64 



Culture of Co fee. 



Vol. IX. 



stretchina^ many miles along the beautiful 

 and cultivated valley. On the winding road 

 to the city, were many hundred mules with 

 their burdens, carefully picking their way 

 down the steep sides of the mountains. In 

 the distance was seen the Silla of Caraccas, 

 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, while 

 all along the valley, the verdure and harvest 

 hues were truly gorgeous. The sugar-cane, 

 the changeable tints of the waving barley, 

 the green maize, the orange groves, and 

 above all, the distant beauty of the coffee 

 plantations, contributed to heighten the 

 effect of a scene to me exceedingly attrac- 

 tive, and one well worthy the pencil of a 

 master hand. Many other things conspired 

 to make my first distant view of a coffee 

 plantation, with its accompanying scenei-y, 

 very interesting, yet a close inspection was 

 needed to appreciate its beauty. 



Just before entering the city of Caraccas, 

 we passed a large and imposing entrance, 

 with a patriotic inscription overhead. Find- 

 ing it to be a coffee estate, we dismounted 

 from our mules and rambled through it. 

 Imagine an extensive grove of trees, the 

 branches of which, commencing about fifty 

 feet from the ground, formed a large, com- 

 pact, umbrella-like head, with dark-green, 

 thick, glossy leaves, similar to those of the 

 Cape Jessamine, and covered with brilliant 

 scarlet flowers the size of the hand. These 

 trees called the bucaris, are planted about 

 thirty feet apart, their leafy heads forming 

 a dense canopy impervious to the rays of 

 the sun. The coffee-tree is planted under 

 these about ten feet apart, in straight rows. 

 At two feet from the ground the branches 

 radiate horizontally from the main stem, 

 which is allowed to rise to the height of 

 eight or nine feet, where its growth is stop- 

 ped by splitting the top, and placing wedges 

 in it, the fruit being better and more abun- 

 dant where the growth of the tree is thus 

 retarded. The tree was now in its full 

 bloom and ripeness, exhibiting conical forms 

 of about six feet in diameter, with leaves of 

 a glossy green, acuminate, and slightly in- 

 dented. The fruit grew from the barli 

 about the size and shape of a cranberry, 

 The branches were loaded, like the arms of 

 an oriental beauty, with beads of every tint. 

 Some with the beautiful white flower, simi- 

 lar to our white jessamine, in continuous 

 clusters on the top of the horizontal branch- 

 es ; others with the fruit of every shade, 

 from the palest green to emerald, then the 

 rose, the crimson, and last of all a choco- 

 late-brown, the sign of maturity. When to 

 the refreshing shade and stately appearance 

 of the bucaris, and the graceful foliage of 

 the coffee-tree, are added the exceeding fra- 



grance of the coffee-flower, frequently per- 

 fuming the air for half a mile or more, the 

 thick velvety turf beneath them, studded 

 with flowers of the most gorgeous colours, 

 and adorned with little rivulets, deemed ne- 

 cessary to convey moisture to the roots of 

 the plants, nothing can be more beautiful. 

 As I j-ambled through the rows of coffee- 

 trees entirely protected from the sun, with 

 the velvety turf beneatli my feet, and birds 

 of the most brilliant plumage singing sweetly 

 over my head, I thought that no crop or 

 plantation whatever could possibly compare 

 with it in beauty, and that if the cultivation 

 of the soil here on Long Island, was attended 

 with such pleasures, meicantile life would 

 find but few votaries. Nowhere else, how- 

 ever, but m this valley and that ,of Aragua, 

 did I see the plantations shaded by that 

 beautiful tree, the bucaris. It requires too 

 long a period to obtain the tree of sufficient 

 size for shade. Throughout the West In- 

 dies, in Porto Rieo, Hayti, Jamaica and 

 Cuba, I observed that they generally planted 

 the banana or plantain on the sunny side of 

 the coffee-tree, to mitigate the heat of the 

 sun by its glossy, pea-green leaves of six to 

 eight feet in length. 



When the berry becomes of a chocolate- 

 brown and is quite ripe, it is picked by wo- 

 men or young persons. It is then carried 

 to a platform, which covers sometimes an 

 area of several acres, and is made of plaster 

 and lime, very hard and dry. The berries 

 are then spread out in the sun to dry. Af- 

 ter being thus dried, they are placed in a 

 mill similar to a cider-mill, where a heavy 

 wheel passes over them and takes off" the 

 husk ; it is then cleaned by a common fan, 

 and placed in bags for exportation. 



The cultivation is simple, and I see no 

 reason why it could n^t be advantageously 

 inti-oduced in our Southern states. It flour- 

 rishes well on the Jamaica mountains, at a 

 height above the sea, where the climate is 

 quite as cold as South Carolina, Georgia, or 

 Louisiana. The labour is very light. The 

 tree when once planted, will bear thirty, 

 and sometimes fifty years, with scarcely any 

 attention. The preparation for market is 

 very simple, and can be performed by chil- 

 dren. It would be equally profitable with 

 cotton, and I think far more so than either 

 rice or sugar, without the sacrifice of health 

 attending the cultivation of the former, or 

 the terrible using up of flesh and muscle 

 demanded by the latter. The only point to 

 be ascertained is, whether it will bear the 

 climate of our southern States; if so, there 

 can be little douljt that for productiveness 

 and facility of culture, it will be preferable 

 to any other southern crop. I hope some of 



