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nursery with four pairs of leaves, including the fish-leaf, withstand 

 transplanting better, as a rule, than at a much later stage — i.e., 

 provided that the shade over them in the nursery hay been previously 

 lightened to allow of the necessary hardening. 



In any event the process of transplanting is a delicate one, 

 requiring much close supervision, especially to see that on a hot day 

 the plants put in are not left for any length of time without shade, 

 and the greatest care be taken to avoid a bent tap-root by cutting the 

 exposed portion with a sharp knife before it leaves the transplanter. 



Some six to eight months from planting, the young trees under 

 normal conditions will require suckering, and also attention to the 

 selection of the one stem on which the tree is eventually to be brought 

 up. Seed at stake, if carefully handled, will give excellent results, 

 and planting by this method is much to be recommended under 

 certain conditions. 



The time from blossoms to crop may be counted roughly as ten 

 months and two heavy crops a year are as a rule reckoned on, May- 

 June and December- January-, when the estate, unless supplied during 

 the year with more labour than is actually required, is sometimes hard 

 put to it to maintain itself in good order, and to harvest the ci'op at 

 the same time without loss. Pruning and handling will, all the year 

 round, take up a large amount of labour and superintendence. The 

 forcing climate makes it necessary to get in a round of pruning every 

 two months ; it should in reality be done every six weeks. 



Shade Trees. 

 The prevalence of shade trees on nearly all the old coffee estates 

 in the Peninsula was the outcome of a firm belief brought from other 

 tropical countries where varieties of coffee other than Liberian were 

 found to thrive better under certain forms of shade. 



Here the climatic conditions, and those generally under which 

 Liberian coffee is grown, do not appear to call for the same treatment 

 and generally speaking the trees appear to do better without it, 

 especially as we have yet to find a leguminous shade tree (no other 

 varieties could in any case be recommended) tjbat is not actually 

 harmful in some degree by its tendency to get out of control. 



Time and space in this short treatise will not permit of going 

 into the various methods of curing and preparing the article for 

 the market any more than it will of entering into anything like 

 detail over cultivation, maintenance, soil conditions, and many other 

 vital questions connected with the industry, but a rough outline of 

 what is required for the treatment of the crop subsequent to the 

 picking will act as a guide for the present. 



Needless to say, the factory site should be chosen at a spot 

 where an ample supply of water is available all the year round ; 

 the thorough washing of the beans after leaving the pulper playing 



