roots, and as it gradu- 
ally percolates downwards, the surrounding soil gets 
fertilized, rendering it able to sustain the increased 
requirements of the tree. 
All the practical evidences I have seen im favour 
of this method have been most satisfactory, and I in- 
deed hardly imagine a case where manure would be 
of value at all, in which it would fail. Planters will 
sometimes condemn it on such grounds as let—Waste 
by evaporation. 2nd—Waste by wash and weeds. 
3rd—It brings the roots above the surface. These 
objections are only parts of a crudetheory. The first 
two are got rid of by the treatment I recommend. 
The last is not so formidable as it looks. If the ~ 
roots do appear to rise, recollect they are new roots 
and eome no farther than the base of the manure, 
while they are covered again by the next application 
and able to derive sustenance from whatever is thrown 
in their way. All the active feeding roots of the 
coffee tree lie near the surface, then why not adminis- 
ter their food in the way in which nature evidently 
designed them to be fed. 
In the past history of coffee-planting, can we not 
recollect many instances where valuable raanures were 
applied with little er no result? Even now we are 
often puzzled with the seemingly capricious action of 
the same manure in different places, doing good here, 
and no good whatever there, while there seems no 
adequate cause to explain the different results, De- 
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