tree, two hillsides meeting in a small valley bottom were selected. 
The rows were made down one slope and up the other, being very 
uniform as to their proportion of good and poor soil and quite 
typical of coffee land. Twenty-one trees were set in each row. All 
seedlings were of the same age and from the 1908 crop of one variety 
of Arabian coffee. Large holes were opened up and filled with sur- 
face soil previous to setting the trees. 
Transplanting seedlings with -five to six pairs of leaves. — Rows 1, 
2, and 3 were set in August. 1909, the young trees having then five 
to six pairs of true leaves. The plants for row 1 were removed from 
the nursery with as large a clod of earth surrounding the roots as 
the spacing in the nursery permitted, the bed being cut with a 
machete into squares approximately 6 inches across. The heavy 
texture of the clay 1 allowed these blocks of soil to be easily lifted 
without crumbling. They were then slightly pressed to prevent 
breaking and laid in a box to be carried to the plat. With five or 
six pairs of leaves developed the roots were nearly all contained in 
clods of the size used. The plants were' set immediately to the same 
depth as in the nursery, and the earth was well firmed around them. 
Rows 2 and 3 were set with plants having the root systems bare of 
earth. The upper leaves were slightly pruned to prevent top-heavi- 
ness. Care was taken in removing the plants from the nursery to 
avoid as much as possible any damage to the roots. As the taproots 
in most instances were badly curled and twisted, those of the plants 
for row 2 were clipped just above the twist, generally about an inch 
below the root collar, in order to force straight growth. The few 
straight taproots were clipped where they bent easily, while the side 
roots were lightly pruned. For row 3 the roots were left unpruned. 
The plants were set to the same depth as in the nursery and the 
earth carefully filled in around the roots. 
For the first few months after transplanting row 1 seemed slightly 
more vigorous than row 3. At one year from setting no difference 
in vigor could be noted between rows 1 and 3, but both were superior 
to row 2, the trees of which had been severely root-pruned. From 
row 1 two trees had died; from row 2. six trees: and from row 3, 
three trees. Of the trees with severely pruned roots more than twice 
as many were lost the first year as of the corresponding trees with 
unpruned roots. 
The condition of the trees at the end of the first year indicated 
that when seedlings with five to six pairs of leaves are transplanted, 
as good results may be had from careful transplanting with the root 
system bare of earth as with the roots incased in a ball of earth from 
the nursery, a process involving more labor. 
i Porto Rico Sta. Bui. 14 (1914). 
