Placing the pickets.—­When the ground has been worked and divided in the above manner, the pickets are placed.  These are slips of bamboo one-and-a-half to two feet long.  First—­two long canes (which do not stretch like string), each one hundred feet long, are marked off in feet according to the distance at which the planting is to take place; heavy stakes are made fast to each end of them, by which they can be well secured on the ground.  At the places where they are marked off in feet, strings are fastened so tightly that they cannot be displaced; and then the canes are laid down and well fixed in the ground, one in the length and the other in the breadth.

Picketing does not give much trouble; it ensures regular planting, and makes the daily inspection simple.  The planting thus takes place in straight lines, which give an ornamental appearance, and afterwards renders the view over the whole plantation easy.  At every place where a string has been tied, a picket is stuck in the ground; then the cane is removed to another place, and so on till all the estate is marked out by pickets.  After the picketing, a hole is made with the spade at every mark; it should be a good foot broad and deep, and the earth inside should be made very fine and clear.  The earth is now ready to receive the coffee plant, and the time has only to be waited for when the first rains fully begin.

Nurseries.—­In the month of October, or earlier, if coffee trees are near at hand, nurseries must be prepared in the neighbourhood of the land about to be planted.  This can be done in the ravines, or, if they are too far from the spot where the plants are wanted, pieces of ground most convenient can be selected.  If the ravines are preferred, places must be chosen which are shaded by trees not prejudicial to the coffee plants.  On ground where there is no trees, the nurseries may be covered, at the height of four feet, with leaves of jack (Artocarpus integrifolia), areca, or other palm trees, in a manner to admit the air.

The ground made loose and fine, coffee plants newly opening, or seeds only, are planted or sown at a distance of four inches square; 500 square roods will in this way furnish 648,000 plants, which are sufficient for an estate of 300,000 trees.  Transplanting from nurseries is absolutely necessary in coffee cultivation, and the trouble it costs is always doubly repaid.  Having a choice of plants, a person can be convinced he has taken none but healthy trees, and he proceeds therefore with a confidence of success.  After the first year, all failures having been nearly replaced, the estate is fully planted, the trees are of regular growth, and no useless clearing is required—­a thing which is always necessary in irregular plantations.  It is easy also to pick the berries from the trees which are planted with regularity; the work goes on smoothly; and, when the estate has lived its time, it may be abandoned altogether, without leaving patches of living trees here and there, which renders superintendence so very difficult.