196 



The World's Commercial Products 



ROASTING COFFEE 



Ceylon 



"A quarter of a century ago coffee was the principal product of the colony, and the value 

 of the annual crop exported exceeded £3,000,000. Now it is only about £25,000, whilst the 

 tea occupies the premier position. 



Coffee Leaf Disease. K The Ceylon coffee industry was ruined owing to the attacks 

 of a minute fungus, known as Hemileia vastatrix, very similar to the rust of wheat. The 

 disease was .'first noticed in 1869, when it was already fairly well distributed throughout the 

 island and had probably been in existence for some time. The characteristic outward sign 

 of the disease is the formation of a number of yellow spots on the surface of the leaves. 

 Owing, to the fungus using up the plant's food, the coffee plant is weakened, its leaves fall 

 long before they would if not attacked, only a small proportion of the flowers develop sound 

 fruits, and accordingly a very poor, crop is the result, whilst the whole plant is weakened and may 

 finally be killed.* The disease was very carefully investigated by the late Professor H. 

 Marshall Ward in 1880-81, but no curative measures could be discovered. Coffee estates 

 had to be abandoned, and many planters were ruined. Some tided over the crisis by 

 cultivating cinchona (see Drugs), and, later, tea was actively taken up. The greatest 

 assistance was rendered by the Botanic Garden, and the Ceylon planters displayed wonderful 

 energy in meeting the disaster. Within a year or so after the disease was noticed in Ceylon it 

 appeared in Southern India,, and rapidly spread to other countries also, the spores probably 

 having been introduced in various ways ; practically all the coffee-growing regions of the Old 

 World were, affected. The disease is so dreaded that other countries took, and still take, 

 every possible precaution to guard against its introduction. 



THE PRINCIPAL COFFEE-CONSUMING COUNTRIES 



First in importance are the United States of America, which import for home consump- 

 tion about one-half of the world's commercial coffee crop. The average consumption per 



