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COFFEE CULTIVATION AND MANURING. 137 
A Ramboda planter gives some ‘‘interesting parti« 
culars” on the subject of manuring :— 
‘‘T disapprove of applying stimulating manures to 
soils that only need feeding, and feeding manures 
where only some minerals ave needed to throw loose 
the nourishing ingredients native to the soil. ‘Orum” 
- is again right in the matter of applying manure to the 
surface. A great deal of manure has been lost by 
being put deep im the ground, and how such a sensi- 
ble man, as ‘Orum’ appears to be, should not agree 
with me about wash-holes, I cannot understand. Why 
should ‘Orum’ not apply his drains to the field 
with wash-holes as he did to the manured one? And 
let me give him a wrinkle in surface manuring: let 
him apply his basket of manure or his pound of com- 
post, well spread round the root of the tree, and 
then send his holers to cut a shallow hole, say 2 feet 
by 23 feet and 6 inches deep, between every altern- 
ate tree, throwing the earth taken out of the hole 
on the top of the manure round the roots of the two 
nearest trees, covering the manure thoroughly with it, 
and then see to good drains being cut, drains not 1 
in 17 as ‘Orum’ prescribes, but say 1 in 12, and 
it will be possible to keep them open. in the case 
of drains with a gradient of 1 in 17 it is hardly so. 
‘A drain bursting near the top of a field, (and 
drains of the gradient intended by ‘Orum’ are apt 
to do so,) will choke up all drains to the bottom 
of the field, and then matters are worse than if thera 
were no drains; but with your manure weil covered 
round the roots of the trees, and your water-holes, 
formed by cutting out the earth to make this cover, 
ready to collect all weeds, leaves and prunings, with 
drains 1 in 12 well cut, and cleaned out regularly 
along with the weeding, your manure will be at peace. 
No harm will result from roots, or rather rootlets, 
being drawn to the surface: indeed I think little is 
to be feared from this, for manure protected from 
wash and evaporation, as all manures should be, will 
soon sink deep enough, creating rootlets as it goes. 
1 am sorry to disagree with ‘Orum’ about the 
wask-holes, but I think them an essential part of a 
well-cultivated field, not so much for the gake of 
preventing wash of earth, which can be better done 
by thorough draining, but to prevent waste of vegeta.- 
ble matter such as weeds, leaves, prunings, and any 
kind of vegetation that may be about, and these, when 
husbanded in this way, with the little earth that will 
always be washed in with them, make the very bess 
of manure, in my oji ion. 
‘* A wet season or rather a succession of wet sen- 
sons must be injurious to soils like Dimbula and 
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