COFFEE VARIETIES IX PORTO RICO. 21 
Kobusta coffee was discovered in the Congo by Emil Laurent in 
1898. 31 It was put on the market under the name of Coffea robusta 
by a horticultural firm in Brussels. Doctor Cramer states S2 that 
young seedlings were imported in 1900 from Brussels into Java, and 
that what is known as Robusta coffee is probably a group of coffees 
of different varieties rather than a pure species. The rapidity with 
which Robusta coffee has been taken up by the Javan planters has 
been phenomenal. Within 20 years of its introduction. 298,774 acres, 
or 83.5 per cent, of the total area in coffee in the Dutch East Indies 
were planted to Robusta, while only 19,780 acres, or 5.5 per cent, were 
in Arabian coffee. 88 
Of Robusta coffee in Java, Doctor Cramer writes as follows : 34 
Robusta is marked by rapid growth, early fruiting and high productivity, 
* * * likes wet climates, especially those with regularly divided rains. 
It is grown in Java from sea level up to more than 3.000 feet and in Sumatra 
at even higher altitudes. The general altitude for it may be put at 1,000 to 
3,000 feet above sea level. * * * Robusta does not like wind, and suffers 
especially from continuously dry winds : it requires shade, at least in higher 
altitudes. * * * Under favorable conditions the crop may be 1,520 pounds 
per acre. The average may be estimated at 750 to 1,150 pounds per acre. 
* * * The crop comes in all the year round in climates with regularly 
distributed rainfall ; in regions with a sharply marked dry season the crop 
lasts three to four months, according to the rains. 
* * * Robusta and allied species are not so appreciated as other kinds. 
They rank a little under good average Santos. To clean the beans from the 
silver skin artificial drying is necessary. The skin may be removed by drying 
in the sun and washing, but. then, second quality is obtained. Robusta is 
a bulk produce, not, as Liberian and Java coffee, a fancy quality. 
.At the station robustoid coffees have been received under such 
names as Coffea robusta. Coffea quillou. Coffea canephora. Coffea 
laurentii. and Coffea ungandce hybrid. Judging from the plantings 
at the station, a number of specific names have been applied to a 
group of closely related coffees which were propagated by seed and 
will likely continue to cross. In some instances differences can be 
seen: in others, the difference in name is the only dissimilarity. 
All. however, would be classed in the group known as Robusta 
coffee. Here, also, are included the station plantings from seed 
2'eceived as Coffea congensis. as explained later under that heading. 
Robusta. 
Especially selected seed of the best trees of Robusta coffee was 
received in October. 1914, and November, 1915, from the experiment 
station at Buitenzorg, Java Two plantings of the first lot of seed 
were set in September, 1915, one of 114 trees and the other of 28 
trees, and a third planting of 60 trees of the second lot of seed was 
set in August. 1917. A few trees of each lot were lost within the 
period reported. 
At a year from setting the tallest trees in the first planting were 
50 inches high, but the average height was only 30 inches. By the 
81 Coffee robusta. W. J. Gallagher. Dept. Agr. Federated Malav States Bui. 7, p. 1. 
(1910.) 
82 Coffees of the Dutch East Indies. Dr. P. J. S. Cramer. Tea and Coffee Trade Jour. 
(1918). vol. 35, No. 5, p. 417. 
88 Coffee in the East Indies. J. S. Fowler. Tea and Coffee Trade Jour. (1920), vol. 39, 
No. 3, p. 299. 
84 Coffees of the Dutch East Indies. Dr. P. J. S. Cramer. Tea and Coffee Trade Jour. 
(1918), voL 35, No. 5. p. 417. 
