276 TlMEHRI. 
The large estates had some five or six hundred acres 
in coffee, divided into fields of ten acres each, separated 
by intervals called "alleys." These, being mostly planted 
with fruit trees, were called fruit-alleys. Each field had 
the number of trees it contained painted on a board 
at one corner of the field ; so that, to judge the extent 
of the "blossom," you had to decide what was the 
average to be expected from each tree, and then mul- 
tiply it by the number of trees, modifying it by 
circumstances, some fields having more young trees 
than others, some more "water sprouts" from negle6l 
in pruning, some being injured from neglecl in weeding. 
It required considerable experience and practice to 
make a correcl; estimate. If the blossom was a fine one, 
you might see people driving into town in triumph, 
waving branches of coffee trees, white with the jasmine- 
like flowers. 
But there was still uncertainty ; the blossom did not 
always "set" as it was termed, or form fruit ; or from 
some cause, the young fruit would drop, and there 
would be great disappointment. 
If all went well, and the crop began to ripen, the 
busy time of the coffee-estates commenced. All hands 
were sent aback to pick coffee, and everybody that could 
be mustered was employed in getting in the harvest 
before it fell from the trees. Horses were turned out 
to graze, that the grooms might pick coffee instead of 
cutting grass ; managers and attorneys had to diminish 
the number of their attendants as much as possible, 
and every effort was made to secure the crop, the 
reward of all their toil. 
