We have next to consider the time of year at which manure should be applied to the land, and here we shall find that the planter, like the farmer, often has to do things when he can, and not when he should, and though, from the risk of loss by wash alone, there can be no doubt that all manures should be put down after the heavy rains of the monsoon are over, it is difficult to see how this can be carried out in the case of bulk manures, on account of the difficulty of getting enough labour to at once cope with the ordinary estate work, and apply a class of manure which absorbs so much hand labour.  Then there is the difficulty of carting manure at that season when the roads, which are not macadamized, would be cut to pieces.  But this difficulty could be overcome were a sufficient number of storage sheds provided to which the manure might be carted during the dry season.  But the sheds would cost a good deal of money, and the cost of the manure would be increased by the cost of extra handling, or in other words putting the manure in the sheds and taking it out again.  So that I am inclined to think that it would be better to apply, by direct cartage from the cattle sheds, as much bulk manure as can be applied in the month of September, and the remainder at any convenient time after crop.  Another great objection to applying manure after crop, and before the monsoon, is, that you stimulate the growth of the weeds which spring up with the early rains, and also much growth of suckers, and superfluous wood in the coffee, all of which have to be handled off at considerable expense, whereas, it is hardly necessary to say, that the weed growth is smaller at the end of the monsoon, and the force of the plant directed rather to the maturing of the berry than the growth of surplus wood.  But in the case of light manures such as bones and castor cake, there is no difficulty in applying them in September, and an effort should certainly be made to put them down then.  Another advantage of manuring at the end of the monsoon would be that the planter could then clearly perceive what trees would be certain to give a good crop, and give them an extra quantity of manure, and also diminish his application of manure in the case of such parts of the plantation as might be yielding a small crop.  I may here mention that, from reliable information received from Coorg, results there have shown that it is best to apply a portion of the manure after crop to strengthen the blossom, and a portion after the heavy monsoon rains are over to strengthen the trees and assist in maturing the crop.

But the most important point, perhaps, as regards the best time for manuring is the bearing that the time of manurial application has on leaf disease, and Mr. Marshall Ward in his third report on leaf disease (p. 15) has some most valuable remarks on this question.  “The object of the planter should be,” he says “to produce mature leaves as soon as possible and keep them on the branches as long as