Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-12-04

when they are burned. S., more
proVident, let's the logs rot where they
lie, which they do in year Or two; in
the open sunlight they are saved from
insects, and the ground receives large
accession to its strength.
Back of the house there are two yards
or small fields, four acres, perhaps, to-
gether. The ground is covered with
earthen pots set close together, only
leaving little pathways at intervals.
Each of the two hundred thousand pots
contains thriving young cofee-plant.
The ground forms a gentle slope, and
water is constantly running over it, so
that it is always soaked. The pots,
through orifces at the bottoms, draw
up enough of this water to keep the
roots moistened. TheyOung plants are
protected from the sun by mat screens
stretched on poles above the ground.
This is costly system. Most of the
planters take root shoots at random
from the old fields and set them at once
into unprepared ground. Sr. SIS
experiment has cost him probably $780,
900; the pots alone cost $1,000. But
he will make at least $4,000 by the
operation. In the first place he gains
a good year in the start that he gives
to these young plants. Then they are
not put back in the transplanting; the
pots are simply inverted and the roots
come out with the earth. They are set
into mold or compost which has been
prepared in deep holes. The tender
rootlets catch hold of this at once, and
in day or two the plant is growing as
well as ever.
The nurslings come from selected
seeds of half q dozen varieties. Sr.
s. has them planted at first in small
pots. A dozen slaves are engaged
transplanting the six-inch high shoots
to larger pots. Little tired-loOking
children carry them about on their
shoulders, working on as steadily as the
old ones, for they are well trained. Sr.
S wants to make his plants last
fifty years, so he is careful and tender
with them. The little blacks will be
free in 1892, so his policy is to get as
much work as possible from them while
ne can.
The plants are set in rows about ten
feet apart. They grow and thrive, and
are happy, out on the hillside. Warm
sunshine caresses the leaves; generous
rains feed the tender roots; the ground
is kept free from intruding weeds and
bushes, and the planter waits for his
harvest. After four years the trees are
six feet high and begin to bear. By
the sixth year the crops are very large
three or even four pounds per tree at
times. Meanwhile corn and mandiOca
are planted between the rows. Often
in new plantation the expenses are
nearly covered by these subsidiary
crops.
In this month of November only q
few of the slaves are in the new fields.
November is the principal gathering
month, and almost the whole force
must be at work in the pearing or
chards. From sunrise to sunset, men,
women and children are gathering the
berries in baskets, working silently and
steadily under the overseer's eye. Every
day each slave gathers on the average
berries enough to produce fifty pounds
of dried coffee. The pickings are col
lected in carts and brought to the mill
house, where the seeds must be pre-
pared for the market. Herbert Fl.
Smith, IN Scribner'S Magazine.