d of a bad class 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 butt 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 hav