COFFEE CULTIVATION AND MANURING. 111! 
he finds the most convenient one is under our branches, 
and we thrive on what is left there, but even this 
might be improved. We get our food before it has 
been fermented, but if it was fermented one-twentieth 
part of the food we get would be quite sufficient for us. 
Masrer :—I don’t see how what you say is left 
under your branches could be collected, and it can’t 
ferment except there are considerable quantities col- 
lected in one place. 
TREE :—Can’t you just listen to me a little and I 
will tell you how todo it. You make large cisterns 
in the ground in a convenient place, two cisterns to 
each line. Over the cisterns raise walls and a roof, 
have a boarded floor over the cisterns, quite tight to 
prevent unpleasant consequences as much as possible, 
and have comfortable seats the same as you have for 
yourself, and I bave no doubt you will be able to 
get your people to use them. Empty them every 3 
or 6 months; the contents of the cistern will then 
be fermented and a very little will go a long way. 
MASTER :—But the expense of these buildings will 
be a good deal, and as far as I can see they will be 
of no use except the cisterns are made water-tight. 
TREE :—You are perfectly right about the cisterns, 
they should be made water-tight, and the best way 
to make them permanently water-tight is to line them 
with a good thick eoat of asphalte, and be very par- 
ticular that there are no cracks left in them and no 
pure water should be allowed to enter them, or it 
will stop the fermentation, and that is what we re- 
quire. There are some people now who are making 
an attempt to collect these leavings, but the seats in 
their buildings are not half comfortable enough, and 
they have a lot of dry earth which will not allow 
of fermentation ; but you take my advice: have your 
building as comfortable as possible, and I can assure 
you, you will not have to spend so much money in 
buying manure from the merchants, which some peo- 
ple say is not worth the bags it is imported in, 
Master :—Suppose I go to the expense of these 
cisterns and buildings, how much of the fermented 
material would be sufficient food for one of you for 
12 months ? 
TREE :—If you do everything the same as I have 
told you, 4 oz. mixed with ashes or any rubbish would 
be quite enough for 12 months, if it is supplied on 
the surface of the ground, and suppose one person 
only deposited 4 oz. in 24 hours, and 4 oz. being 
quite enough of the fermented material for one tree 
for 12 months, four depositors would be quite suffi- 
_cient to manure one acre in a year, 400 would be 
quite sufficient to keep a hundred acres in as good 
