Con&ftions of OLatifc Suitable for Coffee. 293 



of nature, and land recently cultivated or cleared. For the sake of 

 clearness, it will be expedient to consider separately these three kinds 

 of land. We will therefore now consider: 



a. Virgin forest land. 



b. Land recently cleared. 



c. Land best adapted for the cultivation of coffee. 



Each of these kinds of soil will be considered with as much brevity 

 as is consistent with clearness. 



a. Virgin Forest Land. On virgin forest land there are secular 

 trees that cover with their shade the whole surface of the ground, for 

 which reason only few plants, and those such as do not require 

 for their growth the direct rays of the sun, can grow on it. 



In the virgin forest, therefore, are seen colossal, medium and small 

 sized trees, bushes, parasites, vines, and other productions of the vege- 

 table kingdom ; but the surface of the ground is not entirely covered 

 with vegetation. If the seed of a thistle or other noxious plant should 

 chance to fall on virgin forest land, it would either not germinate, or, if 

 it germinated, it would not grow for want of sunlight. 



b. Land Recently Cleared. The aspect of land which has at any 

 time been cleared is very different from that just described. The fer- 

 tility of the soil which had been, so to say, dormant for years, awakens 

 with extraordinary vigor as soon as it is once exposed to the vitalizing 

 action of the sun's rays. 



A year or two after it has been cleared the ground is so completely 

 covered with vegetation principally weeds and other plants whose use 

 is not known, and which are therefore considered noxious that not a 

 single point of ground is visible, and it is not possible to advance a 

 single step without previously opening a path. This prodigious fertil- 

 ity of the soil makes the chief expense of cultivation in those places. 

 Weeds grow with such abundance and rapidity that it is necessary to 

 keep cutting them down continually, and this operation, which is 

 called " clearing the ground," must be repeated in some places as 

 many as eight times a year, to keep the weeds from choking the young 

 plants, and injuring them very seriously. 



In the cleared lands of Soconusco, and especially in those situated 

 at an altitude below two thousand feet above the level of the sea, 

 a species of grass grows which attains a height of twenty-four inches, 

 which, if not cut down in time, will choke the coffee plant completely, 

 but which can hardly ever be entirely extirpated. Its seeds are prob- 

 ably carried by the wind, so that it grows everywhere. This grass is 

 the chief foe of the coffee-tree. In order that it may not kill the plants 

 the ground must be cleared as many as eight times a year, which con- 

 stitutes, as has been already said, a heavy expense, and requires, be- 

 sides, a great many hands in plantations of any extent. 



