THE PLANT AND ITS CULTUEE. 5 



The limit of average productiveness is about thirty years. 

 After that time the trees may contimie to hve and grow, but 

 they yield little or no fruit. In Java, coffee-trees planted nearly 

 a hundred years ago are said to be yet in existence, being now 

 some forty feet high, with trunks of the thickness of a man's 

 thigh ; but they grow entirely wild and produce no berries. On 

 an average, the trees are replaced on the plantations every twenty 

 years. This process of replanting goes on constantly. On the 

 whole, the cultivation requires great care and unceasing attention, 

 together with considerable capital to await the coming into bear- 

 ing of the trees and to meet the heavy current expenses. 



Coffee grows best on the uplands — usually on mountain sides 

 at an elevation of from 1,500 to 4,500 feet above the level of the 

 sea. In dry districts it is grown at an elevation of 5,500 and 

 even 6,000 feet. The following directions are given by an ex- 

 perienced planter in the East : " As a general rule, the best zone 

 of latitude for coffee is 150° on each side of the equator ; of alti- 

 tude from 3,000 to 4,500 feet. The deeper, freer, and richer the 

 SOU is the better. It should be specially tested for phosphoric 

 acid and potash. The latter will be in abundance if a large 

 forest is felled, and bm-ned grass-land must be very good to grow 

 coffee. An eastern or southeastern exposure is good,, but not 

 always essential. Shelter from tearing wind, however, is of the 

 utmost importance, and in windy situations should be secured by 

 leaving belts of timber, or planting fast-growing Australian trees. 

 A mean temperature between 65° and 70° or Y3° is desirable, and 

 a rainfall of from YO to 150 inches of rain, well distributed, about 

 100 inches being the best." The trees are raised from the seeds 

 in nurseries, and transferred to their final positions when about a 

 year or eighteen months old. Plants raised from seeds are much 

 better than those obtained from cuttings. A costly system of 

 raising plants in pots has been commenced in Brazil, the planter 

 claiming a gain of one year for those thus raised over such as are 

 obtained by the ordinary method, as there is no set back to the 

 plant in the process of transplanting, the roots remaining undis- 

 turbed. 



The plants are usually set at intervals of eight or ten feet, 

 although in some plantations they are placed a little closer, the 



