down any at all, as he will find it to be a mere
waste of money and labour, which is often more precious than money.

As regards the important point of topping, there are considerable
differences of opinion. I am in favour of short topping, because the
coffee thus more quickly and completely covers the ground, and the trees
are more easily pruned and handled, and some planters top at from three to
three and a half feet. Others again prefer four feet, and some four feet
and a half, while I know of a planter who prefers a greater height, and
cuts off the lower branches of his trees so as to turn them into an
umbrella shape. The last practice I thought a very strange one once, but
taking rot and leaf disease into consideration, I am by no means sure
that, for our shade coffee, it is not the best, and at any rate feel quite
sure that, as the lower branches in the case of highly topped trees soon
become poor and thin, the practice of high topping, and removing some of
the lower branches, is one to be decidedly recommended, and I am now
adopting it on my estate. For, in the case of our shade plantation, if the
coffee is short and thickly planted, so as to closely cover the ground,
there is necessarily a great want of ventilation, and, when this is the
case, rot must, from the great dampness of the ground, have a tendency to
increase in the monsoon, while from there being no room for the passage of
air underneath the trees, the spores of the leaf disease will be preserved
from being dried up and killed during the season of strong and parching
winds. But quite independently of these reasons, it seems to me that the
souring of the land owing to excessive saturation would be much lessened
were there free ventilation under the coffee trees. And, taking all these
points into consideration, I am now letting up all my short topped trees,
which is easily done by letting a sucker grow from the head of the tree,
and topping it when it reaches the required height. In places which are
exposed, or fairly exposed, to wind, short topping would not be attended
with such disadvantages, as in the case of the land in more sheltered
situations, but for all sheltered situations it certainly seems to me
that, with reference to the limitation of rot, leaf disease and the
souring of the land, the trees should be topped at not less than four feet
and a half.

The trees should not be topped until after the blossom comes out, as the
result of topping a