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nursery with four pairs of leaves, including the fish-leaf, withstand 
transplanting better, as a rule, than at a much later stage — i.e., 
provided that the shade over them in the nursery has been previously 
lightened to allow of the necessary hardening. 
In any event the process of transplanting is a delicate one, 
.requiring much close supervision, especially to see that on a hot day 
the plants put in are not left for any length of time without shade, 
and the greatest care be taken to avoid a bent tap-root by cutting the 
exposed portion with a sharp knife before it leaves the transplanter. 
Some six to eight months from planting, the young trees under 
normal conditions will require suckering, and also attention to the 
selection of the one stem on which the tree is eventually to be brought 
up. Seed at stake, if carefully bandied, will give excellent results, 
and planting by this method is much to be recommended under 
certain conditions. 
The time from blossoms to crop may be counted roughly as ten 
months and two heavy crops a year are as a rule reckoned on, May- 
June and December- January, when the estate, unless supplied during 
the year with more labour than is actually required, is sometimes hard 
put to it to maintain itself in good order, and to harvest the crop at 
the same time without loss. Pruning and handling. will, all the year- 
round, take up a large amount of labour and superintendence. The 
forcing climate makes it necessary to get in a round of pruning every 
two months ; it should in reality be done every six weeks. 
Shade Trees. 
The prevalence of shade trees on nearly all the old coffee estates 
in the Peninsula was the outcome of a firm belief brought from other 
tropical countries where varieties of coffee other than Liberian were 
found to thrive better under certain forms of shade. 
Here the climatic conditions, and those generally under which 
Liberian coffee is grown, do not appear tp call for the same treatment 
and generally speaking the trees appear to do better without it, 
especially as we have yet to find a leguminous shade tree (no other 
varieties could in any case be recommended) that is not actually 
harmful in some degree by its tendency to get out of control. 
Time and space in this short treatise will not permit of going 
into the various methods of curing and preparing the article for 
the market any more than it will of entering into anything like 
detail over cultivation, maintenance, soil conditions, and many other 
vital questions connected with the industry, but a rough outline of 
what is required for the treatment of the crop subsequent to the 
picking will act as a guide for the present. 
Needless to say, the factory site should be chosen at a spot 
where an ample supply of water is available all the year round ; 
the thorough washing of the beans after leaving the pulper playing 
