274 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1881 
close proximity to the districts where settlers' coffee 
is mostly grown or iu the neighbourhood of the 
shipping ports and I conceive that no greater 
service could be rendered to coffee industry in Jamaica 
— in view of the great and increasing quantity grown 
by settlers — than the establishment of such central 
curing mills where the greater portion of the coffee 
might be carefully cured and shipped in a sound 
condition. [I am well aware that at present each 
lar^e coffee property in the Blue Mountain and Man- 
chester districts acts in a measure as a central curing 
establishment, and by buying up settler* ' produce 
within its reach and curing it in a satisfactory 
manner assists in bringing up the proportion of good 
coffee, but they evidently fail to meet the difficulty, 
for in spite of their influence, the fact remains that 
settlers 1 produce, forming the bulk of our exports, 
leaves the Island in a most unsatisfactory slate.] 
As far as the coffee itself is concerned, that grown 
by many settlers is equal to the best Plantation 
Coffee, but, owing to bad curing an't the want of 
proper selection of the different qualities, the prices 
realized are often only one-half of what they ought 
to be. The loss thus entailed must amouut to 
thousands of pounds annually, and this loss is the j 
more regrettable, that it is capable of being saved ' 
"with only a little of the energy and industry which 
has been expended upon the cultivation itself. 
Assuming that only two-thirds of the coffee raised 
in Jamaica is settlers' coffee, and faking the lo?s 
on account of bad curing and careless shipping at 
even '20i per cwt., we have here an actual annual 
loss to the Island of nearly £50,000 in this one 
industry. [ At the present time when Jamaica 
( settlers') coffee in the London market is quoted 
at only 45s. per cwt., one property that bad bought 
settlers ' Coffee in the cherry and cured it thoroughly 
obtained 110s. for it in the Liverpool market. This 
is a difference of nearly 65s. per cwt! ] 
Turning again to the question of curing coffee in 
the plains and establishing mills near the shipping 
ports, I am quite aware that many experienced coffee 
planters believe that coffee cured on the hills, where 
the heat is less intense and the process of drying 
the bean is more gradual, tends to develope good 
tone and colour, aud contributes to the prodution of 
high class coffee. As long as the moisture in the 
bean is gradually dissipated, and, as long as there 
is sufficient care and attention devoted to the curing 
to develope good tone and colour, without undue 
or prolonged exposure to sunlight, there can, how- 
ever, be no doubt that, the plains are much more 
convenient and more suitable for curing . coffee 
than the hills. 
* « ****** * 
If there were central curing establishments, with 
good water power, say at Gordon Town or near 
Kingston for the St. Andrew, Bed Hills, and Castle- 
ton Districts ; at Porus, near the Eailway terminus, 
for the Manchester Districts; at Dry Harbour or 
St. Ann's Bay for the St. Ann District ; and at 
Buff Bay or Port Antonio for the Portland Districts, 
•ohese establishments would buy or receive the coffee 
either in berry or in parchment, according to the 
distance it has to travel. Coffee in parchment would 
only i. ted to be dry enough to bear the journey 
without injury, and when once it had been placed 
wider the influences of a drier and warmer climate, 
assisted by machinery of the best and newest de- 
scription, the coffee might be cured and finally pre- 
pared for the market at fully one-half the pre- 
sent cost. 
******* 
As another important and decided step towards 
securing the better preparation and improvement of 
settlers' coffee, there might be established at each 
<.f the principal ports, and especially in Kingston, 
a careful system of inspection under Government 
control, whereby no coffee, whatever, could be ship- 
ped unless it was pronounced by a competent officer 
to be thoroughly sound. With curing establishments 
at work, there would be less reason than exists at 
present for shipping bad coffee; but, I fear, unless 
something is done by coffee planters and coffee 
merchants, to improve and maintain the general 
character of Jamaica coffee, its name and position 
in the markets of the world will, before long, be 
seriously compromised. 
It is impossible within the limits of this lecture 
to give more than a bare outline of the echeme now 
advocated ; but, if we take a lesson from our enter- 
prising neighbours and adopt tome elements of their 
efforts to foster important industries, and maintain by 
judicious systems of inspections the good name and 
value of their exporta, we would soon place our coffee 
industry on such substantial and permanent lines that 
it would become in the future, as it was in the 
past, the pride and glory of the Island. Summing 
up the substance of the preceding remarks, what we 
evidently require are: — 
Firstly— a judicious ■ xtensiou of coffee cultivation, 
with only such necessary buddings aud barbecues 
as are required for pulping the produce and de- 
spatching it to the plains as parchment coffee. 
[ Under this arrangement properties of .00. 100 or 
150 acres of coffee cou!d be established for sums, 
varying from £500 to £1,800; whereas if works and 
barbecues are built sufficiently complete to cure 
and despatch coffee fit for the market, nearly double 
these sums would be required, aud fully one-half 
the money would lie idle in unproductive buildings.] 
Secondly— the establishment of central curing mills, 
under trustworthy and efficient superintendence, where 
coffee received ia parchment [or bought in cherry] 
might be cured, sized, and shipped in a thoroughly 
sound condition. [The actual cost of curing coffee 
already received in parchment and despatching it 
ready for the market would, under these circum- 
stances, be less than 24s. per tierce. The regular 
charge by well-known firms in Southern India and 
Ceylon is ody 3s. per cwt., but as pursued at 
present in Jamaica, by having the work done 
independently on each property, and by maintaining 
people that are often only partially employed and 
using indifferent machinery, curing and preparing 
coffee costs fully twice as much as it would cost 
if done by skilled labour continuously employed in 
a large mill. ] 
Thirdly — the organization of a system of inspection 
under government control whereby coffee, and 
indeed all other agricultural produce, might be care- 
fully examined at the port of shipment and passed 
with an official mark, declaring it to be sound 
and in good order. [ On this point a careful perusal 
of the Consular Reports of the United Slates will 
show how greatly the character of their produce 
is maintained by a strict system of State Inspec- 
tion at the port of shipment. By means of a well 
organised Chamber of Commerce or by direct legis- 
lation on the stbject, due inspection of our agri- 
cultural produce, prior to exportation, offers a 
most satisfactory means of checking evils which ac 
present threaten to thwart and counternct all efforts 
io improve the agricultural interests of the Island. 
SOIL-EXHAUSTION TESTED BY MR. LAWES. 
(From the Field, 2nd July, 1SS1.) 
Mr. Lawes, in his pamphlet entitled " Fertility," 
inculcates quite a new theory, which he claims to be 
fully established by those important experiments he is 
carrying on at Bothamstcad— one, however, so tho- 
roughly antagonistic to many old-established, long- 
settled conclusions and convictions, that it will have 
