COFFEE CULTIVATION AND MANURING, 125 
tree the utmost advantage, put your manure in two 
feet deep, but thoroughly mix with the soil every atom 
of it outside the hole before putting it in, If this is 
done, the only limit to the vigour of the tree and 
crop on it, is the quantity of manure mixed and 
applied. Hxcept in steep land, the mere size and 
depth of the manure holes, if done according to my 
theory, would cause the soil to be pervious and ab- 
sorbent, that very little in the way of drains and 
water-holes would suffice for protection against wash ; 
you know wash is worst on hard land. It is quite 
true that manure buried at one-and-a-half or two feet 
deep does lhe quite useless, but if it was mixed with 
the soil the whole of that depth, it would be bring- 
ing out lateral roots all the way down the tap-root. 
““Orum” has evidently not practised the correct sys- 
tem of water holing, if he cannot stop wash by means. 
of it. If only partially done it is no protection, but 
thoroughly carried out, and in conjunction with drains, 
it is quite safe. As to the effectiveness of surface 
manure, instanced in the case of the strong cofiee 
near lines or cattle sheds, ‘‘Orum” does not stop 
to consider the enormous quantity of strong stuff that 
goes out imperceptibly in such cases ; enough to man- 
ure three or four times the extent if properly put 
out. As to Nature designing trees to be fed on the 
surface, Nature feeds in that manner trees only, such 
as forest trees (for example) which are not required 
to produce and part with crops. Forest and all wild 
trees give little or no crop, but watch a fruit-bear- 
ing tree, even wild, and remark the depth and wealth 
of soil, and, no small point, the depth of roots, with 
which Nature has endowed it. There cannot be a 
doubt that cutting any large roots causes (accordiug 
to the size of roots cut) the tree to dwarf and dry up. 
Note by Mir. Sabonadiére.—Allusion to deep holes 
yemind me of the field upon Mousakella estate, Hewa- 
heta, planted by Mr. J. Emerson. The holes were. 
three feet wide and deep, and were filled with man- 
ure (whether mixed or not with the soil, I new fer- 
get) before the plant was put in. This coffee was 
most luxuriant, once or twice must have yielded over 
a ton an acre, and gave consecutive crops of 15, 16, 
or 17 ewts. an acre, and, though now some 18 or-19 
years old, is still the finest coffee on the estate. 
2 
SUB-SOIL OR SURFACE MANURING. 
We shall sum up the further discussion which took 
place in the columns of the Observer during 1871 on 
Manuring—especially on the question of Sub-soil or 
K 
