COFFEE. 



75 



consist chiefly of grasses, most of which are readily eaten by cattle, 

 and furnish fodder apparently quite as good as Guinea grass ; indeed, 

 many of the marvellous little horses found everywhere in Java are 

 fed on nothing but these grasses, and yet they are superior in strength 

 and endui'ance to either Arabs or Australians. When an estate shows 

 signs of decay after ten or fifteen years, the coffee trees are all cut 

 down, the dadap trees being either felled or ringed near the roots, so 

 that they decay gradually and fall piecemeal to the ground, and the 

 process of replanting coffee and shade trees is repeated in the same 

 manner as before. In this way land may be replanted several times, 

 and the later garden be better than the earlier. Nothing, I think, 

 contrasts more the richness of the soil of Java, as compared with that 

 of Ceylon, than this fact. The ground never seems to be exhausted, 

 and when it is partially used up on the surface you have only to go 

 deeper, and you get a richer soil at once. The rainy season, here the 

 north-west monsoon, begins generally about October, and ends in 

 February ; and the time for planting is therefore December. The 

 crop is gathered in March and April, and the blossoms appear 

 generally about August or September, though on the hills there are 

 blossoms, green berries, and ripe fruit on the trees at the same time 

 for a considerable part of the year. This past year has been generally 

 a favoui-able one throughout the island, and the total yield is expected 

 to be about 1,500,000 cwts. The prospects of the coming crop, 

 however, are by no means good. As the dry season has been a 

 wet one, the trees have had no wintering, and the heavy blossoms, 

 which ought already to have made their appearance, are nowhere to 

 be seen. 



" As regards the work of the estate, the women alone are employed 

 for picking and j)reparing the coffee, as they are for putting out the 

 young plants ; the amount gathered by each woman, in an average sea- 

 son, being about 13 lbs. coffee (when prepared) per day. The men are 

 meanwhile employed in the field-work, weeding, manuring, &c. After 

 the cherry has been gathered, it is spread on barbecues to dry for 

 several days, after which it is pounded in small bamboo baskets, and 

 the outer parchment and silver skins taken off. The peaberry is then 

 separated fi-om the ordinary beans by a skilful shake of the tray by 

 which it has been winnowed, and the coffee is then ready for the 

 European market. The value of this produce in the coast towns at 

 present is about 74s. per cwt., and the cost to put it on board in good 

 years amounts to only about 20s. to 25s. per cwt. ; in bad years to 

 35s. to 40s. per cwt. The soil of the estate which I have been 

 describing is of an extremely rich, dark, oily-looking, half-formed 

 clay, crumbling easily in the hand, but sticking in masses to the 

 feet, rendering walking on a wet day somewhat laborious. This 

 soil extends generally to a depth of 20 or 30 inches, when a 

 redder and more gravelly, but still very rich, soil is met with, which 

 seems only to need exposure to the air for the development of its 

 fertility. On the mountain slopes the soil is generally much more 

 friable and liable to be washed away in the monsoon rains, and there- 

 fore is protected by means of terraces and a matwork of weeds and 

 grasses on the surface. The labour question here, as in Ceylon, is 



