The Hawaiian Islands: Their Resources, Agricultural, Commercial and FinancialHawaii. Department of Foreign Affairs
History
The Hawaiian Islands: Their Resources, Agricultural, Commercial and Financial
Hawaii. Department of Foreign Affairs
Hawaii; Hawaii -- Economic conditions
It will be found that in parts of the field some trees, while looking
healthy, do not grow as fast as the average of the trees, this is often
due to the soil not being of as good a quality. Knolls and side hills
are not generally so rich as the hollows and valleys, and the coffee
trees, planted in the poorest parts of the field, should be fertilized
until they are as vigorous as the trees in the best parts.
HANDLING.
During the second year the young trees will have begun to make a good
growth and will require handling. In order to make clear the description
of the operations of handling and pruning, it may be well to describe
here the component parts of the coffee tree.
The underground portion consists of a tap root and numerous lateral or
side roots. The parts above ground consist of:
1st. The stem or trunk.
2d. The primaries or first branches; these grow from the trunk in pairs
at intervals of from two to four inches, the two primaries, making a
pair, grow one opposite to the other, the pair above radiating out at a
different angle and so on to the top of the tree.
3rd. The secondaries; these are the branches that grow in pairs from the
primaries.
4th. The tertiaries; these are the third branches that grow in pairs
from the secondaries in the same manner as the secondaries grow on the
primaries.
5th. The leaves that grow on all the branches.
During the whole of the second year, the field should be gone over at
least every two months and all the secondaries that make their
appearance should be rubbed off; this can be done by a touch of the
fingers, if the secondaries are not more than two or three inches long.
If allowed to grow longer, the knife must be used, or there is danger
of tearing out the eye or bud, which we depend upon for growing new
secondaries at the proper time. During the second year, the secondaries
will make their appearance only on the lower sets of primaries, the
upper sets as they grow being too young to grow secondaries. At the
beginning of the third year all the secondaries should be allowed to
grow till they attain a length of six inches; then the trees should be
carefully gone over and all but five of the secondaries on each primary
cut off with a sharp pruning knife. No pairs should be left, and only
the strongest and most vigorous should be retained. They should be
disposed on alternate sides of the primary and none left in a space of
six inches from the stem of the tree. The object of this is to allow the
light to penetrate to the center of the tree, for the coffee tree bears
fruit in greater profusion on branches that are exposed to the light
than on those that are shaded.
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