PART 11. appear to be more satisfactory, as the growth of the plant is temporarily checked at each stage of capping, thus enabling the plant to develop strength, and to produce a certain amount of secondary growth. The advantages to be derived in adopting the Bush '* method are : — (1) Tt requires considerably less labour in pruning, thereby reducing the cost of pruning to a minimum. . Tt does not require skilled labour to do the pruning. All formation of old wood is avoided. "The crop which is produced on new wood is of better quality than that which is produced on old and whippy wood. Natives prefer to harvest the crop off trees grown on this system, as the trees are more open, thus giving an easier access to pick the berries. Speaking generally, the prevailing method of pruning coffee in Kenya is conducive to neither large production nor labour saving. Although in particular cases this may not apply, yet on the whole the position is as stated. The conversion of single stem coffee trees is now being carried cat very extensively in the Colony. The most satisfactory results obtained from all the experiments undertaken in this connection is by stumping the coffee trees about a month before the rains and allowing three or four vertical shoots to grow. Usually the first crop is borne 18 months after stumping. The big six in coffee production are: Air, light, sun, rain, soil and climate; the trees must therefore be trained and pruned to enable them to benefit from the first three mentioned. Suape: The next topic I will touch upon is shade. This has been a much discussed subject in the Colony and still remains one of our problems which has not yet been settled. At the present time a number of coffee planters are considering that they would rather do without shade; in such cases this is due to their coffee being overshaded. Shade needs careful regulation from time to time to prevent it getting too dense. If it becomes too heavy, the coffee crops are materially reduced. If too thin, not sufficient protection is given the coffee trees. Speaking generally, apart from the trouble in finding suitable shade trees for various districts, insufficient attention to shade pruning and regulation, ete., and in very many cases, adopting a policy of ““ letting the shade rip *’ has done considerable harm in prejudicing planters against the use of shade. For permanent shadé Grevillea robusta has been most commonly used. In many cases, it has been planted too thickly and not thinned out from time to time, with the result that after a few years, the shade has become too dense. Further, during long spells of dry weather, the coffee bushes have suffered from lack of moisture, due to the Grevillea robusta taking more than its share. In certain districts, however, where the rainfall is high and the growth of coffee affected by cold, Grevillea robusta, spaced 36ins. x 36ins., has given satisfactory results, and is still being used. 5