LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Division of Botany, 

 Washington, D. C, December 19, 1900. 

 Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript entitled 

 "Shade in Coffee Culture," by Mr. O. F. Cook~ Special Agent for 

 Tropical Agriculture, and to recommend its publication aw a bulletin of 

 the Division of Botany. The recent acquirement of tropical territory 

 b}^ the United States has brought conspicuously to the attention of the 

 American people the question whether tropical agriculture does not 

 furnish a promising field for the application of that ingenuity, energy, 

 and intelligence which in the past century have revolutionized temper- 

 ate agriculture. The accompanying report gives a partial answer to 

 this question in the matter of coffee culture. It combines the results 

 of personal observation and of a careful study of the literature relat- 

 ing to the much controverted question of the shading of the coffee 

 tree. The hypothesis is here advanced that leguminous shade trees, 

 in addition to the effects produced by shade trees in general in protect- 

 ing the soil from erosion, drying, and heating, and in preventing the 

 mechanical injury of the coffee plants hj the wind, have the same 

 beneficial effect on coffee as do clovers and other leguminous plants on 

 the crops with which they are so commonly rotated, namely, that of 

 adding nitrogen to the soil and thus, without expense, increasing the 

 fertility and productiveness of a plantation. In some of the most 

 prosperous coffee-growing districts of Central America this practice 

 has been followed by the planters without an understanding of the 

 real reasons of its success. It appears too, singularly enough, that 

 this Central American S3^stem of shading coffee was adopted from the 

 custom of the aborigines in the shading of cacao in prehistoric times, 

 which is still practiced in many local ities. It is confidently believed that 

 a rational system of coffee culture in Porto Rico, based on the use of 

 leguminous trees and plants for shade and fertilizer purposes, will 

 revolutionize the coffee industry in that island and at least double the 

 yield per acre. 



Respectfully, 



Frederick V. Coville, 



Botanist. 

 Hon. James Wilson, 



St <■/■< in i'ij of Agriculture. 

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