Page 120 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRIES 155

laacls ancl must be artificially renewed from time to time) is
productive of Yemen, the rainfall, as shown in a previous
being more abundant and regular, and the inhabitants,
"laratively speaking, more virile, active, and industrious. The
' "'lie production is coffee ; then follow bearded wheat and barley,
'md fodder and garden produce.

Coffee, as an Arabian crop, is peculiar to the Yemen highlands.
The plant flourishes at any altitude between 4,000 and 8,000 ft., and
is first met between Hodeidah and San‘a soon after leaving Hajeilah.
[t is not indigenous to Arabia, but was introduced from Abyssinia
(lurin'* the Ethiopian invasion before the dawn of Islam. The
berries used for seed are first placed in the sun to dry until
f he husk cracks of itself and can be easily opened, care being
taken in so doing not to injure the inner skin of the bean.
To produce young plants the farmer selects a patch of ground
free from stones with at least one foot of good soil : he damps this
and smooths it down, presses each bean to a depth of a few inches
in the prepared ground, and covers them with a further inch or
so of loose fine soil. Artificial shade is then provided, usually
of branches, leaving an aperture at the top so that sunlight may
fall for an hour or so daily on each part of the planted surface.
The bed is watered every two or three days and the shoots appear
in about a month. The seedlings may be planted out about four
months after they appear; the plant reaches maturity in five
years, attaining a height of from 8 to 10 ft., and is too old to be
profitable after about twenty years.

Hie plantations are laid out in terraces up the hill-sides and
following their curves ; these are faced with stones, sometimes en­
closing a strip only a few feet wide and sometimes an acre or so ; the
r,<)l1 18 often only a foot or two deep. Great care has to be taken

° Preyent the destruction of the terraces by accidental water-
courses caused by thunderstorms. Every accessible and suitable
(•o0tf °n mountain-side is utilized. Many terraces were
t(--cted centuries ago, and they give a peculiar and charac-
fr(,ls lc. asPect to the Yemen landscape. The watering is done
wfl"1 Cls^erns °f cemented masonry, built in every cleft or ravine
centr6 SUr*ace water can be intercepted—for this reason some
cistor68 are comParatively sterile and devoid of plantations, as
a,>t«mS ^ not Practicable- The harvest, broadly speaking, is in
th0ir nU’,. . tbe berries ripen at different intervals according to
>mi ii°fltlou 011 tbe tree and the amount of sun to w’hich a planta-
tioii
)lfC0 uf* tuSecl’- 1,10 Haraz district, west of Menakhah, produces
<■(
1 the highest quality, and that grown by the Anls and