February i, 1892.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
553 
PROSPECTS OF COFFEE CULTIVATION 
IN THE MALAY PENINSULA. 
Our readers will be interested in the informa- 
tion contained in the following article, the latest 
and most authentic which is available. 
The cultivation of coHee at the present moment 
holds out Buoh promises of substantial— not to say 
immense— returns as it has never done before, and 
without doubt is far aud away the moat profitable 
of all agricultural pursuits when carried on in a 
country where loaf disease and green bug are 
either altogether absent— or kept in oheckby 
climate influences so as to have but little effect 
and on the permanent and regular production of 
crop. In Brazil tho only flourishing cofiee districts 
of any extent are now existent — but there are 
many influences at work iu that country which 
will counteract all efforts to increase the production 
and export. The exports from the older districts 
are falling off rapidly in consequence of the abandon- 
ment of the estates, whilst the cultivation is 
extending in the newer districts of the interior. 
The emancipation of the slaves was a great blow 
to the cultivators of coffee , the revolution which 
followed and the commercial crisis, which em- 
harassed the relations between the planters and the 
banks, was an additional disaeter ; and now that 
the country is fast drifting into a state of anarohy 
we may safely prognosticate a dealine in the exports 
which cannot fail to leave its effect in a very 
marked degree on the European and American 
markets. Already we hear of a shrinkage of the 
present crop to the extent of a million or so of 
bags below the estimate — and an anticipated defi- 
cient crop for the following season. The extension 
of railways into the new coffee districts — as well 
as the extension of cultivation la the districts 
where railways already existed — has had the same 
effect in Brazil as it had in a small way 
in Ceylon when our railway was opened. The 
upcountry crops which in former years had 
reached Colombo by slow degrees in bullock carts, 
then came down by rail with such a rush that 
the Colombo stores were choked— and curing 
operations could not be carried out fast enough 
to meet the demands of the season. It has been 
the same in the Brazil, — and exaggerated estimates 
were formed of the total crops in consequence of 
so many thousand bags reaching the seaports in 
excess of the usual daily receipts. 
But whether or no the crops of Brazil continue 
to be produced in the present — or even very largely 
increased — amount, all the better qualities of coffee, 
known as " East Indian," cannot fail for many 
years to command very high prices in the London 
market. Just now the market being almost bare 
of such coffees we find the first poor pickings of 
Ceylon crops fetching extreme rates and beings 
in great demand. For want of something better 
Liberian coffee, prepared in the way with which, 
we have always been accustomed to deal with 
Arabian, is also fetching good prices — and the 
cultivation in the Straits and other places is a 
very profitable one. But what is wanted is good 
washed and well clsaned Arabian coffee ; and tho 
production of it in any appreciable quantity can- 
not fail to be extremely remunerative. 
The administration of the protected States of 
Perak and Solangor is very wisely bestirring itself 
to soouro the advantages accruing from an indus- 
try which holds out such promises as coffee does 
at the present day. 
There is, however, a roluotance on the part of 
capitalists in London and elsewhere to venture 
their money in tho neighbourhood of India, Ceylon, 
Rad Java where so many hundreds ot thousands 
of pounds have been lost over coffee in recent 
years. This is only natural, but if they could only 
understand the difference in climate, and the 
effect of that difference on the pests which have 
destroyed the coffee in the countries named above 
there can be little doubt that their present dif- 
fidence would be largely dissipated — if not alto- 
gether overcome. Anyone who has been unfor- 
tunate enough to have had the opportunity of 
observing the attacks of leaf disease must bavo 
noticed that it is the extremes of climate which 
mostly favour its attacks upon the coffee bush. 
A long wet season — or a long dry season— seems 
equally to assist the spread of the fungus, and 
the occurrence of storms or the blast of a strong 
wind for a day or two, occasion a development 
of the disease which is often extremely virulent. 
As regards Perak especially — such extremes of 
climate are usually altogether unknown — there 
is no clearly defined dry and wet season, for the 
monsoons have generally but a moderate effect on 
the climate of Malaya. It so happens (most unfor- 
tunately for the oxteusion of coffee cultivation in 
Perak) that the drought, which during the last year 
has affected all the region from China to Afghani- 
stan, was also felt in an unprecedented degree in 
Perak — and has been followed very naturally by 
an equally unprecedented quantity of rain. There 
is only one plantation of Arabian coffee of any 
extent in Perak — and the Government has of lata 
years abandoned the experimental gardens — in one 
at any rate of which the coffee was doing well. The 
coffee estate was planted by an old sea captain — a 
German — who probably knew no more of cofiee 
cultivation than the writer of this knows of naviga- 
tion — perhaps not so much. When he made up his 
mind to leave the country and retire to Australia 
the Government of Perak resumed possession of 
the estate, and when it was taken up by its present 
owners the coffee was grown up in lalang (iluk) 
grass and cbena growth to such an extent that op- 
tion was given the new proprietors to abandon it if 
they chose and go on with new land. Under the 
management — or want of management — of the late 
owner, the weeds had been allowed to destroy all the 
lower primaries of the trees — and four-fifths of the e 
are now " bayonet trees" — the only branches lem 
being on what has been at one time a sucker sprunft 
from the top of the stems of the trees, which origig 
nally seem to have been topped very high, A&. 
may easily be imagined by anyone who has worked 
on the old estates before the era of railways and 
abundant labour — these trees do not present any 
very graceful form at any time as no systematic 
method of pruning can be adopted. When the 
party of Oejlcu men recently visited Perak the old 
coffee had not had time to recover from the 
effect of the drought — and consequent attack of leaf 
disease, which, added to a good crop and an insufiS- 
oient supply of labour, had rendered the trees very 
" sticky" and naturally induced a bad impression 
on the minds of the visitors. The young coffee, at an 
elevation of over 2,000 feet, was however 
in beautiful trim— and taking it all round 
no better plants for their age have ever been seen 
in Ceylon or anywhere else. The progress made 
during the past eighteen months was everything 
that could be desired, and the coming blossoming 
season will produce a fine crop. The four year old 
field is very fine, but although the drought has had 
no effect whatever up at that high elevation, tho 
labour difficulty had made itself apparent and tho 
want of handling and pruning had induced a matted 
condition of the branches which told unfortunately 
against the appearance of the trees. The first ooffeo 
seen on entering the estate is the old illusod field 
tiist planted, and it is the laat tbrgugU v/hioh ttiQ 
