72 



COFFEE. 



The quarters to wliicli Brazilian coffee is shipped may be divided 

 into three classes — 1, the United States ; 2, Northern European and 

 Channel ports ; and 3, Mediterranean ports. The relative proportions 

 to each are shown bj the exports of 1871, in bags: 



United States 1,354,346 



North Europe 689,917 



Mediterranean 198,498 



Different ports 115,243 



2,358,004 



As the United States monopolise the chief supply of Brazilian 

 coffee, it may be interesting to note their aggregate imports of all 

 kinds, which have been as follows : 



Lbs. 



1790 4,150,754 



1800 7,408,196 



1810 5,352,082 



1820 13,291,857 



1830 51,488,248 



Lbs. 



1840 94,996,095 



1850 144,986,895 



1870 282,540,737 



1874 295,271,697 



The American consumption of Brazil coffee alone during 1874 was 

 103,751 tons, or an average of 8646 tons a month. This is the 

 largest consumption of Brazil coffee in the United States ever known, 

 except that of 1870, when 108,502 tons were consumed. The con- 

 sumption there is about one-fourth of the entire world, and more than 

 any one country on the globe. 



In the Pacific Islands some attention has been given to coffee 

 culture. Large plantations of coffee trees were made at Tahiti in 

 1862, with the view of supplying Chili, California, and Sydney. The 

 amount of production there is only about ten tons. In 1868, 78,373 lbs. 

 of coffee were shipped from the Hawaiian Islands. 



Java. — The Eev. E. Abbay thus described in the Ceylon papers in 

 the close of 1874 the system of coffee culture in Java : 



" The parasites that injure the trees are mostly similar to those in 

 Ceylon, the chief one being a species of Loranthus. As to the private 

 coffee estates, there are only slightly over one hundred of all kinds in 

 the whole of Java, less in acreage than one-twentieth of the extent of 

 Government garden ; some of them are on low ranges of hills or 

 plateaux, elevated only a few hundred feet above the sea. The 

 systems of cultivation, as well as the size and character of the trees 

 on these estates, vary considerably. On the Merapi, a still active 

 volcano (pardon the Irishism), the trees are topped at four or five 

 feet, and a system of pruning and cultivation is attempted similar to 

 that in Ceylon, but as yet has not been a decided success. Whether 

 the soil is naturally poorer here than elsewhere, or the method adopted 

 is unsuited to the tree or the climate, I am not able to give an opinion, 

 but I am informed, on good authority, that the old plan of leaving the 

 trees to themselves leads to better crops than the new one. My own 

 impression of the cause of the relative smallness of the produce of 

 Java plantations, compared with those of Ceylon before the Hemileia 



