those from east to west not more than three; but the lower the temperature the wider should be the interval, because in that case the vegetation is more active and more rapid, and the tree requires a wider space over which to extend itself.

The best season for planting the trees is the middle of the month of May, if there be then a sufficient degree of moisture; but the operation is often performed successfully during the rainy month of October; subject always to the risk, however, of serious injury to the young plantation from the north winds which prevail at that advanced season of the year.  The holes prepared to receive the plants are eighteen inches in diameter, and about two feet deep.

    In the island of Cuba there are two rival modes of planting the
    coffee tree.  The one is called “la siembra a la mota;” the other “la
    siembra a la estaca.”

By the method “a la mota,” a circle is formed around the plant in the nursery, and care is taken to remove it without disturbing the earth around the roots.  The plants are then placed carefully in willow baskets, prepared for the purpose, and carried to the holes already opened for their reception; gathering up the earth around the stem, and pressing it carefully down with the foot, in such a manner as to form a basin or filter for the reception of the rain-water, and for suffering it to percolate among the roots, and also to provide a convenient place of deposit for the subsequent application of manure.

The “siembra a la estaca” is differently executed.  Such plants are selected from the nursery as are of the thickness of the little finger, or from that to an inch in diameter.  In withdrawing them from the ground, great care is taken not to injure or compress the bulbs or buttons within, eight or ten inches of the level of the soil, because these are to serve for the production of fresh roots when the “estaca” is afterwards planted more deeply in its permanent position.  The greater part of the capillary roots are cut away with a knife; but a few, together with the principal root, are suffered to remain from four to six inches long.  In planting them, from three to four inches of the trunk are left above ground.  The little basin of earth for the reception and filtration of the rain-water, is not so large in the stake system of planting as in that with the clod of earth “a la mota;” but if the soil be poor, it must be proportionably enlarged to admit the application of the necessary quantity of manure.

The stake system, requiring much less labour than the other, is generally preferred; but when there is abundance of shade to protect the young plant from drought, and always, of course, in replacing the decayed trees of an old plantation, it is considered more desirable to remove the whole plant, its roots and branches entire, with as much as possible of the adhering soil from the nursery,