THE rkOPlOM AGRICULTURIST. [ August i, 1891. 
it does not ask for a large supply of food. A fair 
average trea at tha eud of the bot weatber weighed 
201b. and had eeventeea primaries and 2,500 leaves ; 
suoh a tree will yield 6 cwt. of coffee per atinutu vji h 
its aooompanying pulp. Blaterials removed by : — 
5 cwt. Coffee. 
lb. Pulp, Leaves. 
Tricalcio phosphate ... 4 1 41 
Ammonia 10 S-^- I3r> 
Potash ... 9 6 101 
Lima ... 2 1 90 
Sulphuric aoi'l ... § J 11 
The amount of material taken up by 5 owt. coffee 
is very smaH. That removed by tho loives aud pruu- 
ings is what requires to be replaced by manure as 
they deoumpse very slowlj', the soluable salts yielded 
by them are lost in the monsoon rains, aud wash. 
The plant food is not there when the tree requires 
it to develope its fruit. 
Looked at from this point of view, we must, iu a 
manure that has to be applied at the end of July or 
in August, have all the plant food iu an easily augimilable 
form, and provide fully for the plant's wants. On this 
hasis a coffee manure should have 40 lb. Tricalcic 
phosphate, 140 ib. of ammonia, 110 lb. potash, and other 
manurial matters in proportion, if the tree has to 
depend on the manure alone for the supply of plant 
food. 
But the soil by slow decomposition and disentegration 
is als3 supplying foori, and the tree appears to be 
capable of taking up ammonia, or some form of 
nitrogen compound iiom the air through the soil by 
its roots. The great question is what is necessary and 
how much ? To help in the settlement of this question 
I submit the aggregate results of acme of my ex- 
periment's giving tha weif^ht of clean coffee jieided, 
the results of 1889 and 1890 are added together iu 
tho following table: 
Manuiie. 
4 cwt. 8 cwt. 4 cwt. 8 cwt. 
Bones 
Bones and fish,.. 
Fish... 
Superphosphate 
Mineral phos- 
phate... 
Ammonia sul- 
phate 
Potash nitrate 
(nitre) 
Super and am- 
monia 
Super and nitre 
Minerals and do 
Kaiuit potash 
salts... 
yield 
lb. per 
acre. 
. 833 
. 783 
5,534 
759 
910 
983 
SIS 
713 
773 
648 
607 
761 
jield 
lb. per 
acre, 
752 
818 
C55J 
794 
920 
712 
998 
744 
834 
793 
yield 
oz. per 
tree, 
13-77 
1214 
9 90 
l'.i-34 
1384 
16-39 
18-38 
11-41 
13-05 
10-45 
5441 9-18 
779 12-35 
yield 
oz. per 
tree. 
12- 84 
13- 12 
11- 93 
1111 
14- 90 
12- 33 
16-79 
14-34 
12- 28 
13- 84 
9-02 
12-95 
Average... # • 
The average yield from the 4 owt. of manure is the 
same as from 8 owt. praotioally speaking : at any race 
there is not sufficient difference to pay for the 
extra manure need. The results were almost en- 
tirely controlled by the shade where it was 
thin the results were good, and vice versa. 
This was particularly noticeable in the case of 
ammonian sulphate where 4 cwt. yielded so much 
better retults than the 8 cwt. One of the 8 cwt. plots 
waH under dense jak shade and tho remits were re- 
markably poor, worse than an unmanured plot not 
thirty yards off whers the shado wi-.s thin. Nitre, the 
8 cwt. had the advantage of the thin shade and (he 
reiiuUs aro just the reverse of the sulphate of nm 
monia. Bone?i prts'nt a very curious illu.straticn of 
the greit f (Toot of shade, 4 cwt. gave 13-77 OE. pf-r tree, 
and 8 o-,vV. oidy 12-84 oz. , , , , , ,. . 
-When 4 cwt. of fmh were added to 4 cwt. ol uonts 
e yield was only 13-12 oz., cuisiderAbly h'Rs than 
wh'-n the boiioB v/f',ro used idono. There wan only l-12th 
of an acre, 100 trees ou rsoh of thrfe ostaten, or^ acre 
in evil under each quantity of each manure, end on 
those small plots shade haa had the power to mask and 
control the results, but in the aggregate they ehown 
that under shade, 4 owt of manure will produce a 
good results as 8 cwt,, and it i« evidently folly to use 
more. 
From the preceding data and analyeei, it would 
appear as if the chief requirement! of the coffee tre« 
are phc-sphorio acid and nitrogen; unless the surface 
soil has been lost there would appear to be but a 
small demand for potash. 
Potash salts are very eoluble in water, and appear 
to be easily assimilated by tbe plant, they are abun- 
dantly supplied by the slow decomposition of the 
feldspar aud mics schist iu the rocks, and the stony 
matter of tha soils, together with lime and magnesia, 
but the accumulation of the salts in the land is pre- 
vented by the monsoon rains. 
If they are required as in analysis C I would advise 
the use of ferns for bedding cattle, particularly bracken 
where such are procurable. The ash of tbe bracken 
fern, according to Lester Arnold conftrmed by John 
Hughe.-), contains : — 
Potash ... ... 42 percent 
Phosphoric acid ... 10 ,, 
and is a very valuable manure wherever potash ia 
required, and will well repay the trouble of coUeeting 
the fern. 
Should ferns be unprocurable and the addition of a 
potash salt necessary, I would recommend kainite. 
The buyer should stipulate for 25 per cent sulphate of 
potash, a.t the very luast. But potash i? not nece6s»ry 
as a rule, and should never be used in excessive 
quantitie.-i, as it increases tbe quantity of pulp at the 
expense of the bean. This however does not apply to 
nitrate oE Potash, which acts more like ammonia 
sulphate than any thing else. Wherever there is 
plenty of nitrogen iu the soil the leaves of the treei 
are large aud of a beautiful glossy green, but the 
bean, is small unless there is a fair share of phosphates 
present also. 
This leads to the conclusion that the coffee tree 
must have nitrogen snd phosphates in the manure ; 
whether potash should be inoluiled or not depends 
greatly on the nature of the soil. I would say that 
it was unnecessary with a retentive soil like B. Now 
with some soils, the analysis shows the weak spot at 
OQce and we can easily selcc a single manure to meet 
the exigencies of the case; '. . others tbe manure must 
be diffusive to cover the whole range of tbe necessities 
of the plant and tho poverty of the soil. 
The following rep resents a good type of aj diffusive 
manure ; — 
1 cwt fine bone meal 
1 „ pure fish 
1 ,, superphosphate of lime 40 per cent soluble 
5 ,, sulphate ammonia 
5 ,, kainite 25 p'ir cent sulphate of potash 
This applied after the heavy rains are over at the 
eud of July or August, will supply plant food in a 
form immediately available for the plant's require- 
ments, and will gresvlly assist iu the perfect develop- 
ment of a healthy bean. It is not stimulating, but holds 
the plant food in varying degrees of preparedness 
ready for the use of tho plant from season to season. 
4 cwt. per acre mixed with 1 cubic yard of burnt earth 
or two good loads of cattle manure is sufficient for 1 
acre per annum. It is well suited to the raising of 
supplies. 
In conoluiioii I must draw jour attention to the ad- 
vantages of green manuring. Nitrogen is a most ex- 
pensive item in manures, but certain plants readily 
take it up from the air in some wiy little understood at 
present. Lucern, clover, mustard, &c. &c , may all be 
planted under the coS'ee they are excellent manures, as 
thoy derive most of their nitrogen from the air and send 
their roots deep into the ground in search of food. The 
growth of white mustard is so rapid that it may be 
used to choke out other weeds, by sowing two or three 
crops iu succession and forking them in. Green 
niiiiiuring, if carefully carried out,'Bhould supply all the 
nfcess-iry feed for the bulloeks used on the estate, and 
protect the soil from the fiction of the sun during the 
hot weather iu the dry ciistricls. 
