l grow from the
places where the former secondaries grew. Sometimes two will grow from
one bud, they should all be removed, the trees being gone over two
months, but at the last handling before blossoming time, which varies
greatly with the elevation above sea level, enough of these new
secondaries should be left to make wood for the fifth year's crop. From
this time on the coffee planter should be able to point out the wood on
which the present and the next year's crop will be borne, and it is this
wood and that only, that should be allowed to grow. All other shoots,
suckers, etc., should be rubbed off each time the tree is handled,
provision being made each year for the wood for the crop two years hence.

During the third year, the trees will require topping. As to the height
at which a coffee tree should be topped, there is a great diversity of
opinion. Some planters advocate topping as low as four and a half feet,
others at six or seven feet; as a matter of fact the coffee tree will
bear fruit if topped as low as one and one half feet or if not topped at
all. The only valid reason for topping as low as four and a half feet is
for the convenience of picking the crop. Five and a half or six feet is
a good height to top a coffee tree on the rich lands of the Hawaiian
Islands. In fact the planters should not be guided by the number of
feet, but by the number of primaries he desires the tree to carry.
Eighteen to twenty pairs are a reasonable number for a coffee tree to
carry in this country, and it will be found that by not counting those
primaries that grow on the stem within fifteen inches from the ground,
eighteen or twenty pairs of primaries will come on the stem within six
feet from the ground. Before topping the tree, it should be allowed to
grow somewhat higher that it is intended to top, so that the wood may be
hardened and not decay as it sometimes does if topped when the wood is
too young. Topping is performed by cutting off the top of the tree at a
point an inch above a pair of primaries. Both primaries should also be
cut off an inch from the stem. This will leave the top in the form of a
cross; a knot will form at this point from which the tree will
constantly send up shoots striving to make a new top. These should be
torn off every time the tree is handled.

We have now arrived at the time when the tree is bearing the first or
maiden crop. Through careful handling the tree has been divested of all
superflu