744 C O F 
properly dunged, this without any mixture is preferable 
to any other. 
The plants fliould not be too often tranfplanted, for 
that will greatly retard their growth. If they are new 
potted twice a-year at moil, it will be fufficient; though 
nnlefs the plants make great progrefs, they will not re¬ 
quire to be removed oftener than once in a-year, which 
ihould be in fuminer, that they may have time to get 
good roots again before winter. During the warm wea¬ 
ther in fummer, thefe plants (hould have a large (hare of 
air, but they mult not be wholly expofed abroad at any 
feafon ; for although they may have the appearance of 
thriving in the open air during the heat of fummer, yet 
when they are removed into the ftove again, their leaves 
will fall off, and the plants will make but an indifferent 
appearance the following winter, if they fliould lurvive 
it; therefore it is the better method to keep them con- 
llantly in the ftove, and admit a proportionable fhare of 
air to them everyday, 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 mult have it more fpa- 
ringly; ancl the ftove in which they are placed fliould be 
kept to the heat afligned for the ananas upon the botani¬ 
cal thermometers. 
This tree has been propagated by cuttings, and alfo 
from layers; but thefe are long before they make roots, 
and the plants fo raifed are never fo itrong and thriving 
as thofe which arife from berries; therefore where the 
berries can be procured, it is much the beft method to 
propagate the plants by feeds. When they are tranf¬ 
planted, their roots fliould not be too much cut or 
trimmed ; the decayed or rotten fibres fliould be pruned 
off, and tliofe which are clofely matted to the fide of the 
pots fliould be trimmed, but not cut too near to the Hem; 
for the old fibres do not put out new roots very kindly, 
efpecially thofe which are become tough, fo that there 
fliould always be a fuflicient number of young fibres left 
to fupport the plants, till new ones are produced. The 
plants raifed from the berries, produce fruit in two years 
from planting, and in hot climates fooner; plantations 
of thefe trees may therefore 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 ; fo that in all coun¬ 
tries without the tropics, they cannot be expeCted to 
grow abroad. 
In Arabia Felix the coffee-tree is raifed from feed, fown 
in nurferies, and planted out as there is occafion. The 
plantations are in a inoift fhady fituation, on a fmall emi¬ 
nence, at the foot of the mountains, whence little rills of 
water are conduced in fmall channels to the roots of the 
trees, to fecure the production and ripening of the fruit. 
When they remove or tranfplant a tree, they make a 
trench three feet whde and five feet deep, which they line 
or cover with (tones, that the water may the more readily 
fink deep into the earth, and thus be kept from evapo¬ 
rating. When the fruit is nearly ripe the water is turned 
off, left the fruit (hould be too fucculent. In places much 
expofed to the louth, the coffee-trees are planted in re¬ 
gular lines, (heltered by a kind of poplar-tree, which af¬ 
fords a thick (hade. Without this precaution they fup- 
pole that the bloffoms would be fo parched by the excel- 
live heat of the fun, as not to be lucceeded by fruit. 
Dr. Laborie, a royalift of St. Domingo, has lately pub- 
liflied the French method of cultivating coffee in St. Do¬ 
mingo, in which are many judicious oblervations, the re- 
fult of long experience, refpeCting the foil fit for a coffee- 
plantation ; the various eftabliftiments neceffary; the fe- 
veral (tages of its growth and duration 5 and the manage¬ 
ment and ufe of the negroes and cattle. With relpeCt to 
foil, it is a faCl, fays he, beyond con tradition, that low 
lands, and even the mountains near the champaign coun¬ 
try, are lels proper for the production of coffee, than lands 
which are high and at a diltance from the fea. The coifee- 
ijee delights in a comparatively cool climate^ and in an 
F E A, 
open and permeable virgin foil; and is hurt by the parch¬ 
ing deftruCtive air of the fea. The Coil on the mountains 
of St. Domingo confifts generally of a bed of mould more 
or lefs deep ; but which, tor the production of coffee-trees, 
ought not to be lels than four or five feet. It the declivity 
be gentle, the fofteft and molt friable earth is preferable to 
all others ; but in deep grounds a firm though not clayey 
foil, mixed with a proportion of gravel or fmall ltones, 
through which the water may find an eafy way, is the 
moft defirable. The colour of the ground is of little 
confequence, though fuch as is fomewhat red did) is ge¬ 
nerally to he preferred. With regard to expofure, the 
north and weft are the moft eligible in low and hot fixa¬ 
tions, becaufe thele expofures are the cooleft; and on the 
higheft mountains the fouth and eaft are to be cbofen, 
becaufe they are the hotteft. On the whole, neither the 
higheft nor the loweit fixations are the belt, but thofe 
which are conliderably above the middle of the mountains. 
Between the coffee-trees, after they are planted, may be 
l'own beams, maize, and all kinds of efculent plants, pot¬ 
herbs, and roots ; but particular care mult be taken to 
remove from thele plantations all creeping plants, fuch as 
melons, yams, potatoes, gourds, and, more efpecially, to¬ 
bacco, which multiplies to a vail extent, and exhauits the 
ground. 
In St. Domingo the moft approved method of planting 
the coffee-tree is in ftraight rows eroding each other at 
right angles, and the diltance between the plants is regu¬ 
lated by the quality and expofure of the ground. The 
richer the foil, the expofures being the lame, and the 
cooler the expofure, the quality of the foil being the fame, 
the farther mull the trees be planted afunder. Though 
coffee, like all other vegetables, grows from the feed, Dr. 
Laborie advifes, in the forming of large plantations, to 
make ufe of fkplings reared in nurferies; and the fitua¬ 
tion fitteft for a nurfery is a plain, or at lead a ground of 
gentle afeent, where the mould is crumbly. In forming 
a nurfery, lome plant the whole cherry; but this author 
recommends the taking off the fkin, and wafhing the fe- 
parated leeds; in which we ful'pect that he is miftaken, 
as his practice is certainly a deviation from nature. The 
nurfery mult be kept very clear of weeds, and neither com 
nor any thing elfe fown in it. The belt lealon for tianf- 
planting the laplings is during the genial rains of April 
and May, when great attention is required, as the trea- 
fures of future harveft are at (take. Thofe plants are the 
fitteft for being removed which are faid to be crowned, or 
have each four little boughs ; and, it the feeds were frefli 
and fown in furrows about an incti Irom each other, this 
perfection is generally attained in the courfe of a year. 
The faplings mull not be pulled up by force, but care¬ 
fully raifed by means of a flat, fliarp, iron, (hovel, thruft 
deeper under their roots; and the looner they are plant¬ 
ed, after being taken up, the better. In hot fixations 
plantain-trees are intermingled with the c.offee-trees for 
the purpofe of lliade and coolnels. They are ulually placed 
in every fourth or fixtli row, as the trees are more or lefs 
diftant, and the expofure more or lefs hot. 
The natural height of the coffee-tree is from fifteen to 
eighteen feet; and, if left to itfelf, it would have the form 
of moft other trees, i. e. a naked trunk and a branchy head. 
This is prevented by what the planters call flopping; which 
is performed by cutting off the t p of the tree when it has 
arrived at the proper height, which varies according to 
circumftances. In the belt foil and molt genial expolure, 
it is fufferecl to grow to the height of five feet, and in the 
worft Hopped at two; but, under the fame aipeCt, and oil 
ground of the fame quality, all the trees ought to be (top¬ 
ped at the fame height. This operation of Hopping is 
very apt to make the trees put forth fuperfluous branches, 
which renders them inacceflible to the genial warmth of 
the l'un, and, of courfe, deficient in the powers of fructi¬ 
fication. Thefe mult be plucked away while yet tender; 
for, if they be fuffered to grow till it become neceffary to 
cut them, a number of iprouts fueceedj whereas, when 
