September i, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



being rouglily-ilug two-feet holes or pits with a small 

 application of vegetable mould as the plants were put in. 

 Then- gi-owth was most vigorous, some of the leaves 

 being over a foot long and of a rich motallio green 

 colom-, but the stems ran up 4-5 feet without throw 

 ing side branches, except as "robber" stems, and 

 this character has been perpetuated in almost all the 

 trees ; they are thus what is Imown commonly as " lep- 

 gy " trees. 



This of course is not the most desu'able habit of 

 growth either in respect of fruitfulness on a given 

 area or for convenience or economy in picking the crop. 

 It is entu-ely due however, 1° to the too shady position, 

 2' — to the proximity of the Moka coffee trees interlocated, 

 and which also gi-ew enormously, and 3" — to the plants 

 having been raised in pots and unavoidably crowded 

 together from the first. The same character of growth 

 occurred with the plants first planted in Java, and was 

 there attributed by Dr. Scheffer to the same or similar 

 influences as those cited above. The same leggy char- 

 acter would of course result under similar conditions 

 anywhere, especially if the young plants be allowed to 

 be interfered with by weeds or other gi-owths. Visitors 

 who have seen the Liberian coffee as it is in Liberia 

 however, on seeing two of the specimens first planted 

 here, have remarked, " that is just as they grow in 

 Liberia as a rule ; the people don't plant or look after 

 them, and they are there as often in clusters, or mixed 

 up with bush as occun-ing singly, and generally bearing 

 more at top than at bottom." 



That this leggy habit of growth is by no means 

 its strictly natural one, and such as it assumes in pos- 

 itions of fuU exposm-e and with room for free expansion, 

 is fuUy proven by specimens in the gardens, some of 

 which were planted subsequently to 1875 under very slight 

 (moveable) shade at the beginning and then left to full 

 exposure. 



Under such treatment the habit is perfectly pyra- 

 midal on a height of 5 feet being reached — the extrem- 

 ities of the lower branches touching the gi-ound, although 

 occuring on the stem over one foot above the base. 



Fine examples of this habit of growth are to be 

 seen in diSerent parts of the island — specially at the 

 Hon'ble Dr. Mitchell's, MelviUe Lodge, and the Hon'ble 

 A. P. Manyat's, Mara')eUa. 



Besides the tine pyramidal form assumed under full 

 exposure, the form and textm-e of the leaf is greatly 

 improved, in the sense of advantage to the cultivator. 

 Altogether smaller, more erect, and of stm'dier textm'C, 

 they give the tree an aspect to suggest its perfect adapt- 

 ability to open field ciilture. The joints are shorter, 

 the branches sturdier, and the tree is altogether more 

 compact and calculated to yield a far larger crop on a 

 given area, than when grown in shade. 



In a "free" hillside soil, or a stiff one either hUlside 

 or low flat opened up by proper tUlage — conditions which 

 occm' in the gardens here — anything like a cieneral or 

 uniform .shade — even when aS'orded by trees of thinnest 

 foliage — would evidently be a mistake. The plants being 

 put in some time between May and September, a single 

 bit of Pahn leaf to prevent the plant from " blister- 

 ing" at starting is all that is required, and scarcely 

 that in cloudy weather. At the same time a certain 

 amount of tree growth other than that of the coffee and 

 of com-se mLxed with it — either in a scattered form or 

 in regulated belts of unkept tree-gi'owth — will always 

 be necessary, uot so much f>u' shade as for maiuti^ining 

 as largely as possible those conditions which are found 

 in " recently cleared land in the forest, and which are 

 so well kno\vn to be highly favourable to coffee of aU 

 kinds, as well as economic trees generally. Such shade 

 and hnmus-j-ieldiug trees should be judicicusly selected 

 and properly prepared for, as one of the elements of 

 vital importance in culture of this coffee on a large 

 scale an I for an extended period. In very good or rich 

 low land no shade appears necessai'y or even desirable. 



The distance from plant to plant on flat land should 

 be from 10 to 16 feet according to character of 

 soU, and on which the future size of the coffee tree 

 win depend more largely than on any other influence. 

 On hillsides sometimes the distance might probably be 

 less than 10 feet — the incline giving an increase in 

 " head-room." 



As an intercrop and such as will aftord a genial 

 and necessaiy starting shade, plantains might be em- 

 ployed (and profitably) planted in a manner to evenly 

 alternate with the Liberian cofiee plants and be aUowe'd 

 to bear one crop. No ratooning should be allowed, l)ut 

 where shade for a second ye.ir proves necessary, the 

 plantains should be re-set regularly and singly, as before. 

 I As to permanent shade, or rather renovation trees, 

 they should occur only so as to give a lateral or 

 partial shade of about one-fourth of the area dealt 

 with. Trees of erect habit are to lie preferred to those 

 of spreading habit ; a good example of the fonuor is 

 the pois doux or Inga laurinn, a tree admirably adapted 

 for line or belt planting. 



In clearing forest, or land having large tree-gi-owth, 

 the requisite amount of shade or renovation trees 

 should invariably be left in lines, belts or clumps 

 — especially on ban-en spots or exposed eminences. In- 

 deed, an eminence or ridge should never be bared of 

 oxiginal forest-growth, in a tropical country — whatever 

 the cultivation may be. 



The manner of raising ordinary coffee seedlings in 

 beds preparatory to planting in the field is pretty 

 generally and well known. The same plan can bo fol- 

 lowed with the Liberian coffee ; observing only that till 

 the seed and seedlings have got their first leaf, more 

 shading and a great deal more water will be required 

 through the di7 months — dm-ing which, the seeds being 

 gathered at the end of the year, the seedlings must be 

 raised. In fact the very young seedling Liberian coffee 

 is semi-aquatic, and the development of tap-root is tre- 

 mendous. The less this tap-root is interfered with or 

 injm-ed the better — although it can be almost entirely 

 removed, and yet with shade and moisture the yoimg 

 plant quicldy re-establishes itself. 



Seedlings of Liberian cofl'ee arc veiy liable to 

 the "turn" or "doubling" in the tap-root — ^properly 

 regarded as objectionable by coffee-planters generally. 

 This appears to arise chiefly from the bulky character 

 of the young tap-root (or radicle), and the strong char- 

 acter of the parchment covering the bean, and by which 

 the growing point of the radicle is conducted round the 

 bean in germination, and thus tho " turn " is set up. 

 The remedy to this is the removal of tho parchment — 

 though not by diying, or the vitality of the seed will 

 be lost — and laying tlie beans aU flat side downwards, 

 as sown. 



Altogether, the Liberian coffee is a beautiful tree. 

 Its stately form, rich foliage, and general vigom- being 

 strongly expressive of its superiority above its feUows 

 — at least on the same level. Its pure white, higlily 

 fragi'ant, and thickly-clustered gardenia-lilio flowers make 

 it one of the most charming objects, but like its fel- 

 low the C. arahica, its flowers last but 24 hours. Un- 

 like it, however, as to the time of flowering — for it has 

 a fuU autumn as well as a spring flowering, and at both 

 seasons there i; a more or less succesaional flowering — 

 the extent of this apparently depending on the amoimt 

 if fruit with which the tree may be already burdened. 

 There does not appear to be any uncertainty with 

 the Liberian coffee ' in respect of the setting of the 

 fruit, as exists with the C. arahica even at elevations 

 at which it appears to be most perfectly at home. Tho 

 number of fruits to follow the flowers appearing to 

 depend entu-ely on the strength of the tree to carry 

 them. 



This character tends most largely to assure to the 

 Liberian the palm for productiveness. 

 Owing to this capacity for fruitfolness at various 



