of trees required in consequence. It
should also be remembered that we require our shade not only to protect
our coffee from the sun's rays, but to shield it from those parching winds
which sweep across the arid plains of the interior of India, and to
prevent the drying up of the land. And is it not perfectly obvious that if
we trim up the trees so as to produce a long stem with a small crown, the
parching winds will sweep unchecked over plants and soil? There is,
however, the usual proverbial exception, and that is in the case of trees
growing near the bottoms of ravines with steep sides to them, and where
you often want a drawn up stem and crown to cast a shadow on to a hot
western or southern bank, and in such cases, of course, trimming up is
necessary. Having thus discussed the planting of coffee where the forest
has been cut wholly down and burnt, we will now turn to planting under the
shade of the original forest trees.

In opening, then, a plantation which is to be shaded by preserving a
portion of the original forest trees, the first thing to be done is to
clear a wide track through the underwood from one end of the block of
forest to the other, and as many tracks at right angles to the line as may
facilitate your getting about and thoroughly inspecting the land to be
cleared. The next thing to be done is to cut a wide track round the entire
portion to be cleared, leaving a belt of from fifteen to twenty yards as a
margin between the land to be cleared and the grassland lying outside the
forest. This marginal belt will often be found useful for shelter in many
cases, and it must be borne in mind, too, that the margins of jungles are
generally composed of land into which the forest has more recently
extended itself, and are therefore poorer than the interior portion of the
forest, and consequently less adapted to the growth of the coffee. Another
advantage of this marginal belt is that it will prevent fires spreading
from the grasslands, and that by planting thorny climbing plants on its
outer edge a good fence may be formed. Another very great advantage I have
found from such belts is that valuable top soil may be taken from them to
manure the adjacent coffee, and especially to afford a supply of rich
virgin soil when filling up vacancies in the old coffee. This last use of
the marginal belt is particularly valuable, as it is both troublesome and
expensive to lay down either cattle manure or top soil brought from