COFFEE PLANTING IN NATAL. 161 
of its receipt to a practical planter, who favoured us 
with the following notice of its contents, which, with 
the other papers referred to, has been overlooked too 
long. Since the review was penned, the writer has 
himself drawn up at our request ‘‘ The Manual for 
Coffee Planters,” to the pages of which we may now 
refer our Natal friends for information respecting the 
modus operandi in Ceylon :— 
A MANUAL oF CoFFEE PLANTING; BY W. H. 
MIDDLETON, SNARESBROOK, NATAL. 
Published by Adams § Co., Durban, Natal, 1866. 
This little pamphlet contains in its fifty-two pages 
a good deal of information important to an incipient 
planter. In facta little respecting almost every opera- 
tion of the plantation. The felling of the forest it 
is true is not described, but perhaps they have no 
forest in Natal. The land should be of the kind 
says our author that will absorb and hold in suspen- 
sion the most water. Some of the early settlers in 
our Ambagamuwa district would take exception to 
this doctrine, for their lands held the water so long 
and so tenaciously that it washed away all their *u- 
pees. Very probably however the land of Natal is 
chiefly sandy, and planters are glad when they hit on 
a piece that retains moisture, for we cannot suppose 
that they wish it to hold water in its liquidity. 
An eastern aspect is also recommended. We would 
add that this is not always the most desirable in 
Ceylon, especially under 2,000 feet elevation, for when 
the soil is thin and porous, too strong a sun in the 
early morning is not desirable. At elevations of from 
3,000 to 4,000 feet, an Eastern is generally a safe ex- 
posure, 
The Java style of tree is thus described as from 5 
to 6 feet high, which he thinks bears the greatest 
quantity. Our experience in Ceylon, both for bearing 
capability, facility of management, and early return, 
is in favour of a low tree, 3 to 4 feet, unless in 
very exposed places where they are sometimes cut 
down as low as 14 foot. 
Th: borer is described as a beetle which does very 
little damage. This cannot be the insect which has 
been committing such ravages in India, as it is de- 
scribed as more resembling a caterpillar with a very 
hard head. There are few insects destructive to the 
coffee plants in Natal, but our author instances one 
which he says leaves a brown shell on the leaf. This 
must surely be the bug. 
Berries found perfe t under the trees he thinks are 
the work of rats. If there are monkeys in Natal, 
they are more probably the depredators. But several 
N 
