36 



COFFEE, 



has so strongly marked a flavour that the worst Manila coffee com- 

 mands as high a price as the best Java. In spite of this, however, 

 the amount of coffee produced in the Philippines is very insignificant, 

 and until lately scarcely deserved mention. In the early part of this 

 century the coffee plant was almost unknown there, and represented 

 only by a few specimens in the Botanical Gardens at Manila. It soon, 

 however, increased and multiplied. The Economical Society bestirred 

 itself by offering rewards to encourage the laying out of large coffee 

 plantations. In 1837 it granted to M. de la Gironniere a premium 

 of 1000 dollars for a coffee plantation of 10,000 trees, which were 

 yielding their second harvest, and four premiums to others in the 

 following year. But as soon as the rewards were obtained the planta- 

 tions were once more allowed to fall into neglect. From this it is 

 pretty evident that the enterj)rise in the face of the then market prices 

 and the artificially high rates of freight did not afford a sufficient 

 profit. 



In 1856 the exports of coffee were not more than 7000 piculs, in 

 1865 they had increased to 37,588, and in 1871 to 53,370. This 

 increase, however, affords no criterion by which to estimate the 

 increase in the number of plantations, for these make no returns for 

 the first few years after being laid out. In short, larger exports may 

 be confidently expected. But even greatly increased exports could not 

 be taken as correct measures of the colony's resources. 



Not till European capital calls large plantations into existence in 

 the most suitable localities will the Philippines obtain their proper 

 rank in the coffee-producing districts of the world. The best coffee 

 comes from the provinces of Laguna, Batangas, and Cavite ; the worst 

 from Mindanao. The latter, in consequence of careless treatment, is 

 very impure, and generally contains a quantity of bad beans. The 

 beans of Mindanao are of a yellowish-white colour, and flabby ; those 

 of Laguna are smaller, but firmer in texture. Manila coffee is very 

 highly esteemed by connoisseurs on the Continent, and is expensive, 

 though it is by no means so nice looking as that of Ceylon and other 

 more carefully prepared kinds.* 



Cultivation in Ceylon. — Ceylon is now by far the most important 

 coffee-producing country of the British possessions. It would seem 

 that the tree was taken to that island by the Dutch a little over two 

 hundred years ago, but the first regular estates were only opened in 

 1824, when Sir Edward Barnes and Sir George Bird commenced 

 planting. The real rush for land dates from 1833, and coffee enter- 

 prise was taken up largely in 1837. 



Coffee planting had been gradually extending up to 1844, and a 

 considerable breadth of land of what would now be called low country 

 estates, that is, land planted at an elevation from 1600 to 2500 feet, 

 was then in full bearing. Up to this period the English consumption 

 of coffee, restricted by a complicated system of differential duties, had 

 been almost entirely confined to the produce of the British colonies 

 and a small quantity of superior Mocha. 



It was known that within the tropics both Demerara and Berbice 

 produced a coffee of highly approved quality in the London market. 



* Jagor's ' Travels in the Philippines.' 



