COMMERCIAL COFFEE CHART

The World's Leading Growths, with Market Names and General Trade Characteristics

- - - - Grand Division Country Principal Best Known Trade Characteristics Shipping Market Ports Names - - - - North Mexico Vera Cruz Coatepec Greenish to yellow America Huatusco bean; mild flavor. Orizaba Central Guatemala Puerto Coban Waxy, bluish bean; America Barrios Antigua mellow flavor. Salvador La Santa Ana Smooth, green bean; Libertad Santa Tecla neutral flavor. Costa Puerto Costa Ricas Blue-greenish bean; Rica Limon mild flavor. - - - - West Haiti Cape Haiti Blue bean; rich, Indies Haitien fairly acid; sweet flavor. Santo Santo Santo Flat, greenish-yellow Domingo Domingo Domingo bean; strong flavor. Jamaica Kingston Blue Bluish-green bean; Mountain rich, full flavor. Porto Ponce Porto Gray-blue bean; Rico Ricans strong, heavy flavor. - - - - South Colombia Savanilla Medellin Greenish-yellow bean; America Manizales, rich, mellow flavor. Bogota Bucaramanga Venezuela La Guaira Merida Greenish-yellow bean; Maracaibo Cucuta mild, mellow flavor. Caracas Brazil Santos Santos Small bean; mild flavor. Rio de Rio Large bean; strong Janeiro cup. - - - - Asia Arabia Aden Mocha Small, short, green to yellow bean; unique, mild flavor. India Madras Mysore Small to large, Calicut Coorg blue-green bean; (Kurg) strong flavor. - - - - East India Malay Penang Straits Liberian and Robusta Islands States (Geo't'n) growths from Singapore Liberian, Malaysia. Robusta Sumatra Padang Mandheling Large, yellow to Ankola brown bean; heavy Ayer body; exquisite Bangies flavor. Java Batavia Preanger Small, blue to Cheribon, yellow bean; Kroe light in cup. Celebes Menado Minahassa Large, yellow bean; Macassar aromatic cup. - - - - Africa Abyssinia Jibuti Harar Large, blue to yellow Abyssinia bean; very like Mocha. Pacific Hawaiian Honolulu Kona Large, blue, flinty Islands Islands Puna bean; mildly acid. Philippines Manila Manila Yellow and brown large bean; mild cup. - - - -

COLOMBIA. Colombian statistics of foreign trade are issued very irregularly, and no figures are available to afford comparison between pre-war and post-war trade. The figures below, however, will show the comparative amounts of coffee going to the chief buying countries at different periods. From these it will be seen that the countries mainly interested in the trade in Colombian coffee are those prominent in the trade in other tropical American sections. England, France, Germany, and the United States took the great bulk of the exports. A consular report written after the outbreak of the war says:

Prior to the war the United States took about seventy percent of Colombia's coffee crop; the remainder being about equally divided between England, France, and Germany, with England taking the largest share.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM COLOMBIA[A] (From Barranquilla only)

1899 1905 1916 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds Great Britain 22,573,828 7,268,429 442,026 France 6,873,722 496,120 1,685,454 Germany 9,348,028 8,568,131 United States 17,991,500 43,518,704 134,292,858 Other countries 7,396,385 23,753,678 ————— ————— —————- Total 56,787,078 67,247,769 160,174,016

[A] These figures are taken from a consular report, which gave statistics only for the port of Barranquilla and did not include the total shipments from that port. Shipments from Cartagena, the only other exporting port of any consequence, amounted to 7,836,505 pounds, destination not stated. The Barranquilla figures, in the absence of official statistics, can be taken as fairly representative of the total trade so far as destination is concerned. They are for fiscal years, ending June 30.

"Other countries" in 1916 included Italy, 1,135,137 pounds; Venezuela, 20,564,321 pounds; Dutch West Indies, 400,132 pounds.

CENTRAL AMERICA. The three largest producing countries of Central America, Guatemala, Salvador, and Costa Rica, were all closely linked to Germany by the coffee trade before the war. German capital was heavily invested in coffee plantations; German houses had branches in the principal cities; and German ships regularly served the chief ports. Accordingly, when the blockade became effective, these countries were placed in a difficult position. But fortunately for them, a special effort had been made shortly before by Pacific-coast interests in the United States to divert a part of the coffee trade to San Francisco[313] The market to the east being shut off, these countries turned naturally to the north. This trade with the United States has apparently been firmly established, and there has not yet been much of a return to German ports.

GUATEMALA. Of the three countries named, Guatemala was the most heavily involved in German trade. In 1913 she sent to Germany 53,000,000 pounds of coffee, a fifth more than in 1900. Her shipments of more than 10,000,000 pounds to the United Kingdom were about the same as at the beginning of the century. The war turned both these currents into United States ports, and they continued to flow in that direction through 1920. The figures follow:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM GUATEMALA

1900 1913 1920 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds Germany 44,416,064 53,232,910 452,206 United States 14,057,120 21,188,444 78,226,508 United Kingdom 11,467,680 10,666,604 2,341,217 Other countries 3,041,584 6,641,936 13,185,638 ————— ————— ————— Total 72,982,448 91,729,894 94,205,569

"Other countries" in 1913 included Austria-Hungary, 4,205,400 pounds; Netherlands, 407,900 pounds. In 1920, they included Netherlands, 10,355,625 pounds; Sweden, 422,421 pounds; Norway, 57,408 pounds; Spain, 97,519 pounds; France, 27,956 pounds.

SALVADOR. Salvador is one of the countries in which the publication of foreign-trade statistics has been irregular in the past, and none is available to show the full trade in coffee at the beginning of the century. A consular report gives figures for the first half of 1900. The most recent statistics show that the United States still holds much of the trade gained during the war, although Salvador is sending to Scandinavian countries many millions of pounds of her coffee that came to the United States in war-time.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM SALVADOR

1900 (1st 6 mos.) 1913 1920 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds United States 6,700,101 10,779,655 46,262,256 France 22,948,712 15,955,920 6,686,714 Germany 6,607,892 12,120,133 813,166 Great Britain 4,396,465 3,415,187 4,226,061 Italy 4,322,003 9,538,976 Aus.-Hungary 1,335,626 3,557,482 Belgium 210,834 5,508 3,104 Spain 24,799 377,729 364,296 Other countries 3,920 7,193,107 24,509,071 ————— ————— ————— Total 46,550,352 62,943,697 82,864,668

"Other countries" in 1913 included Norway, 2,070,220 pounds; Sweden, 2,238,332 pounds; Netherlands, 738,694 pounds; Chile, 609,441 pounds; Russia, 95,625 pounds; Denmark, 140,665 pounds. In 1920, they included Norway, 10,726,375 pounds; Chile, 1,772,346 pounds; Netherlands, 1,071,614 pounds; Sweden, 9,635,947 pounds; Denmark, 1,061,772 pounds.



COSTA RICA. English, French, and German capital was heavily invested in Costa Rica before the war, and all three nations were interested in the coffee trade. For many years England had maintained the lead as a coffee customer, and shipments continued in large volume after the war. The following figures are for the crop year ending September 30:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM COSTA RICA 1903 1913 1921 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds United States 6,388,236 1,625,866 14,137,605 Great Britain 27,756,661 23,464,827 13,418,527 France 1,241,816 741,548 313,538 Germany 2,676,841 2,581,055 376,649 Other countries 147,925 288,521 1,155,066 ————— ————— ————— Total 38,211,479 28,701,817 29,401,385

In 1900 total shipments were 35,496,055 pounds, of which 20,587,712 pounds went to Great Britain; 8,874,014 pounds to the United States; and 3,904,566 pounds to Germany.

"Other countries" in 1903 included Spain, 49,189 pounds; Italy, 4,104 pounds. In 1921, they included Netherlands, 837,496 pounds; Spain, 308,308 pounds; Chile, 9,259 pounds.

MEXICO. Mexico has naturally sent most of her coffee across the border into the United States, and she continued to do so during and after the war. But she had worked up a very important trade with Europe, chiefly with Germany; and German capital, and German planters and merchants were prominent in the industry. France and England also were interested in the trade, and purchased annually several million pounds. During the war, as shown by the exports in its final year, this trade almost entirely ceased, and the United States and Spain remained as the only consumers of Mexican coffee. Details of the after-war trade are not yet available in published statistics. In the following table, 1900 and 1918 are calendar years, and 1913 is a fiscal year.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM MEXICO 1900 1913 1918 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds United States 28,882,954 28,012,655 23,816,044 Germany 10,074,001 10,461,382 Aus.-Hungary 163,934 30,864 Belgium 25,855 39,722 Spain 546,132 184,941 6,184,494 France 3,927,294 4,482,011 Netherlands 220,607 46,296 Great Britain 3,848,605 2,170,669 Cuba 467,201 37,921 171,527 Italy 157,653 347,758 Other countries 655,073 ————— ————— ————— Total 48,314,236 46,469,292 30,172,065

In 1913 "other countries" included Panama, 342,131 pounds; Canada, 276,567 pounds; Sweden, 3,079 pounds; British Honduras, 33,179 pounds; Denmark, 112 pounds.

JAMAICA. The French, more than any other peoples in Europe, have cultivated a taste for coffee from the West Indies; and France normally has led all other countries in shipments from the larger producing islands, including Jamaica, although the island is a British possession. In the year before the war, France bought nearly 4,000,000 pounds of Jamaican coffee, more than half the total production. In the year 1900-01 also she took about 4,000,000 pounds, leading all other countries. This trade was very much cut down during the war, but was not wiped out. As shown in the figures for 1918, England largely took the place of France in that year, and Canada increased her purchases several hundred percent.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM JAMAICA 1901 (fis. yr.) 1913 1918 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds Great Britain 1,849,456 671,440 6,919,808 Canada 109,536 263,872 1,819,328 United States 2,976,512 802,032 643,888 France 3,958,304 3,743,264 729,120 Aus.-Hungary 104,272 303,296 Cuba 114,800 Barbados 226,464 26,992 Other countries 508,704 507,248 97,440 ————— ————— ————— Total 9,621,584 6,517,616 10,236,576

"Other countries" in 1901 included British West Indies, 316,512 pounds. In 1913, they included Netherlands, 125,216 pounds; Norway, 28,896 pounds; Sweden, 70,224 pounds; Italy, 46,592 pounds; Australia, 71,456 pounds.

HAITI. Prior to the taking over of the administration of the customs of Haiti by the United States, detailed statistics of the exports are almost wholly lacking. France took most of the annual production, continuing a trade that dated back to old colonial times. An American consular report says:

Before the war there was no market for Haitian coffee in the United States, practically the entire crop going to Europe, with France as the largest consumer. However, there has been for some time past a determined effort made to create a demand in the United States, and this is said to be meeting with ever-increasing success.

The actual success achieved can be measured by the following figures for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1920:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM HAITI

Exported to Pounds United States 27,647,077 France 23,921,083 Great Britain 39,583 Other countries 10,362,351 Total 61,970,094

These figures do not include 6,322,167 pounds of coffee triage, or waste, of which the United States took 2,028,352 pounds; France, 1,491,507 pounds.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. The comparatively small production of the Dominican Republic was divided among the United States and three or four European countries before the war. Since the war the exports have been scattered among the former customers in varying amounts. Germany is again a buyer, although her purchases have not come back to anything like the pre-war level.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

1906 1913 1920 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds United States 564,291 506,456 529,831 France 569,215 1,248,418 454,165 Germany 1,562,193 327,843 69,224 Italy [B] 195,294 51,543 Cuba [B] 25,628 132,569 Great Britain [B] 660 54,114 Other countries 221,028 8,154 70,220 Total 2,916,727 2,312,453 1,361,666

[B] No shipments, or included in "other countries."

"Other countries" in 1920 included only the Netherlands.

PORTO RICO. In spite of several attempts on the part of Porto-Rican planters to make their product popular in the markets of the United States, the American consumer has never found the taste of that coffee to his liking. The big market for the Porto-Rican product has been Cuba, which has depended on her neighbor for most of her supply. This demand takes a large part of the annual crop, including the lower grades. The better grades, before the war, went largely to Europe, mostly to the Latin countries. During the war, the Cuban market carried the Porto-Rican planters through, although shipments of considerable size continued to go to France and Spain. Recovery of the pre-war trade with Europe, however, has been slow, Spain being the only country to take over 1,000,000 pounds in 1920. Shipments to that country totaled 3,472,204 pounds; those to France, 900,868 pounds. Both countries increased their purchases considerably in 1921.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM PORTO RICO

1900-01 (fis. yr.) 1913 1921 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds United States 29,565 628,843 211,531 France 3,348,025 6,020,170 1,625,065 Spain 2,590,096 6,851,235 5,705,932 Aus.-Hungary 386,158 6,729,726 Germany 493,891 876,315 363,993 Belgium 9,964 25,867 234,019 Italy 611,033 3,498,157 43,484 Netherlands 8,860 497,938 25,199 Sweden 32,390[C] 633,046 266,550 Cuba 4,633,538 23,179,690 21,135,397 Other countries 13,720 393,586 356,709 Total 12,157,240 49,334,573 29,967,879

[C] Includes Norway.

HAWAII. The war disarranged Hawaii's coffee trade very little, as she had for many years been shipping chiefly to continental United States. Recently a considerable trade with the Philippines has developed.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM HAWAII

1901-02 (fis. yr.) 1913 1921 Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds United States 1,082,994 3,393,009 4,183,046 Canada 77,900 10,200 11,355 Japan 24,155 49,167 23,950 Germany 2,100 1,612 Philippines [D] 932,640 747,700 Other countries 23,349 49,179 13,070 Total 1,210,498 4,435,807 4,979,121

[D] No exports, or included in "other countries."

ADEN. Lying on the edge of the war area and on the road to India, Aden felt the full force of the disarrangement of commercial traffic by the war. Ordinarily, Aden is not only the chief outlet for the coffee of the interior of Arabia—the original "Mocha"—but it is also the transhipping point for large amounts from Africa and India. The figures given below relate for the most part to this transhipped coffee. Exports of coffee from Aden go chiefly to the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, and to other ports of Arabia and Africa. Before the war no great proportion went to the Central Powers. The following figures apply to fiscal years ending March 31:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM ADEN

1901 (fis. yr.) 1914 (fis. yr.) 1921 (fis. yr.) Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds Great Britain 1,563,632 696,976 466,928 United States 2,412,368 4,300,128 2,507,344 France 3,789,296 2,975,840 814,016 Egypt 1,024,576 3,108,336 Arab. Gulf Pts. 860,160 852,320 606,592 Germany 247,184 465,136 Aus.-Hungary 341,152 553,952 Italy 197,568 811,664 7,504 Br. Somaliland 280,224 23,408 [E] Africa 337,344 2,390,640 292,880 Other countries 1,114,848 2,500,456 1,659,504 Total 12,168,352 15,570,520 9,463,104

[E] Including adjacent islands, but exclusive of British territory.

"Other countries" in 1914 included Australia, 222,320 pounds; Perim, 142,016 pounds; Zanzibar, 148,848 pounds; Mauritius, 154,672 pounds; Seychelles, 116,704 pounds; Sweden, 118,720 pounds; Norway, 49,168 pounds; Russia, 196,448 pounds. In 1921, they included Denmark, 120,624 pounds; Spain, 124,208 pounds; Massowah, 410,704 pounds.

BRITISH INDIA. As India's trade before the war was chiefly with the mother country, with France, and with Ceylon, the return to normal has been rapid. In the year following the war, these three customers were again credited with the largest amounts exported from India, except for shipments to Greece, which took little before the war. The following figures are for the fiscal years ending March 31:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM BRITISH INDIA

1901 (fis. yr.) 1914 (fis. yr.) 1920(fis. yr.) Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds Great Britain 15,678,768 10,343,536 8,138,144 Ceylon 1,088,528 1,428,112 1,423,072 France 8,430,016 10,924,816 9,256,352 Belgium 617,792 1,021,664 Germany 126,560 1,033,088 25,312 Aus.-Hungary 123,312 1,358,896 8,400 Italy 23,968 22,624 30,912 United States 54,096 16,576 Turkey in Asia 232,176 501,984 986,720 [F] Africa 118,272 113,344 619,696 Other countries 1,106,784 2,360,736 10,021,648 ————— ————— ————— Total 27,600,272 29,108,800 30,526,832

[F] Including adjacent islands.

"Other countries" in 1914 included Netherlands, 238,560 pounds; Australia, 748,608 pounds; Bahrein Islands, 757,568 pounds. In 1920, they included Greece, 6,487,376 pounds; Australia, 481,152 pounds; Bahrein Islands, 1,081,696 pounds; Aden and dependencies, 459,984 pounds; other Arabian ports, 890,176 pounds.

DUTCH EAST INDIES. The war played havoc with the coffee trade of the Dutch East Indies, taking away shipping, closing trade routes, and causing immense quantities of coffee to pile up in the warehouses. When the war ended, this coffee was released; and trade was consequently again abnormal, although in the opposite direction from that it took during war years. The 1920 figures indicate that the trade is working back into its old channels.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM DUTCH EAST INDIES 1900 1913 1920[G] Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds Netherlands 81,489,000 33,323,748[H] [H]50,028,815 Great Britain 88,000 981,201 5,987,598 France 2,560,000 9,081,715[H] 5,410,582 Aus.-Hungary 1,153,000 996,988 Germany 71,000 997,715[H] 75,699 Egypt 5,494,000 104,868 1,418,313 United States 8,408,000 5,695,180 17,274,522 Singapore 9,952,000 4,785,580 8,349,415 Other countries 2,965,000 7,831,732 10,475,509 —————- ————— —————- Total 112,180,000 63,798,727 99,020,453

[G] These figures cover only Java and Madura.

[H] Includes shipments "for orders."

"Other countries" in 1920 included, Norway, 2,606,421 pounds; Sweden, 728,580 pounds; Australia, 1,553,495 pounds; British India, 1,912,541 pounds; Italy, 1,964,109 pounds; Denmark, 1,191,643 pounds; Belgium, 166,092 pounds.



CHAPTER XX

CULTIVATION OF THE COFFEE PLANT

The early days of coffee culture in Abyssinia and Arabia—Coffee cultivation in general—Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude, propagation, preparing the plantation, shade and wind breaks, fertilizing, pruning, catch crops, pests, and diseases—How coffee is grown around the world—Cultivation in all the principal producing countries

For the beginnings of coffee culture we must go back to the Arabian colony of Harar in Abyssinia, for here it was, about the fifteenth century, that the Arabs, having found the plant growing wild in the Abyssinian highlands, first gave it intensive cultivation. The complete story of the early cultivation of coffee in the old and new worlds is told in chapter II, which deals with the history of the propagation of the coffee plant.

La Roque[314] was the first to tell how the plant was cultivated and the berries prepared for market in Arabia, where it was brought from Abyssinia.

The Arabs raised it from seed grown in nurseries, transplanting it to plantations laid out in the foot-hills of the mountains, to which they conducted the mountain streams by ingeniously constructed small channels to water the roots. They built trenches three feet wide and five feet deep, lining them with pebbles to cause the water to sink deep into the earth with which the trenches were filled, to preserve the moisture from too rapid evaporation. These were so constructed that the water could be turned off into other channels when the fruit began to ripen. In plantations exposed to the south, a kind of poplar tree was planted along the trenches to supply needful shade.

La Roque noted that the coffee trees in Yemen were planted in lines, like the apple trees in Normandy; and that when they were much exposed to the sun, the shade poplars were regularly introduced between the rows.

Such cultivation as the plant received in early Abyssinia and Arabia was crude and primitive at best. Throughout the intervening centuries, there has been little improvement in Yemen; but modern cultural methods obtain in the Harar district in Abyssinia.

Like the Arabs in Yemen, the Harari cultivated in small gardens, employing the same ingenious system of irrigation from mountain springs to water the roots of the plants at least once a week during the dry season. In Yemen and in Abyssinia the ripened berries were sun-dried on beaten-earth barbecues.

The European planters who carried the cultivation of the bean to the Far East and to America followed the best Arabian practise, changing, and sometimes improving it, in order to adapt it to local conditions.

Coffee Cultivation in General

Today the commercial growers of coffee on a large scale practise intensive cultivation methods, giving the same care to preparing their plantations and maintaining their trees as do other growers of grains and fruits. As in the more advanced methods of arboriculture, every effort is made to obtain the maximum production of quality coffee consistent with the smallest outlay of money and labor. Experimental stations in various parts of the world are constantly working to improve methods and products, and to develop types that will resist disease and adverse climatic conditions.

While cultivation methods in the different producing countries vary in detail of practise, the principles are unchanging. Where methods do differ, it is owing principally to local economic conditions, such as the supply and cost of labor, machinery, fertilizers, and similar essential factors.



SOIL. Rocky ground that pulverizes easily—and, if possible, of volcanic origin—is best for coffee; also, soil rich in decomposed mold. In Brazil the best soil is known as terra roxa, a topsoil of red clay three or four feet thick with a gravel subsoil.

CLIMATE. The natural habitat of the coffee tree (all species) is tropical Africa, where the climate is hot and humid, and the soil rich and moist, yet sufficiently friable to furnish well drained seed beds. These conditions must be approximated when the tree is grown in other countries. Because the trees and fruit generally can not withstand frost, they are restricted to regions where the mean annual temperature is about 70 deg. F., with an average minimum about 55 deg., and an average maximum of about 80 deg. Where grown in regions subject to more or less frost, as in the northernmost parts of Brazil's coffee-producing district, which lie almost within the south temperate zone, the coffee trees are sometimes frosted, as was the case in 1918, when about forty percent of the Sao Paulo crop and trees suffered.

Generally speaking, the most suitable climate for coffee is a temperate one within the tropics; however, it has been successfully cultivated between latitudes 28 deg. north and 38 deg. south.

RAINFALL. Although able to grow satisfactorily only on well drained land, the coffee tree requires an abundance of water, about seventy inches of rainfall annually, and must have it supplied evenly throughout the year. Prolonged droughts are fatal; while, on the other hand, too great a supply of water tends to develop the wood of the tree at the expense of the flowers and fruit, especially in low-lying regions.

ALTITUDE. Coffee is found growing in all altitudes, from sea-level up to the frost-line, which is about 6,000 feet in the tropics. Robusta and liberica varieties of coffee do best in regions from sea-level up to 3,000 feet, while arabica flourishes better at the higher levels.

Carvalho says that the coffee plant needs sun, but that a few hours daily exposure is sufficient. Hilly ground has the advantage of offering the choice of a suitable exposure, as the sun shines on it for only a part of the day. Whether it is the early morning or the afternoon sun that enables the plant to attain its optimum conditions is a question of locality.



In Mexico, Romero tells us, the highlands of Soconusco have the advantage that the sun does not shine on the trees during the whole of the day. On the higher slopes of the Cordilleras—from 2,500 feet above sea-level—clouds prevail during the summer season, when the sun is hottest, and are frequently present in the other seasons, after ten o'clock in the morning. These keep the trees from being exposed to the heat of the sun during the whole of the day. Perhaps to this circumstance is due the superior excellence of certain coffees grown in Mexico, Colombia, and Sumatra at an altitude of 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet above sea-level.

Richard Spruce, the botanist, in his notes on South America, as quoted by Alfred Russel Wallace,[315] refers to "a zone of the equatorial Andes ranging between 4,000 and 6,000 feet altitude, where the best flavored coffee is grown."

PROPAGATION. Coffee trees are grown most generally from seeds selected from trees of known productivity and longevity; although in some parts of the world propagation is done from shoots or cuttings. The seed method is most general, however, the seeds being either propagated in nursery beds, or planted at once in the spot where the mature tree is to stand. In the latter case—called planting at stake—four or five seeds are planted, much as corn is sown; and after germination, all but the strongest plant are removed.

Where the nursery method is followed, the choicest land of the plantation is chosen for its site; and the seeds are planted in forcing beds, sometimes called cold-frames. When the plants are to be transplanted direct to the plantation, the seeds are generally sown six inches apart and in rows separated by the same distance, and are covered with only a slight sprinkling of earth. When the plants are to be transferred from the first bed to another, and then to the plantation, the seeds are sown more thickly; and the plants are "pricked" out as needed, and set out in another forcing bed.

During the six to seven weeks required for the coffee seed to germinate, the soil must be kept moist and shaded and thoroughly weeded. If the trees are to be grown without shade, the young plants are gradually exposed to the sun, to harden them, before they begin their existence in the plantation proper.



Considerable experimental work has been done in renewing trees by grafting, notably in Java; but practically all commercial planters follow the seed method.



PREPARING THE PLANTATION. Before transplanting time has come, the plantation itself has been made ready to receive the young plants. Coffee plantations are generally laid out on heavily wooded and sloping lands, most often in forests on mountainsides and plateaus, where there is an abundance of water, of which large quantities are used in cultivating the trees and in preparing the coffee beans for market. The soil most suitable is friable, sandy, or even gravelly, with an abundance of rocks to keep the soil comparatively cool and well drained, as well as to supply a source of food by action of the weather. The ideal soil is one that contains a large proportion of potassium and phosphoric acid; and for that reason, the general practise is to burn off the foliage and trees covering the land and to use the ashes as fertilizer.

In preparing the soil for the new plantation under the intensive cultivation method, the surface of the land is lightly plowed, and then followed up with thorough cultivation. When transplanting time comes, which is when the plant is about a year old, and stands from twelve to eighteen inches high with its first pairs of primary branches, the plants are set out in shallow holes at regular intervals of from eight to twelve, or even fourteen, feet apart. This gives room for the root system to develop, provides space for sunlight to reach each tree, and makes for convenience in cultivating and harvesting. Liberica and robusta type trees require more room than arabica. When set twelve feet apart, which is the general practise, with the same distance maintained between rows, there are approximately four hundred and fifty trees to the acre. In the triangle, or hexagon, system the trees are planted in the form of an equilateral triangle, each tree being the same distance (usually eight or nine feet) from its six nearest neighbors. This system permits of 600 to 800 trees per acre.

SHADE AND WIND BREAKS. Strong, chilly winds and intensely hot sunlight are foes of coffee trees, especially of the arabica variety. Accordingly, in most countries it is customary to protect the plantation with wind-breaks consisting of rugged trees, and to shade the coffee by growing trees of other kinds between the rows. The shade trees serve also to check soil erosion; and in the case of the leguminous kinds, to furnish nutriment to the soil. Coffee does best in shade such as is afforded by the silk oak (Grevillea robusta). In Shade in Coffee Culture (Bulletin 25, 1901, division of botany, United States Department of Agriculture), O.F. Cook goes extensively into this subject.

The methods employed in the care of a coffee plantation do not differ materially from those followed by advanced orchardists in the colder fruit-belts of the world. After the young plants have gained their start, they are cultivated frequently, principally to keep out the weeds, to destroy pests, and to aerate the earth. The implements used range from crude hand-plows to horse-drawn cultivators.

FERTILIZING. Comparatively little fertilizing is done on plantations established on virgin soil until the trees begin to bear, which occurs when they are about three years of age. Because the coffee tree takes potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid from the soil, the scheme of fertilizing is to restore these elements. The materials used to replace the soil-constituents consist of stable manure, leguminous plants, coffee-tree prunings, leaves, certain weeds, oil cake, bone and fish meal, guano, wood ashes, coffee pulp and parchment, and such chemical fertilizers as superphosphate of lime, basic slag, sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of lime, sulphate of potash, nitrate of potash, and similar materials.

The relative values of these fertilizers depend largely upon local climate and soil conditions, the supply, the cost, and other like factors. The chemical fertilizers are coming into increasing use in the larger and more economically advanced producing countries. Brazil, particularly, is showing in late years a tendency toward their adoption to make up for the dwindling supply of the so-called natural manures. As the coffee tree grows older, it requires a larger supply of fertilizer.



PRUNING. On the larger plantations, pruning is an important part of the cultivation processes. If left to their own devices, coffee trees sometimes grow as high as forty feet, the strength being absorbed by the wood, with a consequent scanty production of fruit. To prevent this undesirable result, and to facilitate picking, the trees on the more modern plantations are pruned down to heights ranging from six to twelve feet. Except for pruning the roots when transplanting, the tree is permitted to grow until after producing its first full crop before any cutting takes place. Then, the branches are severely cut back; and thereafter, pruning is carried on annually. Topping and pruning begin between the first and the second years.



Coffee trees as a rule produce full crops from the sixth to the fifteenth year, although some trees have given a paying crop until twenty or thirty years old. Ordinarily the trees bear from one-half pound to eight pounds of coffee annually, although there are accounts of twelve pounds being obtained per tree. Production is mostly governed by the cultivation given the tree, and by climate, soil, and location. When too old to bear profitable yields, the trees on commercial plantations are cut down to the level of the ground; and are renewed by permitting only the strongest sprout springing out of the stump to mature.

CATCH CROPS. On some plantations it has become the practise to grow catch crops between the rows of coffee trees, both as a means of obtaining additional revenue and to shade the young coffee plants. Corn, beans, cotton, peanuts, and similar plants are most generally used.

PESTS AND DISEASES. The coffee tree, its wood, foliage, and fruit, have their enemies, chief among which are insects, fungi, rodents (the "coffee rat"), birds, squirrels, and—according to Rossignon—elephants, buffalo, and native cattle, which have a special liking for the tender leaves of the coffee plant. Insects and fungi are the most bothersome pests on most plantations. Among the insects, the several varieties of borers are the principal foes, boring into the wood of the trunk and branches to lay larvae which sap the life from the tree. There are scale insects whose excretion forms a black mold on the leaves and affects the nutrition by cutting off the sunlight. Numerous kinds of beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and crickets attack the coffee-tree leaves, the so-called "leaf-miner" being especially troublesome. The Mediterranean fruit fly deposits larvae which destroy or lessen the worth of the coffee berry by tunneling within and eating the contents of the parchment. The coffee-berry beetle and its grub also live within the coffee berry.

Among the most destructive fungoid diseases is the so-called Ceylon leaf disease, which is caused by the Hemileia vastatrix, a fungus related to the wheat rust. It was this disease which ruined the coffee industry in Ceylon, where it first appeared in 1869, and since has been found in other coffee-producing regions of Asia and Africa. America has a similar disease, caused by the Sphaerostilbe flavida, that is equally destructive if not vigilantly guarded against. (See chapters XV and XVI.)

The coffee-tree roots also are subject to attack. There is the root disease, prevalent in all countries, and for which no cause has yet been definitely assigned, although it has been determined that it is of a fungoid nature. Brazil, and some other American coffee-producing countries, have a serious disease caused by the eelworm, and for that reason called the eelworm disease.

Coffee planters combat pests and diseases principally with sprays, as in other lines of advanced arboriculture. It is a constant battle, especially on the large commercial plantations, and constitutes a large item on the expense sheet.

Cultivation by Countries

Coffee-cultivation methods vary somewhat in detail in the different producing countries. The foregoing description covers the underlying principles in practise throughout the world; while the following is intended to show the local variations in vogue in the principal countries of production, together with brief descriptions of the main producing districts, the altitudes, character of soil, climate, and other factors that are peculiar to each country. In general, they are considered in the order of their relative importance as producing countries.

BRAZIL. In Brazil, the Giant of South America, and the world's largest coffee producer, the methods of cultivation naturally have reached a high point of development, although the soil and the climate were not at first regarded as favorable. The year 1723 is generally accepted as the date of the introduction of the coffee plant into Brazil from French Guiana. Coffee planting was slow in developing, however, until 1732, when the governor of the states of Para and Maranhao urged its cultivation. Sixteen years later, there were 17,000 trees in Para. From that year on, slow but steady progress was made; and by 1770, an export trade had been begun from the port of Para to countries in Europe.



The spread of the industry began about this time. The coffee tree was introduced into the state of Rio de Janeiro in 1770. From there its cultivation was gradually extended into the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Geraes, Bahia, and Espirito Santo, which have become the great coffee-producing sections of Brazil. The cultivation of the plant did not become especially noteworthy until the third decade of the nineteenth century. Large crops were gathered in the season of 1842-43; and by the middle of the century, the plantations were producing annually more than 2,000,000 bags.



Brazil's commercial coffee-growing region has an estimated area of approximately 1,158,000 square miles, and extends from the river Amazon to the southern border of the state of Sao Paulo, and from the Atlantic coast to the western boundary of the state of Matto Grosso. This area is larger than that section of the United States lying east of the Mississippi River, with Texas added. In every state of the republic, from Ceara in the north to Santa Catharina in the south, the coffee tree can be cultivated profitably; and is, in fact, more or less grown in every state, if only for domestic use. However, little attention is given to coffee-growing in the north, except in the state of Pernambuco, which has only about 1,500,000 trees, as compared, with the 764,000,000 trees of Sao Paulo in 1922.

The chief coffee-growing plantations in Brazil are situated on plateaus seldom less than 1,800 feet above sea-level, and ranging up to 4,000 feet. The mean annual temperature is approximately 70 deg. F., ranging from a mean of 60.8 deg. in winter to a mean of 72 deg. in summer. The temperature has been known, however, to register 32 deg. in winter and 97.7 deg. in summer.

While coffee trees will grow in almost any part of Brazil, experience indicates that the two most fertile soils, the terra roxa and the massape, lie in the "coffee belts." The terra roxa is a dark red earth, and is practically confined to Sao Paulo, and to it is due the predominant coffee productivity of that state. Massape is a yellow, dark red—or even black—soil, and occurs more or less contiguous to the terra roxa. With a covering of loose sand, it makes excellent coffee land.

Brazil planters follow the nursery-propagated method of planting, and cultivate, prune, and spray their trees liberally. Transplanting is done in the months from November to February.

Coffee-growing profits have shown a decided falling off in Brazil in recent years. In 1900 it was not uncommon for a coffee estate to yield an annual profit of from 100 to 250 percent. Ten years later the average returns did not exceed twelve percent.



In Brazil's coffee belt there are two seasons—the wet, running from September to March; and the dry, running from April to August. The coffee trees are in bloom from September to December. The blossoms last about four days, and are easily beaten off by light winds or rains. If the rains or winds are violent, the green berries may be similarly destroyed; so that great damage may be caused by unseasonable rains and storms.

The harvest usually begins in April or May, and extends well into the dry season. Even in the picking season, heavy rains and strong winds—especially the latter—may do considerable damage; for in Brazil shade trees and wind-breaks are the exception.

Approximately twenty-five percent of the Sao Paulo plantations are cultivated by machinery. A type of cultivator very common is similar to the small corn-plow used in the United States. The Planet Junior, manufactured by a well known United States agricultural-machinery firm, is the most popular cultivator. It is drawn by a small mule, with a boy to lead it, and a man to drive and to guide the plow.

The preponderance of the coffee over other industries in Sao Paulo is shown in many ways. A few years ago the registration of laborers in all industries was about 450,000; and of this total, 420,000 were employed in the production and transportation of coffee alone. Of the capital invested in all industries, about eighty-five percent was in coffee production and commerce, including the railroads that depended upon it directly. An estimated value of $482,500,000 was placed upon the plantations in the state, including land, machinery, the residences of owners, and laborers' quarters.



In all Brazil, there are approximately 1,200,000,000 coffee trees. The number of bearing coffee trees in Sao Paulo alone increased from 735,000,000 in 1914-15 to 834,000,000 in 1917-18. The crop in 1917-18 was 1,615,000,000 pounds, one of the largest on record. In the agricultural year of 1922-23 there were 764,969,500 coffee trees in bearing in Sao Paulo, and in Sao Paulo, Minas, and Parana, 824,194,500.



Plantations having from 300,000 to 400,000 trees are common. One plantation near Ribeirao Preto has 5,000,000 trees, and requires an army of 6,000 laborers to work it. Another planter owns thirty-two adjacent plantations containing, in all, from 7,500,000 to 8,000,000 coffee trees and gives employment to 8,000 persons. There are fifteen plantations having more than 1,000,000 trees each, and five of these have more than 2,000,000 trees each. In the municipality of Ribeirao Preto there were 30,000,000 trees in 1922.



The largest coffee plantations in the world are the Fazendas Dumont and the Fazendas Schmidt. The Fazendas Dumont were valued, in 1915, in cost of land and improvements, at $5,920,007; and since those figures were given out, the value of the investment has much increased. Of the various Fazendas Schmidt, the largest, owned by Colonel Francisco Schmidt, in 1918 had 9,000,000 trees with an annual yield of 200,000 bags, or 26,400,000 pounds, of coffee. Other large plantations in Sao Paulo with a million or more trees, are the Companhia Agricola Fazenda Dumont, 2,420,000 trees; Companhia Sao Martinho, 2,300,000 trees; Companhia Dumont, 2,000,000 trees; Sao Paulo Coffee Company, 1,860,000 trees; Christiana Oxorio de Oliveira, 1,790,000 trees; Companhia Guatapara, 1,550,000 trees; Dr. Alfredo Ellis, 1,271,000 trees; Companhia Agricola Araqua, 1,200,000 trees; Companhia Agricola Ribeirao Preto, 1,138,000 trees; Rodriguez Alves Irmaos, 1,060,000 trees; Francisca Silveira do Val, 1,050,000 trees; Luiza de Oliveira Azevedo, 1,045,000 trees; and the Companhia Cafeeria Sao Paulo, 1,000,000 trees.

The average annual yield in Sao Paulo is estimated at from 1,750 to 4,000 pounds from a thousand trees, while in exceptional instances it is said that as much as 6,000 pounds per 1,000 trees have been gathered. Differences in local climatic conditions, in ages of trees, in richness of soil, and in the care exercised in cultivation, are given as the reasons for the wide variation.

The oldest coffee-growing district in Sao Paulo is Campinas. There are 136 others.

Bahia coffee is not so carefully cultivated and harvested as the Santos coffee. The introduction of capital and modern methods would do much for Bahia, which has the advantage of a shorter haul to the New York and the European markets.

On the average, something like seventy percent of the world's coffee crop is grown in Brazil, and two-thirds of this is produced in Sao Paulo. Coffee culture in many districts of Sao Paulo has been brought to the point of highest development; and yet its product is essentially a quantity, not a quality, one.

COLOMBIA. In Colombia, coffee is the principal crop grown for export. It is produced in nearly all departments at elevations ranging from 3,500 feet to 6,500 feet. Chief among the coffee-growing departments are Antioquia (capital, Medellin); Caldas (capital, Manizales); Magdalena (capital, Santa Marta); Santander (capital, Bucaramanga); Tolima (capital, Ibague); and the Federal District (capital, Bogota). The department of Cundinamarca produces a coffee that is counted one of the best of Colombian grades. The finest grades are grown in the foot-hills of the Andes, in altitudes from 3,500 to 4,500 feet above sea level.



Methods of planting, cultivation, gathering, and preparing the Colombian coffee crop for the market are substantially those that are common in all coffee-producing countries, although they differ in some small particulars. About 700 trees are usually planted to the acre, and native trees furnish the necessary shade. The average yield is one pound per tree per year.

While Coffea arabica has been mostly cultivated in Colombia, as in the other countries of South America, the liberica variety has not been neglected. Seeds of the liberica tree were planted here soon after 1880, and were moderately successful. Since 1900, more attention has been given to liberica, and attempts have been made to grow it upon banana and rubber plantations, which seem to provide all the shade protection that is needed. Liberica coffee trees begin to bear in their third year. From the fifth year, when a crop of about 650 pounds to the acre can reasonably be expected, the productiveness steadily increases until after fifteen or sixteen years, when a maximum of over one thousand pounds an acre is attained.

Antioquia is the largest coffee producing department in the republic, and its coffee is of the highest grade grown. Medellin, the capital, where the business interests of the industry are concentrated, is a handsome white city located on the banks of the Aburra river, in a picturesque valley that is overlooked by the high peaks of the Andean range. It is a town of about 80,000 inhabitants, thriving as a manufacturing center, abundant in modern improvements, and is the center of a coffee production of 500,000 bags known in the market as Medellin and Manizales. Another center in this coffee region is the town of Manizales, perched on the crest of the Andean spurs to dominate the valley extending to Medellin and the Cauca valley to the Pacific. There-about many small coffee growers are settled, and several hundred thousand bags of the beans pass through annually.

One of the interesting plantations of the country was started a few years ago in a remote region by an enterprising American investor. It was located on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains 3,000 to 5,000 feet above sea-level, about twenty-five miles from the city of Santa Marta. An extended acreage of forest-covered land was acquired, about 600 acres of which were cleared and either planted in coffee or reserved for pasturage and other kinds of agriculture. When the plantation came to maturity, it had nearly 300,000 trees. In 1919, there were 425,000 trees producing 3,600 hundred-weight of coffee.

A typical Colombian plantation is the Namay, owned by one of the bankers of the Banco de Colombia of Bogota. It is located a good half day's travel by rail and horseback from the city, about 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. There are 1,000 acres in the plantation, with 250,000 trees having an ultimate productive capacity of nearly 2,000 bags a year. During crop times, which are from May to July, about two hundred families are needed on an estate of this size.

VENEZUELA. Seeds of the coffee plant were brought into Venezuela from Martinique in 1784 by a priest who started a small plantation near Caracas. Five years later, the first export of the bean was made, 233 bags, or about 30,000 pounds. Within fifty years, production had increased to upward of 50,000,000 pounds annually; and by the end of the nineteenth century, to more than 100,000,000 pounds.

Situated between the equator and the twelfth parallel of north latitude, in the world's coffee belt, this country has an area equal to that of all the United States east of the Mississippi river and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers, or greater than that of France, Germany, and the Netherlands combined—599,533 square miles.

The chain of the Maritime Andes, reaching eastward across Colombia and Venezuela, approaches the Caribbean coast in the latter country. Along the slopes and foot-hills of these mountains are produced some of the finest grades of South American coffee. Here the best coffee grows in the tierra templada and in the lower part of the tierra fria, and is known as the cafe de tierra fria, or coffee of the cold, or high, land. In these regions the equable climate, the constant and adequate moisture, the rich and well-drained soil, and the protecting forest shade afford the conditions under which the plant grows and thrives best. On the fertile lowland valleys nearer the coast grows the cafe de tierra caliente, or coffee of the hot land.



Coffee growing has become the main agricultural pursuit of the country. In 1839 it was estimated that there were 8,900 acres of land planted in coffee, and in 1888 there were 168,000,000 coffee trees in the country on 346,000 acres of land. In the opening years of the twentieth century not far from 250,000 acres were devoted to this cultivation, comprised in upward of 33,000 plantations. The average yield per acre is about 250 pounds. The trees are usually planted from two to two and a quarter meters apart, and this gives about 800 trees to the acre. The triangle system is unknown.



In this country, the coffee tree bears its first crop when four or five years old. The trees are not subject to unusual hazards from the attacks of injurious insects and animals or from serious parasitic diseases. Nature is kind to them, and their only serious contention for existence arises from the luxuriant tropical vegetation by which they are surrounded. On the whole their cultivation is comparatively easy. On the best managed estates there are not more than 1,000 trees to a fanegada—about one and three-quarters acres of land—and it is calculated that an average annual yield for such a fanegada should be about twenty quintals, a little more than 2,032 pounds of merchantable coffee. It is to be noted, however, that the average yield per tree throughout Venezuela is low—not more than four ounces.

There are no great coffee belts as in Mexico and Central America. Many districts are days' rides apart. The plantations are isolated, and there is lacking a co-operative spirit among the growers.

Methods of cultivating and preparing the berry for the market are substantially those that prevail elsewhere in South America. Most plantations are handled in ordinary, old-fashioned ways; but the better estates employ machinery and methods of the most advanced and improved character at all points of their operation, from the planting of the seed to the final marketing of the berry.

JAVA. Java, the oldest coffee-producing country in which the tree is not indigenous, was producing a high-grade coffee long before Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela entered the industry; and it held its supremacy in the world's trade for many years before the younger American producing countries were able to surpass its annual output. The first attempt to introduce the plant into Java took place in 1696, the seedlings being brought from Malabar in India and planted at Kadawoeng, near Batavia. Earthquake and flood soon destroyed the plants; and in 1699 Henricus Zwaardecroon brought the second lot of seedlings from Malabar. These became the progenitors of all the arabica coffees of the Dutch East Indies. The industry grew, and in 1711 the first Java coffee was sold at public auction in Amsterdam. Exports amounted to 116,587 pounds in 1720; and in 1724 the Amsterdam market sold 1,396,486 pounds of coffee from Java.

From the early part of the nineteenth century up to 1905, cultivation was carried on under a Dutch government monopoly—excepting for the five years, 1811-16, when the British had control of the island. The government monopoly was first established when Marshal Daendels, acting for the crown of Holland, took control of the islands from the Netherlands East India Company. Before that time, the princes of Preanger had raised all the coffee under the provisions of a treaty made in the middle of the eighteenth century, by which they paid an annual tribute in coffee to the company for the privilege of retaining their land revenues. When the Dutch government recovered the islands from the British, the plantations, which had been permitted to go to ruin, were put in order again, and the government system re-established.



A modification of the first monopoly plan of the government was put into effect later in the regime of Governor Van den Bosch, and was maintained until into the twentieth century. Under the Daendels plan, each native family was required to keep 1000 coffee trees in bearing on village lands, and to give to the government two-fifths of the crop, delivered cleaned and sorted, at the government store. The natives retained the other three-fifths. Under the Van den Bosch system, each family was required to raise and care for 650 trees and to deliver the crop cleaned and sorted to the government stores at a fixed price. The government then sold the coffee at public auctions in Batavia, Padang, Amsterdam, or Rotterdam.

This method of fostering the new industry resulted in government control of fully four-fifths of the area under the crop, only the small balance being owned or worked independently by private enterprise. For many years after the cultivation had been fully started, this condition of the business persisted. Most of the privately-operated plantations had been in existence before the government had set up its monopoly system. Others were on the estates of native princes who, in treating with the Dutch, had been able to retain some of their original sovereign rights. While these plans worked well in encouraging the industry at the outset, they were not conducive to the fullest possibilities in production. Forced labor on the government plantations was naturally apt to be slow, careless, and indifferent. Private ownership and operation bettered this somewhat, the private estates being able to show annual yields of from one to two pounds per tree as compared with only a little more than one-half pound per tree on government-controlled estates.

In the course of time, the system of private ownership gradually expanded beyond that of the government; and before the end of the nineteenth century, private owners were growing and exporting more coffee than did the Javanese government. The government withdrew from the coffee business in Java in 1905, and the last government auction was held in June of that year. The monopoly in Sumatra was given up in 1908. After that, however, coffee continued to be grown on government lands, but in much less quantity than in the years immediately preceding. The Dutch government withdrew from all coffee cultivation in 1918-19.

According to statistics, the ground under cultivation for all kinds of coffee in Java and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies in 1919 was 142,272 acres, of which 112,138 acres were in Java. Of this area, 110,903 acres were planted with robusta, 15,314 acres with arabica, 4,940 with liberica, and 11,115 with other varieties.

There were more than 400 European-managed estates in 1915, covering a planted area of about 209,000 acres. Three hundred and thirty of these estates, representing 165,000 acres, were in Java. On that island production in 1904 was 47,927,000 pounds; in 1905, 59,092,000 pounds; in 1906, 66,953,000 pounds; in 1907, 31,044,000 pounds; 1908, 39,349,000 pounds. The total crop in 1919 for all the Netherlands East Indies was 97,361,000 pounds, as against 140,764,800 pounds for 1918.

Intensive cultivation methods on the European-operated plantations in Java have been practised for many years; and the Netherlands East Indies government has long maintained experimental stations for the purpose of improving strains and cultivation methods.



In some parts of the island, especially in the highlands, the climate and soil are ideal for coffee culture. The robusta tree grows satisfactorily even at altitudes of less than 1,000 feet in some regions; but its bearing life is only about ten years, as compared with the thirty years of the arabica at altitudes of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The low-ground trees generally produce earlier and more abundantly. On some of the highland plantations, pruning is not practised to any great extent, and the trees often reach thirty or forty feet in height. This necessitates the use of ladders in picking; but frequently the yield per tree has been from six to seven pounds.



Coffee is produced commercially in nearly every political district in Java, but the bulk of the yield is obtained from East Java. The names best known to European and American traders are those of the regencies of Besoeki and Pasoeroean; because their coffees make up eighty-seven percent of Java's production. Some of the other better known districts are: Preanger, Cheribon, Kadoe, Samarang, Soerabaya, and Tegal.

The arabica variety has practically been driven out of the districts below 3,500 feet altitude by the leaf disease, and has been succeeded by the more hardy robusta and liberica coffees and their hybrids. Illustrating the importance of robusta coffee, Netherlands East India government in a statement issued August, 1919, estimated the area under cultivation on all islands as follows: robusta, eighty-four percent; arabica, five and one-half percent; liberica, four and one-half percent. The balance, six percent, was made up of scores of other varieties, among the most important being the canephora, Ugandae, baukobensis, suakurensis, Quillou, stenophylla, and rood-bessige. All of these are similar to robusta, and are exported as robusta-achtigen (robusta-like). The liberica group includes the excelsa, abeokuta, Dewevrei, arnoldiana, aruwimiensis, and Dybowskii.



SUMATRA. Practically all the coffee districts in Sumatra are on the west coast, where the plant was first propagated early in the eighteenth century. Padang, the capital city, is the headquarters for Sumatra coffee. With climate and soil similar to Java, the island of Sumatra has the added advantage that its land is not "coffee moe", or coffee tired, as is the case in parts of Java. Some of the world's best coffees are still coming from Sumatra; and the island has possibilities that could make it an important factor in production. Sumatra produced 287,179 piculs of coffee in 1920. The total production of all the islands that year was 807,591 piculs.



The districts of Ankola, Siboga, Ayer Bangies, Mandheling, Palembang, Padang, and Benkoelen, on the west coast, have some of the largest estates on the island; and their products are well known in international trade. The east coast has recently gone in for heavy plantings of robusta.

As in Java, coffee for a century or more was cultivated under the government-monopoly scheme. The compulsory system was given up in this island in 1908, three years after it was abandoned in Java.

OTHER EAST INDIES. Coffee is grown in several of the other islands in the Dutch East Indian archipelago, chiefly on the Celebes, Bali, Lombok, the Moluccas, and Timor. Most of the estates are under native control, and the methods of cultivation are not up to the standard of the European-owned plantations on the larger islands of Java and Sumatra. The most important of these islands is Celebes, where the first coffee plant was introduced from Java about 1750, but where cultivation was not carried on to any great extent until about seventy-five years later. In 1822 the production amounted to 10,000 pounds; in 1917, the yield was 1,322,328 pounds.

SALVADOR. Coffee, which is far and away the most important crop in Salvador, constitutes in value more than one-half the total exports. It has been cultivated since about 1852, when plants were brought from Havana; but the development of the industry in its early years was not rapid. The first large plantations were established in 1876 in La Paz, and that department has become the leading coffee-producing section of the country.

The berry is grown in all districts that have altitudes of from 1,500 to 4,000 feet. Besides those of La Paz, the most productive plantations are in the departments of Santa Ana, Sonsonate, San Salvador, San Vincente, San Miguel, Santa Tecla, and Ahuachapan. In contrast with several of the adjoining Central American republics, native Salvadoreans are the owners of most of the coffee farms, very few having passed into the hands of foreigners. The laborers are almost entirely native Indians. A considerable part of the work of cultivating and preparing the berry for the market is still done by hand; but in recent years machinery has been set up on the large estates and for general use in the receiving centers.



It is estimated that now about 166,000 acres are under coffee, nearly all the land in the country suitable for that purpose. As in most other coffee-raising countries, the trees begin bearing when they are two or three years old, reach full maturity at the age of seven or eight years, and continue to bear for about thirty years. Intensive cultivation and a more extensive use of fertilizers have been urged as necessary in order to increase the crop; but, so far, with not much effect, the importation of fertilizer being still very small. Crop gathering begins in the lowlands in November, and gradually proceeds into the higher regions, month by month, until the picking in the highest altitudes is finished in the following March.

GUATEMALA. Guatemala began intensive coffee growing about 1875. Coffee had been known in the country in a small way from about 1850, but now serious attention began to be given to its cultivation, and it quickly advanced to an industrial position of importance. Within a generation it became the great staple crop of the country.

Guatemala has an area of 48,250 square miles, about the size of the state of Ohio. Its population is about 2,000,000. Three mountain ranges, intersecting magnificent table lands, traverse the country from north to south; and there is the great coffee territory. The table lands are from 2,500 to 5,000 feet above sea-level, and have a temperate climate most agreeable to the coffee tree. On the lower heights it is necessary to protect the young trees from the extreme heat of the sun; and the banana is most approved for this purpose, since it raises its own crop at the same time that it is giving shade to its companion tree. On the higher levels the plantations need protection from the cold north winds that blow strongly across the country, especially in December, January, and February. The range of hills to the north is the best protection, and generally is all sufficient. When the weather becomes too severe, heaps of rubbish mixed with pitch are thrown up to the north of the fields of coffee trees and set afire, the resultant dense smoke driving down between rows of trees and saving them from the frost.



Named in the order of their productivity, the coffee districts are Costa Cuca, Costa Grande, Barberena, Tumbador, Coban, Costa de Cucho, Chicacao, Xolhuitz, Pochuta, Malacatan, San Marcos, Chuva, Panan, Turgo, Escuintla, San Vincente, Pacaya, Antigua, Moran, Amatitlan, Sumatan, Palmar, Zunil, and Motagua.

Estimates of coffee acreage vary. One authority, too conservatively, perhaps, puts the figure at 145,000. Another estimate is 260,000 acres. Under cultivation are from 70,000,000 to 100,000,000 trees from which an annual crop averaging about 75,000,000 pounds is raised, and the exceptional amounts of nearly 90,000,000 and 97,000,000 pounds have been harvested. Several plantations of size can be counted upon for an annual production of more than 1,000,000 pounds each.

Before the World War German interests dominated the coffee industry, handling fully eighty percent of the crop, and growing nearly half of it.

Planting and cultivation methods in Guatemala are about the same as those prevailing in other countries. The trees are usually in flower in February, March, and April, and the harvesting season extends from August to January. All work on the plantation is done by Indian laborers under a peonage system, families working in companies: wages are small, but sufficient, conditions of living being easy. As elsewhere in these tropical and sub-tropical countries, scarcity of labor is severely felt, and is a grave obstacle to the development of the industry in a land that is regarded as particularly well adapted to it.



HAITI. Haiti, the magic isle of the Indies, has grown coffee almost from the beginning of the introduction of the tree into the western hemisphere. Its cultivation was started there about 1715, but the trees were largely permitted to fall into a wild natural state, and little attention was given to them or to the handling of the crop. Fertility of soil, climate, and moisture are favorable, and the advancement of the industry has been retarded only by the political conditions of the negro republic and a general lack of industry and enterprise on the part of the people.

Haiti is an island with three names. Haiti is used to describe the island as a whole, and to denote the Republic of Haiti, which occupies the western third of its area. The island is also known as Santo Domingo, and San Domingo, names likewise applied to the Dominican Republic which occupies the eastern two-thirds of the land unit.

Plantations now existing in Haiti have had, with rare exceptions, a life of more than ten or twenty years. It is estimated that they cover about 125,000 acres, with about 400 trees to the acre.

When the French acquired the island in 1789, the annual production was 88,360,502 pounds. During the following century that amount was not approached in any year, the nearest to it being 72,637,716 pounds in 1875. The lowest annual production was 20,280,589 pounds in 1818. The range during the hundred years, 1789-1890, was, with the exceptions noted, from 45,000,000 to 71,000,000 pounds.

MEXICO. Opinions differ as to the exact date when coffee was introduced into Mexico. It is said to have been transplanted there from the West Indies near the end of the eighteenth century. A story is current that a Spaniard set out a few trees, on trial, in southern Mexico, in 1800, and that his experiments started other Mexican planters along the same line. Coffee was grown in the state of Vera Cruz early in the nineteenth century; and the books of the Vera Cruz custom house record that 1,101 quintals of coffee were exported through that port during the years 1802, 1803, and 1805.

In the Coatepec district, which eventually became famous in the annals of Mexican coffee growing, trees were planted about the year 1808. Local history says that seeds were brought from Cuba by Arias, a partner of the house of Pedro Lopez, owners of the large hacienda of Orduna in Coatepec. The seeds were given to a priest, Andres Dominguez, who sowed them near Teocelo. When he had succeeded in starting seedlings, he gave them away to other planters there-about. The plants thrived, and this was the beginning of coffee cultivation in that section of the country.



It was, however, nearly ten years later before the cultivation was on a scale approaching industrial and commercial importance. About 1816 or 1818 a Spaniard, named Juan Antonio Gomez, introduced the plant into the neighborhood of Cordoba. This city, now on the line of the Mexican and Vera Cruz Railroad, 200 miles from Mexico City, and sixty miles from Vera Cruz, is 2,500 feet above sea-level, and is situated in the most productive tropical region of the country.

Having been started in Coatepec and Cordoba, the industry was centered for a long time in the state of Vera Cruz. For many years practically all the coffee grown commercially in Mexico was produced in that state. Gradually the new pursuit spread to the mountains in the adjacent states of Oaxaca and Puebla, where it was taken up by the Indians almost entirely, and is still followed by them, but not on a large scale.

Although cultivation is now widely distributed in most of the more southern states of the republic, the principal coffee territory is still in Vera Cruz, where lie the districts of Cordoba, Orizaba, Huatusco, and Coatepec. In the same region are the Jalapa district, and the mountains of Puebla, where a great deal of coffee is grown. Farther south are the Oaxaca districts on the mountain slopes of the Pacific coast, and still farther south the districts of the state of Chiapas. Planting in the Pluma district in Oaxaca was begun about fifty years ago, and it now produces annually, in good years, nearly 1,000,000 pounds. The youngest district in this section is Soconusco, one of the most prolific in the republic, having been developed within the last thirty years. The region is near the border of Guatemala, and the coffee is held by many to possess some of the quality of the coffee of that country. The influence of Guatemalan methods has been felt also in its cultivation and handling, especially in increasing plantation productiveness. On the gulf slope of Oaxaca, there are plantations that annually produce 222,000 to 550,000 pounds. Several United States companies have become interested in coffee growing in this state, and their output in recent years has been put upon the market in St. Louis.

Two principal varieties of coffee are recognized in Mexico. A sub-variety of Coffea arabica is mostly cultivated. This is an evergreen, growing only from five to seven feet. It flourishes well at different altitudes and in different climes, from the temperate plains of Puebla to the hot, damp, lower lands of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, and other Pacific-coast regions. The range of elevation for it is from 1,500 to 5,000 feet, and it is satisfied with a temperature as low as 55 deg. or as high as 80 deg., with plenty of natural humidity or with irrigation in the dry season. The other variety is called the "myrtle" and is widely grown, although not in large quantities. It is distinguished from arabica by the larger leaf of the tree and by the smaller corolla of the flower. It is a hardier plant than the arabica and will stand the higher temperature of low altitudes, thriving at an elevation of from 500 to 3,000 feet above sea-level. Mostly it is cultivated in the Cordoba district.

It is claimed by many that the Mexican coffee of best quality is grown in the western regions of the table lands of Colima and Michoacan, but only a small quantity of that is available for export. The state of Michoacan is especially favored by climate, altitude, soil, and surroundings to produce coffee of exceptionally high grade, and the Uruapan is considered to be its best.

Trees flower in January and March, and in high altitudes as late as June or July. Berries appear in July and are ripe for gathering in October or November, the picking season lasting until February.

Trees begin to yield when two or three years old, producing from two to four ounces. They reach full production, which is about one and a half pounds, at the age of six or seven years, though in the districts of Chiapas, Michoacan, Oaxaca, and Puebla, annual yields of three to five pounds per tree have been reported.

Since the World War American buyers have shown greater interest in the Tapachula coffee grown in Chiapas.



PORTO RICO. Coffee culture in Porto Rico dates from 1755 or even earlier, having been introduced from the neighboring islands of Martinique and Haiti. Count O'Reilly, writing of the island in the eighteenth century, mentions that the coffee exports for five years previous to 1765 amounted in value to $2,078. Old records show that in 1770 there was a crop of 700,000 pounds and that seems to be the first evidence that the new industry was growing to any noticeable proportions. For a hundred years, at least, only slow progress was made. In 1768 the king, of Spain issued a royal decree exempting coffee growers on the island from the payment of taxes or charges for a period of five years; but even that measure was not materially successful in stimulating interest and in developing cultivation.

Porto Rico is a good coffee-growing country; soil, climate, and temperature are well adapted to the berry. The coffee belt extends through the western half of the island, beginning in the hills along the south coast around Ponce, and extending north through the center of the island almost to Arecibo, near the west end of the north coast. But some coffee is grown in the other parts of the island, in sixty-four of the sixty-eight municipalities. Mountain sections are considered to be superior.

The largest plantations are in the region which includes the municipalities of Utuado, Adjuntas, Lares, Las Marias, Yauco, Maricao, San Sebastian, Mayaguez, Ciales, and Ponce. With the exception of Ponce and Mayaguez, all these districts are back from the coast; but insular roads of recent construction make them now easily accessible, and there is no point on the island more than twenty miles distant from the sea.



From the Sierra Luquillo range, which rises to a height of 1,500 feet, and from Yauco, Utuado, and Lares, come excellent coffees; and, on the whole, these are considered to be the best coffee regions of the island. A fine grade of coffee is also grown in the Ciales district. Figures compiled by the Treasury Department of the insular government for the purpose of taxation showed that for the tax year 1915-16 there were 167,137 acres of land planted to coffee and valued at $10,341,592, an average of $61.87 per acre. In 1910, there were 151,000 acres planted in coffee. In 1916 there were more than 5,000 separate coffee plantations.

Originally the coffee trees of Porto Rico were all of the arabica variety. In recent years numerous others have been introduced, until in 1917 there were more than 2,500 trees of new descriptions on the island.

The virgin land in the interior of the island is admirably adapted to the coffee tree, and less labor is required to prepare it for plantation purposes than in many other coffee-growing countries. It is cleared in the usual manner, and the trees are planted about eight feet apart, an average of 680 trees to the acre. The seeds are planted in February; and if the seedlings are transplanted, that is done when they are a year or a year and a half old. The guama, a big strong tree of dense foliage, is used for a wind-break on the ridges; and the guava, for shade in the plantation. Plow cultivation is generally impossible on account of the lay of the land, and only hoeing and spade work are done. Pruning is carefully attended to as the trees become full grown.

Flowering is generally in February and March, or even later. Heavy rains in April make a poor crop. Harvesting begins in September and extends into January, during which time ten pickings are made.



The average yield per acre is between 200 and 300 pounds; but expert authority—Prof. O.F. Cook—in a statement made to the Committee on Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives, in 1900, held that under better cultural methods the yield could be increased to 800 or 900 pounds per acre. One estimator has calculated that an average plantation of 100 acres had cost its owner at the end of six or seven years, the bearing age, about $13,100 with yields of 75 pounds per acre in the third and in the fourth years, 400 pounds per acre in the fifth year, and 500 pounds in the sixth year, the income from which would practically have met the cost to that time. It is held by the same authority that an intensively cultivated, well-situated farm of selected trees, 880 to the acre, should yield some 880 pounds of cleaned coffee to the acre.

COSTA RICA. Costa Rica ranks next to Guatemala and Salvador among the Central American countries as a producer of coffee, showing an average annual yield in recent years of 35,000,000 pounds as compared with Guatemala's 80,000,000 and Salvador's 75,000,000 pounds. Nicaragua has an average annual production of 30,000,000 pounds.

Coffee was introduced into Costa Rica in the latter part of the eighteenth century; one authority saying that the plants were brought from Cuba in 1779 by a Spanish voyager, Navarro, and another saying that the first trees were planted several years later by Padre Carazo, a Spanish missionary coming from Jamaica. For more than a century six big coffee trees standing in a courtyard in the city of Cartago were pointed out to visitors as the very trees that Carazo had planted.

The coffee-producing districts are principally on the Pacific slope and in the central plateaus of the interior. Plantations are located in the provinces of Cartago, Tres Rios, San Jose, Heredia, and Alajuela. In the province of Cartago are several extensive new estates on the slope to the Atlantic coast. The San Jose and the Cartago districts are considered by many to be the best naturally for the coffee tree. The soil is an exceedingly rich black loam made up of continuous layers of volcanic ashes and dust from three to fifteen feet deep. Preferable altitudes for plantations range from 3,000 to 4,500 feet, although a height of 5,000 feet is not out of use and there are some estates that do fairly well on levels as low as 1,500 feet.



INDIA. Tradition has it that a Moslem pilgrim in the seventeenth century brought from Mecca to India the first coffee seeds known in that country. They were planted near a temple on a hill in Mysore called Baba Budan, after the pilgrim; and from there the cultivation of coffee gradually spread to neighboring districts. Aside from this legend, nothing further is heard about coffee in India until the early part of the nineteenth century, when its existence there was confirmed by the granting of a charter to Fort Gloster, near Calcutta, authorizing that place to become a coffee plantation.



Planting was begun on the flat land of the plains, but the trees did not thrive. Then the cultivation was extended to the hills in southern India, especially in Mysore, where better success was achieved. The first systematic plantation was established in 1840. For the most part, the production has always been confined to southern India in the elevated region near the southwestern coast. The coffee district comprises the landward slopes of the Western Ghats, from Kanara to Travancore.

About one-half of the coffee-producing area is in Mysore; and other plantations are in Kurg (Coorg), the Madras districts of Malabar, and in the Nilgiri hills, those regions having 86 percent of the whole area under cultivation. Some coffee is grown also in other districts in Madras, principally in Madura, Salem, and Coimbator, in Cochin, in Travancore, and, on a restricted scale, in Burma, Assam, and Bombay. The area returned as under coffee in 1885 was 237,448 acres; in 1896, as 303,944 acres. Since then there has been a progressive decrease on account of damage from leaf diseases difficult to combat, and by competition with Brazilian coffee.

New land that had just been planted with coffee in plantations reported for 1919-20 amounted to 7,012 acres; while the area abandoned was 8,725 acres, representing a net decrease in cultivated area of 1,713 acres.



Of the total area devoted to coffee cultivation (126,919 acres), 49 percent was in Mysore, which yielded 35 percent of the total production; while Madras, with 23 percent of the total area, yielded 38 percent of the production. The total production for the year 1920-21 is reported as 26,902,471 pounds.

Yield varies throughout the country according to the methods of cultivation and the condition of the season. On the best estates in a good season, the yield per acre may be as high as 1,100 or 1,200 pounds, and on poor estates it may not be over 200 or 300 pounds. The arabica variety is chiefly cultivated. The robusta and Maragogipe have been tried, but without much success.

A representative plantation is the Santaverre in Mysore, comprising 400 acres, at an elevation of from 4,000 to 4,500 feet, where the coffee trees, cultivated under shade, produce from 100 to 250 tons of coffee a year. Other prominent estates in Mysore are Cannon's Baloor and Mylemoney, the Hoskahn, and the Sumpigay Khan.

NICARAGUA. Coffee trees will grow well anywhere in Nicaragua, but the best locations have altitudes of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level. At such elevations the yield varies from one pound to five pounds per tree annually; but above or below those, the average production diminishes to from one pound to one-half pound a tree.

Lands most suitable for the berry are on the Sierra de Managua, in Diriambe, San Marcos, and Jinotega, and about the base of the volcano Monbacho near Granada. Good land is also found on the island Omotepe in Lake Nicaragua, and around Boaco in the department of Chontales, where cultivation was begun in 1893.

There are also plantations in the vicinity of Esteli and Lomati in the department of Neuva Segovia. The most extensive operations are in the departments of Managua, Carazo, Matagalpa, Chontales, and Jinotega, and from those regions the annual crop has attained to such quantity that it has become the chief agricultural product of the republic. Poor and costly means of transportation on the Atlantic slope have operated to retard the development of the industry there, even though conditions of climate are not unfavorable.



ABYSSINIA. In the absence of any conclusive evidence to the contrary, the claim that coffee was first made known to modern man by the trees on the mountains of the northeastern part of the continent of Africa may be accepted without reserve. Undoubtedly the plant grew wild all through tropical Africa; but its value as an addition to man's dietary was brought forth in Abyssinia.

Abyssinia, while it may have given coffee to the world, no longer figures as a prime factor in supplying the world, and now exports only a limited quantity. There are produced in the country two coffees known to the trade as Harari and Abyssinian, the former being by far the more important. The Harari is the fruit of cultivated arabica trees grown in the province of Harar, and mostly in the neighborhood of the city of Harar, capital of the province. The Abyssianian is the fruit of wild arabica trees that grow mainly in the provinces of Sidamo, Kaffa, and Guma.

The coffee of Harar is known to the trade as Mocha longberry or Abyssinian longberry. Most of the plantations upon which it is raised are owned by the native Hararis, Galla, and Abyssinians, although there are a few Greek, German, and French planters. The trees are planted in rows about twelve or fifteen feet apart, and comparatively little attention is given to cultivation. Crops average two a year, and sometimes even five in two years. The big yield is in December, January, and February. The average crop is about seventy pounds, and is mostly from small plots of from fifty to one hundred trees, there being no very large plantations. All the coffee is brought into the city of Harar, whence it is sent on mule-back to Dire-Daoua on the Franco-Ethiopian Railway, and from there by rail to Jibuti. Some of it is exported directly from Jibuti, and the rest is forwarded to Aden, in Arabia, for re-exporting.

Abyssinian, or wild, coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, from one of the districts where it grows most abundantly in a state of nature. This coffee has a smaller bean and is less rich in aroma and flavor than the Harari; but the trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply, at the minimum of labor in gathering, is practically unlimited. It is said that in southwestern Abyssinia there are immense forests of it that have never been encroached upon except at the outskirts, where the natives lazily pick up the beans that have fallen to the ground. It is shelled where it is found, in the most primitive fashion, and goes out in a dirty, mixed condition.