C O F 
by the poft, but when they have been a fortnight in 
their journey they have all failed ; and this has con- 
ftantly happened every where, for the berries which 
were lent from Holland to Paris did not grow, nor 
did thofe which were fent from Paris to England 
grow; fo that wherever thefe trees are defired, the 
young plants muft be fent, if it be at any diftance 
from the place where they grow. 
The berries lhould be planted in fmall pots, filled 
with light kitchen-garden earth, and plunged into a 
hot-bed of tanners-bark ; the pots muft be watered 
gently once or twice a week, but the earth muft not 
be too moift, left it rot the berries. If the bed be 
of a proper temperature of warmth, the plants will 
appear in a month or live weeks time, and in about 
two months more will be fit to tranfplant. For as 
many of the berries will produce two plants, fo the 
fooner they are parted, the better their roots will be 
formed ; for when they grow double till they have 
made large roots, they will be fo intermixed and en- 
tangled, as to render it difficult to feparate them 
without tearing off their fibres, which will greatly 
prejudice the plants. When thefe are tranfplanted, 
they muft be each put into a feparate fmall pot, filled 
with the fame earth as before, and plunged into the 
tan-bed again ; which fhould be ltirred up to the 
bottom, and if required, fome new tan fhould be 
mixed with it, to renew the heat. Then the plants 
fhould be gently watered, and the glaffes of the hot- 
bed muft be fhaded every day till they have taken new 
root; after which the plants fhould have free air 
admitted to them every day, ip proportion to the 
warmth of the feafon : during the fummer they will 
require frequently to be refrefhed with water, but 
they muft not have it in too great plenty : for if their 
roots are kept too moift, they are very lubjecft to rot, 
then the leaves will foon decay and drop off, and 
the plants become naked ; when this happens, they 
are feldom recovered again. The firft fign of thefe 
plants being difordered, is, their leaves fweating out 
a clammy juice, which attrafts the fmall infedts, that 
too frequently infeft the plants in ftbves ; when they 
are not in health, thefe infects cannot be deftroyed, 
till the plants are recovered to vigour : for although 
the plants are ever fo carefully wafhed and cleaned 
from them, yet they will be foop attacked by them 
again, if they are not recovered to health, for thefe 
infects are never feen upon any of the plants while 
they are in perfect vigour ; but when they are dif- 
ordered, they foon fpread over all the leaves and 
tender parts of the plants, and multiply exceedingly; 
fo that upon the firft attack, the plants fhould be 
fhifted into frefii earth, and all poffible care taken to 
recover them, without which all the waffiing and 
cleaning of the plants will be to little purpofe. The 
diforders attending the Coffee-trees, generally proceed 
from either being put into pots too large for them, 
nothing being of worfe confequence than over potting 
them ; or from the earth being too ftiff, or over- 
hung by other plants, or being over watered. If thefe 
are properly taken care of, and the ftove kept always 
in a proper temperature of heat, the plants will thrive, 
and produce plenty of fruit. 
I have made trial of feveral compofitions of earth 
for thefe plants, but have found none of them equal 
to that of a kitchen-garden, where the foil is na- 
turally loole, and not fubjeft to bind ; and if it has 
conftantly been well wrought and properly dunged, 
this without any mixture is preferable to any other. 
The plants fiiouid not be too ofteh tranfplanted, for 
that will greatly retard their growth. If they are new 
potted twice a year at moll, it will be fufficient ; 
though unlefs the plants make great progrefs, they 
will not require to be removed oftener than once in a 
year, which fhould be in fummer, that they may have 
time to get good roots again before winter. During 
the Warm weather in fummer, thefe plants fhould 
have a large fhare of air, but they muft not be wholly 
expofed abroad at any feafon : for although they may 
have the appearance of thriving in the open air 
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C O F 
during the heat of fummer, yet when they are re- 
moved into the ftove again, their leaves will fall offj 
and the plants will make but an indifferent appearance 
the following winter, if they fhould furvive it : there- 
fore it is the better method to keep them conftantly 
in the ftove, and admit a proportionable fhare of air 
to them every day, according to the heat of the 
feafon; they will require water two or three times a 
week in warm -weather, but in the winter they muft 
have it more fparingly ; and the ftove in which they 
are placed, fhould be kept to the heat affigned for 
the Ananas upon the botanical thermometors. 
There has been fome of thefe plants propagated by 
cuttings, and alio from layers ; but thefe are long 
before they make roots, and the plants fo raifed, are 
never fo ftrong and thriving as thofe which arife 
front berries ; therefore where the berries can be pro- 
cured, it is much the belt method to propagate the 
plants by feeds. 
When the plants are tranfplanted, their roots fhould 
not be too much cut or trimmed ; the decayed or 
rotten fibres fhould be pruned off, and thofe which, 
are clofely matted to the fide of the pots fhould be 
trimmed, but not cut too near to the ftem ; for the 
old fibres do not put out new roots very kindly, ef~ 
pecially thofe which are become tough, fo that there 
fhould always be a fufficient number of young 
fibres left to fupport the plants, till new ones are 
produced. 
The Coffee plants were firft carried from Arabia to 
Batavia by the Dutch, and from thence they were 
afterward brought to Holland, where great numbers 
of the plants were raifed from the berries which thofe 
plants produced, and from thefe mail of the gardens 
in Europe have been furnifhed. A great number of 
thefe young plants, which were raifed at Amfterdam, 
were fent to Surinam by the proprietors of that ifland, 
where the trees were foon propagated in great plenty, 
and from thence the plants have been difperfed to 
rrioft of the iflands in the Weft Indies : for as the 
plants raifed from the berries, produce fruit in two 
years from planting, and in the warm countries 
fooner, fo plantations of thefe trees may be foon made 
in any of thofe countries, where the temperature of 
the air is proper for their production, but the trees 
will not grow in the open air any where if there is a 
winter : lo that in all countries without the tropics, 
they cannot be expedted to grow abroad. 
The French have made great plantations of thefe 
trees in their fettlements in the Weft Indies, and alfo 
in the ifle of Bourbon, from whence they import great 
quantities of Coffee annually to France ; which al- 
though greatly inferior in quality to the Arabian, yet 
it is confumed, otherwife they would not continue 
that branch of commerce. In the Britifh colonies of 
America, there have been fome large plantations 
made of Coffee- trees : and it was propofed to the 
parliament, fome years paft, to give a proper en- 
couragement for cultivating this commodity in Ame- 
rica, fo as to enable the planters to underfell the im- 
porters of Coffee from Arabia. Accordingly there 
was an abatement of the duty payable on all the Coffee 
which fhould be of the growth of our colonies in 
America, which at that time was fuppofed would be 
a fufficient encouragement for the planters to improve 
this branch of commerce: but the productions of 
thofe countries, being greatly inferior in quality to 
that of Arabia, hath almoft ruined the projedt ; and 
unlefs the planters can be prevailed on to try fome 
experiments to improve its quality, there can be 
little hope of its becoming a valuable branch of trade; 
therefore I fhall beg leave to offer my fentiments on. 
this article, and fincerely wifh what I have to pro- 
pofe may be found ufeful for the inftrudtion of the 
Coffee planters ; for as my opinion is founded upon 
experiments, fo it is not mere theory or fup- 
pofition. 
The great fault of the Coffee which grows in Ame- 
rica, and alfb in the ifle of Bourbon, is the want of 
flavour, or having a difagreeabie one. The berries 
a-re 
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