must be particularly careful that his manure is well 
rotted ; particularly the Coffee-husks, or outer skin 
of the berry, should it constitute any considerable 
portion of the composition. It may then be con¬ 
veyed to the spot by Mules, and dropped in heaps 
at convenient distances, from which it must be 
gathered up in baskets, and laid round the root of 
the tree : besides which, each Negro should carry 
out a basket full as they go out to the field. Should 
the surface have acquired a hardness unfavourable 
to its reception, he should employ two or three 
able people with picquets, similar to those used for 
planting, with which the soil should be loosened 
about the roots of the trees A practice by which 
I have known many a hard steril piece of ground 
brought to fecundity. 
The manure, when placed to the tree, should 
be covered with some of the adjacent dry weeds, or 
Pois-doux branches, to prevent the sun from exhal¬ 
ing its juices. Nor should fowls be allowed to 
stray into the piece, which, by scratching for worms, 
will rake the manure away from the trees. 
To a careful and emulous Planter, a variety of ex¬ 
pedients will present themselves, to prevent the es¬ 
cape of the soil in heavy rains. Drains, judiciously 
dispersed, with little declivity, tending to hollow 
paits, where the soil can be retained, and large 
holes, by some Planters called mould-traps , may be 
made to arrest almost every particle ; by which pre¬ 
caution the soil is not lost, but only removed ; and 
* may 
