Exposure to tbe Sun, 297 



healthy green, and they have a thriving appearance ; but very soon this 

 appearance changes, the branches lose their leaves, and the quantity 

 of fruit they produce is relatively small. 



Nothing is more deceptive than to measure altitudes by the naked 

 eye. To be able to calculate altitude with some degree of correctnses 

 one should provide oneself with an aneroid barometer, properly regu- 

 lated, the price of which is within the reach of the most modest fortune ; 

 while from its small bulk for it is about the size of a watch it may be 

 carried with perfect ease. 



D. Altitude of Various Places in Soconusco. Various observations 

 which I have made with an aneroid barometer of localities in this 

 District give approximately the following results : altitude of Cacahua- 

 tan, 1400 feet above the level of the sea; Paso del Rio Ixtal, 1000 feet; 

 plantation of Mixcum, 1850 feet; plantation of Santo Domingo, 2300 

 feet; and Union Juarez, 3400 feet. 



The approximate altitudes of some points in Guatemala where coffee 

 grows well are as follows: El Rodeo, about 1500 feet; Las Mercedes, 

 about 2500 feet; Las Nubes, from 3500 to 4000 feet; Guatemala City, 

 a little more than 4000 feet. 



4. EXPOSURE TO THE SUN. 



Experience has shown that the coffee-tree thrives best and yields 

 most fruit when the sun does not shine on it during the whole of the 

 day. Four or five hours' exposure to the sun are sufficient to enable it 

 to attain its best condition. The early morning sun is the least bene- 

 iicial to it, for which reason it should, if possible, be shielded from it, 

 either by planting shade trees to the east of the plantation, or by select- 

 ing ground on which the sun does not shine until one or two hours after 

 it has risen. 



The principal advantage of hilly ground when the hills run 

 from north to south, is, as has been already stated, that the sun 

 shines on them for only a part of the day in the morning on the 

 slopes which face the -east, and in the afternoon on those which face 

 the west. 



The high lands of Soconusco have also the advantage that the sun 

 does not shine on the trees during the whole of the day. On the 

 slope of the Cordillera, that is, from 2500 feet above the level of the 

 sea up, clouds prevail during the summer season which is precisely 

 when the sun is hottest and frequently also, during the other seasons, 

 from ten o'clock onward, which keep the trees from being exposed to 

 the heat of the sun during the whole of the day. Perhaps it is to this 

 circumstance that the superior excellence of the coffee grown at an 

 altitude of 3000 or 4000 feet above the level of the sea is due. 



