36 



DIMOEPHIC BRANCHES IN TEOPICAL CROP PLANTS. 



.^ 



old coffee wood putting out new shoots and forming new tops like 

 vigorous young trees in a plantation. 



Other cases were found in Costa Kica on the large coffee estate of 

 Senor Don Federico Tinoco at Juan Viiias. Straight stakes cut from 

 old coffee trees had been used to support the bushes in the rose garden 

 of Sehora Tinoco, and had promptly taken root. They had been 

 allowed to grow, and had all developed into large, well-formed, pro- 

 ductive coffee trees. Such instances certainly demonstrate the pos- 

 sibility of producing normal coffee trees by vegetative propagation. 

 As there are considerable differences of soil and climate between 

 Costa Rica and eastern Guatemala, it appears that such propagation 



is not narrowly limited to one set of 

 » conditions. 



V, \ If a system of vegetative propa- 



gation could be applied to coffee by 

 the use of cuttings of the upright 

 branches (fig. 6), several important 

 cultural advantages might result. 

 Much of the labor and expense now 

 required for seed beds, nurseries, 

 and transplanting would be saved, 

 and plantations might be brought 

 more rapidly to the size when good 

 crops are produced and the ground 

 is well shaded by the trees. The 

 latter condition not only reduces the 

 cost of cleaning the land of weeds, 

 bat protects it from injurious ex- 

 posure and erosion. 



The possibility of improving the 

 coffee crop by the development of 

 superior hybrid varieties also depends 

 upon the use of some system of vegeta- 

 tive propagation, or upon the grafting of the young seedlings, as 

 has been proposed in Java and other tropical countries. At pres- 

 ent we have only the so-called Arabian type of coffee and the several 

 mutative varieties which have been selected from it. Most of these, 

 if not all, are inferior to the parent stock in fertility. Although very 

 satisfactory in the matter of coming true to seed, they all seem to lack 

 the first essential of an improved type, for they are generally less 

 fertile than the parent stock. 



In addition to the precaution of using the upright branches, other 

 methods of treating the propagating stock will need, of course, to be 

 worked out. It is quite possible that the cuttings can not be used in 



198 



Fig. 5. — Diagi-am of a coffee tree 

 with a simple trunli and numerous 

 lateral fruiting branches. 



