CULTIVATION OF COFFEE IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 49 



exported from Ceylon to Europe, America, and the Australian 

 colonies, and it is prepared for the market after a different 

 fashion from the plantation kinds, which are generally dearer. 

 There are now 1,000 working coffee plantations in Ceylon, 

 requiring 200,000 coolies (men, women, and children from 

 Southern India) to cultivate and gather crops, and worth for 

 the 312 miles of cultivation, together with the buildings, 

 machinery, and stock, not less than $35,000,000." 



The most suitable soil in the East Indies for the coffee-plant 

 is that which grows soft timber. The latest authorities seem 

 to confirm the opinion of Laborie, who observes : " If the first 

 (tap root) finds the quickstone, gravel-stone, or clay, the tree 

 will not last long ; but if it, as well as the roots, find their 

 way through stony ground, and if there be a good proportion 

 of mould, it suffers no inconvenience, as the stones keep the 

 mould together." The finest estates are said to be of this latter 

 character of soil, and have given consecutively heavy crops, 

 with the assistance of little or no manure. While estates of a 

 lighter soil, having lost nearly all the mould, and having no 

 good subsoil, have to be regularly manured. In a word, a 

 dark chocolate-colored soil, mixed with small stones, under 

 ledges of rock, and bestrewn with boulders, is the best ; and 

 the most favorable elevation is 3,000 feet. A level piece of 

 virgin ground, not far from water, where the soil is rich and 

 crumbly, is the most eligible for the construction of a nursery. 

 First the land must be thoroughly cleared, and all but the 

 largest stumps of the forest-trees rooted out ; the soil must be 

 dug to the depth of nine or twelve inches, and be made as 

 friable as possible, then divided into beds with narrow paths 

 between them, the seed, in parchment (generally taken from 

 the cisterns after being pulped), should be put in, row by row, 

 about six inches apart. A rope the length of the beds is used 

 for this purpose, stretched from one end of the beds to the 

 3 



