COFFEE COUNTRIES. 26l 



In 1878-79 the area in Jamaica devoted to 

 Coffee-growing was 22,853 acres. The following 

 interesting facts respecting Jamaica Coffee are 

 taken from a letter written by Mr. D. Morris to 

 the Ceylon Observer, from the Botanical Department, 

 Jamaica, in June, 1880. This gentleman says : 



" The crop of last season was sold,- in some instances, at 

 1305. per cwt. I had the pleasure, the other day, of visiting 

 Radnor plantation. I found it a good type of Jamaica estates, 

 most of which have been in cultivation for more than a century 

 and a-half. In some places the trees were poor and ' sticky,' 

 but wherever the soil has been preserved, and especially in 

 4 bosoms,' the trees were looking healthy and strong. In spite 

 of ' no manure,' in spite of ' mammoty ' weeding for genera- 

 tions, these trees were bearing good crops, and, moreover, the 

 producer is able to obtain prices which Ceylon planters must 

 envy. 



" Owing to the large areas nominally included under one 

 estate, the different ' Coffee-fields ' are sometimes two or three 

 miles away from the works, lying in ' bosoms ' of the hills, and 

 only visited for the occasional ' hoeing ' and picking of the 

 crop. Out of a nominal acreage of 1,000 acres often there are 

 only 1 60 to 200 acres, and sometimes only about 60 or 80 acres, 

 under cultivation. The other parts are in 'reccinate' (jungle), 

 or so steep that owing to ' breakaways ' and rocks it is impos- 

 sible to cultivate them. This gives a Jamaica Coffee estate 

 a very patchy appearance, and as cinchona has not yet been 

 taken up generally by planters, the uncultivated areas greatly 

 exceed those cultivated. Much more might be done with the 

 suitable Coffee lands if a regular system of nurseries were 

 established and plants put out with greater care. At present 

 new lands are planted up with ' suckers ' (or rather seedlings) 

 found under the trees. These .are pulled up with little or no 

 care, even when they have six or eight primaries, and after 

 being carried in bundles on heads exposed to the full rays of 



