SOIL AND CLIMATE. 23 



commend it to the external view, and fulfil to a 

 nicety all the conditions he has been taught to 

 seek, and yet disappoint when the crucial test of 

 crop times comes. On some land the plants thrive 

 amazingly for a time, vigorous in growth and glossy 

 in foliage. Such promise is deceptive, and the 

 bushes never achieve anything beyond a plentiful 

 harvest of leaves. Other districts, again, seeming 

 to invite cultivation, rear Coffee entertaining a 

 curious liability to suffer attacks from various foes 

 and diseases. 



The secret of these variations no one quite 

 understands. They form a still vexed question, 

 upon which there are probably as many opinions 

 as planters. Every country and not only every 

 country, but every district has its peculiarities 

 and traditions. These can hardly be understood 

 except by personal inspection. Planters, as a rule, 

 scorn laboratory tests, preferring to judge by rule 

 of thumb in their selection of garden sites. They 

 are usually right, and the beginner is lucky who 

 can get an old hand in the district to ride over 

 and give him a friendly opinion on the capabilities 

 of his proposed location ! 



After all is said, the Coffee plant is a hardy 

 shrub ; and though the best soils jfor__it can be 

 only recognized by experience^ __the_Jact that it 

 is sprea^r^Dye^alf^arts of the world, and is 



fruitful gn_ the sandy_-terraces. of the Arabian 



littoral or the moist, alluvial flats of Gambia, 



