Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore Part 12

I next turn to a cla.s.s of trees which are undoubtedly good for coffee, but which, for various reasons to be hereafter given, are less desirable than the five trees first given. The first of these less desirable trees is the Jack--Halsen-Mara (_Artocarpus integrifolia_), which was once a favourite tree, and there can be no doubt that coffee thrives well under it, but it is not a wide-spreading tree, the shade is too dense for every aspect, it is a slow grower, and it must be raised from young plants, which are very liable to be attacked by stray cattle. Then when old, and sometimes of medium age, it is very liable to be attacked by parasites; and it produces annually a heavy[53] crop of fruit which costs money and trouble to remove when immature, and which, if left to ripen, exhausts the soil. It is, too, liable to suffer much from wind, and, in situations which are at all windy, is not much to be relied on, as, when under the influence of wind, the foliage becomes poor and scanty, and the tree sometimes dies altogether. A study of the foliage will show, that in one important particular, the five first-named trees are superior to jack, for their leaves are attached to the twigs by long stalks, and much light is thus admitted through the s.p.a.ces between the stalks, while the leaves of the jack are not only more numerous but are attached by short stalks, and the foliage thus throws a very dark shade. Then jack, as it is an evergreen, always affords a thick shade quite continuously, while the five first-named trees not only cast a chequered shade, but, at certain periods of the year, shed every leaf, leaving the tree quite bare for some time, which is an advantage to the coffee. And besides, I have some reason to suppose that the dense shade of the jack encourages rot (a disease remarked upon further on), as one of my managers reports that he has observed it under jack while it was not apparent on the coffee under other kinds of shade trees. But on hot westerly and southerly slopes, and especially where the soil is a bad retainer of moisture, and where the gradient is rather steep, jack may be used with advantage, as in such situations the heat is great and the light strong. I am therefore taking steps to remove jack by degrees from all but southerly and westerly exposures. I may add here that I have found that plants grown from seed procured from the dry plains of the interior of Mysore, grow more than twice as fast as plants raised from local seed. In concluding my remarks on jack, I would particularly advise planters to remove the jack fruit when immature, and put it into the manure heap, or bury it, as, if left on the ground, it attracts cattle and village pigs into the plantation. The fruit is large and full of a great number of seeds which must be an exhaustive crop on the land. On the Nilgiri hills I am told by the planters that there is a ready sale for jack fruit, but this is not the case in coffee districts generally.

The Atti (_Ficus glomerata_) was with me once a favourite tree, and is generally considered to be a good one, as it affords a cool and desirable shade. As a young tree it is admirable, but as it ages the foliage becomes poor and scanty, and the tree has a tendency to run too much to thick bole, and thick branches, which are poorly supplied with smaller branches and foliage. When about thirty years old, I have generally found this tree to be a poor shader, but it can be much improved by severe pruning, or rather lopping. When thinning out shade on this estate about twenty years ago, a twelve year old tree had every branch removed preparatory to cutting down, but by some accident the tree was left standing, and the stumps of the branches threw out fresh shoots, and the tree is now flourishing, and has a comparatively wide spread of branches and fair amount of foliage. It is evident, then, that pruning heavily will cause the tree to throw out new and vigorous shoots, but as this is a troublesome and expensive work, and as atti is certainly liable to the defect above alluded to, and is, besides, not a wide-spreading tree, it is evidently not so desirable as any of the first five I have named. Atti can be grown from cuttings, but these must not be large ones, i.e., they should be thinner than those commonly used when planting cuttings of the various fig trees recommended at the beginning of the section on shade.

The Noga (so called from its being much used to make bullock yokes from) or Nogurigay (_Cedrela Microcarpa_) is a favourite tree to plant for shade, as it is a quick grower, and cattle do not eat it, and it has been extensively planted in Mysore and Coorg. The shade is fairly good, but the tree is not a wide spreader. Then it has one very great objection owing to its being so peculiarly liable, when about thirty years old, to be severely attacked, and often killed, by parasites, and as it is so liable to be attacked, and therefore supplies a large quant.i.ty of parasite seed, the tree is the means of spreading these parasites to other shade trees. I have found that if you even remove every branch that is attacked, and quite below each parasite, the parasite will spring out again, and even more vigorously than before. In short, I found it impossible to contend with the parasites, and am ordering the removal of all Nogurigays from my plantations. I may add here that when jack is lopped in order to remove parasites, they do not spring out again in the same way. My head duffadar informs me that the reason why Nogurigays are so liable to parasites is on account of the rough, deeply-fissured bark, which retains the parasite seeds dropped by birds, whereas smooth-barked trees, like the first five named, of course do not retain them, and hence you rarely see parasites on smooth-barked trees. Another objection to this tree is that, from its shedding its leaves in the monsoon, and not growing them again till we are liable to have hot bursts of sun, you may have a thoroughly saturated soil exposed to a hot sun, which of course has the effect of rapidly hardening the soil. A neighbouring planter tells me that he finds the Noga tree liable to attacks from parasites at even ten years old, and that he therefore regards the tree as a temporary shade, i.e., as a shade to be removed after other more desirable trees are ready to take their place.

Since writing this chapter I have again paid particular attention to this tree, and have been struck with the fact that, for some unknown reason, some trees of this variety seem to be much more liable to attacks of parasites than others, while some escape altogether. But it is quite clear to me that, generally speaking, this tree is not to be relied on, and I have, therefore, no hesitation in advising planters who have relied on it as a permanent shade to at once put down trees of the desirable kind first given with the view of gradually removing the Nogurigays.

Mullee Geruguttee. A very thick, tall tree with large b.u.t.tresses. Coffee thrives well under this tree, but it is not a wide spreader, and, when old, the foliage becomes poor. It is evident that a tree of great thickness which is not a wide spreader, takes up an immense deal of room in proportion to the shade that it yields, and this tree is therefore not so desirable as any of the first five species I have given as being the most desirable trees.

Howligay (_Acrocarpus Flaxinifolia_). This tree has been largely planted in Mysore for shade, but no one speaks well of it now. We have some on my estate upwards of thirty years old, and the foliage is poor and scanty.

The trees, too, shoot up to a great height, and spread but little. By topping at a certain height, this defect may be remedied to some extent, but in order to get an efficient shade from this tree you would require to plant it thickly, and would thus have a large proportion of stems and roots in the land. This tree, though not injurious to coffee, is certainly very undesirable as compared with the first-named kinds I have given.

Some years ago two of these trees died on my property, and all the coffee died around them.

Hessan (_Artocarpus Hirsuta_). Though said to be injurious in poor and shallow soil, coffee thrives under it in good land, but it has a tendency everywhere to run to stem, and therefore affords poor shade. An occasional tree branches out, and affords fair, and in some cases, even good shade, but, as a rule, this is not a desirable tree. It spreads little and thus gives but a poor return for the s.p.a.ce taken up by its stem and roots.

Nairul (_Eugenia Jambolana_). This is a good shade tree. Coffee thrives well under it, and wherever it exists, or may have sprung up accidentally in the plantation, it should be preserved, but it is not, I consider, a desirable tree to plant, as it is a slow grower and not a wide spreader.

Wartee. This is a tree we have always preserved, but it is a slow growing tree, not at all a wide spreader, and the leaf deposit from it is not of a valuable quality, and it is, therefore, not a desirable tree to plant.

Gwoddan (_Dolichos fabaeformis_). Coffee thrives well under this tree, but it has a great profusion of very hard fruits or seeds about the size of a small plum, and these, when falling from a high tree, injure the coffee berries, as may be readily supposed; the tree, too, is not a wide spreader. It is, therefore, not a desirable tree to plant.

I may mention here that I have recently obtained a supply of seed of _Albizzia Moluccana_, which is the tree most approved of for shading coffee in the Island of Java, and I am informed by the superintendent of the Agri-Horticultural Society's Gardens, Madras (from whom I obtained the seed), that one of their correspondents who tried it some years ago reports that, "It grows rapidly, and is of great utility in putting a field of coffee under a light shade such as coffee likes," and that, "in four years the _Albizzia Moluccana_, planted thirty feet apart, will cover the coffee trees." The leaves close during the night, thus giving the coffee plants the benefit of the moonlight and dew more freely. Each ounce of the seed contains roughly 1,200 seeds, which, with ordinary care, should give 1,000 plants, and which, when planted out thirty feet apart, should shade twenty acres.

I now proceed to consider the methods that are adopted for planting under shade in Mysore. The first is to clear down and burn the entire forest, and then plant shade trees along with the coffee. The second is to clear and burn the underwood, and a certain portion of the forest trees, leaving the remainder for shade, and the third is (a system which I have myself adopted in the case of land lying in ravines) to clear off and burn the entire underwood and trees of the lower part of the ravines, leaving the upper portions of them, and the remainder of the land to be cleared and planted, under the original forest trees, as in the second method mentioned.

There can be no doubt that the first-named method is the easiest. I am aware that it has been adopted by some very experienced planters, and it has been partially adopted by myself in the case of all my land in the lower part of ravines. I am well able to judge of the advantages and disadvantages of both systems, as I have them under observation and treatment side by side. On the whole, I think there can be no doubt that the balance of advantage lies much in favour of land that has not had the forest cleared wholly and burnt off. It is true that by a wholesale clearance you at once kill the vast ma.s.s of live forest tree roots in the land, but, on the other hand, you at the same time destroy a store of slowly-decaying vegetable matter, which is of vast importance, not only in feeding the coffee, but in maintaining the physical condition of the soil, and so making it more, easily, and therefore cheaply, workable, and a better agent for preserving the health of the tree. And as a proof of the actual loss incurred, I may observe that Colonel C. I. Taylor, in his book on "The Borer in Coorg, Munzerabad and Nuggar," mentions that an iron peg driven into the ground so that not a part of it protruded, was found, after the cleared jungle had been burned, to be no less than six inches out of the ground. There seems to be a general opinion too that land that has not been burnt will last far longer, and one experienced planter, Mr.

Brooke Mockett, attributes the circ.u.mstances of all the most ancient estates in Mysore being still in existence to the fact that the land has never been burnt. Mr. Mockett also informs me that in good land, where there has been no burn, he has never had Borer severely, though for a time there was no shade over it, as he cleared down ultimately all the old forest trees that had been left for shade, and planted fresh shade. I may mention, too, that I was lately shown an estate in Coorg which had been partially cleared down and burnt off, and partly planted under the shade of the old forest trees. In the latter case the plants had never suffered from Borer or leaf disease and were always healthy, while the coffee in the former case had suffered from both, and there was certainly a most marked difference perceptible in favour of the coffee planted in the unburnt land.

There is also a great difference in my own property in favour of the coffee planted under the original forest shade as compared with the coffee on the land that was cleared down and burnt off, notwithstanding that in the latter case the most approved kinds of shade trees were afterwards planted, and that the land is now admirably shaded. It is highly important to notice these facts, both as a guide to those who have land to open, and also as regards the value of any property that may be for sale, for, after what I have mentioned, it is clear that a property planted under original forest shade, where the land has not been burnt off (for it is quite possible gradually to remove all the old forest trees and replace them with newly planted shade), must be much more valuable than one where the entire forest has been cleared down and burnt off. I now proceed to remark (1) on the course that should be pursued in the case of clearing down and burning the whole jungle and planting fresh shade, and (2) when planting under the original shade.

After the land is ready for planting the coffee, and as early as possible in the monsoon, the young shade trees should be planted in lines or avenues running from east to west, and the trees should be planted so close that they may in five or six years touch each other, and thus form what looks like a series of hedges in parallel lines. The object of this formation is that as the declination of the sun is southerly during our non-cloudy or clear sky season, a close shadow may be cast from the south to the north, so that the s.p.a.ces between the lines may have a lateral shade cast on them. When the trees begin to crowd each other every other one should of course be taken, out, and this may be repeated a second time if necessary. But, besides the southerly, we have also to consider the hot westerly sun, which will strike down the avenues from, say, between two and four in the afternoon. This it is important to block out with occasional trees planted in the avenue, but it is only, of course, where the land is exposed to the afternoon sun that the avenues should be blocked with occasional trees. After fully considering the subject, I find it impossible to say even approximately at what distance the lines of trees should be planted, on account of the great variety in the gradients, and the planter must here use his own judgment; and I can only say generally that the lines of trees require to be much nearer each other on a southerly than on a northerly aspect; nearly as close on a westerly aspect as on a southerly; and on an easterly aspect, at a closer distance than on a northerly one. Some guide toward the nearness of these lines will afterwards be found in the remarks on the quant.i.ty of shade required for the various aspects.

After having planted the young shade trees, then, there comes the question of providing shade for them, for without it their growth will be very slow, and the planter would have to wait a great many years before obtaining such an amount of shade as would have an effect in lowering the temperature of the plantation. He requires then some quick-growing tree as a nurse for the good caste shade trees, and the only tree I know of that is suitable for this purpose is the quick-growing charcoal tree (_Sponia Wightii_)--Kanarese, _gorkul mara_--which springs up with the first rain after the forest has been cleared and burnt. Planters, I am aware, have, generally speaking, a great objection to this tree, and it is considered by Mr. Graham Anderson (_vide_ his book previously quoted) as being "generally regarded as prejudicial and useless." This conclusion has probably arisen from the fact that it is certainly a bad thing to have a rapid grower, and therefore a greedy feeder on the land, and hence it has been found that the charcoal tree is bad when young. But when it has attained its full height, which in ordinary circ.u.mstances is about thirty feet (I have one specimen on my property about sixty feet high, the only one of such a size I ever saw), coffee thrives well under it. This I found to be the case on plantations on the slopes of the Nilgiri hills, where a very experienced planter told me that the tree was bad when young for coffee, but not so when old; and I there saw coffee thriving well under the shade of old charcoal trees. On my oldest plantation we only preserved one of the species (all the others having been cut down, as their good offices as nurses to better trees were no longer required), and the coffee always throve under it remarkably well. Where, too, the shade has subsequently become deficient we always plant charcoal as a nurse for the more desirable trees, and have never observed that it is injurious to coffee. On the whole, after a very long experience and observation of this tree, I have no hesitation in recommending it as a nurse to be thinly distributed amongst the newly-planted shade trees. It is, I may observe, too, a tree with very light branches, which, of course, can easily be removed without injury to the coffee, and its branches should be thinned away when they crowd the young shade trees, and when these have been sufficiently drawn up and expanded the charcoal tree should be entirely removed.

The subsequent treatment of the shade trees is of great importance. Their lower branches in the early years of their growth are commonly thin and weakly, and thus, of course, droop close over the coffee, and often touch it. Then the inexperienced shade tree grower begins to lop off the lower branches, with the result that he injures and bleeds the young tree, and deprives it of the nutriment it would otherwise derive from its full allowance of foliage. Some carry this tr.i.m.m.i.n.g up to a very injurious extent, and the result is that they grow young trees with long stems and poor foliage, and a narrow spread of branches, and thus require many more trees in the land than they would if they exercised a little more patience at first. But if the tree is only left alone the evil of branches drooping downwards on to the coffee will soon disappear, as these branches will not only rise with the rising stem, but will thicken and grow upwards, instead of drooping as they did when young and weakly. And some planters, I observe, are by no means satisfied with lopping the lower boughs, but trim off branches fifteen feet from the ground. Under such a system the number of shade trees required is enormous, and the evils arising from the number of boles with their vast ma.s.s of large roots will only be the more severely apparent as time advances. By one shade planter in Coorg I have been told that coffee there has already been suffering much from the quant.i.ty of boles and tree roots in the land, in consequence of the tr.i.m.m.i.n.g up system and the quant.i.ty 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, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g 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 gra.s.sland 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 gra.s.slands, and that by planting th.o.r.n.y 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 a distance in those odd corners here and there in the plantations where vacancies are apt to occur.

After the above suggested preliminary tracks have been opened out, the whole underwood should be cleared and piled in heaps, and as far as possible, of course, from the trees which are most desirable for shade.

Then the trees positively injurious to coffee should be cut down and their branches lopped and piled on the stumps of the objectionable trees, and after this a certain proportion of the less desirable kinds should be felled. All burning should be carried on in separate piles, as a running fire through the clearing would be fatal to the standing trees, and, when firing the piles they should be burnt off in detail at as great a distance from each other as possible, as the bark of many of the forest trees is easily injured by the heat arising from many blazing piles in their neighbourhood. The land having thus been thoroughly cleared, should be planted.

But by the process I have recommended much more shade will be left than will ultimately be required, and I have found that it is impossible to clear down at once all the trees you wish to get rid of, as, if you did, you would be sure to require such a number of piles as would, when they were burnt, be sure to injure the trees to be preserved. It is therefore necessary to complete the clearing during the season following. Such trees, then, as you may wish further to remove may be thrown down between the rows of coffee, and others which may be likely to do much damage, either to the coffee or to the shade trees to be preserved, may be lopped and barked, and they should be barked as high up as a man can reach, as we have found that trees barked close to the ground die slowly.

It sometimes, however, happens that the forest land is much cut up with narrow and deep ravines, and in that case the bottoms of such ravines should be cleared off entirely, and this can be done without injury to the standing trees above, as, when the wood in the bottom of the ravine is being burnt the flames will be too distant to inflict any injury to the trees left for shade higher up the slopes, but, as I have said, great care must be taken to prevent any running fire through the shaded land; and I can speak of the effect of such a fire from a melancholy experience. In the event of bottoms of ravines being thus cleared down, it may afterwards be found desirable to supply fresh shade on the southern and western slopes, and this can easily be done on the system recommended previously for lands which have been entirely cleared down.

It is time now to turn our attention to the extremely complicated question of the quant.i.ty of shade required for the various aspects, gradients, and soils we have to deal with, and let us in the first place begin with some remarks on the effects of aspect as regards heat.

In considering, then, aspect as regards sun and heat, I may observe that it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of taking into account the immense variation in temperature on the different exposures. For the effect that the sun's rays have on certain aspects in heating the soil and drying up the plant, are such as would be extremely difficult to believe, had the facts not been verified by competent observers, and with the aid of the thermometer. And as regards northern and southern slopes in particular, we shall find that the difference between one exposure and the other is just what const.i.tutes the difference between green and dried gra.s.s, and between leaves luxuriantly green and leaves dry and withered.

And that the first is literally true may be seen by anyone in the months of January and February, for in these months you will see gra.s.s on northern aspects green, and, comparatively speaking, fresh, while, even in a valley sheltered from drying winds, the gra.s.s on the southern slopes is completely withered. And you will see an equally striking difference in the coffee plants--those on the northern slopes full of health and life, while those on the southern ones are yellow, dried up, and sickly. Even in parts of the district where coffee will not thrive without a considerable amount of shade, you will always find the plants thrive well (with little or even none) on a northern bank, and look much better than on a moderately shaded southern bank. Nor in the nursery is the effect of aspect at all less striking. A nursery on a northern slope will require far less water, and far less shade over the plants, than one with a southern exposure. But the late Mr. MacIvor, superintendent of the Government Cinchona plantations on the Nilgiri hills, has tested the value of northern and southern aspects in a way which accurately judges their respective values. He accordingly tells us that, "The reason why a northern exposure in these lat.i.tudes is beneficial is from the fact that it is much more moist during the dry season than a southern aspect, because the sun's declension is southerly during the dry and cloudless season of the year, and thus, on the northern slopes, the rays of the sun do not penetrate and parch the soil. A northern aspect has also the advantage of preserving a much more uniform temperature than a southern aspect, because the excessive radiation and evaporation in the southern slopes greatly reduces the temperature at night, while in the day they are heated to excess by the action of the sun's rays striking the surface nearly at right angles. The practical effects of aspect on the plants are so great that they cannot be overlooked with impunity, and, in order to impress this on the minds of all those who may have the selection of localities for cinchona cultivation, I may mention that the difference of temperature is almost incredible; for example, at this elevation (probably about 7,000 feet) a thermometer laid on the surface of the southern face of a hill exposed to the sun at 3 p.m., will frequently indicate from 130 to 160 Fahr.; the same thermometer, if left in its position, and examined at 6 a.m., will generally be observed to indicate from 30 to 40, while on a similar slope, if selected with a northern aspect, the thermometer, under the same circ.u.mstances, at 3 p.m., will generally indicate from 70 to 80, and at 6 a.m. from 40 to 50."

There is, then, about twice as much heat upon a southern as on a northern aspect, and, of course, a corresponding difference as regards the effect of sun and drought on plant and soil, and it is therefore obvious that our shade policy should be governed accordingly.

As regards the comparative heat on western and eastern exposures, Mr.

MacIvor does not seem to have made any experiments with the thermometer, but where the slope is at all sharp the rays of the fierce western sun beat strongly into the soil, while it is quite off an easterly slope, of similar gradient, for the whole of the afternoon, and there is an enormous difference perceptible in the temperature. The effect, however, is in some degree counterbalanced by the fact that the soil and the plants on the easterly slope are swept by the withering and desiccating winds which sweep over the arid plains of the interior.

We have seen, then, that the heat is very largely affected by the aspect, but the relative amount of heat and coolness is of course controlled, to a very considerable degree, by the gradient of the land, and just as steep northern slopes will be very cool, and steep eastern slopes moderately so, so will steep southerly and steep westerly gradients be extremely hot. The heat and coolness of the land, then, is constantly varying, not only with the aspect, but with the steepness of the gradients, and both of these points must be taken into consideration in regulating the quant.i.ty of shade required; and the reader will therefore see how impossible it is to give more than a general guide towards the quant.i.ty of shade required, and all I can undertake to say is that about twice as much shade is required on a southerly as on a northerly slope, that rather more shade is required on a westerly than on an eastern aspect, and that the last named requires less than a southerly aspect.

But this question is further complicated by the varying quality of the soil.

For our soils vary much in the same plantation, and require a greater or less degree of shade accordingly. The lighter and drier soils, of course, require not only more shade, but different kinds of trees, and in the case of such soils jack and cub busree should be freely used, and especially the former.

The quant.i.ty and quality of the shade required is also complicated by considerations as regards wind, and, where the soil is exposed to drying east winds, more shade should be put down than would otherwise be necessary, had we only to deal with the drying caused by the sun's heat.

And in the case of such lands the shade should consist very largely of jack and other thick foliaged trees, and these should be topped in order to keep them short and bushy, and thus the more able to shield the land from the effects of desiccating winds.

And the whole subject is further complicated by questions of elevation and the varying quant.i.ty of rainfall, as the planter is nearer to, or farther from the Western Ghauts, and here I can only say generally, that the nearer you go to the Ghauts the less shade you will require, and the further to the east the more is necessary, but the planter must be guided here by local experience, as it is impossible to write precisely on the subject.

Before quitting this branch of my subject, it may be well to show in a single sentence the overwhelming importance of having well regulated shade of the best kinds. If, then, the shade is excessive, the coffee will not bear well, and if it is deficient or composed of a bad cla.s.s of trees, the coffee will be certain to suffer from Borer and leaf disease.

From what I have said in the previous sentence it is evident that the regulation of the shade is of great importance. And, as the plantation ages, this thinning of the shade, lopping sometimes lower boughs, removing others, and cutting down occasional trees, requires constant attention. As a rule the whole shade should be carefully re-regulated at the end of every second year, or at the beginning of the third, when it will generally be found that, in consequence of the spread of the trees, there will be much thinning to be done. To cut down trees without injury to the coffee is, I need hardly say, a very nice operation, though it is one that the natives of the wooded countries, and especially the labourers from the foot of the Ghauts, are very expert at. It should never be attempted with coolies from the plains, who, of course, are unused to climbing trees, and have no experience of woodland work. The branches and tops of the trees to be felled are first removed, after a stout rope has been attached to a fork, above the point to be cut, and the end of the rope is then run round the b.u.t.t of an adjacent tree, and held by a man. A huge bough is cut and falls with a threatening crash, but so well is the end of the rope judged that the ends of the twigs just touch the tops of the coffee trees. Then a coolie proceeds to lop off the smaller twigs and branches of the bough, and as he does so, it is gradually lowered till all are removed, and the bough, bereft of its clothing, is laid on the ground. Then comes the difficult task of felling the trees between the rows of coffee, a work of great nicety, which is partly effected by the final stroke of the axe, and partly by hauling a rope attached to the top of the tree. When a tree cannot be felled between the rows, it may often be felled so as to fall into the fork of an adjacent tree, and there it may be either left till it decays or let gently down to the ground, if the stem is a thin one. Bamboo ladders should be used to ascend the tree up to the first branch, as, though coolies can readily ascend without them, their bare legs are apt to suffer, and it is for this reason that coolies often try to shirk joining the shade party. The branches lopped off should be cut up into short lengths, and piled between the coffee trees. Such branches and twigs, as they decay, form good manure.

I have said that the proper regulation of shade is a work of great importance. It is also one of great difficulty, for the person who marks the shade trees to be removed must have a thorough knowledge of the kinds most worthy of preservation, and at the same time bear in mind the aspects, the gradients, the relation of the earth to the sun during the hottest months, and the declination of the sun; and, as the planter will be usually marking shade trees in the morning, he must keep constantly in view the points where the sun will strike in during the hot afternoon hours. Then as he looks at a shade tree that has shot up to a great height, he must consider whether its shade is thrown on the coffee it once shaded or on to the top of an adjacent shade tree, and, as regards such a tree, he will often find that he is keeping on his land a tree that is merely throwing a shade on to another shade tree. I was particularly struck with this lately when looking at some howligay trees that had shot up to a great height, and which I at once ordered to be removed, as I found that their shade was now simply thrown on to the surrounding shade trees. In short, the trees were now doing no good, and were therefore merely doing harm by occupying the land and robbing it of food. I have said that when marking shade the planters must bear in mind the relation of the earth to the sun during the hottest months, and this caution is very necessary, because if he should happen to be marking trees in January for removal after the crop season is over, and does not remember that the earth is daily shifting its position, he will find that he will have made many mistakes as to the trees which should be preserved, and that a tree that is very well placed for blocking out the hot afternoon sun in January, may be of very little use in March and April.

After a shade tree has been cut down it is necessary, in order to prevent the stump throwing up suckers, to remove the bark thoroughly from the stump, and also from any roots that project from the surface of the ground. If this is not done the stump and its roots will live on and take up manure intended for the coffee.

It is important to remember that, in many parts of an estate, as the shade trees become lofty the sun will come in, just as it would on a man's head if he carried his umbrella erect, and at the end of a long pole, and I have seen coffee trees so much exposed to the sun as to require fresh shade to be planted near them, not withstanding that some of the coffee trees in question were almost touching the stem of a very tall shade tree.

When the planter observes that the sun is thus likely to come in from the shooting up of the shade trees, he should plant fresh shade. Nor need he be afraid of putting down too much, for it is easily removed if this is done when the trees are small, and then it must also be remembered that, as the plantation ages, both coffee and soil call for more shade, as the growing power of the land, and its ability to keep the trees fresh and green, naturally diminishes with the advance of time. Whenever, then, the appearance of the coffee shows that it is needed, fresh shade should be at once supplied, for every yellow leaved patch of coffee in a plantation is a breeding ground for the Borer insects, which will gradually spread into the adjacent coffee, where their presence will never be detected till hot, dry seasons occur, which they are sure to do sooner or later. When spreading from such yellow patches the Borer insect may not attack strong trees. On the contrary, it will generally attack those which are in a dried up condition either from weakness of const.i.tution or because they are suffering from the effects of an over heavy crop, but in such trees it will surely obtain a footing, and so be ready to spread further when hot, dry seasons arrive. When, then, the appearance of the coffee shows that more shade is required, charcoal trees should be planted, and on the northern side of them cuttings of the good caste shade trees should be put down; and I particularly emphasize the side for the nurse because it is thus interposed between the sun and the permanent shade trees to be sheltered.

When the permanent shade trees have grown to the required size, the charcoal trees should be removed. It must be remembered that the permanent shade trees will grow very slowly unless sheltered by such nurses from the sun, and further, that the older the land the slower is the growth of all trees. It is most necessary, then, in all old land to dig holes at least four feet deep, and fill them with some good top soil from the forest, or with ordinary soil and cattle manure and bones. In order fully to protect the young shade trees from cattle and the sun, I now erect a square of fencing composed of palm tree slabs, and so high that cattle cannot reach over it, and, in the dry season, place some toddy tree branches across the square so as to shade the plants put down. In each square I plant a cub busree cutting, or one of the five kinds of trees recommended; sow several jack seeds, and a charcoal tree as nurse. In the case of the tree cutting failing to thrive, the planter will then always have a jack tree to fall back on. Should the cutting succeed the jack plant may be removed. I may here add that the parts requiring more shade are naturally more apparent in the hot season, and the planter should then put down a short pole with a flag at the end of it, whenever more shade is required. This will greatly facilitate the work of shade planting in the monsoon, as at that time the places where more shade is required are not very readily apparent, as all the coffee then becomes more or less green.

I have alluded to the fact that parasites (Kanarese--_Bundlikay_) attack the shade trees, and especially the nogurigay and jack trees. They should, of course, be cut off along with the bough on which they may happen to be growing; and it is important to remember that this should be done before the seed ripens, which is usually at the beginning of the monsoon. The latter end of April is the best time to carry out this work, as, if deferred till rain begins, the trees become slippery, and so dangerous for the climbers.

I have pointed out that the five trees I have recommended as being the best for shade can all be grown from cuttings, and it is important to point out that these should be taken from young and vigorous trees, and not, as is often done, from trees which are declining from age. There are some useful remarks at pages 88 and 89 of Mr. Graham Anderson's "Jottings on Coffee," on the preparation and planting of cuttings. The holes should be two feet deep, and filled up to three-quarters of the depth with soil.

The cuttings should be six feet long with a fork at the top. They should be made at the beginning of the monsoon, and left in a cool and shady place in order to thicken the sap, the lower extremity of the cutting should be cut off with a curved slope, like the mouth-piece of a flageolet. Put the cutting gently into the hole, so as not to fray the bark, and tread down firmly. Wounds should be smeared with a mixture of cowdung and mud. The atti (_Ficus glomerata_) may also be grown from cuttings, but these should be rather thinner than those taken from the five trees first mentioned as being the best to plant for shade.

It has been previously pointed out that charcoal trees are valuable as nurses. They may be raised by clearing and burning a small piece of jungle, or by putting some virgin jungle soil in a bed and watering it, when charcoal plants will spring up. When a few inches high, take the plants up carefully with a ball of earth and transplant into baskets filled with jungle top soil. Put out the plants with their baskets in holes about the size of those usually made for coffee plants, and early in the monsoon, and see that they are well protected from cattle.

In conclusion, I think it well to mention that we have on my property, so far as I am aware, by far the oldest artificial shading of coffee in India. For many years all the estates in Mysore relied on the original forest shade, but mine was partly destroyed by a running fire when the clearings were first made, and some of the land was cleared wholly down, burned off, and planted with the most desirable kinds of shade trees. Our experience on this property dates back to the year 1857, and is therefore particularly valuable, for the defects connected with some trees were not apparent for as much, in one important case, as thirty years.

FOOTNOTES:

[52] I regret that I am unable to give the botanical name of this tree, and of some others subsequently mentioned. I have drawn up a list of trees, some of which may be retained till better trees can be grown to supply their places, and also of other trees which are positively injurious to coffee, but do not publish them, partly in order to save s.p.a.ce, and partly because I have not been able to ascertain the botanical names of all the trees in question.

[53] My manager last year weighed and counted the Jack fruits from a single tree. There were forty fruits which weighed 572 lbs. The largest fruit weighed 30 lbs.

CHAPTER XII.