PREFACE. 



TT was with considerable diffidence I undertook the task 

 of preparing a new handbook on Coffee cultivation. 

 Already many names of weight and authority were down 

 on the roll of those who had gained experience in the 

 wide field of practice, and had recorded in admirable 

 handbooks the results of many years' planting wisdom. 



Sabonadiere has enshrined his name with the best 



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 period of Ceylon Coffee culture ; Laborie's works are 



classical, and still useful ; R. H. Elliot's " Experiences 

 of a Planter in the Jungles of Mysore " has thrown a 

 glamour over the industry in the eyes of many an out- 

 ward-bound " griffin ;" Ellis, Hull, Keen, Lewis, Shortt, 

 and Simmond have all contributed treatises of good 

 sense and point on the same subject, thus thrashed 

 over and over again, until a casual observer would 

 deem there was but small chance of any stray grains 

 of fact remaining untouched. 



But the truth is, the world moves, and with it its 

 most mundane affairs, not excepting those of Coffee. 



