1 64 PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURE 



an altitude of about 400 meters. The Moro coffee is 

 raised mostly at above 700 meters. In northern Luzon, 

 the finest coffee is raised in Balili, Kabayan, Daklan, and 

 Sagada at altitudes above 1500 meters. In these places 

 it is so cool and moist that coffee requires no shade. 

 Moreover, the low temperature is bad for the rust ; so 

 that it is possible to raise a crop of good coffee in these 

 places as often as once in two years, even though the rust 

 is not fought in any way whatever. 



Coffee likes also still air ; because wind, like heat and 

 dryness, hastens the transpiration. The same trees 

 which furnish shade break the wind. The trees used to 

 shade coffee are the same ones used for abaca, usually 

 dapdap and madrecacao. 



Soil. Coffee demands a fairly rich, deep soil, for its 

 taproot descends 2 or 3 meters. Volcanic soil, whether 

 formed from lava, or from showers of ashes, is excellent 

 for coffee. After an eruption of Taal which covered the 

 plantations of Cavite with ashes, the coffee bore such 

 crops as never before. And twice within recent years 

 there have been showers of volcanic ashes in Guatemala 

 which seemed to destroy the near-by plantations ; but 

 each eruption was followed by an unusually heavy coffee 

 crop. 



CULTURE 



The Seed. Coffee is always reproduced by seed. The 

 seed to be planted should always be picked from the 

 best trees. It is very unwise to propagate coffee by 

 transplanting the young trees found in the orchard, for 



