COFFEE COUNTRIES. 269 



the culture of Coffee. The temperature varies in 

 the shade from 74 to 80 Fahrenheit, but rises in 

 the dry season from 90 to far beyond 100 ; the 

 lowest point, 62 at sunrise, was observed at Mon- 

 ravia in January, during the prevalence of the 

 harmattan-winds. The difference in the interior is 

 not so great, because the ground rises so rapidly ; 

 25 miles from the coast the land is already 500 feet, 

 and at a distance of 198 miles as much as 2,200 

 feet above the level of the sea. Yet the Coffee is 

 everywhere the same. Even in a wild state, there 

 are splendid trees from 10 to 12 inches in diameter; 

 the cultivated plants are not much smaller. For 

 laying out a plantation, the best land would be a 

 wooded, rocky, hilly country, a few miles from the 

 seashore ; there are found those loose loamy soils, 

 with a rocky ground and the manure of decayed 

 leaves, which are the most appropriate. The water 

 absorbed by the porous ground keeps, even in the 

 dry season, the Coffee tree fresh and verdant. A 

 sandy soil with a bottom of a few feet of loam would 

 also do very well. 



Liberian Coffee has also been cultivated since 

 1880 in the Seychelles; the first plants were sent 

 from Kew and distributed among a few planters by 

 Mr. C. S. Salmon, then Chief Civil Commissioner. 

 They grew very rapidly, and those planted in proper 

 soil, and entirely exposed to the sun, began to 

 bear before two years old ; while others in rich 

 ground, and at a short distance from other trees, 



