I have said that the evil of topping before blossom is, that a heavy crop is thereby thrown out on the primary branches, and I know of nothing more injurious to the young tree, or more certain to throw it out of shape, as the branch shrinks, and the tendency then is for the strongest secondary branch to take the lead.  A judicious and full-pursed planter, it is true, would either remove the whole of the maiden crop, or at least from the three upper pairs of primaries, but the crop of the fourth year is apt to find a young planter with empty pockets, and he may not be able to afford the sacrifice; but he should in any case remove the immature berries, or blossom buds, from the greenwood of the primary branches, and if he refrains from topping before blossom, his trees may stand their maiden crop fairly well.  But if the maiden crop threatens to be a heavy one it should certainly be lessened, as the following year there would be little crop, and much growth of superfluous wood, and an over heavy crop the succeeding year, and so on continuously.  The trees would thus be thrown into the habit of giving heavy alternate crops, which is most injurious to the plant which, like all other fruit-yielding plants, should be worked so as to give even, moderate crops every year.  But is it not evident that a heavy crop followed by a small crop and much superfluous growth must be extremely bad? for the trees thus produce an over heavy crop of berries one year, and an exhaustive crop of shoots and suckers during the next, and thus call for an extra expenditure of labour.

It is very important, by what is called handling, to keep the tree clear of shoots within six inches of the stem, and to remove all cross shoots and suckers and thin out superfluous wood as soon as possible.  For we must constantly keep in mind that a given weight of leaves is as exhaustive to the tree as a given weight of berries.  Prompt handling, and the removal of suckers, is also very necessary for the free ventilation of the tree, and especially during the monsoon months.  I would call particular attention to the bearing that judicious and timely handling has on rot and leaf disease, as these are both much encouraged if the tree, at the beginning of the monsoon, has much immature foliage.  We should handle them (and prune too, as is subsequently pointed out) so as to meet the monsoon as much as possible with well ripened leaves, and this can obviously be best done by preserving all the September and October shoots we can, and removing all the February shoots that the tree can spare.  In connection with this subject, I would strongly advise planters to study Mr. Marshall Ward’s third Report on leaf disease in Ceylon, to which I have elsewhere referred, and would particularly call attention to what he urges as to the advisability of giving every leaf that is to be preserved as long a life as possible, in order that it may feed the tree for the greatest possible length of time.