NOTES ON COFFEE CROvVrxc,. 1 19 



grade. The most suitable temperature is between 15 and 25 

 degrees Centigrade. Cultivation above 25 degrees is risky, and 

 it then becomes necessary to shelter the plant in order to protect 

 it from the heat. Raoul says that the regions where Coffee 

 thrive.^ better are those in the mountains of the intertropical 

 zone at a heig-ht corresponding to the thermic conditions of the 

 regions l>"ing between parallels 20 "^ North and 23° 30' South. 

 Other writers, however, according. to Jumelle, give the average 

 altitude, lietween latitudes 6 and 12 degrees, as 1,000 to 1,800 

 metres. 



Below 10° Centigrade, coffee, however careful the treatment 

 may be, cannot resist the conditions. 



Temperature and altitude best suited to Coffee having been 

 ascertained, let us now consider the question of rainfall. As 

 everyone knows, Cofifee loves a soil where there is no want of 

 humidity. The plant benefits much thereby and corresponds in 

 its daily development to the watering given to it. In the opinion 

 of some writers it requires a moderately moist atmosphere and 

 constant coolness of the soil. In certain regions where Coffee is 

 found in abundance it is not surprising that it shows itself in a 

 most exuberant condition, seeing that the climatic conditions 

 are excellent, as in the case of India, Ceylon, Brazil, etc., where 

 the annual rainfall rises from 2.5 to 3.75 metres. 



Coffee having a tap root, if its cultivation is made in soft 

 and pen'ious ground the crops will furnish sufficient data to 

 ascertain whether or not the soil is mainly responsible for its 

 satisfactory acclimatization in a particular region. 



In my opinion, however, the soil is not the principal factor 

 of acclimatization, for the soil can be corrected. One must pay 

 attention especially to the climatic conditions — the main factors 

 in satisfactory cultivation. Of course, \^e might budld shelters 

 and provide hedges to guard the plant against strong winds, and 

 irrigate the soil so as to render it moist, but we cannot give it 

 'heat, and this is indispensable to the life of the plant, which 

 cannot do without it. 



Cultivation. 



In 1908 I experimented for the first time in the cultivation 

 of Coffee in the sub-district of Marracuene. I tried Jamaica 

 Coffee. This was sown in small paper pots filled with earth 

 previously prepared and selected. The earth was approxi- 



mately a humus-sandy soil. 



One Coffee bean was placed in each pot and was moderately 

 \\'atered. The pots were placed in a green-house made of 

 reeds and straw, and were exposed to the sun during two hours 

 every da}'. It would have been risky to have exposed them any 

 longer as the month (December) was a dangerous one. Ger- 

 .mination commenced on the 15th day and extended over a period 

 of nearly one month. It was later ascertained that the perceil- 



