66 SHADE IN COFFEE CULTURE. 



tree in the proper sense of the word. Hedges of mango are, however, reported by 

 Hart in the cacao plantations of Nicaragua. The mangoes are planted in rows at short 

 intervals, and are trimmed to form a compact mass of vegetation sometimes 60 feet 

 high, which doubtless serves admirably the intended purpose of forming a wind- 

 break. There are doubtless many localities where such protection would be desirable 

 in coffee culture, so that the suggestion may not be without value, though in general 

 leguminous trees should be preferred, even in planting for shelter, particularly where 

 the washings of the soil are to percolate through the coffee plantation. 



Mango. (See Mangifera indica.) 



Mani (Porto Rico). (See Arachis hypogaea.) 



Manihot glaziovii. Ceara rubber. 



In British India experiments have been made with this rubber tree as shade for 

 coffee plantations. The results were unfavorable, and the Manihot has in many 

 places been rooted out as worthless. Coffee requires soil and climate too wet for the 

 success of Manihot, which, in addition, rapidly exhausts the land and permits little 

 or nothing to grow under it. Moreover, little expectation is now cherished that this 

 species has any agricultural value except for hopelessly waste and barren regions, 

 subject to a long dry reason like its native home in northeastern Brazil. The cost 

 of collecting the rubber of this species is also too great for profitable handling in 

 culture. 



Manihot utilissimum. Cassava. 



Common names. — Cassava (West Indies); Mandioca, or Manioc (Brazil); Yuca 

 (Spanish America. ) 

 In Brazil cassava is planted between the rows of young coffee and has the advan- 

 tage of living three or four years. Roots are available for use within a year or less, 

 but if left in the ground they continue to grow and others are formed. Cassava is 

 propagated from cuttings which make very rapid growth, and might thus be useful 

 for shading newly planted coffee in regions of low elevation. 



Manila tamarind (India). (See Pitliecolobiwn didce.) 

 Manioc (Brazil) . (See Manihot utilissim um . ) 

 Mataraton. 



Mentioned by Yorba among the trees mostly used in Mexico for coffee-shade. 

 Medeloa (Burma). (See Albizzia procera.) 

 Medicago sativus. Alfalfa. 



Alfalfa is not known to have been tried with coffee, but is one of the fodder and 

 soiling plants to which the farmer from temperate regions would naturally turn. It 

 is accordingly proper to state that in the moist tropics alfalfa has not been found a 

 success. Experiments in British Guayana have resulted- in recommending phasemy 

 (Phaseolus semierectus) as the best available substitute. 



Meibomia polycarpa. 



German colonists in Samoa have recently found that this species gives great promise 

 of value as a fodder and soiling crop. It is expected to replace Mbnerma repens and 

 Mimosa pudica with which experiments were already in progress. (See Reineke, Die 

 Flora der Samoa-Inseln, Engler's Bot, Jahrb., 1898, 25: 640.) 



Meibomia tortuosa. Beggar-weed. 



Synonym. — Desmodium tortuosum. 

 A leguminous shrubby herb which has latterly been found to be a valuable adjunct 

 to the orange culture of Florida and also as a forage and soiling crop in the general 



