138 COFFEE. 



decline of their coffee-industry is, indeed, a curious phenomenon, 

 ■which, many causes, chief among which may be named the aboli- 

 tion of slavery and the excess, some years ago, of production over 

 consumption, with the consequent unremunerative prices, have 

 conspired to accelerate. The French colonies of Martinique and 

 Guadaloupe, the former of which alone exported 5,000 tons, or 

 over 11,200,000 pounds of coffee in 1759, now export together 

 only from 600,000 pounds to 1,000,000 pounds of the article, the 

 whole going to France. 



Cuba, which from 1830 to 1840 exported an average of over 

 25,000,000 pounds of coffee, and, as late as 1842, 15,Y10 tons, 

 does not at the present day produce a sufl&cient amount for local 

 consumption, but depends for its supply partly on importations. 



In 1878-79 the area in Jamaica devoted to coffee-growing was 

 22,853 acres. The following interesting facts respecting Jamaica 

 coffee are taken from a letter written by Mr. D. Morris to the 

 Ceylon Ohserver, from the Botanical Department, Jamaica, in 

 June, 1880. This gentleman says : 



" The crop of last season was sold, in some instances, at 130s. 

 per cwt. I had the pleasure, the other day, of visiting Radnor 

 plantation. I found it a good type of Jamaica estates, most of 

 which have been in cultivation for more than a century and a 

 half. In some places the trees were poor and ' sticky,' but wher- 

 ever the soil has been preserved, and especially in ' bosoms,' the 

 trees were looking healthy and strong. In spite of ' no manure,' 

 in spite of ' mammoty ' weeding for generations, these trees were 

 bearing good crops, and, moreover, the producer is able to obtain 

 prices which Ceylon planters must envy. 



" I have been trying to find out why the Blue Mountain coffee 

 of Jamaica is always so good, and how it is that it obtains such 

 high prices as compared with the fine and highly cultivated coffee 

 of Ceylon. Is the coffee grown here a peculiar variety of C. 

 Arabica ? or is there something in the soil and climate which pro- 

 motes the larger formation of the essential oils and secretions in 

 the fragrant bean ? "Whatever it is, it cannot be in the superior 

 cultivation, the more rational treatment of the crop, or the greater 

 care in the curing. The only cultivation which the estates here 

 receive consists in a rough ' hoe- weeding,' once or twice a year. 



