122 COFFEE CULTIVATION AND MANURING. 
poverished. Leave the so-called weeds to decay on 
the ground where they were produced, and the land 
is enriched by the decaying substances. Weeds do not 
waste fertility, as far as the soil is concerned; they 
are only detrimental and injurious as regards the crop 
intended to be grown. Let it not, however, be sup- 
posed for one moment that weeds should be allowed - 
to grow because they do not rob the soil of its fer- 
tility. It is enough that they rob the crop of the 
benefit to be derived from the fertilizing matter in- 
tended for its support. Next in importance to the 
due and proper preparation of the land for any crop 
is the sedulous destruction of all plants that may ap- 
pear, except those sown or planted as the crop, and 
all plants not sown or planted must be treated as 
weeds—because a weed is a plant out of place. ‘The 
thistle is a weed on pasture land used by man for 
the depasturing of his flocks and herds, but in the 
wild waste by its growth and decay it yearly adds to 
the richness and fertility of the soil. Thus, all plants 
have their uses, and land. after it has been improvi- 
dently impoverished by man, is taken possession of 
by inferior plaxts called weeds, which grow and ex- 
ercise their utmost power to restore its lost fertility. 
But no cultivator who carefully manures his land can 
afford to grow a plant out of place, z.e., a weed. 
THE COMMON BRACKEN (FERN) AS A 
MANURE FOR COFFEE, 
(Communicated to the Ceylon Observer.) 
The following extract from Mr. Donaldson’s British 
Agriculture refers to one of our most abundant ferns 
of the interior, which scarcely differs as a variety 
from the common bracken of Scotland, several times 
alluded to in the Lady of the Lake. It is so abund- 
ant on some of the patanas and other open ground 
near some of the coffee estates in the interior, and 
indeed in other places as a weed in the coffee, that 
the hints here given for killing it, and converting it 
into a good manure may prove of use to several of 
our readers. When speaking to a gentleman in Dolos- 
bage about the means of killing this fern, he informed 
us that the villagers gravely told him the best way 
to do so was by thrashing it with switches—just as 
good a way as any other, because the plant ultim- 
ately dies like any other, if its fronds are thrashed 
to death, or cut off The creeping roots die in this 
case for want of their lungs; but we believe the best 
way atter all to get rid of it, if once it gets into a 
coffee estate, is to dig up the creeping roots (rhizomes) 
