The ground having been turned up, should be left exposed for some days to throw off the vapor arising from it; and must then be again ploughed and cleared with the rake.  After waiting for some days, it should be ploughed for the fourth and last time, and made as clean and friable as possible.  In small plantations this is to be done with the spade, but on large estates the roller must be used.  This roller consists of a heavy piece of round wood, eight or ten feet long, to which a pole is fastened in the middle to have oxen harnessed to it.  It is drawn slowly over the ploughed land, and presses the clods to earth.  To give it greater force, the driver sits or stands upon it.

Before the field has been properly ploughed and rolled in the above way, the middle of October will have arrived, and we then begin to open a path through the plantation from the highest to the lowest point, about two roods broad, and the whole of the land is then divided into separate parcels.  Portioning off the estates into divisions of equal size is a system to be much recommended.  By this means labor may be equally divided, superintended and inspected.  Order and regularity, which are necessary in all things, are most especially required in cultivation on a large scale.

The size of these parcels is regulated by the nature of the estate.  On flat or gently declining land they may be greater than on steep grounds, because, in order to prevent the washing away of the soil on precipitous land, the water must be led off by trenches, which of themselves make the divisions of land smaller.  On flat ground the divisions may be each 625 square roods, each of which may contain, if planted—­

Trees.
12 feet by 12              625
10   "     10              900
8   "      8             1406
6   "      6             2500

The distance between the coffee bushes cannot be definitely laid down, as it depends on the nature of the soil.  On the most fertile forest lands twelve feet by twelve is a good distance.  Only on low and meagre grounds, where the tree grows less luxuriantly and strong, can six feet by six be reckoned a proper distance.

Between the divisions a path should be left, one rood in breadth.  Along the middle paths and by the side of the divisions drains must be cut, the former two feet in breath and depth, the latter one foot.  The drains along the divisions must be cut in such a way as to conduct the rain-water to the larger drains which flank the middle paths.  On precipitous ground, when the coffee is planted, small ridges should be raised between the rows, to prevent the rich earth from washing down in the heavy rains.  The steeper the land is, the closer these ridges should be; and care should be taken to incline them, so as to break the descent, the direction of which they should in some degree follow.  The first ridges may be made with the branches of the trees which have been felled, or with the rubbish cleared from the ground on the first raking of it.