78 COFFEE. 



in Sumatra should be delivered to the government at a fixed price, 

 and further, " that all coffee delivered to government shall be sold 

 at Padang, by public auction, to the highest bidder." "Within 

 the last thirty-five years the cultivation of coffee has been fos- 

 tered by the government, which leased land to private planters. 

 Prior to 18Y8 the quantity of free coffee exported was compara- 

 tively small, while since that time it has rapidly increased, as new 

 plantations came into bearing. The colonial report of 1878 placed 

 the crop raised on private plantations in Sumatra, in 1877, at 

 1,091 piculs (151,376 pounds). For the last three years the quan- 

 tity raised on private account in Java and Sumatra is about one- 

 fifth to one-sixth the government crop, the average for the past 

 three years being in Java 168,000 piculs (-22,848,000 pounds), 

 free, against 999,000 piculs (135,864,000 pounds), government; 

 and in Sumatra 20,000 piculs (2,720,000 pounds), free, against 

 127,000 piculs (17,272,000 pounds), government coffee. These 

 figures indicate a rapid growth in the development of private 

 plantations. The Sumatra crop, like that of all coffee-producing 

 countries, shows a great variation, ranging, within the past eight 

 years, from 12,500,000 pounds to 24,000,000 pounds. The Java 

 crop also varies greatly; that of 1880 is estimated to fall 500,000 

 piculs below that of the previous year. 



The leaf disease which has largely reduced the Ceylon crop, 

 made its appearance in Sumatra in the summer of 1876. Its 

 progress has been described as follows by M. Scheffer : 



" Ordinarily it is not noticed except when the parasitic plant 

 is in fructification. The lower surface of the leaves is then cov- 

 ered with a yellow-orange dust, which can be easily removed with 

 the hand. This dust is formed by the spores, which afterward 

 germinate and produce a large quantity of filaments (mycelium), 

 which penetrate the stomata, and which develop and ramify 

 speedily in the intercellular ducts. Some of these filaments again 

 leave the interior of the leaf and produce new fruit. The myce- 

 lium soon extends not only over the entire surface of the leaf, but 

 over the stem. In the latter case it is very difiicult to identify 

 the disease, but it appears that a plant once infected can never be 

 cured. Mr. Thwaites, when in 1874 the planters of Ceylon be- 

 lieved they had got rid of the evil, could not find a single tree un- 



