"كتيّب الجزيرة العربية. المجلد I. ١٩١٧" [‎١‎٥‎٥] (٧٤٨/١٦٤)

AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRIES 155
the lowlands and must be artificially renewed from time to time) is
the most productive of Yemen, the rainfall, as shown in a previous
section, being more abundant and regular, and the inhabitants,
comparatively speaking, more virile, active, and industrious. The
staple production is coffee ; then follow bearded wheat and barley,
and 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.
It is not indigenous to Arabia, but was introduced from Abyssinia
during the Ethiopian invasion before the dawn of Islam. The
berries used for seed are first placed in the sun to dry until
the 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.
The 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
soil is often only a foot or two deep. Great care has to be taken
to prevent the destruction of the terraces by accidental water
courses caused by thunderstorms. Every accessible and suitable
spot on the mountain-side is utilized. Many terraces were
constructed centuries ago, and they give a peculiar and charac
teristic aspect to the Yemen landscape. The watering is done
Kjtti from cisterns of cemented masonry, built in every cleft or ravine
iei l ; t where surface water can be intercepted—for this reason some
j s!) (itJ centres are comparatively sterile and devoid of plantations, as
Us cisterns are not practicable. The harvest, broadly speaking, is in
^fjii autumn, but the berries ripen at different intervals according to
jjjuJ; their position on the tree and the amount of sun to which a planta
tion is exposed. The Haraz district, west of Menakhah, produces
coffee of the highest quality, and that grown by the Anis and