158 COFFEE : ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE CROP. 



IT is not until the. thir^ 



compense comes for the long and tedious labour 

 bestowed upon the preparation of the estate, but at 

 the end of that time a reward is at hand. About 

 the beginning jrf the new year, early_in_Xanuary, 

 the plante^jwilLjiotice _ his__hushes ^covered with 

 clusters of small, hard, green buds, springing, seven 

 or eight together, from the junction of the leaves 

 and branches. These are the future flowers which 

 have to repay all the trouble and expense incurred. 

 As time goes on they ripen and swell rapidly, 

 turning from opaque green to cream and yellow- 

 white, until one morning in March, or perhaps 

 April if the situation is wet and cold, the first 

 " flush" is out. Far and near, as we described in 

 a first chapter, the undulations of garden are bathed 

 in a fascinating sea of white blossoms ; near at hand 

 the starlike flowers glisten amongst glossy masses 

 of leafage, clear in every detail, while further away 

 the long rows of bushes are crested with a con- 

 fused streak of white like many rows of breakers 

 on a shallow shore. Every individual blossom some- 

 what resembles that of an orange, and from great 



