out a year old, and stands from twelve to
eighteen inches high with its first pairs of primary branches, the
plants are set out in shallow holes at regular intervals of from eight
to twelve, or even fourteen, feet apart. This gives room for the root
system to develop, provides space for sunlight to reach each tree, and
makes for convenience in cultivating and harvesting. _Liberica_ and
_robusta_ type trees require more room than _arabica._ When set twelve
feet apart, which is the general practise, with the same distance
maintained between rows, there are approximately four hundred and fifty
trees to the acre. In the triangle, or hexagon, system the trees are
planted in the form of an equilateral triangle, each tree being the same
distance (usually eight or nine feet) from its six nearest neighbors.
This system permits of 600 to 800 trees per acre.

SHADE AND WIND BREAKS. Strong, chilly winds and intensely hot sunlight
are foes of coffee trees, especially of the _arabica_ variety.
Accordingly, in most countries it is customary to protect the plantation
with wind-breaks consisting of rugged trees, and to shade the coffee by
growing trees of other kinds between the rows. The shade trees serve
also to check soil erosion; and in the case of the leguminous kinds, to
furnish nutriment to the soil. Coffee does best in shade such as is
afforded by the silk oak (_Grevillea robusta_). In _Shade in Coffee
Culture_ (_Bulletin_ 25, 1901, division of botany, United States
Department of Agriculture), O.F. Cook goes extensively into this
subject.

The methods employed in the care of a coffee plantation do not differ
materially from those followed by advanced orchardists in the colder
fruit-belts of the world. After the young plants have gained their
start, they are cultivated frequently, principally to keep out the
weeds, to destroy pests, and to aerate the earth. The implements used
range from crude hand-plows to horse-drawn cultivators.

FERTILIZING. Comparatively little fertilizing is done on plantations
established on virgin soil until the trees begin to bear, which occurs
when they are about three years of age. Because the coffee tree takes
potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid from the soil, the scheme of
fertilizing is to restore these elements. The materials used to replace
the soil-constituents consist of stable manure, leguminous plants,
coffee-tree prunings, leaves, certain weeds, oil cake, bone and fish
meal, guano, wood