shoots
and suckers and thin out superfluous wood as soon as possible. For we must
constantly keep in mind that a given weight of leaves is as exhaustive to
the tree as a given weight of berries. Prompt handling, and the removal of
suckers, is also very necessary for the free ventilation of the tree, and
especially during the monsoon months. I would call particular attention to
the bearing that judicious and timely handling has on rot and leaf
disease, as these are both much encouraged if the tree, at the beginning
of the monsoon, has much immature foliage. We should handle them (and
prune too, as is subsequently pointed out) so as to meet the monsoon as
much as possible with well ripened leaves, and this can obviously be best
done by preserving all the September and October shoots we can, and
removing all the February shoots that the tree can spare. In connection
with this subject, I would strongly advise planters to study Mr. Marshall
Ward's third Report on leaf disease in Ceylon, to which I have elsewhere
referred, and would particularly call attention to what he urges as to the
advisability of giving every leaf that is to be preserved as long a life
as possible, in order that it may feed the tree for the greatest possible
length of time.

In our climate, anything approaching to heavy pruning is regarded as an
abomination, and the general opinion is now in favour of shortening back
long drooping primaries, removing cross shoots and wood that is not likely
to bear anything more, and thinning out overgrowths of new wood. The most
luxuriantly wooded part of the plantation should be pruned first, and the
sticky coffee last, because, in the first place, it is important to stop
the growth of superfluous wood as soon as possible, and in the second
case, time will be given to the sticky coffee to throw out new shoots, so
that the pruner can see exactly where to apply the knife, which is often a
matter of difficulty, if he is dealing with trees quite exhausted from
bearing a heavy crop, or from the land being insufficiently manured. It is
very important to pare closely off the spikes left after cutting off a
secondary branch, so that the bark may heal over the junction of the
branch with the parent branch, as, if this is not done, the free
circulation of the sap is checked. It runs up the branches, and, of
course, cannot readily get on when it meets with a spike of wood sticking
out of the branch. This spike or stump may be gre