VIII.] THE COFFEE INDUSTRY. 173 



circumstances. There are Government plantations in every village, 

 and both the land and the seedlings are supplied by the State. 

 The tree does remarkably well, being unaffected as yet by disease 

 of any consequence, and gives two or three heavy crops in the year. 

 This is in great measure owing to the equable rainfall, the north of 

 Celebes herein differing greatly from Java, which is exposed to a 

 long-continued drought during the easterly monsoon and excessive 

 rains in tlie wet season. The berry is of particularly good flavour, 

 and finds its market chiefly in Eussia, fetching a far higher price 

 than that produced in Java. 



All the coffee thus grown by the natives has to be sold to 

 Government at a fixed price. It is divided into two qualities, for 

 which fourteen and seven guilders -^ are respectively paid per ^Jt'ci// 

 of 133 lbs. This price is, however, not all that it actually costs 

 the Dutch Government, since presents have to be given to the 

 head-men, and, as the money is paid for the produce on the spot, 

 the cost of transit is very considerable. Of these two qualities 

 the best is sold by Government at seventy guilders the ^jzc?^/. It 

 is apparently entirely for export, as it is not to be bought in 

 Menado, and the Government guarantee the quality, so that a 

 European grower cannot obtain more than sixty guilders for the 

 same article. The second quality, which is drunk throughout 

 Minahasa, is so little inferior that it needs a connoisseur to detect 

 the difference, yet it is obtainable for fifteen guilders. 



The annual produce of the j\Iinahasa district amounts to about 

 15,000 jj-icM^s — roughly speaking, 2,000,000 lbs. At the present 

 time the industry is by no means so lucrative as it used to be, not 

 from any failure in the crop, but chiefly from the fact that much 

 money has been lately expended in opening up the country and 

 making roads. Another reason lies in the scarcity of labour, which 

 seems principally owing to the great mortality among the children. 

 Thus it is not common for a woman to rear more than one or 



^ The guilder is nearly equivalent to the rupee ; twelve and a lialf at that time 

 making the English sovereign. 



