300 Coffee Culture on tbe Soutbern Coast ot Cbiapas. 



year 1868, 913 plantations produced 1,007,214 English quintals of coif- 

 fee. Trees planted in the last century still yield good crops. These 

 facts show how far advanced coffee culture is there, and therefore the 

 references that may be made to the system followed in Ceylon cannot 

 but be useful to the Mexican planters. 



The following points, then, will now be considered: 



1. Shade. 



2. Distance between the trees. 



3. Nursery. 



4. Perparation of the ground for planting. 



5. Transplanting. 



6. Cultivation of coffee. 



7. Fertilizers. 



8. Gathering the crops. 



9. Preparation of the fruit for the market. 



Each of these subjects will be considered separately. 



I. SHADE. 



The following points concerning the important question of shade 

 will be now considered: 



A. General considerations regarding shade. 



B. Advantages of shade. 



C. Disadvantages of shade. 



D. Rules regarding shade. 



E. Trees to be preferred for shade. 



Each of these various aspects of the question of shade will be con- 

 sidered separately. 



A. General Considerations Regarding Shade. The opinion has long 

 prevailed that the coffee plant requires shade to attain its fullest de- 

 velopment, and that a plantation which has no shade must necessarily 

 give bad results. Up to a certain point this opinion may be considered 

 to be well-founded, so far as regards plantations situated in the low 

 lands. For the rest, it is evident that the heat and light of the sun 

 being indispensable to vegetation, it cannot be absolutely affirmed that 

 there are plants which thrive better in the shade than in the sun. 



Shade may be made, however, a means of reducing the temperature, 

 and thus acclimating in certain hotter zones plants which would not 

 thrive in the sun in those localities. As the coffee-tree requires for its 

 best development a temperature, for instance, of 18 centigrade, it is 

 plain that if it be planted in a locality the temperature of which is from 

 23 to 24, it will be out of its zone, and that if it then be given shade 

 it will thrive better than when exposed to the sun ; not because it ab- 

 solutely requires shade, but because this reduces the temperature, and 

 the coffee plant that is in the shade will enjoy a lower temperature, 



