280 



ching with pig stye and stable manure, either rotten or fresh ; leaves, 

 grass, trash of any kind, will in fact greatly benefit the soil ; the covering 

 of the soil with trash by shading it, will also protect the roots of the 

 coffee and other plants from the effects of the sun. Secondly, the more 

 thorough shading of the coffee plant with suitable trees ; from the want 

 of proper trees planted at cor.ect distances through the fields the coffee 

 plants suffer very much. 



The heavy soil requires somewhat different treatment, although the 

 land would be greatly benefited by the shading and the application of 

 the manures and trash above mentioned. It however requires to be 

 thoroughly dug up (as explained to the people in all lectures) to ensure 

 thorough aeration and the addition of lime to remove the acidity and 

 to prevent the fungus growth called by the people ' ' Caco on" so pre- 

 valent in the soil and so destructive to plant life. The quantity of 

 lime too applied to the land would vary according to the state of the 

 land, the minimum being 10 tons per acre, the maximum 20 tons per 

 acre. When the coffee or other crops have died out and it is desired to 

 replant the land, the line should be dug in thoroughly some time before 

 replanting, to allow its purifying action to be partially carried out. 

 Beown's Town District. 



Monday, 2nd March, 1896. Lectured in the Chapel at Brown's 

 Town in conjunction with Mr. Douet to about 300 people. The sub- 

 jects dealt with being kola, cocoa, Liberian coffee, nutmegs and rubber 

 plants ; the use of and the necessity for shade trees ; the reasons for 

 manuring, liming, digging and draining land. Oranges were dealt 

 with by Mr. Douet. 



Tuesday 3rd. Visited Lower Buxton and lectured to a gathering of 

 about 40 people of whom two thirds were land-owners, dealt with the 

 same subjects as at Brown's Town, with the addition of oranges, demon- 

 strated on pruning of coffee and oranges, and the budding of the latter. 

 This is a district where last year a planter complained of a large patch 

 of coffee not bearing, except round the outside. I pointed out to him 

 that the trees were too thick and advised him to remove about half of 

 them to a new field, and gave him practical instructions how to carry 

 this out. He commenced the removal and then got frightened ; but as 

 the trees which he removed are now all growing nicely he has recently 

 removed a much larger quantity, and the original patch has been much 

 benefited by the accession of air and light caused by the removal and 

 the consequent thinning of the trees. 



Coffee in this district, the people complained, dies out quickly, most 

 frequently in patches. The cause, as I pointed outlast year, is usually 

 acidity or sourness of the soil ; the remedy, diging up, liming and man- 

 uring. I fully explained this last year, and one small settler at once 

 carried out my instruction on five or six trees ; these trees which last 

 year were rapidly dying and were leafless are now recovering and put- 

 ting out new growths, and the owner is now burning lime for the pur- 

 pose of continuing the operation on other trees. The coffee growers 

 around seeing the great efficacy of the application of liir*e, etc., are doing 

 likewise. 



Wednesday 4th. Visited Friendship Penn and coffee property, early 

 in the morning with Mr. H. Levy who also showed me the benefits he 

 had derived from carrying out last year's instructions, as to the mov- 



