of the leading coffee countries
of the world." Coffee grows wild in many parts of the Protectorate, but
the natives are too lazy to pick even the wild berries.

On the more advanced plantations in all parts of Africa the approved
cultivation methods of other leading countries are carefully followed;
especial care being given to weeding and pruning, because of the rank
growth of the tropics. On the whole, however, little attention is given
to intensive methods.

ARABIA. Whether the coffee tree was first discovered indigenous in the
mountains of Abyssinia, or in the Yemen district of Arabia, will
probably always be a matter of contention. Many writers of Europe and
Asia in the fifteenth century, when coffee was first brought to the
attention of the people of Europe, agree on Arabia; but there is good
reason to believe the plant was brought to Arabia from Abyssinia in the
sixth century.

Once all the coffee of Arabia went to the outside world through the port
of Mocha on the eastern coast of the Red Sea. Mocha, which never raised
any coffee, is no longer of commercial importance; but its name has been
permanently attached to the coffee of this country.

_Mocha_ (_Moka_, or _Morkha_) coffee (i.e. _Coffea arabica_) is raised
principally in the vilayet of Yemen, a district of southeastern Arabia.
Yemen extends from the north, southerly along the line of the Red Sea,
nearly to the Gulf of Aden. With the exception of a narrow strip of land
along the shores of the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the
Gulf of Aden, it is a rugged, mountainous region, in which innumerable
small valleys at high elevations are irrigated by waters from the
melting snows of the mountains.

Coffee can be successfully grown in any part of Yemen, but its
cultivation is confined to a few widely scattered districts, and the
acreage is not large. The principal coffee regions are in the mountains
between Taiz and Ibb, and between Ibb and Yerim, and Yerim and Sanaa, on
the caravan route from Taiz to Sanaa; between Zabeed and Ibb, on the
route from Taiz to Zabeed; between Hajelah and Menakha, on the route
from Hodeida to Sanaa, and in the wild mountain ranges both to the north
and south of that route; between Beit-el-Fakih and Obal; and between
Manakha and Batham to the north of Bajil. The plant does best at
elevations ranging from 3,500 to 6,500 feet.

[Illustration: WILD KAFFA COFFEE TREES NEAR ADIS ABEBA]

In the Yemen district, coffee is g