Souing.—The seed reserved for sowing must be put into the ground quite fresh, as it soon loses its power of germination. The quality of the seeds from young stems is not so good as that from stems four or five years old. Clean, well-formed berries, free from injury by insects or the decay of the pulp, should be selected. These berries must be sown in a nursery, either in small, well-manured beds (or in pots in a7sheltered spot), not too close, as it is well to leave them where sown until-they acquire a good growth ; indeed, it is better if they are removed at once. from the bed where they are sown, to the plantation. The seedlings appear in about a month after the seed is sown. Coffee seed lings from the nursery may be planted out in seven months. A bushel will rear 10,000 plants, cover ing ten acres. Coffee trees should be planted in rows six or eight feet apart, in boles 20 inches deep by 18. They should be regularly lopped and pruned, so ns to admit the sun to ripen the fruit on every branch. The trees are generally in bearing in the third or fourth year.
The coffee tree, if allowed, attains 15 feet in height, but to facilitate plucking it is kept down to 3 or 3f feet above the ground. This makes the shrub shoot out laterally, and produce at least 25 per cent. more than it would do if perniitted to attain its flatland height and to occupy more hind. In topping, care inust be taken to cut off the uppermost pair of branches, as their weight when in fruit would split the head of the stein. Nature is constantly throwing out young shoots, which try to grow upwards, but they must be carefully broken off, ns they are a great and useless drain on the juice of the plant. Never cut a slicker or branch off a tree, but always break it. It is necessary to protect the trees frotn being burned up by the sun, by planting them sufficiently close to form a good cover, and protect the soil from exhaustion by systematic weeding and substantial manuring.
The age to which the coffee treo will survive has not been ascertained. Native plantings are to be found in many parts of Ceylon, Wynad, Mysore, etc., containing trees of an age far beyond the power of the oldest inhabitant to define, and which have very probably been flourishing for generations.
Fruit.—From flowering to harvest is from eight to nine months. A field in full bloom is a beauti ful sight. The clusters of white blossom contrast prettily with the deep green leaves, and the whole at a distance looks as if it htul been snowed on. The flower only lasts one day. If the atmosphere be dry, the bloom is sometimes lost, as it will not set without moisture ; mists and light drizzling rains are the most. favourable weather at this time. The fruit grows on a footstalk of half an inch, in clusters round the joints of the lateral blanches, and when of full size, but still green, resembles small olives. A month before ripening it turns yellow, and through different shades to ruby red when it is ripe, and from its likeness to a European fruit is technically, called cherry.'
During the latter part of its growth, particularly, it requires a great deal of moisture, otherwise the bean will be shrivelled, not perfectly formed, light, and of inferior quality. When the fruit becomes blood red itis pet fectly ripe, and should be gathered. Once ripe, the sooner it is plucked the better. Within the pulp is the parchment surrounding the two beans, then the semi-transparent silver skin, and then the two berries,—occasionally only a single berry, generally small and deformed, called pea-berry, which realizes in Britain 10s. to 12s. per cwt. more than the best quality of the usual sort. The parchment and silver skin comprise about 1 per cent. of the fruit. Tho pulp has a sacet, sickly saccharine flavour. In 1875 it was proposed to ferment the pulp into a spirit.
Ceylon coffee is known in the market as washed coffee. Mocha coffee is clignated husked coffee, and is perhaps a better coffee bean.
dlfocha coffee is cultivated in very small fields of a few acres in extent, and on level ground ; the fruit is allowed to remain on the tree until it drops or is shaken down, and is gathered from the ground. In that hot, dry climate the pulp shrinks and becomes rather hard, and then by pounding by the hand, the berries, of a light grey colour, are separated front the silver skin, the parchment, and the dried pulp, at one operation.
In Ceylon, after the berries are plucked and brought in baskets to the warehouse, the pulp or fleshy part is retnoved. The berries are placed in heaps in a loft, above the pulper. They are then sent down a shoot, into which a stream of water is conducted, and are thus washed into the pulper. The pulper is a roller covered with a sheet of copper, made rough like a nutmeg grater. The berries follow it as it goes round, but there is only room for the se'ed to pass, so that the pulp is squeezed off and carried away by a stream thrown of by the water wheel, while the naked coffee drops on the other side. The seeds are atilt cevered with glutinous matter, to remove which they are washed in a cistern, the inferior ones floating, while the good ones sink. The coffee seeds are then laid out on the barbecus (which are square platforms of brick, plastered with chunam, with sides a foot high), where they dry in the sun for about three days, and are afterwards stored in godowns. In the moister parts of Ceylon, the curing process is not completed on the estate. After removing the pulp, the beans, enclosed in parchment, are dried for about three days, and are then forwarded to Colombo, where, by means of special machinery, the parchment and the silver skin are removed from the berrie.s, which are of a bluish colour when they are ready for shipment.