56 Coffee Planting. 



equivalent advantage of another description. I 

 have always been of opinion that some of the most 

 productive estates which have come under my 

 observation, have owed their fertility to " lay " as 

 much as to any other favouring circumstance. 



Among the many different dispositions which the 

 uneven, ever-varying surface of a mountain dis- 

 trict presents, I will describe some which appear to 

 be the most favourable for a coffee estate. Slopes 

 are, of course, more or less the general feature ob- 

 servable, and they are to be recommended owing to 

 their incapacity to retain sufficient moisture to render 

 the soil stiff or sour. They are also favourable, 

 owing to the soil having become enriched by the 

 deposit of decayed vegetable matter which the 

 rains must have left on their surface from the 

 hills above ; though once the land has been cleared 

 this liability to " wash " becomes a drawback, as 

 matter that might have been retained while the 

 surface was covered with a close and minute vege- 

 tation, or by a layer of decayed leaves, is in danger 

 of being floated off, once the soil is bare and dis- 

 turbed. 



A level plain lying at the base of high hills, will 

 be likely to contain a rich surface soil, more espe- 

 cially if the hills which command it have been 

 clothed with forest vegetation, as the product of the 

 decayed leaves, &c., falling during ages, will have 



