COFFEE. 369 



plants should not be so crowded, and intervals of eight 

 or ten feet should be left between them. 



It is well known that coffee imported from the 

 West Indies does not equal in its flavour that pro- 

 duced in Arabia arid other parts of the East ; and it is 

 commonly imagined that this inferiority is principally 

 owing to local causes, and is therefore incapable of 

 being remedied. There is reason for believing, 

 however, that the superior quality of Turkey and 

 East-India coffee is not in any great degree to be 

 referred to the influences of soil and climate, but de- 

 pends, in part at least, upon the age to which the 

 seeds are kept before they are brought into con- 

 sumption. Trees planted in a light soil, and in dry 

 and elevated spots, produce smaller berries, which 

 have a better flavour than those grown in rich, flat 

 and moist soils : the weight of produce yielded by 

 the latter is, however, double that obtained from the 

 former ; and as the difference in price between the 

 two is by no means adequate to cover this deficiency 

 of weight, the interest of the planter naturally leads 

 him to the production of the largest but least excellent 

 kind. It is confidently asserted that this difference of 

 quality entirely disappears by keeping, and that ' the 

 worst coffee produced in America will, in a course of 

 years not exceeding ten or fourteen, be as good, 

 parch and mix as well, and have as high a flavour as 

 the best we have now from Turkey.' 



The trees begin bearing when they are two years 

 old ; in their third year they are in full bearing. 

 The aspect of a coffee plantation during the period 

 of flowering, which does not last longer than one or 

 two days, is very interesting. In one night the 

 blossoms expand themselves so profusely as to pre- 

 sent the same appearance which has sometimes been 

 witnessed in England when a casual snow-storm at 

 the close of autumn has loaded the trees while still 



