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.
Wild Kaffa Coffee Trees Near Adis Abeba
In the Yemen district, coffee is generally grown in small gardens. Large plantations, as they exist in other coffee-growing countries, are not seen in Arabia. Many of these small farms may be parts of a large estate belonging to some rich tribal chief. The native Arabs do not use coffee in the way it is used elsewhere in the world. They drink kisher, a beverage brewed from the husks of the berry and not from the bean. Consequently, the entire crop goes into export. But bad conditions of trade routes, political disturbances, and small regional wars, absence of good cultivation methods, and heavy transit taxes imposed by the government, have combined to restrict the production of Yemen coffee.
Land for the coffee gardens is selected on hill-slopes, and is terraced with soil and small walls of stone until it reaches up like an amphitheater—often to a considerable height. The soil is well fertilized. For sowing, the seeds are thoroughly dried in ashes, and after being placed in the ground, are carefully watched, watered, and shaded. In about a year the shrub has grown to a height of twelve or more inches. Seedlings in that condition are set out in the gardens in rows, about ten to thirteen feet apart. The young trees receive moisture from neighboring wells or from irrigation ditches, and are shaded by bananas.