40 PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURAL REVIEW. 



the disease ceases to affect the profits of the crop, or at least 

 very slightly. 



This and other reasons, which will be explained later, have 

 resulted in the planting of robusta coffee on a very large scale 

 in Java and adjacent Dutch possessions, and the reports relative 

 to this variety are such as to recommend it to the serious consid- 

 eration of Philippine planters. The present paper has been 

 prepared with a view of meeting the almost daily requests that 

 reach this Bureau for information on the subject of coffee, and 

 particularly to give some information relative to the robusta 

 coffee, with which practically all planters in the Archipelago 

 are unfamiliar. It might perhaps be well to state that propaga- 

 tion, handling of the plants from the seed bed to the plantation, 

 culture, etc., are the same for both Arabian and robusta coffee, 

 except where so stated. 



ARABIAN COFFEE. 



The decrease in the cultivation of coffee and the present 

 status thereof in the Philippines show conclusively that Arabian 

 coffee cannot be profitably grown here below an altitude of 800 

 meters. At and above this elevation the climate is so favorable 

 for the growth of the plant that when kept in good condition it 

 is capable of resisting the attack of the blight sufficiently to 

 yield a profitable crop. Nevertheless, the planting of Arabian 

 coffee on a large scale is not recommended even here, because 

 the disease is everywhere present, waiting for a favorable op- 

 portunity to spread, and a drought, typhoon, or in fact anything 

 that would devitalize the plants, would be sure to render them 

 liable to a severe attack that might wipe out an entire plantation 

 or district. 



It is true that Arabian coffee grows below an altitude of 800 

 meters ; in fact, coffee bushes are found at sea level, but a pros- 

 pective investor should always remember that there is a very 

 great difference between being able to merely groiv coffee and 

 to produce it in such quantities that its cultivation becomes 

 profitable. This cannot be done at a low elevation. It is per- 

 haps well to state here that exhaustive experiments have so far 

 failed to yield a fungicide or spray by which the coffee blight 

 can be satisfactorily controlled in the field. 



Everything considered then, only in certain districts of the 

 Mountain Province and on the table lands of Mindanao may 

 Arabian coffee be successfully and profitably cultivated to any 

 considerable extent. 



