32 COFFEE : ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



many places pours over the road like lava, and the water 

 in the streams is of the consistency of cream. Most of 

 this deforested land has been planted with" Coffee, and 

 many people would argue with advantage to the State ; 

 but the forest officer says steep mountain slopes like this 

 must be protected from denudation for Coffee, as it is 

 utterly impossible that the soil can last very long. The 

 forest has now been replaced by Coffee, and in the future 

 Coffee will be replaced by a rocky barren mountain slope 

 with no trees or cultivation of any sort, and the State will 

 then say how improvident our ancestors were. Tree-planting 

 will then be too expensive." 



This, however, is a subject that will be glanced 

 at subsequently. 



Insect life is a danger to Coffee that is con- 

 siderably influenced by climate. An excess of wet 

 encourages the " black bug," a deadly form of 

 blight, and a great range of temperature from high 

 to low produces a million foes to the planter in the 

 form of insect life or an overflow of rank weeds. 



There is one other thing that must not be over- 

 looked in forming a plantation, and that is the force 

 and nature of the winds beating upon the ground. 

 It is almost impossible to say anything upon this 

 subject except that the young planter will do well 

 to get his plants as much sheltered as possible_by 

 forests, by ranges of hills, or by belts of woodland 

 1 lefF standing when the jungle is felled, and more 

 \ especially when the wind is one of much the same 

 character either a very hot blast or a very wet one. 

 The former singes vegetation, and often at the time 

 when plants are fruiting and in need of all available 



