Drawbacks to Shade. 1 5 5 



quantities of useful timber is being permanently 

 increased, it being clear that a time must arrive 

 when, owing to the constant progress of forest 

 clearing, timber, whether for fuel, building purposes, 

 or cabinet-making, will become greatly more scarce 

 and valuable than at present. 



What, then, on the other hand, are the objections 

 to shade ? The sole drawback, as far as I am aware, 

 is that coffee under shade yields a smaller crop than 

 that in open ground but otherwise similarly circum- 

 stanced. The exact falling-off cannot be stated, as 

 this will depend on the density of the shade and 

 the heat of the climate. In a very hot climate the 

 yield would be but little diminished, while in a 

 comparatively cool, moist one, shade would operate 

 more unfavourably. Let us suppose, however, that 

 in a climate where an efficient shade is really 

 required, the crop is thereby reduced by one-third 

 or even one-half; the result in this case merely is 

 that, in the course of ten years, the coffee without 

 shade would have produced a total of say 50 cwts. 

 of cured berries per acre, while under shade the 

 same area would perhaps have yielded no more than 

 30 or 40 cwts. In the first case, however, the trees 

 will be well-nigh "pumped out," whether from 

 exhaustion pure and simple, or sped on by "Borer," 

 &c., while in the latter they will probably show no 

 signs of exhaustion, but be ready to all appearance 



