374 ‘QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Noy., 1898. 
Now, in these facts, rightly used, there lies a declaration of independence 
for every Florida farmer, and still another proof that brains applied to our 
climate and soil need pay no tribute to Cuba or Hawai, or any power or poten- 
tate under God’s footstool. No new principle is involved. Brown sugar is 
unsightly, because it is not clarified—the moss is only the best clarifier for 
eliminating impurities and making a large per cent. of the sugar available for 
household use in an agreeable form.— Louisiana Planter. 
COFFEE IN QUEENSLAND AND OTHER PARTS. 
No. 38. 4 
By JOHN DANSEY, 
Manager, Mackay Coffee Estate Co., Ltd. 
Draining.—Qo prevent wash, all lands in any way inclined to steepness 
should be drained as soon as possible after the burn has taken place; drains 
should be about 15 inches x 15 inches in size, and cut across the field at a 
gradient of about 1 in 18 and about 45 feet apart. Drains cut at the above 
angle will generally keep themselves clean. In draining, endeayour when 
practicable to carry your drain into the nearest ravine, and avoid as much as 
possible putting in up and down drains; the latter soon wear away to such an 
extent as to become, after one or two wet seasons, huge unsightly crevasses, the 
sides of which continually keep falling in, and carrying away many valuable 
coffee-trees planted near by. 
Manuring.—YVo obtain good crops it is as necessary to attend to the 
manuring of coffee as it is to any other branch of agriculture ; wide divergencies 
of opinion exist among practical planters as to the best and mort economical way 
of applying manures to the coffee-tree. Deep-hole manurmg and surface 
manuring are both practised in Ceylon. ‘The former consists of cutting a hole 
about 2 feet square above each coffee-tree, and filling it with manure which 
has previously been well mixed with the soil taken from the hole. All kinds 
of manures are used in this manner—cattle-dung, coffee-pulp, composts of 
yarious kinds, consisting principally of ravine soil, mixed with lime, ashes, 
&c., &e. This method of manuring cannot in any way recommend itself to 
Queensland planters, as the cost of cutting the holes, the carrying and applica- 
tion of the bulky manures, would render it far too expensive. Surface 
manuring, on the other hand, besides being,in my opinion, far more effective 
in its actual results, cannot be considered in any way costly as compared to the 
former. Cattle-dung, coffee-pulp, and composts can be equally well applied 
on the surface as under it, but, as their bulky nature will not allow of their 
being carried any distance, only trees in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
manure heaps should be so treated. Such manures as steamed bones, or bone- 
meal, superphosphates, poonac (the refuse from the cocoanut after the oil has 
been extracted), guano, blood manure, &c., are all excellent manures for 
coffee, and are especially applicable to surface manuring. These should, how- 
ever, be judiciously applied. Guano, for instance, should only be given 
in very small quantities, and even then well mixed with other manures 
such as bones. In surface manuring, all that is required is to scrape away 
the soil from around the tree to the depth of about 2} to 3 inches, and 
to a width of about 3 feet. The manure to be applied is then spread all 
round and covered up again with the soil previously scraped off. If using 
bulky manures, a bushel to a tree would be necessary, whereas in mixtures of 
bonedust, blood manures, or guano an ordinary jamtinful would be considered 
ample. 
Littering.—No better method can be pursued at all times than to cover 
the ground round and about the trees with a heavy coating of thatch. This 
surface littering (mulching—Zd.) hasa most marvellous effect on the coffee-tree, 
