COFFEA 



ARABICA 



Area 



Hybrids. 



Highly 

 Flavoured Berry. 



Congo 

 Coffee. 



Loves Moist 

 Situations. 



Localities. 



Indian 

 Area. 



Fluctuations. 



Brazil. 



THE COFFEE PLANT 



Trop. Agrilc., 1897, i., 217 ; Der Tropenpflanzer, 1898, ii., 34, 263 ; Trinidad 

 Bull., etc., 1899, 223 ; 1900, 315 ; Agri. News, West Indies, 1902, i., 278 ; ii., 

 237 ; Journ. Soc. Arts, 1903, 461 ; Trap. Agrist. ; Planting Opinion; Madras Mail, 

 etc., etc. " The Highland Coffee of Sierra Leone." This interesting West African 

 species, Mr. Bentham thought, might be but a variety of c. -aiic. The seeds 

 were issued from Kew Gardens, and the plant is now being experimentally grown 

 in Trinidad, Java, Ceylon, Mysore (not successfully) and elsewhere. Hybrids 

 have also been formed between it and c. arabicu, as also c. iibe-lc<. It grows 

 freely, yields abundantly, but is longer in coming into bearing than c, ri6r*>. 

 It gives a highly flavoured Moka-like berry. 



(c) C. Laurentii, Wildem. (C. robusta, L. Linden), is another tropical African 

 species that has attracted some attention, though it is but imperfectly known 

 botanically. It is spoken of as " Congo Coffee." An article appeared in 

 L'Horticole Coloniale (I.e. 64-6) in the year 1900 that gives a good account of 

 this plant. It is spoken of as prolific, as almost immune from the ordinary diseases 

 of coffee, and as yielding a berry of a superior quality with a delicate aroma. 

 It frequents banks of streams and prefers situations moist and not too shady. 

 The plant is not, like c. Hherlvn, pyramidal in shape, but is rather rounded in 

 outline. Jumelle (Les. Cult. Colon. (Aliment.), 1901, 350-85) adds that it inhabits 

 Sierra Leone, on soils formed of decomposed granite or gneiss. Owing to its 

 having been first made known from the Nunez river it is often called " Rio Nunez 

 Coffee." In India and Ceylon this plant has so far failed to justify extended 

 endeavours, but in Dominica the results have been most encouraging. 



CULTIVATION. 



Localities and Area. In this work it is desirable to restrict obser- 

 vation to India, and consequently to allude only incidentally to the 

 coffee-growing of other parts of the world. Particulars of cultivation 

 in Java, Sumatra, Philippines, Ceylon, Queensland, Brazil, West 

 Indies, Central America, Mexico, etc., will be found in the respective 

 chapters of Thurber's Coffee from Plantation to Cup and other such 

 works, to which the reader is referred. The actual area under the crop 

 in India cannot be stated definitely, owing to the unwillingness of certain 

 planters to furnish information. The error that exists is, however, a 

 relative one, and tends year after year to be lessened rather than increased. 

 Taking the official returns as they stand, it has to be accepted that the 

 area shown under coffee, during the past thirty years, has manifested 

 severe fluctuations. With a perennial crop this can alone denote the 

 fallowing or abandonment of certain plots and the resuscitation of old 

 plantations or the opening out of new lands, coincident with variations 

 in the world's coffee necessities. Thus, for example, the revolutions that 

 took place in Brazil in 1889, 1891 and 1893, followed as these were by 

 small crops during one or two of the succeeding years, had a highly bene- 

 ficial effect on the Indian coffee-planting industry. The area returned 

 as under coffee in 1885 stood at 237,494 acres, but for the ten years 

 ending 1895 the mean area in India was 274,000 acres ; in 1903, 228,815 

 acres ; and in 1904, 212,964 acres. The latest report of the Commercial 

 Intelligence Department states the area at the end of 1906 to have been 

 210,688 acres. During the decade ending 1895 prices may also be 

 said to have ruled high, so that the industry was very prosperous. 



In addition to the absence of returns as to certain plantations, an 

 estimate of yield to acre could hardly be accepted as even of general ap- 

 plication. It accordingly follows that trade statistics almost invariably 

 manifest higher exports than the agricultural data would show as pro- 

 duced. The relation of surveyed areas to actual returns of foreign exports 

 is one of the most profitable aspects of study. Taking 100 to represent 

 the area as also the exports in 1885, the following variations have oc- 



370 



