Nor. 1, 1901.] 
THE TROPICAL AaRlCULTURIST. 
297 
PRODUCTION OF COFFEE IN INDIA. 
After noting that the figures are imperfect and 
defective, and that, for example, the statistics of the 
Nilgiri district are very im frfeot, the Director- 
General of Btatistics reports ns follows : — 
Area.— At the end of 1900 there were 245,405 
acres of land nnder coffee in India, all, with the 
exception of 387 acres, in Southern India. The pro- 
duction of coffee is restricted for the most part to a 
limited area in the elevated region above the South- 
Western coast, the coffee lands of Mysore, Coorg 
and the Madras districts of Malabar and the Nil- 
gins, comprising t8 per cent of the whole area un- 
der the plant in India. About 52 per cent, of this 
area is in Mysore, where there were 128,087 nores in 
190u, and the plant is grown on 99,088 acres, being 
40 per cent, of the whole, in the British districts 
of Coorg (68,596 acres', the Nilgiris and Malabar 
(30,492), In Madras there is no extensive cultivation 
except in these two districts, and in Salem and 
Madura. Coffee is also grown, but on a very res- 
tricted scale in Burma, Assam, Bengal, and Bom- 
bay. 
Production — The fall in prices since 1897 has re" 
moved the stimulus which had been given for a 
few years to the further expansion of the coffee- 
growing area, while disease has combined with ad- 
verse climatic conditions to reduce the yield. The 
quantity produced last year was but little more 
than half the quantity produced ten years ago. 
Taking 100 to represent the area and production in 
1885, the ratio of yearly increase or decrease is as 
follows: — 
Area. 
Production. 
1885 
100 
100 
1886 
97 
90 
1887 
103 
109 
1888 
104 
76 
1889 
110 
85 
1890 
114 
63 
1891 
Ill 
13 
1892 
110 
97 
1893 
K 9 
109 
1894 
117 
101 
1895 
119 
115 
1896 
121 
75 
1897 
116 
69 
1898 
118 
68 
1899 
115 
50 
1900 
103 
62 
Peksons Employed. — Acccordmg to the statements 
there were 22, l28 persons permanently, and 91,685 
temporarily, employed on the coffee estates in lyQO, 
making a total of 113,813 persons, which is equal to 
one person to about 2'16 acres. 
Exports and Conshmption. — The following figures 
are the average of the ten years ending 1900 01 : — 
Indian Coffee— lbs. 
Production .. ... ... 30,040,608 
Exports ... .. ... 30,163,056 
Foreign Coffee — 
Imports ... 1,529,819 
Exports ... .. .. 737,520 
It is of course not the case that exports have 
exceeded production during this period ; the figures 
merely illustrate the difficulty of obtaining an accu- 
rate view of an industry when those who are en- 
gaged in it think fit to withhold information which 
is indispensable in the consideration of any ques- 
tions affecting the industry. The figures, however, 
imperfect as they are, indicate that, the Indian pro- 
ducer of coffee has no local market on which he 
can depend for the consumption of any portion of 
his production. He is entirely dependent upon the 
external markets which are contained in the countries 
mentioned below, these being the principal countries 
to which Indian coffee is exported (in lbs) : 
United Kingdom ... 
France... 
Ceylon . . 
Asiatic Turkey and Persia 
Australia 
Arabia . . 
Germany 
Austria-Hungary ... 
1897-98 1898-99 
12,773,376 17,392,480 
8,607,872 9,356,816 
293,888 50.'j,680 
863,856 131,264 
199,024 265,440 
630,896 229,488 
297,584 618,688 
591,360 1,023,568 
1899-1900 1900-01 
United Kingdom . . ... 17,640,000 15,678,7('8 
France... ... ... 10,847,536 8,430,016 
Ceylon .. .. 1,224,272 1,088,528 
Asiatic Turkey aud Persia ... 137,984 610,288 
Australia .. .. 272.496 447,104 
Arabia .. ,.. 85,232 274,960 
Germany ... .. 292.544 126,560 
Austria-Hungary ... ... 298,701 123,312 
As France takes on an average about a third of 
the whole quantity exported, it is obvious that the 
Indian coiiee producer has an intimate interest in 
the outcome of the question at present under dis- 
cusssion of the application to Indian coffee into 
France of a rate of duty higher than that 
which is imposed upon Brazilian coffee. 
Prices. — Coffee is not sold, as tea is sold, before 
shipment for export, and therefoie there is no In- 
dian quotation of price. The average prices in 
London for East Indian plantation coffee since 1874 
are here subjoined with their variations, taking the 
price of 1874 as the datum=100. Prices dropped 
last year, as a consequence of the great expansion 
in the production of Brazilian coffee to the lowest level 
kno\i n : — 
Per cwt. Variation. 
s. d. 
1874 ... .. 92 1 .. 100 
1877 ... .. no 01 .. 120 
1879 ... ... 100 10"" .. 110 
1882 .. ... 85 4 .. 93 
1884 ... ... 76 4i .. 83 
1887 .. .. 94 9* ... 103 
1889 .. .. 99 10 ... 108 
1890 ... .. 106 21 .. 115 
1893 ... .. 105 44 .. 114 
1894 .. .. 101 0 ... 110 
1897 ... .. 94 8 .. 103 
1898 ... .. 73 1 ... 85 
1899 ... ... 6-1 2i .. 71 
19C0 ... .. 48 0 ... 51 
— Planting Opinion: 
Limb fou Fowls. — It has not been demonstrated 
that oyster shells, or lime in any form, produce egg 
shell or r-ither shells for the egg, as there are 
thousands of hens that are in no manner provided 
with oyster shells. It is true, however, that oyster 
shells, being sharp, assist in grinding the food. 
Carbonate of lime is insoluble, and the lime for the 
egg shells must consequently come from what can 
be digested and conducted to the egKS through the 
blood. As nearly all kinds of food contain lime in 
a soluble form by combination with vegetable acids, 
as well as in the form of inorganic salts that are 
soluble, the process of covering the eggs with shells 
goes without the aid of substances that are insoluble. 
There is one source of solubla lime, however, that 
is frequently overlooked — the water — which holds 
lime in a soluble form when it abounds in carbonic 
acid. Hard limestone water contains lime, and the 
hens can, by drinking it, secure more lime in a con- 
venient form than from oyster shells. When a hen 
lay; eggs with soft shells the cause is due not to 
the lack of lime, birt to the condition of the hen, as she 
is then, as a rule, in an over-fat condition. To this 
cause may be traced all the eggs with soft shells. — 
Journal oj the Dep irtment of Agriculture of Wesltrn 
Australia. 
