46 PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURAL REVIEW. 



Quality and marketability. Relative to the quality of the ro- 

 busta coffee Doctor Hall says : 



The appearance of the average marketable robusta is not very beautiful; 

 the beans are small and irregular, and the average product shows little uni- 

 formity. There are, however, great differences between the many different 

 types of robusta. Some of them have comparatively large beans, larger 

 even than arabica, others again have very small ones. As regards the 

 quality, though being inferior to Java-arabica, the taste is generally con- 

 sidered to be gx)od and superior to the ordinary arabica sorts, as Santos. 



Doctor Wildeman states : 



It is objected that the berries of the robusta group and of other 

 African coffees are small in size and inferior in flavor; but the continually 

 increasing quantities of these coffees sold in Holland, and the satisfactory 

 prices they fetch show that the public is beginning to appreciate them. 

 No objections will be made to the size of the berries when by means 

 of careful cultivation and especially of right preparation, a coffee is 

 obtained equal in flavor to the (old) Java and Arabian coffee. 



SUMMARY. 



Arabian coffee cannot be successfully grown in the Philip- 

 pines below an altitude of 800 meters, and even at this elevation, 

 due to its susceptibility to the coffee blight, extensive planting 

 of Arabian coffee cannot be recommended. 



Success with Arabian coffee is obtainable only by keeping the 

 plantations clean of weeds and the plants in the best possible 

 condition. 



For the rehabilitation of the Philippine coffee industry robusta 

 coffee appears more promising at present than any other kind. 



The advantages of robusta coffee are that it thrives under 

 more varied conditions than Arabian coffee, that it is an earlier 

 and a more prolific bearer and that it is resistant to the blight. 



Blight resistance in robusta coffee does not mean that it is 

 immune, but that notwithstanding the presence of the blight 

 it grows well and produces abundant crops. 



Robusta coffee is by some authorities regarded as inferior in 

 quality to Arabian coffee. Nevertheless, considering the opti- 

 mism with which robusta coffee is regarded by conservative 

 European experts in tropical crops, coupled with the results 

 obtained in Java, it is confidently believed that robusta coffee 

 is worthy of extended planting in the Philippines. 



From the Dutch department of agriculture in Java the Bureau 

 of Agriculture has imported seed of the best robusta coffee 

 available for distribution, as well as a considerable quantity of 

 seed of the ordinary robusta cultivated in that island. All 

 readers who are interested in planting robusta coffee are cor- 

 dially invited to communicate with the Bureau of Agriculture. 



