SOIL AND CLIMATE. 25 



Such patches of land are generally found at the bottom of 

 the escarpments of the hills or in elevated valleys, and 

 rarely on the slopes. Quartoze land must be carefully 

 avoided, and clay is equally bad. A good surface soil 

 should have at least two feet of depth, as the Coffee tree 

 has a long tap root." 



Mr. P. L. Simmonds remarks in his " Tropical 

 Agriculture : " 



" Coffee trees flourish in hilly districts where the subsoil 

 is gravelly, for the roots will strike down and obtain nourish- 

 ment so as to keep the plant alive and fruitful for thirty years. 

 Trees planted in a light soil, and in a dry and elevated spot, 

 produce smaller berries, which have a better flavour than 

 those grown in rich, flat, and moist soils. The weight of 

 produce yielded by the latter is, however, double that obtained 

 from the former ; and, as the difference in price between the 

 two is by no means adequate to cover this deficiency of 

 weight, the interest of the planter naturally leads him to 

 the production of the largest but least excellent kind." 



A writer on American Coffee tells us : 



" The best crops that I have seen have been on a rich 

 black loam, too rocky to be worked with the plough, and on 

 the slopes of ravines. It is said that the plant dies out in 

 a few years on clay soil. But the Liberian plant is said 

 to flourish on such soil. I attribute the better condition 

 of the plants on sloping ground to the fact of their being 

 more shaded. It is generally held that the Coffee will not 

 flourish on wet ground, though the best plants I ever saw 

 [as far as leaves went ?] were within a few feet of an unfailing 

 stream." 



And "An Old Planter" thinks we should look 

 to the subsoil : 



"A rich chocolate is my favourite, and I have generally 

 seen the best estates where that was the body of the soil. 



