COFFEE AND TEA CULTIVATION. 223 
per acre: so let us see, now, if what is set out above 
us really a hindrance to this. 
“Objection 1. Admitted that plants thus close cannot 
sdevelop as well as they would if further apart. But 
the smaller plants, on any given area, may, never- 
“theless, give more leaf for that area. 
“* Objections 2 and 3. Same may be said in reply to 
these. The bushes will be smaller, but the leaf per 
area may be more. 
** Objection 4. I incline to the belief that, as the 
plant is prevented sending out new shoots on two 
sides, it will give birth on the other two sides and 
top (available) to all the new shoots the constitution 
of the bush inclines it to produce. In other words, 
the shoots which would otherwise have been deve- 
Joped on the four sides and the top, will in this 
case be all produced on the top and two sides. Fur- 
ther, in answer to the cbjection that the leaf pro- 
ducing area is smaller, I admit of course it is so per 
plant, but the continuous wall-like two sides, and the 
continuous table-like top, produced by the Hedge 
system, would give, I think, a really larger leaf-pro- 
ducing surface per acre. 
“‘ That each plant, owing to its proximity to others, 
cannot be cultivated all round, that is, that the soil 
“cannot be opened out and stirred all round, is another 
argument against the plan of hedge planting. It is, 
however, only partially true. Thougn the soil cannot 
be dug between the plants in the lines, it can be 
more or less stirred with weeding hand-forks, while 
the absence of weeds between the plants in the lines, due 
to the complete shade, makes cultivation less necessary. 
** Talso believe that, in the hedge system, the larger 
number of roots and rootlets would be thrown out by 
each plant on the two free sides, and consequently 
‘the nourishment would principally be drawn from the 
soil. which could be thoroughly cultivated. 
“ All the above pros and cons apply both to fiat and 
sloping land, but in the latter the resistance the 
bushes, thus closely planted, give to ‘‘the wash” ig 
an extra advantage.” 
We have given these long extracts in full, because 
the climates of Ceylon and Java areso much alike, that 
what applies to the island of Indian Archipelago must 
be largely true of our own Indian island. Our readers 
are aware that the complaint regarding Ceylon teas, 
equally with Java ones, is want of strength, and it 
‘will be of interest and importance to know if absence 
‘of a pronounced winter is, as Col. Money surmises, 
the cause. Because, if so, measures may be possible 
‘which will counteract the disadvantage, a disadvant- 
