852 
THE TROPICAL 
AGKICULTURIST. [June 1, 1901. 
the Coffee Planters' Manual and complied by Mr. J, 
Ferguson, Editor of the Olscrver and Tropical Ar/ri- 
cHlturist.* I' am sorry I had not got that little book 
for reference when writing this paper. Ceylon has 
many cockchafers, and their larva according to my 
experience did far more damage (especially in dry 
low districts) than our one chafer in B.C. A. does, and 
those districts, I know, gave crops of 7 to 10 cwts. 
per acre for years, without manure (before leaf 
disease days), and there was not the chipped light and 
diseased bean the same as here to complain of. 
Kow I must leave vour readers to judge for them- 
selves as to the cause of spotted, light and black 
beans in our coffee, and hope that this paper may 
prove of some use to young planters in this, our 
youngest coffee-growing country. H. B. 
COFFEE IN COSTA RICA. 
METHODS OF WEEDING, &C, 
Dear Sin, — By way of prelude for purposes of ex- 
planation it is as well to mention that the most common 
distances at which coffee trees are set apart is 
generally three varas by three, though other distances 
such as 2| by three varas and four by 2* varas are 
known but are not common, the natural lay of the 
ground often being the reason given for a distance 
greater or less than the three varas both ways, (the 
Spanish vara being 33 inches.) 
After 
NEW COFFEE IS PLANTED, 
the best time beiag considered the commeneemenb of 
the rainy season in May the first weeding or shovell- 
ing follows as soon as is practicable, to prevent wash 
from the heavy tropical rains which are the most 
violent and destructive at this period of the year : sup- 
posing the ground to have been ploughed up and 
harrowed previously during the dry season the first 
shovelling is the aporca, which is effected entirely by 
hand labor, and to accomplish which no machine has 
so far been introduced that will effectively do the two 
things, firstly the barking up and completely covering 
of all weeds to the line of coffee trees and secondly the 
prevention of wash by means of cross dams whose dis- 
tance one from another is determifced by the pitch of 
the ground, and vary on hill sides from across dam at 
every tree known as labtero system to a cross dam to 
every four or five trees on ground almost flat, forming 
what are called cajones or boxes to translate literally ; 
in new coffee shovelling to the trees in aporcas it is not 
considered advisable to raise u,p the liclge higher than 
10 or 12 inches on account of burying up the young 
plants too much. Any less height hov\ever is not 
advisable for the reason that the ground shovelled up 
packs considerably after a few heavy rains and the 
following cleaning, theraspa, has to taken into account 
in which ground is taken from the ridges to the centre 
of the rows': it is good policy to have special care taken 
in building the cross dams of sufficient thickness and 
a few inches higher than the ridges there being the 
risk of water breaking out and washing in a heavy rain, 
an idea of which can be formed supposing one to 
break out at the upper end of a row of coffee trees, in 
turn breaking through all in its course to the lower end 
of the row taking with it tons of the best soil in a 
single rain; on a hillsides where tableros are in vogue 
the ground to build up the cross dam is taken from the 
centre of the square of trees and in sufficient quantity 
to give the bottom of the hole thus made a perfect 
level, thus giving each tablero a maximum capacity of 
holding rain water until it soaks into the soil. On 
flatter ground, where the pitch will allow of doing so, 
ami cross dams can be effective for instance at every 
f-econd tree, they can be made more secure by taking 
the ground from the lower instead of the upper side of 
the dam, thereby lessening the chances of a break out 
through the levelling of the ground, the water standing 
■* Not forgetting Mr. Haldano's Monograph on 
"Grub,"— Ed. T.y\. 
back the full length of the eajon before passing ov^' 
the dam at its lower end. In coffee planted out older 
than one year ridges are often built up higher than 12 
inches, many going as high as 24 inches, though the 
good results of this are questionable, much mischief 
being caused to tree abundant in lower branches by 
excessive piling up of the ground. The aporca described 
above is all the cleaning done till about July when the 
groundisprettysureto beup again in weeds and in need 
of the second cleaning or raspa, which is also done by 
hand labor and is the reverse of the aporca in that the 
weeds are shovelled to the centre of the row and 
covered with ground, a few boys cleaning around the 
stems of the trees in advance of the shovellers ; this is 
done to sav« them from being cut by the shovels in 
cleaning close to them, a good custom being to rein- 
force the cross dams at this time with a little addi- 
tional ground if necessary, there being at all times the 
danger of a breakout in heavy rains. 
This second cleaning is considered sufficient till 
about the middle of October when 
THE CROPS 
are sure to be showing signs of ripening^ when an 
aporca is repeated, leaving the ground clean and favor- 
able for picking; in January or February at latest a 
raspa is given, differing from the one done in July in 
that the weeds are left uncovered, causing them to 
dry up quickly in a season of the year which is always 
rainless. 
The shovel used is, I believe, peculiar to Costa Rioa, 
being round-nosed, square-backed, slightly indented to 
the centre, measuring from 14 to 20 inches across, 
according to numbers and is mauufactured principally 
in U. S. A. Considerable strength and practice are 
needed to make an expert shoveller and the majority of 
the working classes begin working at it in their early 
teens ; during the rainy months from May to Novem- 
ber shovellers work almost daily from 6 a.m. till 12 
and often till 2 p.m. when the rain permits, and it is 
considered that the work done is a good day's work, 
when the leader or man who takes the first row sets a 
good pace and example, for which a little increase in 
pay is made, all shovellers by custom having to even 
up their work with that of the leader. 
This custom of cleaning is 
SOMETIMES VARIED, 
a machetea with broad-bladed machetes taking the 
place of a raspa, though a cleaning in this manner is 
only effective in the dry season : the machete being 
very much like the Cuban cane-knife, but with a 
thinner blade besides having a twisted handle which 
enables the worker to skim over the surface of the 
ground lifting very little dirt : covered cleanings of 
both kinds with shovels though costing more are at 
the same time more effective, as they annihilate all 
stubborn weeds and grasses, this not being the case 
with machetes. The amount of ground that can be 
gone over in one day working till 2 p.m. varies accord- 
ing to its nature and other conditions ; in ground 
moderately steep, where shovelling is customary and 
the surface well pulverised, a labourer can do about \ 
of a manzana or J of an acre, in some cases more, 
but this can be taken as an average in aporcas . 
Raspas with shovels and rcacheteas cost 25 and 40 per 
cent, less than aporcas, the former generally having the 
preference during the rainy months. 
The saying that what is worth doing is worth 
doing well has no better application th;in in shovelling, 
a shovellingbadly done causing more loss of ground than 
if left alone, a state of things which is generally ad- 
mitted as only needing time to cause the ruin of 
an estate. 
Some adverse critics declare that the roots of the 
trees are cut aud suffer from the shovelling ; ocular 
evidence, however, proves that trees over 30 years 
old when pulled up have a complete system of roots 
extending over six feet all round and this often two 
feet or more below the surface. 
