WEST INDIES. 
117 
CHAP. IV.'j 
from one root. If therefore, a healthy shoot springs 
near the ground, all the original plant is cut off 
close above it, by which means, when the plant is 
moulded, the root becomes w r ell covered. At the 
height ot five or six feet, which the plants gene¬ 
rally attain the third ydar, the trees are topped. 
At this height a single stem gives from thirty-six 
to forty-two bearing branches, and the pruning re¬ 
quired annually, is to leave nothing but those 
branches. 
From what has been said concerning the effect 
of a difference of seasons, it must be difficult to 
fix on the average produce of a coffee plantation by 
the acre. In rich and spungy soils a single tree 
has been known to yield from six to eight pounds 
of coffee : I mean when pulped and dried. In a 
different situation, a pound and a quarter from each 
tree, on an average, is great yielding; but then the 
coffee is infinitely better in point of flavour. The 
following is, I believe on a medium, as accurate a 
calculation as the subject will admit. Coffee trees 
raised from old trees, in lands neither very poor 
nor very rich, bear the second year from the new 
growth 300 pounds weight per acre, 500 pounds 
the third year, and from 6 to 700 pounds the fourth. 
If the trees are raised from young plants, no pro¬ 
duce is to be expected until the third year from 
the planting ; when they will yield very little; the 
fourth year about 700 pounds. The average an¬ 
nual produce per acre after that period, if the walk 
