Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-04-01
Gould Coffee be Cultivated in
Southern California?


Statements have gone the rounds of
the papers recently that a tree sup
posed to be variety of the coffee
plant, "caffea Arabica,a has been dis
covered in some localities in the
mountains of California. The state
ments affirmed that the berries had
the appearance and the characteristic
odor of the true coffee. OF course
such reports must always be received
with certain degree of doubt, until
confirmed by thorough investigation,
yet the subject is one worthy of
thought. A coffee plantation is better
than q gold mine. The cost Of pro-
duction is light, the preparation of the
berry for the market simple, the time
required short, the tree commences
bearing in the third year, the product
is neither perishable nor bulky and
the demand is practically unlimited.
The United States imports every
pound of coffee consumed. The orig
inal home of the coffee tree is the hot,
dry belt of country lying around the
Red Sea and facing out upon the In
dian Ocean. 1t grows wild in Arabia
and Abyssinia. From these countries
it has spread over various portions of
the tropical and semi tropical world,
yet nowhere in all its migrations
yielding berry with the rich, subtle
aroma of its original home. This Pc
culiar excellence of the coffee in
Arabia and Abyssinia has been as
cribed to the influence of the dry,
desert climate. Owing to the absence
of rain at the season when the berry is
ripening, it is allowed to remain upon
the tree until so dry that it is ready to
fall. This more thorough maturing
of the berry in the rainless climate is
supposed to give to it its superiority
over the product raised in the coffee
districts of America, all of which have
Summer rains.
Can coffee be successfully cultivated
in California Last year several per-
sons planted small quantities, but the
experiment was made upon low land
where frost is quite severely felt; the
result was that the tender plants were
killed. How would it be if the plants
were protected from frosts during the
Winter until they had attained an age
of two or three years, then transplant
ing. Many plants that are easily
killed by frost when young and tender
will, after the first year or two, bear
quite severe frost without injury.
Again, many tender yet productive
and valuable plants are hardened,
made to endure and flourish in colder
climate than their original home, by
budding or grating upon the root OF
more hardy though less productive
variety of the same species. Ifthe re-
ported coffee plant of the California
mountains should prove to be true
coffee, though of comparatively
worthless variety, could the better
varities be successfully and profitably
budded upon it? Or might cultiva-
ton of this wild coffee develop it from
possibly worthless to productive
tree? Or, again, might the removal
of the plant from the more severe eli
mate of Northern California to the
milder temperature Of Southern Cali
fornia change its productive capacity?
If coffee can be raised in Southern
California the rainless Summer ought
to give much the same peculiar ex-
cellence found in the coffee of Arabia.
Who will test the question ?-try the
true coffee, the so-called coffee plant
of California, and their crossing or
budding? It might lead to no practi-
cal result, yet the experiment need not
cost much and might prove to be labor
and money we'll spent.