64 



COFFEE. 



the pricv^ ruled nearly double wliat it was in the three years pre- 

 ceding 1850. 



In 1821 the consumption per head, to the inhabitants of the 

 United States, was 1 lb. 4 oz. In 1830, the proportiou had in- 

 creased to 3 lbs. per head, the foreign price having fallen fiftv per 

 cent. The importation in the year 1831 doubled, in coasequeuce 

 of tlie reduced duty ; and the consumption per head for the four 

 years ending with 1842, averaged 6 lb. per head, having qua- 

 drupled to ea^h inhabitant since 1821. I'rom 1820 to 1840, the 

 Brazilian product increased 1,100 per cent., or 155 million pounds. 

 In the same time the consumption in the United States increased 

 137 million pounds ; leaving an increase of eighteen million pounds 

 of Hio coilee, besides the enlianced products of all countries, to 

 supply the increased consumption of England and Europe. 



The consequence of the duty in England is, that while the 

 United States, with a population of seventeen millions, consumed, 

 in L844, 149,711,820 lbs. of coffee. Great Britain, with a popula- 

 tion of twenty-seven millions, consumed 31,931.000 lbs. only, or 

 less than one-fourth the consumption of the United States. In 

 1851 the figures remained nearlv the same, viz., 148.920,000 lbs. 

 in the United States, and 32,534,000 lbs. for Great Britaiu. 



The cultivation of coffee forms the present riches of Costa 

 Kica, and has raised it to a state of prosperity unknown in any 

 other part of Central America. It was begun about fifteen years 

 ago ; a few plants having been brought from ^ew Granada, and 

 the first trial being successful, it has rapidly extended. AH the 

 coffee is grown in the plain of San Jose, where the three principal 

 towns are situated — about two-thirds being produced in the en- 

 virons of the capital, a fourth in those of Hindia, and the remain- 

 der at Alhajuela, and its vicinity. The land which has been found 

 by experience to be best suited to coffee is a black loam, and the 

 next best, a dark-red earth — soils of a brown and dull yellow 

 color being quite unsuitable. The plain of San Jose is mostly 

 of the first class, being, like all the soils of Central America, 

 formed with a large admixture of volcanic materials. Contrary 

 to the experience of Java and Arabia Eelix, coffee is here found 

 to thrive much better, and produce a more healthy and equal berry 

 on plain land, than upon hills, or undulating slopes, Avhieh doubt- 

 less arises from the former retaining its moisture better, and 

 generally containing a laS'ger deposit of loam. 



I am inclined, in a great measure, to attribute the practice of 

 sowing coffee in sloping land in Java to this fact, that the plains 

 are usually occupied by the more profitable cultivation of sugar- 

 canes. In Arabia, the plains are generally of a sandy nature 

 (being lands which have, apparently, at no very distant geological 

 period, formed the bed of the sea), wliich may account for the 

 plantations existing only upon the low hills and slopes. 



A coffee plantation in Costa Bica produces a crop the third 

 year after it is planted, and is in perfection the fifth year. The 

 coffee trees are planted in rows, with a space of about three yards 



