FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 97 



found an article referring to an " Elaborate report on 

 Liberia Coffee," by the Honourable J. H. L. Smyth, 

 LL.D., Minister Resident and Consul-General of the 

 United States to Liberia. In this article it is advanced 

 that " the export of coffee from Liberia the last season 

 was a little more than 300,000 lbs. Considering the 

 productiveness of the Liberian variety, the fertile soil 

 and genial climate, one would naturally be surprised 

 to see so small a quantity of coffee produced for 

 exportation, but it must be remembered that coffee 

 production in Liberia is in its infancy, and the people 

 are poor." 



The Annual Reports on the Progress and Cultivation 

 of the Royal Gardens at Kew contain most interesting 

 accounts of the distribution and growth of Liberian 

 coffee, and on its history and cultivation. There was 

 also published on the same subject in 1S81, in 

 Jamaica, an able and useful Paper, entitled " Notes on 

 Liberian Coffee, &c.," by D. Morris, Esq., the then 

 Director of Public Gardens and Plantations in that 

 Island. 



Mr. H. C. Creswick speaks, after ten years' 

 experience of Liberian Coffee, as follows : — 



" That Liberian Coffee possesses merits as yet 

 unknown to the trade at large, and that if successfully 

 cultivated will in the future be a dangerous rival even 

 to that of Eastern growth. It is also evident from the 

 various lists made, that greater fragrancy, more mellow 

 flavour, are obtainable when the bean has been 



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