THE 



Cultivation and Preparation 

 of Coffee. 



CHAPTEK I. 

 COMPARATIVE NOTES. 



FROM the days of "Thirty Years Ago" 

 (reminiscences of the early days of coffee 

 planting in Ceylon, by T. D. Millie, published 

 in 1878) the luxuries now usual and common 

 necessaries on every estate, such as bread, 

 meat, ice, and electric lighting, were unknown. 

 In those times, as the author of the above book 

 mentions, at 5.30 a.m., having partaken of a 

 cup of coffee and a cabin biscuit, which had to 

 be sufficient to keep up the inward man until 

 11 o'clock, the daily routine of the coffee 

 planting was thus started. Certainly coffee 

 planting, besides being nowadays, without fear 

 of contradiction, one of the best-paying invest- 

 ments for Europeans in the tropics, can 



