158 COFFEE. 



will be a snccess, if fairly tried. I came to this State some thirty years ago, 

 and am one of the first settlers in Manatee. I would like to see yon and tell 

 you my experience in Florida. I would not exchange my home for any other 

 State I know of. Florida needs nothing but energy and industry to make its 

 people independent. 



The department has supplied Mrs. Atzeroth with a number of 

 young trees with which to enlarge her experiment, and also fur- 

 nish other persons in the same locality, and farther south, with 

 plants which should, if carefully planted and successfully culti- 

 vated, bear coffee within five years. 



It is something to know that a lodgment has been effected on 

 the coast of Florida, and though four trees, so far, are known to 

 have been successfully grown and fruited, yet whether the coffee 

 will ripen thoroughly and prove as profitable here as it has done 

 in other countries is yet to be determined. 



The following letter from a resident of Bogota, bearing on the 

 subject of coffee-production in the United States, is of interest, 

 because of its intelligent treatment of the subject, and the amount 

 of information therein contained. Commissioner Le Due is also 

 entitled to much credit for his enterprise and originality in en- 

 deavoring to promote the agricultural welfare of the country, not 

 only in this, but in many other directions. 



To the Hon. Wm. G. Le Due, Commissioner of Agriculture, WasMngton, D. C. 

 U. S. A. : 



Sm — I have noticed a circular issued by the department seeking informa- 

 tion in regard to coffee. As I have frequently passed through the cold-country 

 coffee region in this neighborhood, and have made it a point to inform myself 

 as to the particulars of the culture and habits of the plant, I take the liberty of 

 writing you as follows : 



It is true that the coffee does not require a very hot climate. In fact, that 

 which is raised in the colder regions is most highly esteemed and brings the 

 highest price in the home and European markets. 



Its upward range is limited by the frost-line, as is that of the orange, plan- 

 tain, and bamboo. In a table compiled from Bonssingault and Humboldt, the 

 coffee appears as the hardiest of these, enduring a temperature one degree 

 colder than the orange, three colder than the plantain, and five colder than the 

 bamboo. Local authorities assure me this is a mistake as regards the orange, 

 which is more haidy than the coffee. An English writer fixes on the bamboo 



