As incidental, however, to other branches of agriculture, coffee may be advantageously raised. The best trees are those seen in gardens, where, from ten or twelve, more berries are gathered than from hundreds in a plantation. A single tree, in the garden of Colonel Hicks, is said to have produced sixteen pounds at a gathering; and I have seen several very fine trees in similar situations. Fifty or a hundred trees, well selected, and properly distributed through the fields, would yield several hundred pounds of coffee, which, being gathered and dried by the women and children, would be gratuitous as regards the cost of labor. Thus, the coffee culture, in Liberia, must be considered far more eligible than that of sugar; inasmuch as the latter requires a large capital and extensive operations, while the former succeeds best on a very moderate scale. Judge Benedict has probably bestowed more attention on this business, than any other person in Liberia. He is a man of excellent sense and information, and has the means to carry out his views, as well as the patriotism to exert himself for the advantage of the commonwealth. With these qualifications, he has employed five or six years in the experiment of raising coffee, and thus far, with little success, although his plantation comprises some thousands of growing trees. In the spring of 1841, he made presents, to myself and other officers, of genuine Liberian coffee, in small native bags, containing two or three pounds each. The Judge is still giving away little bags of the same kind; but I do not yet learn that his crop is more than sufficient for his own use, and for distribution as specimens; certainly, it is not so abundant as to render the sale of it an object. As for the plantation itself, I must confess that it appeared to me more flourishing three years ago, than at present. Most of the trees, on the spot originally planted, are dead, and the rest in a sickly condition; while the most thriving trees are to be seen on the lower and damper land adjacent, which, at my former visit, was covered with a dense forest. Beyond a doubt, the coffee tree is as well adapted to this soil and climate as to those of Cuba, and produces a larger and better flavored berry; but I repeat my opinion, that the Liberian, hiring laborers at sixty cents a day, cannot compete with the West Indian, who has his hundreds of slaves already paid for, and his trees growing in well-weeded land. The mere feeding, I might almost say, of a dozen laborers in Liberia, will cost more than all the coffee they raise would re-imburse, at the Cuba prices.