292 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast ot Cbiapas. 



called the plantations of St. Augustine, situated on the southern slope 

 of the volcano of Atitlan, is somewhat stony, and this stony soil is 

 considered very good for coffee. 



Mr. William Sabonadiere, in his Coffee Planter in Ceylon, published 

 in London in 1870, says that the best ground for coffee in that favored 

 island whose coffee is of so excellent a quality that it is always quoted 

 in the European markets higher than that of Central America is of a 

 dark chocolate color, pebbly, and with a substratum of rock. He 

 considers a clayey soil unfavorable. 



B. Layer of Vegetable Soil. The land of Soconusco has generally, 

 unless it has been washed away by the rains, a layer, more or less 

 thick, of vegetable soil, formed principally of decayed vegetable matter 

 which has accumulated in the course of time. This layer is of a black 

 color when moist, and ashen when dry. The thicker this layer the 

 better the ground containing it for the cultivation of coffee, provided 

 always there be under it a layer of clayey soil of the depth specified 

 below. 



C. Depth of the Layer of Vegetable Soil. As the top root of the 

 coffee plant grows vertically and to a considerable depth, it requires a 

 soil which it can penetrate without bending. If the root meets with 

 any obstruction, whether stone or other substance, which it cannot 

 penetrate, the plant sickens, turns yellow, ceases to produce fruit, and 

 finally dies. It is therefore indispensable that there should be a layer 

 of earth, of from three to six feet in thickness, which the root of the 

 plant can penetrate without bending. It would be therefore well, be- 

 fore finally selecting a plot of ground to form a plantation, to make 

 excavations in it at various points, for the purpose of ascertaining 

 whether or not it possesses this requisite. 



If a piece of land could be found which, to the conditions already 

 mentioned, should unite that of being traversed by vertical strata of 

 rock, it would be very suitable, as the soil would be, so to say, framed 

 in between these strata, would not wash away with the rains, and 

 would have greater consistency ; but I have not seen in Soconusco any 

 land that has these conditions. 



D. Land of Volcanic Formation. As observation shows that the 

 soil in which coffee grows best is that on the slopes of volcanoes or in 

 their immediate vicinity, it may be inferred that the best land for coffee 

 is that of volcanic formation. It would be well, therefore, whenever pos- 

 sible, to select land situated on the slopes of volcanoes or in their im- 

 mediate vicinity, if it should also have the other conditions enumerated. 



E. Virgin Forest Soil and Cultivated Soil. There is a notable 

 difference, in fertile districts like Soconusco, between the soil of the 

 virgin forest, which has never been cultivated or cleared by the hand 

 of man, or which, if it was ever cultivated, has relapsed into a state 



