As regards the important point of topping, there are considerable differences of opinion.  I am in favour of short topping, because the coffee thus more quickly and completely covers the ground, and the trees are more easily pruned and handled, and some planters top at from three to three and a half feet.  Others again prefer four feet, and some four feet and a half, while I know of a planter who prefers a greater height, and cuts off the lower branches of his trees so as to turn them into an umbrella shape.  The last practice I thought a very strange one once, but taking rot and leaf disease into consideration, I am by no means sure that, for our shade coffee, it is not the best, and at any rate feel quite sure that, as the lower branches in the case of highly topped trees soon become poor and thin, the practice of high topping, and removing some of the lower branches, is one to be decidedly recommended, and I am now adopting it on my estate.  For, in the case of our shade plantation, if the coffee is short and thickly planted, so as to closely cover the ground, there is necessarily a great want of ventilation, and, when this is the case, rot must, from the great dampness of the ground, have a tendency to increase in the monsoon, while from there being no room for the passage of air underneath the trees, the spores of the leaf disease will be preserved from being dried up and killed during the season of strong and parching winds.  But quite independently of these reasons, it seems to me that the souring of the land owing to excessive saturation would be much lessened were there free ventilation under the coffee trees.  And, taking all these points into consideration, I am now letting up all my short topped trees, which is easily done by letting a sucker grow from the head of the tree, and topping it when it reaches the required height.  In places which are exposed, or fairly exposed, to wind, short topping would not be attended with such disadvantages, as in the case of the land in more sheltered situations, but for all sheltered situations it certainly seems to me that, with reference to the limitation of rot, leaf disease and the souring of the land, the trees should be topped at not less than four feet and a half.

The trees should not be topped until after the blossom comes out, as the result of topping at an earlier period would be to cause the trees to throw out a heavy crop on the primary branches, and more suckers, and so cause more trouble and expense in handling.  It should be remembered, too, that in the case of all young plants if, before the first blossom, you cut the top, you check the growth of the roots.  When topping, remove one of the topmost pair of branches as, if both are left, a split in the top of the stem is liable to occur.  Should waiting until after the bursting of the blossom cause the tree to grow so high as to be affected by wind, the top may be pinched off by hand, and the tree afterwards topped at the proper height.  This is often necessary in the case of shaded coffee, which is, of course, liable to be drawn up.