136 JAVA COFFEES. 



the plant grows more luxuriantly, fewer shade trees are 

 required and the plants are placed at greater distances 

 from each other. But in Java, a certain degree of shade 

 appears to be necessary at all times to the health of the 

 coffee plant, especially during its earlier stages, and in low 

 situations, for which purpose the dadap tree is found to 

 be better calculated for affording this protection than any 

 other kind in the country, it being a common saying on 

 that island that "where the dadap flourishes, there also 

 will flourish coffee." But it must not be inferred from 

 this that they are always constant or even necessary 

 companions, for in the highlands many of the most 

 flourishing plantations are to be observed with but very 

 few dadaps in the vicinity. 



Coffee is cultivated for commercial use in all of the 

 twenty-two residencies into which the island is divided, 

 including Bantam, Batavia, Bezoeki, Bagelen, Banjoe- 

 wanjie and Banjoemas, Cheribon, Japara, Kadoe, 

 Kediri and Krawang, Madioen, Rembang, Preanger, 

 ProboHngo, Passoeren and Pekalongan, Soerabaya, 

 Soerakarta and Djokjakarta, Bali, Timour, Malang and 

 Samarang, each of which residencies or districts contain- 

 ing from five to fifty plantations, by which they are further 

 distinguished. In trade they are generally divided into 

 " Government " and " Free Coffees," the free cultivation 

 being now permitted in the residencies of Bantam, Cheri- 

 bon and many other of the Eastern districts. And, as 

 with the coffees of all other countries, the product qf 

 the different districts of Java varies considerably in 

 quality and value, many of them possessing a richness 

 and mellowness not approached by that of any other 

 country ; others, again, being so inferior that were it not 

 for the fact of being grown on that island they would 

 not be deserving of the name. 



