COFFEE CULTIVATION AND MANURING, 127 
“‘T very much regret having mislaid Mr, Josiah 
Mitchell’s letter on the orange groves of Paramatta, 
as the distinctive mode of cultivation there described, 
and only arrived at after 50 years’ practical experi- 
ence, struck me forcibly as the one best adapted to 
similar soils in Ceylon, cleared for the growth of 
coffee. To the best of my recollection the latter stated 
that the soil of the plantation in question, th» finest 
orangery in New South Wales, was of the thinnest 
and poorest description with a free and open aub-soil ; 
the mode of cultivation was to fell, clear, drain, and 
plant, as is dove for coffee in this country, taking 
care to keep the ground free from weeds. When the 
time for manuring arrived, the practice, which for 
many years had been followed with the greatest suc- 
cess, was to loosen the soil round the trees to the 
depth of 2 or 3 inches, applying the manure to the 
surface. Several kinds of artificial manures had been 
tried from time to time with varying results. Super- 
phosphate, I believe, was found to answer best, that 
is, it gave the most profitable returns, and at the 
same time maintained the trees in a vigorous s‘ate 
of health. It must not for a moment be supposed 
that because superphosphates acted so admirably on 
the thin poor soil of Paramatta the same man- 
ure will operate in a similar way on stiff land, or on 
land with a free surface only, but it may be safely 
inferred, I think, that land of a similar nature to 
that described would reap a similar benefit from this 
application of such manure. In fact the soil must 
be studied before we can by the aid of manure arrive 
at the desired result. I have little doubt at this 
present moment in Ceylon there are thousands of 
tons of the best fertilizers lying dormant in the soil, 
in other words, so many tons of manure out of place, 
Many are the varieties of manure I have applied in 
my time, and I am free to confess that in many in- 
stances experience has proved that the blame cast 
upon the manure, where no satisfactory results fol- 
lowed, ought strictly and properly speaking to have 
been thrown on its misapplication ; but the possibility 
of such a thing never entered our heads at the time, 
consequently the manure was condemned, not as un- 
suited to the soil, but as unfit for coffee In the 
application of stimulants, the object is to add to the 
soil that which it is in want of in the shape of a 
stimulant. Inthe application of such bulky mauures 
as cattle manure, pulp, &c., the action is different : 
we not only add a stimulant, but we make a new 
soil out of the bulky ingredients applied. As to the 
mode of application of the different kinds of manure : 
so long asthe land is protected by drains from wash, 
