398  Cultivation  of  Coffee  in  Jamaica.  {^aiEiSS?™1, 
been  dried  on  the  "  barbicue  "  this  skin  becomes  brittle,  and  the 
negroes  again  beat  it  in  the  mortar  to  hull  it  out  of  this  skin.  Then 
the  seeds  are  picked  over  by  band,  the  better  part  of  them  being 
sold  to  the  little  stores  throughout  the  country,  which  we  notice 
with  the  sign  out,  "Licensed  to  deal  in  agricultural  products,"  and 
which  pay  Her  Majesty's  government  two  pounds  each  per  year  for 
the  privilege.  These  small  storekeepers  send  it  to  Kingston,  from 
whence  it  is  shipped  abroad.  Coffee  merchants  in  Kingston,  and 
some  of  the  merchants  in  the  smaller  towns,  sort  the  coffee  into 
grades  according  to  size  and  weight  of  the  berry.  Most  of  the  sort- 
ing is  done  by  hand,  though  some  have  sizing  machines,  as 
described  further  on. 
On  coffee  plantations  the  same  process  is  gone  through,  but  on  a 
larger  scale,  more  systematic,  and  with  the  aid  of  machinery.  The 
coffee  shrub  thrives  best  on  new  land,  hence  the  portion  of  the 
plantation  devoted  to  coffee  growth  is  virgin  soil  cleared  of  its  forest 
for  this  purpose. 
Around  Mandeville,  in  Manchester  parish,  the  land  is  now  almost 
all  pasturage,  and  I  am  told  that  the  whole  of  it  was  originally 
cleared  off  for  the  growth  of  coffee  many  years  ago  in  slave  times, 
and  having  raised  its  crops  of  coffee  and  exhausted  the  ground  for 
this  purpose,  it  was  sown  in  Guinea  grass  and  used  for  grazing.  To 
establish  a  coffee  plantation  the  land  is  cleared  of  its  trees,  burnt 
over,  and  cleaned  up.  Then  it  is  laid  out  by  pegs  into  squares  of 
six  feet,  and  young  coffee  sprouts  about  a  foot  high  are  planted  near 
each  peg.  These  sprouts  are  generally  obtained  from  beneath  old 
shrubs,  and  are  adventitious  growths  from  seed  dropped  from  the 
shrub,  though  sometimes  nurseries  are  established  for  raising  the 
young  sprouts  from  planted  seed.  In  these  tropical  regions,  weeds 
and  vines  and  wild  growths  of  all  kinds  spring  up  very  quickly,  and 
with  these  the  planter  is  constantly  at  war.  Four  times  a  year,  at 
least,  the  fields  should  be  gone  over  with  a  hoe  and  the  weeds  cut 
down.  In  three  or  four  years  the  young  coffee  plants  begin  to  bear, 
and  the  shrubs  continue  giving  crops  for  about  thirty  years.  The 
shrub,  if  left  to  grow,  would  reach  a  height  of  twelve  to  fifteen  feet, 
but  on  a  plantation  they  are  topped  when  about  four  feet  high,  and 
kept  to  about  this  height  by  breaking  off  the  tops  and  such  suckers  as 
appear.  The  branches  are  slender,  and  when  the  shrubs  are  not 
crowded,  spread  nearly  horizontal.    The  leaves  are  evergreen  (as 
