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Coffee, I say, has no rival in the vegetable kingdom; its peculiar aroma cannot be imitated, although many ingenious persons have lately turned their attention to the subject. Hence, as I have said before, this article deserves the preference of the Liberian agriculturist and merchant; and as it is almost a spontaneous product of this country, and as the quality of African coffee is found to be most excellent, it is easy to see that Liberia may become the principal coffee-producing country in the world, if she can have the article prepared for exportation in sufficient quantities to meet the demand, and this is impossible without the use of machinery. It is my good fortune to have become the proprietor of a machine which exactly meets the requirements of the coffee-growers of this country. It is a machine which, I am almost tempted to believe, has been providentially designed specially for the benefit of Liberia. Besides its peculiar adaptation to the hulling of coffee, it may be applied to several other uses, which greatly abridge and facilitate the labors of the agriculturist in this country. The terms or conditions on which I offer it to the Government and people of Liberia appear to me to be entirely equitable, and most favorable to the interests of all parties concerned. In this connection, allow me to remark that by the agency of these machines the most profitable article of African produce can be supplied to all the markets of the world, and a branch of trade can thus be inaugurated which must enrich all who engage in it, while the prospective advantages of this trade to the Government itself are almost beyond computation. In view of these circumstances, I hope my demands will not be considered unreasonable.

In recommending this product (coffee) to your particular notice, permit me to give some account of its history, and other particulars which may improve our acquaintance with the popular article which custom has made a necessary of life in almost every civilized country. The coffee tree is not a native of Arabia, as has generally been supposed. Recent investigations prove it to be a plant of African origin, being derived principally from that district of Abyssinia called Kaffa, and hence its name. It was introduced into Ara. bia about the close of the 15th century.

The exhilarating properties of the berry, it is said, were first discovered by a shepherd, who observed that his sheep and goats became more lively and frolicsome after eating this fruit. The superior of a convent in the neighborhood having heard of this circumstance, administered a decoction of the berries to his monks to prevent them from becoming drowsy during their religious exercises. When brought to Arabia, coffee soon became a favorite drink; but the Turkish Government for awhile prohibited its use, because many of the Moslems preferred the coffee-house to the mosques. But in the year 1554 the restriction was taken off, and coffee-drinking became a general practice in Arabia. Nearly one hundred years elapsed before this beverage was known in London and Paris.

When coffee became somewhat a necessary of life in Europe, all the European Powers which had colonies between the tropics endeavored to form

plantations of coffee trees therein. The Dutch were the first who transported the coffee plant from Mocha to Batavia, and from Batavia to Amsterdam. An English merchant from Constantinople first introduced coffee to the Londoners. Cromwell attempted to suppress the use of this beverage in England, and caused the London coffee-houses to be closed. Before the 18th century all the coffee consumed in Europe was brought from Arabia Felix, by the way of the Levant, and the Turkish Government imposed heavy transit duties, which the vessels of Holland, England, and France at length avoided by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope.

One of the Batavia shrubs was transferred to the Botanical Gardens of Amsterdam in 1710, and, with great care, thrived so well that a shoot was sent to Louis XIV. and placed in one of the Royal Gardens at Paris. From this last mentioned place slips were dispatched for Mantinique, but the person appointed to convey them died on the passage. In 1720 three more coffee shrubs were sent from the garden in Paris to the same island. The voyage

was long, and water being very scarce on board, two of the plants died for want of moisture; bnt the captain shared his allowance of water with the other plant, and so succeeded in bringing it alive to its place of destination. Thus the coffee tree was introduced into the West Indies, and that single coffee plant was the ancestor of all the coffee plantations in America. The first coffee tree was planted in Brazil by a Franciscan friar named Villago, who, in the year 1754, placed one in the garden of San Antonio Convent in Rio Janeiro. No considerable amount of coffee was raised in Brazil until after the Haytien insurrection. The first cargo was sent to the United States in 1809, and all the coffee raised in Brazil during that year was less than 30,000 sacks, while in the Brazilian financial year of 1855 there were exported 3,256,089 sacks, which brought into the country $25,000,000. During the financial year ending June 30, 1856, the United States imported from different coffee-producing countries over 235,000,000 pounds of coffee, about three-fourths of which came from Brazil. In the same year the United States imported some of this commodity from Venezuela and Hayti. The whole sum which the United States paid for coffee in that year was $21,514,196, of which Brazil received $16,091,714.

These facts and figures exhibt some of the emoluments of the coffee trade; but the business could be made much more profitable by inprovements in the modes of cultivation and the use of proper machinery. Besides, it is presumed that Liberia has some natural advantages over any other country for the prosecution of this trade. As the plant is of African origin, it is reasonable to suppose that the soil and climate of Africa are particularly favorable to its production. This supposition is confirmed by the abundance of coffee spontaneously produced on this continent and the excellence of its quality.

In the contemplation of this subject let us glance for a moment at the brilliant and magnificent prospects which lie open to the agriculturist of this

country. [Here the speaker offored several plans of coffee culture, with calculations of its value, &c., to the consideration of the audience.] Your soil requires no solicitation, no tiresome and laborious preparation to make it yield up its treasures with a profusion, which, in less favored regions, can be attained only by long and steady toil.

Nature herself clothes your landscapes with a garniture of vegetation surpassing even all that the muse has sung, and what must such a country be when the embellishments of cultivation are superadded to the ornamental work of nature! Think, my respected hearers, of that time when the Liberian agriculturist may look around him and see extensive tracts covered with the ripening grain and fruit, pendent from stalk and vine, and tree, the meadow, the field, the pasture, the grove, each arrayed in many-tinted garments, instinct with circulating life. I say, what must be the feelings of your agriculturist when he looks on such a scene with the conscious reflection, "This is all my own-the produce of my own enterprise, industry and perseverance?" There is something in such feelings of exultation which should not be discouraged. In a country possessing such eminent agricultural advantages as Africa no man ought to be idle; no one can complain that remunerative employment is beyond his reach.

When you plant coffee allow me to remind you that the fruit which is best worth waiting for, often ripens the slowest. We must remember that "time and patience," as the proverb says, "change the mulberry leaf to satin." Michael Angelo was more than seven years engaged in painting the frescoes on the dome of St. Peter's at Rome. He saw his imprisoned angels in the rough blocks of marble, and he went to work and cut them out. Stephen Girard, the great capitalist of America, was a common sailor when he landed at Philadelphia. Richard Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning jenny, emerged from the barber's shop to become the founder of the cotton manufacture of Great Britain. Similar instances of self-made men, examples of energy, determination, and perseverance, might be multiplied to any extent. Washington, the father of American independence, was born in a one-story cabin. Benjamin West, the first President of the Royal Academy of Great Britain, was the son of an humble Quaker farmer of Pennsylvania; and what a significant reply was that of the great engineer, who, when asked if he could tunnel the Alps, answered, "Yes; it is but a question of finance and patience." This is the "purpose once fixed;" this the energy which enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgeries and dry details.

It accomplishes more than genius with not half of the disappointments and peril. The habit of resolute labor, like every other habit, will in time become comparatively easy. Hence every man, whatever his natural abilities, may accomplish much, if he will but apply himself wholly and earnestly to one thing at a time. T. Fowell Buxton placed his confidence in ordinary means and extraordinary application, realizing the scriptural injunction, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," and he ascribed

his remarkable success in life to his practice of "being a whole man to one thing at a time."

I presume I am addressing men who have made up their minds to be tillers of the soil-men who have chosen the art of agriculture as their profession, and, if I mistake not, there are members of this "Enterprise Company" who will yet live to see their names enrolled among the noted and far-famed agriculturists of the times, if not in the literary branch, then in the practical development of the soil, giving evidence to a gazing world of grand results and immense profits as directed by the heart, the hand, and common sense.

This truth is patent to you all, for you know, if you dispose of your merchandise to a heathen native on credit, he not only does not appreciate it, and perhaps destroys it, but he never pays for it, and keeps out of your settlements. I pray you look to a change in this trade with the natives; let them give you credit, if credit there must be, and then, by strict punctuality, teach them something of the "religion of paying debts," of the duty and obligation existing between man and man, and I am confident that with this change would come many advantages little thought of, and at the same time secure the best interests of your Republic, to which, my friends, the eyes of the world are directed.

Hold fast to your profession, and allow nothing to turn you away from the grand purpose, namely, to answer the first call of the people, and unite your strength for the development of agriculture in this land of promise.

Let each member feel himself to be-if I am allowed the expression-a spoke in the great wheel, and never out of place. I would have you remember, too, that 'tis not ease, but effort, not facility, but difficulty that makes men, and crowns successful associations.

We often discover

We learn wisdom from failure more than from success. what will do by finding out what will not do; and he who never made a mistake, never made a discovery. If there were no difficulties there would be

no success.

There is no discredit, but honor, in every right walk of industry, whether it be in tilling the ground, or in selling palm oil or cam-wood.

As a noble illustration of the views I wish to impress upon your minds, permit me to call your attention to the character and works of Sir John Sinclair. I quote from his biographer. He was originally a country laird, and born to a considerable estate, in a bare, wild country fronting the stormy North Sea. His father dying while he was a youth of sixteen, the management of the family property thus early devolved upon him; and at eighteen he began a course of vigorous improvement in the county of Caithness, which eventually spread all over Scotland.

Agriculture then was in a most backward state. The fields were uninclosed, the lands undrained. The small farmers of Caithness were so poor that they could scarcely afford to keep a horse; the hard work was chiefly done by the women. If a cottier lost a horse, he would marry a wife as the

cheapest substitute. The country was without roads or bridges; and drovers driving their cattle had to swim the rivers along with their beasts. The chief track leading into Caithness lay along a high shelf on a mountain side, the road being some hundred feet of clear perpendicular height above the sea which dashed below. Sir John, though a mere youth, determined to make a new road; the old let-alone proprietors, however, regarding his scheme with incredulity and derision.

But he himself laid out the new road, assembled some twelve hundred laborers early one summer's morning, set them simultaneously to work, watching over their labors, and stimulating them by his presence and example; and before night, what had been a dangerons sheep track six miles in length, hardly passable for led horses, was made practicable for wheel carriages, as if by the powers of magic. What an example of energy and well directed labor! He then proceeded to make more roads, to erect mills, to build bridges, and to enclose and cultivate his waste lands. He introduced improved methods of culture, distributing premiums to encourage industry; and he thus soon quickened the whole frame of society within reach of his influence, and infused an entirely new life into the cultivators of the soil. Caithness became a pattern county for its roads, its agriculture, and its fisheries. In Sinclair's youth the post was carried by a runner only once a week, and the young baronet then declared that he would never rest till a coach drove daily to Thurso. The people could not believe in any such thing, and it was common to say of any utterly impossible scheme, "Ou ay, that will come to pass when Sir John sees the daily mail at Thurso!" But Sir John lived to see his dream realized, and the daily mail established at Thurso. He improved the quality of British wool, imported 800 sheep from all countries at his own expense, and established the British Wool Society. The result was, the introduction into Scotland of the celebrated Cheviot breed, and in a few years there were not fewer than 300,000 Cheviots diffused over the four northern counties alone.

The value of all grazing land was thus enormously increased, and Scotch estates, which before were comparatively worthless, began to yield large rentals. Sir John was returned by Caithness to Parliament, in which he remained for thirty years. Mr. Pitt, observing his persevering energy in all useful projects, proposed his assistance in any object he might have in view whereupon Sir John asked and received Mr. Pitt's assistance in the establishment of a National Board of Agriculture.

One Arthur Young laid a bet with the baronet that his scheme would never be establishld, adding, "Your Board of Agriculture will be in the moon.' But he went to work; he roused public attention; the Board was established, and he was appointed President. The result of its action need not be described, but the stimulus which it gave to agriculture and stock-raising was shortly felt throughout the whole United Kingdom, and tens of thousands of acres were redeemed from barrenness by his operation.

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