294 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast ot Cbiapas, 



c. Land Best Adapted for Coffee. Experience shows that the coffee 

 plant grows and thrives better in virgin soil than in soil that has been 

 already cultivated. The reason of this is obvious. Virgin soil is 

 richer, has its fertilizing elements almost intact, and produces fewer 

 weeds. Because of this last advantage, virgin soil requires, during the 

 years immediately following the planting of the coffee-trees, fewer 

 clearings than that which has been already cultivated. 



The only advantage of planting coffee in ground that has been 

 already cultivated is that in that case the trifling expense of the felling 

 is avoided ; but, on the other hand, cultivated ground has, compared 

 with virgin forest soil, the following disadvantages: 



1. The soil is inferior. 



2. It is more exposed to the sun and to the wind. 



3. It is more easily washed away by the rains. 



4. It produces a great many more weeds. 



For these reasons, therefore, virgin soil is always, when possible, to 

 be preferred. 



In Ceylon also the superiority of virgin soil over that of ground that 

 has been already cultivated, for planting coffee, is recognized. 



F. Configuration of the Land. It is a debatable question whether 

 level or broken ground is preferable for the cultivation of coffee. 



Regarding this point, we will consider here the following: 



a. Advantages of level ground. 



b. Advantages of hilly ground. 



c. Configuration of the ground best suited for coffee. 



Each of these kinds of land and its advantages will be considered 

 separately. 



a. Advantages of Level Ground. The advantages of level over 

 broken ground are the following: 



1. Greater facility for using implements and machinery which save 

 time and labor, and consequently greater facility and cheapness of 

 cultivation. 



2. Greater duration of the layer of black or vegetable earth, which 

 is not so readily washed away by the rains as in hilly ground, where 

 the soil becomes loosened by the cultivation bestowed upon it. 



Notwithstanding these advantages, the advantages presented by 

 hilly ground are so great that, as a general rule, this is to be preferred 

 to level ground for the cultivation of coffee, as will be shown farther on. 



b. Advantages of Hilly Ground. The advantages of hilly ground, 

 as compared with level ground, are the following: 



i. Impossibility of the ground, even when moist, becoming miry, 

 as its inclination prevents the water from standing; while in level 

 ground, without drainage and with a layer of impermeable clay near the 

 surface, there is this danger, which is a serious one for the coffee-tree. 



