166 
A ME Rid AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Coffee Planting in Ceylon.* 
BY W. B. BRADSHAW. 
People, as a rule, know very little about Coffee 
while under cultivation. Many suppose that be¬ 
cause coffee is termed a beau, it necessarily grows 
suspended from a vine with a number of beans in a 
pod; this is quite a mistake as it is so named only 
from its shape. The Coffee tree grows naturally 
in long struggling shoots, each ten or fifteen feet 
iu length ; it is, however, topped when it reaches 
three and a half feet, and by careful pruning is 
kept at this hight; it is besides in this wav easier 
to work and make a more healthy tree. 
The berries grow in clusters,around the branches, 
and are of a bright, red color, like cherries in ap- | 
pearance when ripe ; a soft pulp intensely sweet to 
taste, covers the bean, which is surrounded by two 
skins, a silver skin, and a parchment skin. The 
silver skin looks like thin tissue paper, and fits 
tightly round the bean; the parchment skin is of a 
a tough leathery substance and surrounds both the 
bean and the silver skin. 
To describe fully the opening of a Coffee 
Estate would be an almost endless task, so a brief 
description is all that can be attempted here. One 
part, however, merits a little more space than the 
rest; this is the “Felling of the Jungle.” Nearly 
all the estates are situated on the sides of the hills, 
so when the contractors are felling the trees, they 
commence at the foot of the hill, cutting the trees 
only half way through. When they have finished 
the whole clearing in this way, they fell two or three 
trees simultaneously at the top of the hill, which, 
falling on the others already half cut through, the 
whole forest falls as if by one blow. 
The remainder of the work on the clearing con¬ 
sists chiefly in burning the felled timber, sawing 
timber for building purposes, preparing nurseries 
of young plants, tracing and cutting roads and 
drains, lining and holing (the uses of which are 
described below), weeding, and the building of 
the superintendent’s house or “ bungalow,” the 
store, or building where the coffee is cured and 
stored, the coolies’ houses and all other buildings 
necessary for the working of an estate. 
Coffee trees are planted in long straight lines, 
running the entire length of the estate, and six feet 
apart, this makes it very much easier to work the 
estate when pruning, weeding, picking and other 
work is being carried on. 
The planting is only done in the wet weather 
when the plants are simply placed into holes that 
have been dug, six feet apart, on the lines men¬ 
tioned before and the earth filled in ; they are then 
left to grow until they attain their full size and re¬ 
quire very little looking after for two years. 
There are many enemies that attack and destroy 
the coffee tree during this period of its existence. 
If the estate is anywhere in the neighborhood of a 
large expanse of jungle, or near the plains, watch¬ 
men have to be kept constantly on guard to frighteD 
* The author of this paper is well qualified to write 
on the subject of coffee culture, having been engaged in 
this pursuit for several years in the Island of Ceylon. 
away the wild elephants, which have an unpleasant 
way of pulling up and tearing to pieces anything ! 
they do not quite understand. Deer and elk will 
come and browse on the young plants, and wild 
pigs (tame ones also when they get an opportunity), 
will root up the ground and make it look as if a 
steam plow had been at work; the coffee grubs are 
also another dangerous pest, they are white, and 
about two inches long when fully grown; they de¬ 
vour the young roots, and the tree failing to get 
nourishment in the usual way, droops and dies. 
When the tree is older there are other enemies to 
be encountered ; monkeys and coffee rats come 
down from the jungle and rocks to eat the sweet, 
ripe fruit; but the last and worst difficulty is the 
much dreaded leaf disease, which appears in the 
form of a yellow powder on the back of the leaf ; 
this gradually extends over the whole 
leaf, which drops off, and a tree without 
leaves cannot ripen a crop. There seems 
to be no cure for this extraordinary dis¬ 
ease, and the only remedy that has yet 
been found, appears to be the application 
of sulphur and lime (by means of blowers) 
to the leaf, but even in this instance the 
relief is only temporary. 
Crop time on an estate is necessarily a 
very busy season, men, women and chil¬ 
dren are all put to pick the ripe, scarlet 
berries from the trees. It is accomplished 
by each coolie taking one line, for which 
he is responsible, and going straight up 
the hill, picking as he goes. In this way 
a coolie can easily pick two bushels per 
day in the hight of the gathering season. 
When the day’s work is finished, the 
bell is rung and the coolies all come to 
the 6tore and empty their sacks into a 
shed which is provided for the purpose, termed 
a receiving shed, and giving in their names as 
they go. This receiving shed is connected with 
the machinery in the store by spouting. Upon 
a given signal, the machinery, either water 
or hand-power, as the case may be, is set in mo¬ 
tion and the cherry (coffee in its berry form) is 
washed down the spouting by water into the first 
piece of machinery, which removes the pulp, when 
the bean with its parchment skin, covered with a 
thick viscid matter, slips past into a riddle, through 
which it is 6ifted and floated by water into a large 
cistern, where the water is drained off and the grain 
heaped up, covered with old sack'mg and allowed 
h 
FLOWER AND BERRY OF COFFEE. 
to remain two days to ferment. The pulp in the 
meantime is washed in another direction to a pit 
where it is preserved as a manure. 
When the coffee has been allowed to remain two 
days in the cistern, coolies jump in among it, re¬ 
move the sacking, and spread the coffee all over 
the cistern floor with wooden shovels to a depth of 
about six inches. Four or five men are then called 
and they proceed to stamp it well, to remove any 
pieces of pulp that remain. When the coffee has 
been well trampled, water is allowed to run on it 
until the cistern is half full; the coffee is then 
BRANCH OF COFFEE TREE. 
shoveled backwards and forwards until all the 
glutinous matter is removed, the water is then 
drained off, and clear water turned on, and the 
60 me process repeated, until the water can wash 
nothing more from it; the coffee is then carried 
in baskets to the second story of the 6tore. 
It has now to be dried, but it is not put immedi¬ 
ately in the sun, as that would split the parch¬ 
ment skin, and it is always considered advisable 
to ship the coffee with the parchment skin on. 
After remaining two or three days inside it is 
placed on mats on the barbecue or flat space, ad¬ 
joining the store, and coolies are kept continually 
turning it over and over. When it has been kept 
in the sun five or six days, it is finally placed in¬ 
side the store to remain until a sufficient quantity 
has been cured to admit of despatching, but even 
here it requires to be continually turned to prevent 
its becoming heated and mildewed. 
Nothing now remains to be done except to des¬ 
patch the coffee from the estate, which is done in 
many different ways, the favorite method being to 
load it on the backs of trained cattle, which carry it 
to the nearest cart road, from there it is sent by cart 
to the railway station and then by rail to Colombo, 
where it is sent to the mills. 
In the mills they tear the parchment skin from 
the bean, they then have the beans winnowed, 
packed in barrels and shipped to England. Our 
planter in all probability, when he receives his copy 
of the bill of lading, will dive his hands into his 
pockets, whistle some vigorous tune, wonder what 
his coffee will fetch, and proceed to drive his 
coolies, and work the estate for the next crop. 
Application of Plant Food, 
BY PROF J. W. SANBORN, MO. 
In the January number of the American Agricul¬ 
turist 1 gave some facts illustrating the effect of the 
position of the manure in the ground on the rela¬ 
tive development of stem and leaf. By those facts 
it was, incidentally shown, that manure plowed 
under gave results more favorable than the pre¬ 
vailing belief would lead us to expect. Plowing 
under manure is regarded by many as an “ old 
fogy ” idea. I once entertained that view, and 
supposed that unanswerable reasons warranted it. 
Many of the arguments in favor of surface appli¬ 
cation still appear strong. Manure worked into 
the surface soil is near the young roots and feeds 
them at a critical period in their growth. When 
worked in, the manure is at the spot of the greatest 
root development, and hence that development is 
normal. When the fertilizer is plowed in, the roots 
make an unnatural development deeper than the 
normal expansion, and in a layer along the line of 
manure. The manure will decompose less readily 
and will not be fined and thoroughly distributed in 
the soil. Six years ago, I began a series of trials, 
the results of which have forced me to give the 
matter careful study. Thirty-five square rods of 
soil were plowed, and twenty tons per acre of barn¬ 
yard manure were harrowed into the surface, while 
an equal amount of manure was plowed under in 
a similar area, and remained there until the ground 
was re-plowed, last year. The ground was alluvial 
clay, and compact, the very kind where surface ap¬ 
plication of manure should appear to best advan¬ 
tage. The first crop was oats cut for fodder. 
Surface-applied manure gave 1,685 lbs. of fodder, 
and,when plowed under, 1,785 pounds were harvest¬ 
ed per plot. The chemical composition of the 
crop was not tested. 
The first crop of grass was not weighed, as it was 
slightly winter-killed, and was therefore unreliable. 
In 1879, the surface manure gave 3,966 lbs. of hay 
per acre, while that plowed under gave 3,813 lbs. 
Last year 1 laid out two more plats, 2 by 8 rods, and 
gave to each 1,760 lbs. of sheep manure, plowing 
under one, and putting the other lot on the surface, 
harrowing it in. The yield on the surface-applied 
plot was 4,300 lbs. of straw and 1,580 lbs. of oats 
per acre ; the other gave 5,700 lbs. of straw and 
1,260 lbs. of oats. Here it is again noticed, as 
shown in my last article, that the proportion of 
