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. [Illustration: 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. At maturity the trees reach a height of ten or fifteen feet. Since they never lose all their leaves at one time, they appear always green, and bear at the same time flowers and fruits, some of which are still green while others are ripe or approaching maturity. Thus, in some districts, the trees are considered to have two or even three crops a year. All the trees begin to bear about the end of the third year. [Illustration: A RARE PICTURE SHOWING MOCHA COFFEE GROWING ON TERRACES IN YEMEN, ARABIA]