6 BULLETIN 28, PORTO RICO EXPERIMENT STATION. 
such that the owner was willing to sell the place at $10 an acre. The 
coffee trees had at one time been enormous as was evident from their 
immense trunks. This clearly showed that the soil and climate 
were suitable for the production of coffee. 
The spots of Stilbella flavida and the prematurely dropped green 
leaves were to be seen on all sides. (PL II, fig. 1.) It was quite 
evident that little could ever be expected from this coffee plantation 
on account of the continuous defoliation of the trees, which were in 
wretched condition. Their leaves and crops were borne mainly on 
high branches, and their long trunks were bare of lower limbs. 
(PL II, fig. 2.) 
At the suggestion of the writer the owner agreed to cooperate with 
the experiment station by allowing a plat to be selected and handled 
under its direction to see what improvement could be made in the 
condition of the coffee. The plantation owner furnished the labor 
for the test. In order that several things may be understood in 
regard to the handling of this work, it should be explained that (1) 
there is no dwelling house on the plantation other than a hut in 
which the peon lives; (2) the owner lives at such a distance that it 
takes many hours in the saddle to reach the plantation, consequently 
he seldom, if ever, visits it, even to make an annual inspection; (3) 
the plantation is accessible by mountain trails only and is several 
hours distant from the nearest town and a day's journey from the 
experiment station; and (4) that only a few of the cheapest class of 
laborers are emplo3 r ed on the plantation, and they are changed 
frequently. 
CLEANING OUT A DISEASED SECTION. 
The initial work in eradicating the leaf disease from the selected 
plat of this coffee plantation was done under the joint direction of 
W. A. Mace, formerly agricultural technologist of this station, and 
the writer, both of whom remained on the plantation from January 
30 to February 3, 1917. It was thought that the plat selected was 
approximately 3,400 or 3,600 feet above sea level, the altitude being 
estimated from a near-by point of known altitude. 
The plat, while not an isolated one, offered some slight natural 
barriers against reinfection. The surface was steeply inclined, and 
two of the sides formed low convergent ridges. It measured 265 
and 350 feet along the ridges, 90 feet along the upper boundary, and 
313 feet along the lower boundary. Midway of the slope the plat 
was crossed by a footpath. 
The stand of coffee trees in some parts of this plat was very good ; 
in others it was very sparse. Above the footpath most of the land 
had been abandoned and was covered with underbrush which made 
