ohap. iv.] WEST INDIES. 115 
such persons as may have it in contemplation to ad¬ 
venture in this line of cultivation, (in a country, 
where every species of soil, and choice of situa¬ 
tion, may be found), to know beforehand, how to 
employ their money and labour to the greatest ad¬ 
vantage. 
Coffee indeed will thrive in every soil in the 
West Indies; a cold stiff clay, and a shallow mould 
on a hot marie, excepted. In both which, the 
leaves turn yellow, and the trees perish, or pro¬ 
duce nothing; but the best and highest-flavoured 
fruit is unquestionably the growth of either a warm 
gravelly mould, a sandy loam, or the dry red hills 
which are found in almost every island of the West 
Indies, Jamaica especially. Frequent showers of 
rain, however, are friendly to its growth, but if 
water remains long about the roots, the tree will 
decay and perish. 
If the land be fresh and naturally good, coffee plants 
may be set out at all seasons of the year, even in 
dry weather, and they will thrive in any situation, 
provided it be screened from the north winds, 
which often destroy the blossom 3 and sometimes, 
in the after part of the year when those winds pre¬ 
vail most, entirely strip the tree of both fruit and 
leaves 5 blasting in a moment all the hopes of the 
planter. 
The usual mode of planting is to line out the 
I^nd into squares of eight feet: in other words to 
