COFFEE AND TEA CULTIVATION. 215 
be always mixed with some more bulky manure. I 
should consider 4 four per cent of potash the utmost 
that a good coffee manure intended for Ceylon should 
contain. On most estates itis not potash that is re- 
quired by the soil, but a cheap source of bulky nitro- 
genous manure (cattle dung, composts of pulp with 
cake), and a moderate supply of phosphate and sulph- 
ate of lime.” 
We quite agree with Mr, Hughes in saying that 
weeds ought to be utilized asmanure by being treated 
with Jime. Plenty of lime being available, we hold 
that one of the best modes of utilizing fallen leaves, 
prunings and handlings, as well as weeds, would be the 
system adopted for instance on Kandenewera planta- 
tion, Elkaduwa, that of sweeping them round the roots 
of the trees. The weeders, who at first objected to 
this plan, now feel the advantages of it, and the bene- 
fit to the trees, the roots of which never stand above 
ground as is so generally the case on old estates, is 
obvious. With fast-growing ‘‘ Kucalypti ” and other 
trees available, we hold that Mr. Hughes took too 
despondent a view of the possibility of combating 
the effects of wind, while as regards wash its de- 
structive effects can be largely obviated by a system 
of deep drains, paths sloping inwards to the bank 
with openings at proper intervals for the escape down- 
wards of the accumulated rain water, and such terrac- 
ing as is possible from the presence of suitable mate- 
rials and at a reasonable expenditure. Much, too,- 
might be done in the direction of ‘‘ hedges” say 
of tea plants, along the underside of drains, and also 
running across the faces of steep slopes, so as to inter- 
cept and hold washed-down soil. On an estate in 
which we are personally interested the drains have been 
largely lined with tea plants, and when plenty of seed 
is available, the scheme long contemplated, of closely 
planted (one foot apart) hedges of the same plant, will 
certainly be adopted. The soil caught by such hedges 
can be subsequently placed round the coffee or other 
trees cultivated. Already some of the benefits of the 
hedge system are attained by the planting of tea and 
cinchonas so closely as 3x3, while the now common 
practice ofjplanting cinchonas amongst coffee will ultim- 
ately do much to obviate wash. A letter by Colonel 
Money (author of the Prize Essay on Tea Cultivation) 
in the Indian Tea Gazette speaks with approval of a 
mode of cultivation adopted on a tea estate in Java, 
the property of a Mr. Hobhouse, and which is thus de- 
scribed:— ; 
‘*The plants are put in 4x 2,—four feet of course be- 
tween the rows, and two feet between the plants. Each 
