There should always be a plentiful supply of plants, to give an ample choice and to make up for failures.  When plants are placed in the nurseries, they should not have more than two offshoots, or leaves, above each other; and when the ball plants are transplanted, they should not be higher than a foot, as large plants always give meagre trees.

At the end of November or beginning of December, if the nurseries are kept free from weeds, and, if necessary, occasionally watered, the plants will be about a foot high, and will have put forth 4 or 5 leaves; they are then just fit to be transplanted.  Then, the ground is cloven with the spade, at a distance of an inch and a half round the stem of the plant, to about three inches deep; the plant, with the ball of earth adhering to it, is carefully lifted out of the ground, and the ball is wrapped in a jack, plantain, or other leaf, and tied to prevent the earth falling off; but, before the plants are thus taken from the ground, it must be moistened to make the earth adhesive.

Planting the coffee trees.—­The plants, which, after the above operation are called “ball plants,” are then placed in a bamboo wicker frame, and are carefully carried by two men to the place where they are to be put into the ground.  They are then taken out of the frame and placed in the holes next to the pickets.  The pickets are removed, and the plant is fixed upright; the leaf surrounding the ball is made loose, but not taken away; the planter presses the plant down with his hand and fills up the hole with fine loose earth, and the business of planting the coffee tree is finished.

Planting the Dadap tree.—­This is a species of Erythrina, probably E. indica, or E. arborescens; that used for the purpose in the West Indies is E.  Corallodendrum.  In Java, as soon as the coffee is planted, the operation of planting the dadap tree is commenced.  The best sort of dadap comes from Serp or Mienyak; it is smooth and broad-leaved, and shoots up quickly.  Thick young stems are chosen, about three feet long, and the lower part is pointed off.  If the dadap is moist or juicy, it should be cut twenty-four hours before it is planted.  The dadap is planted uniformly by measuring the cane in the same way as the coffee itself.  Between every two rows of coffee one of dadap is planted, not on a line with the coffee plants, but alternately with them; thus, if the coffee is eight feet by eight, the dadap is sixteen by sixteen.  The dadap is planted to the depth of a foot, with somewhat of a westerly inclination, in order that the morning sun may fall on a larger surface of the stick.  The ground must be stiffly trodden round the bottom of the stem, and the upper part of it should have some kind of leaf tightly bound around it to prevent the sap from escaping.  When the coffee and dadap plants have thus been put out, every fifth day the young plantation should be carefully inspected, and a picket placed wherever there is a failure, as a mark to the planter that a new plant is there required.  This operation of replacing failures is carried on all through the wet season, and the dadaps which have not succeeded are at the same time changed.