Conditions essential to Longevity. 309 



been rather to compel the plant to conform to our 

 crude and imperfect notions of what ought to be 

 beneficial to it. It is not surprising if, under such a 

 system, disappointment should have frequently at- 

 tended the planter, and an idea have sprung up, and 

 gradually gained ground, that a coffee estate is 

 something to be planted and then parted with as 

 quickly as possible. 



I will not, however, enlarge further here upon the 

 shade question, having treated it fully elsewhere in 

 the present work. 



We now come to our next heading, i. e. soil. 

 Having in the first instance obtained a soil suited 

 for producing coffee, the great object must be to 

 preserve it in that condition. With this view there 

 are three influences to be guarded against ; the 

 first is the loss of surface soil by wash, the second 

 is impoverishment by exposure to a hot sun, and 

 by the growth of weeds ; and the third, exhaustion 

 by the extraction from it of chemical constituents 

 by the coffee itself. Unless these processes are 

 either prevented or fairly compensated for, all hope 

 of the estate's remaining permanently valuable 

 must be given up. 



As elsewhere shown at large, there are means by 

 which wash may be prevented, such as terracing, 

 cutting level drains across the hill face, and a care- 

 ful avoidance of unduly disturbing the surface soil, 



