COFFEE. 



77 



vation in the Dutcli colony, and, as we have a similar approximation 

 in regard to Brazil, we are now in a position to institute a very 

 interesting and curious comparison between the three great coffee 

 countries of the world — a comparison which will show that if, in the 

 British colony, a portion of the capital in land has been wasted, by 

 the unwillingness of some and the inability of others, to restore 

 to the soil fertilising substances in lieu of produce grown and 

 shipped, yet the colonists are not liable to the charge of using, or 

 rather misusing, the maximum of area to get the minimum of result. 

 Taking Mr. Abbay's estimate, that nineteen-twentieths of the land 

 under coffee in Java is Government land, yielding only an average of 

 1 cwt. per acre, the remaining twentieth of private plantations, yield- 

 ing an average of 4 cwts., it follows that in Java the bushes, which 

 yield 1,500,000 cwts. of marketable coffee, are equivalent in acreage 

 to 1,304,000. Something, perhaps, ought to be allowed for coffee 

 locally consumed ; but if we reduce the acreage to 1,200,000, ample 

 allowance will be made for this element. The figures for comparison, 

 or rather contrast, will then stand thus : 







Total Yield in 

 Cwts. 



Area of Cultivation. 



Avei-age Yield 

 per Acre. 









4,000,000 

 1,500,000 

 862,826* 



1,400,000 

 1,200,000 

 257,000 



cwts. 



2- 85 

 1-25 



3- 35 









6,362,826 



2,857,000 



2-48 





* Average (adversely affected by leaf disease) of five seasons' crops, plantation and native. 



Of course, it will not be forgotten that in the case of Brazil 

 a large quantity of provisions for the labourers is grown amongst 

 the widely-scattered coffee trees ; while in Java shade trees seem to 

 be universal. Grasses are grown amongst the coffee ; Lantana is (and 

 justly) valued for its deposition of humus; while even what the 

 Ceylon planters reckon their most deadly foe, the Ageratum (a plant 

 which takes from the soil precisely the elements which the coffee tree 

 needs), is valued for its supposed power of ameliorating the stiffness 

 of clayey soils. But, all allowance made, it is evident that in the 

 British colony alone have the principles of scientific cultivation of 

 the coffee plant been adopted and carried out. Cinchona and tea 

 are now coming in as disturbing elements ; but so jealous have a 

 majority of the planters been of allowing any product to dispute 

 possession with the closely-planted and carefully-tended coffee, that 

 they have erred in refusing to allow room enough for grasses in 

 ravines or spare spots for feeding those cattle, without which " per- 

 manency," even in its restricted sense of thirty-five to fifty years, 

 cannot be legitimately looked for. The Ceylon planters grow coffee, 

 while India, which sends them labour, supplies also the food of the 

 labourers. The circumstances of both its great rivals are different, 

 but certainly not more favourable ; and, as Mr. W. Sabonadiere re- 



