Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore: With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planterElliot, Robert H. (Robert Henry)
History
Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore: With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planter
Elliot, Robert H. (Robert Henry)
Caste -- India; Coffee; Karnataka (India) -- Description and travel; Karnataka (India) -- Politics and government
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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