CULTIVATION OF COFFEE IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 55 



which we are accustomed. Here it is stored in bags, 

 just as it comes in from the plantations. "In order that 

 I might see what superior coffee the Minahassa produces," 

 he says, "the Resident had several bags opened. I found 

 the kernels, instead of being opaque, and having, as we 

 usually see them, a tinge of bronze, were translucent 

 and of a greenish-blue color. The best are those which 

 have these characteristics, and at the same time are very 

 hard. One of the first plants raised at Batavia was sent 

 to Holland, where it bore fruit, and the plants from its 

 seeds were carried to Surinam, where they flourished, and 

 in 1718 coffee began to be an article of export from that 

 port. Ten years later it was introduced into the French 

 and English islands of the West Indies, having previously 

 been successively introduced into Java and Holland. I am. 

 told that it was first brought here from Java by a native 

 prince, and the remarkable manner in which it thrived 

 having attracted the attention of the officials, more trees 

 were planted. There has been a steady increase, both in 

 the number of trees and in the quantity of fruit they 

 have yielded; but yet not more than one-half the number 

 are planted that might be, if the population was sufficiently 

 great to take care of them. With such an enormous yield 

 a large surplus is left in the hands of the government after 

 it has paid the natives w r ho cultivate it, the percentage to 

 the chiefs, and the cost of transportation from the small 

 storehouses in the interior to the large warehouses on the 

 coast, from which it is put on board of vessels, for shipment 

 to Europe and America." 



When Arabia enjoyed the exclusive monopoly of coffee, it was 

 not suspected that one day the Island of Java would furnish 

 for the use of the civilized world over 130 millions of pounds 

 per annum. The selection of soil and situation best suited for 



