40 



COFFEE. 



The cultiu-e requisite is, in the first instance, to afford sliacle to 

 the young plants ; many consider that this shelter should be con- 

 tinued during the whole period of their culture ; but this is some- 

 what doubtful, as it has been found that plants so protected are 

 not such good bearers as those which are exposed. The best 

 plants for this purpose are tall, wide-branchiDg trees or shrubs, 

 without much underwood. The other culture requisite is only to 

 keep the ground tolerably clean from weeds, for which one cooly 

 on from five to ten biggahs is sufficient. He should also prune 

 ofi' decayed or dead branches. This treatment must be continued 

 until the fourth year, when the trees will first begin bearing, and, 

 after the gathering of each crop, the trees will require to be 

 tbinned out from the superabundant branches, their extremities 

 stopped, and the tops reduced to prevent their growing above 

 seven or eight feet in height ; the stems, also, should be kept free 

 from shoots or suckers for the height of at least one foot, as well 

 as clear from weeds. 



Irrigation must be frequent during the first year that the plants 

 are removed to the plantation, and may be aftenvards advanta- 

 geously continued at intervals during the dry and hot weather, as 

 a very hot season is found unfavorable to the plant, drying up 

 and destroying the top branches and the extremities of the side 

 shoots ; whilst, on the other hand, a very long rain destroys the 

 fruit by swelling it out and rotting it before it can be ripened : 

 hence it is necessary to attend to a good drainage of the planta- 

 tion, that no water be anj^where allowed to lodge, as certain loss 

 will ensue, not only of the crop of the current year, but most fre- 

 quently of the trees also, as their roots require to be rather dry 

 than otherwise. 



The crop will be ready to gather from October to January, 

 when the ripe berries should be carefully picked from the trees by 

 hand every morning, and dried in. the shade, the sun being apt to 

 make them too brittle ; they must be •carefully turned to prevent 

 fermentation, and wlien sufficiently dry the husks must be removed, 

 and the clean cofi'ee separated from the broken berries. After 

 being picked out and put aside, and then again dried, it is fit to 

 pack. The first j'-ear's crop will be less than the succeeding ones, 

 in which the produce will range from J a lb. to 1 lb. in each year. 

 — (Simmonds's " Colonial Magazine," vol. xv.) 



Ceijlon. — Cofi'ee is stated to have been introduced into this island 

 from Java, somewhere about the year 1730. It was extensively 

 difi'used over the country by the agency of birds and jackalls. In 

 1821 its cultivation may be said to have partially commenced, and 

 in 1836, it had become widely extended through the Kandyan 

 provinces. 



In 1839 not a tree had been felled on the wide range of the 

 Himasgaria mountains. In 181<0 a small plantation was, for the 

 first tiuie, formed. In 1846 there were fifty estates, then ave- 

 raging, each, 200 acres of planted land, and yielding an average 

 crop of 80,000 cwt. of cofiee. Every acre is nou- purchased in 



