Coffee 



185 



Shade Trees. So far we have only spoken of the temporary shade provided for the coffee 

 whilst it is young. Permanent shade trees are also often planted, amongst the favourites 

 being species of Erythrina and other leguminous trees. The necessity for these is a disputed 

 question. Certainly, excellent coffee can be grown without shade, for instance, the Blue 

 Mountain coffee of Jamaica, and in Brazil also shade is not usually employed. The planters 

 of other countries, such as Porto Rico, say that the plants absolutely require shade. Local 

 •conditions probably have much to do with this difference of opinion, and it is one of those 

 problems which, as in the case of cacao, each planter must solve for himself as the result of 



JAVA. LIBERIAN COFFEE PLANTS THREE TO FOUR YEARS OLD 



his own observations. The whole question is fully discussed by Mr. O. F. Cook in an 

 interesting Bulletin of the United States Department of Agriculture, entitled " Shade in 

 Coffee Culture," in which the complex nature of the problem is well brought out. In all 

 probability where shade- trees are found to be advantageous their beneficial action is often 

 only indirect, in affording protection from winds, drought, soil erosion, and in that increase of 

 soil fertility which leguminous plants, as a group, bring about. 



Fruiting. As a rule the coffee shrub first flowers in its third year, and then only bears a 

 small crop of fruit. The fifth year is usually the time of the first considerable yield. Climate 

 and soil have great influence on the blossoming. Where there are no great differences in 

 the temperature in the different seasons the coffee plant bears flowers all the year through, 

 so that at any time of the year an individual plant will bear flowers and fruit in various 



