nced methods of arboriculture, every
effort is made to obtain the maximum production of quality coffee
consistent with the smallest outlay of money and labor. Experimental
stations in various parts of the world are constantly working to improve
methods and products, and to develop types that will resist disease and
adverse climatic conditions.

While cultivation methods in the different producing countries vary in
detail of practise, the principles are unchanging. Where methods do
differ, it is owing principally to local economic conditions, such as
the supply and cost of labor, machinery, fertilizers, and similar
essential factors.

[Illustration: IMPLEMENTS USED IN EARLY ARABIAN COFFEE CULTURE

1, Plow. 2 and 3, Mattocks. 4, Hatchet and sickle. Top, Seeder
Implement]

SOIL. Rocky ground that pulverizes easily--and, if possible, of volcanic
origin--is best for coffee; also, soil rich in decomposed mold. In
Brazil the best soil is known as _terra roxa_, a topsoil of red clay
three or four feet thick with a gravel subsoil.

CLIMATE. The natural habitat of the coffee tree (all species) is
tropical Africa, where the climate is hot and humid, and the soil rich
and moist, yet sufficiently friable to furnish well drained seed beds.
These conditions must be approximated when the tree is grown in other
countries. Because the trees and fruit generally can not withstand
frost, they are restricted to regions where the mean annual temperature
is about 70 deg. F., with an average minimum about 55 deg., and an average
maximum of about 80 deg. Where grown in regions subject to more or less
frost, as in the northernmost parts of Brazil's coffee-producing
district, which lie almost within the south temperate zone, the coffee
trees are sometimes frosted, as was the case in 1918, when about forty
percent of the Sao Paulo crop and trees suffered.

Generally speaking, the most suitable climate for coffee is a temperate
one within the tropics; however, it has been successfully cultivated
between latitudes 28 deg. north and 38 deg. south.

RAINFALL. Although able to grow satisfactorily only on well drained
land, the coffee tree requires an abundance of water, about seventy
inches of rainfall annually, and must have it supplied evenly throughout
the year. Prolonged droughts are fatal; while, on the other hand, too
great a supply of water tends to develop the wood of the tree at the
expense of the flowers and fruit, especially in low-ly