1 Ava., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL 171 
impediment to the free circulation of air between the branches; the primary 
itself should never be cut unless the part to be operated upon is dead, or has 
by some means or other become so seriously damaged as to require its removal. 
As pruning trees has the effect of making them throw out quantities of new 
wood, it will be found necessary to go over them and handle them again, 
within two months after the pruning has taken place, and remove all suckers 
from round about the eye nearest to the parts pruned off, also along the stem 
and primaries, leaving only such wood as is required for the forthcoming crop 
and the one following it. The utmost care must therefore be exercised as to 
what wood to remove and what to allow to remain, at the same time keeping 
the tree as symmetrical as possible, and yet not at the expense of reducing the 
crop by so doing. It isin the pruning of the tree that the planter possessed of 
knowledge and dexterity comes in, the future of the plantation and its bearing 
capabilities being entirely dependent on this work being judiciously carried out. 
With regard to the season of the year at which pruning should take place, 
again planters often differ. Some there are who are wont to put the knife in 
immediately after the crop has been gathered ; others do not care to begin until 
the blossom is in spike, or nearly so; others not until the blossom has set. All 
seem to offer more or less, in one way and another, distinct advantages or dis- 
advantages, but the general custom in vogue amongst old hands is to prune 
after crop, for by doing so old wood and wood which has borne is at once 
removed, and what remains benefits to the full extent of all the vitality left in 
the tree. 
Not pruning till the blossom has set has certainly its advantages, if only 
for the reason that the pruner sees at a glance what to leave and what to take 
off; but this, again, is counterbalanced by a far greater evil, inasmuch as the 
pruner will often be disinclined to take off wood which is showing fruit, 
though by doing so he is immensely increasing his labours for the following 
season, in addition to putting his tree out of shape; again, when going through 
and around his tree, he is very apt to knock off a considerable amount of 
young green berries, consequent on the young wood not being in such a 
vigorous state as when pruned early. 
Pruning as the blossomis coming into spike is preferable to the latter, but 
{ do not consider that either method can in any way approach pruning after 
crop, for the reasons given above, and it will be palpable to anybody that as 
manuring takes place as soon as practicable after the crop has been gathered, 
so’should pruning begin, for as the manure is placed in the ground to restore 
as much as possible to the tree the vitality lost by bearing a heavy crop, so all 
useless wood, dead or alive, is removed, in order to concentrate as much as 
possible the renewed vigour imparted to the tree by the application of the 
manure. 
(Lo be continued.) 
COFFEE-PICKING AT CAIRNS, 
Tm question of harvesting coffee cheaply has been debated ever since the 
attention of agriculturists has been turned in the direction of coffee-planting. 
Many people have been deterred from entering upon the industry by state- 
ments that the cost of picking would take away any margin of profit, even if 
the crop were sold at 1s. per lb. 
The Rev. HE. R. Gribbie, who is in charge of the Aboriginal Mission 
Station at Myola, has sent several aboriginal “boys’’ to pick the crop on 
Hambledon Plantation. ‘The experiment seems to be asuecess. Mr. Gribble, 
writing to Mr. B. Cowley, Manager of Kamerunga State Nursery, says that the 
