<X1 MONTHLY. 0* 
XXI. 
COLOMBO, JULY 1st, 190L 
No. 1. 
PLANTING PRODUCTS IN THE 
STRAITS. 
(From Annual Report of United P. A. Malay States.) 
^OFFEE.— Inan Interesting Re- 
port the Selangor Planters' 
Association shows that in the 
principal European countries 
and the United States of 
America, the consamption of 
coffee during approximately 
the last 10 years has increased 
from 1,101,146,000 lb. to 1,495,296,000 lb. and that 
the rate of consumption per head of the total 
population of the same countries has risen from 
2-83 lb. to 3-59 lb. These figures are obtained 
from a return supplied to the House of Commons 
dated 3rd August, 1900, and may therefore be 
regarded as absolutely reliable. It is explained 
that accurate returns of production were not obtain, 
able, owing to the ignorance of " statistical science " 
on the part of producers, principally in the Central 
and South American States, so that it is to the 
London Brokers' Reports that we have to refer for 
statistics regarding the balance of production over 
consumption , in other words, for the world's stocks . 
and these we find by latest advices to amount to 
1 ,449,000 bags (a bag being approximately a pikul) as 
against 659,000 bags a year ago. 
The Director of the San Paulo Agricultural Institute 
has complied a valuable report upon the existing 
condition of the estates in Brazil and their future 
prospects, and, without quoting from it at any 
length, it is sufficient to say that most estates are 
burdened with heavy mortgages, that they require 
much greater attention, especially as regards manur- 
ing, thin they are receiving, whilst the rise in the 
value of the milrei from 8 13-32(i. to 11 19-32(7. in the last 
year (Eucker and Bencraf t's Circular of 21st March) 
cannot exercise other than an extremely deterrent 
effect upon that industry. The Brazils {Rio and 
Santos) produce such an enormous percentage of 
the world's supply, that an even partial collapse 
in that country would undoubtedly result in greatly 
improved values. The date of the San Panlo report 
is not known, but when it was written the milrei was 
6|(Z., and we find it stated that "with exchange a 
6|<i, and coffee at $15 in Singapore [i.e. Mexican 
dollar value] 3^ per cent interest could be paid on 
the capital"; again, if the Brazilian planter had to 
pay his labourers in gold he would have been ruined 
long ago, but he sells his cqfee in gold which 
he reconverts into milreis, and the consequent 
effects of a rise of 3 S-lQd. in one year and of 5 3 32f/., 
since that report was written, must be diastrous in 
the extreme. There is no denying, however, that 
the world's stock of coffee 1 has increased over 100 
per cent, in the last year, and the only conclusion 
to be drawn is that mortgagees have foreclosed 
and resold to a large extent, and that estates, at 
consequently a much lower capital value in other 
hands, are still capable of being worked at a profit. 
Your Committee have endeavoured to obtain statistics 
of coffee exported from Selangor, Negri Sembilan, 
and Perak. The following figures have resulted from 
their efforts: — 
1898. 1899. 1900. 
Piculs Piculs Piculs 
Selangor ... 22,948 ... 26,407 ... 34,295 
Negri Sembilan 3,163 ... 4,.541 ... 6,199 
Tota.. 26,111 
30,948 
40,494 
We have not been successful in getting any returns 
from Perak, but from this State and other sources it 
is probable that the total production, in 1900, amounted 
to at least 50,000 pikuls, or say, roughly, 3,000 tons. 
That we have not been idle in endeavouring to get 
our coffee, straight from the plantations, brought 
