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demned as objectionable on the ground that the plant had done well 
in Perak, and the statement would deter planters from planting it. 
The cultivation, however, soon entirely failed and it is doubtful if 
there is an acre of Arabian Coffee cultivated for profit in any part 
of the Peninsula to-day. 
Liberian Coffee. — On the discovery of Liberian Coffee in 1875 
and its introduction by Mr. MuRTON to the Malay Peninsula the 
same year, Coffee cultivation became the most important European 
cultivation in the Peninsula. The plant was discovered in Liberia 
and Mr. WILLIAM BULL introduced it into England, whence by the 
assistance of Kew plants were obtained at the Botanic Gardens of 
Singapore. One of the original introduced plants was growing still 
in the Gardens in 1890, when it died. Mr. MURTON carried plants 
up to Teluk Anson, Kuala Kangsa and Larut in 1876, as he didthe 
Para- rubber trees and also sent plants to Sungei Ujong. 
Sir Hugh Low, who was much interested in the new introduction* 
reports in a letter to Mr. MURTON, in 1876, that the plants had 
fruited, but that all the fruits had been stolen. Further supplies, 
however, were soon forthcoming and very shortly there were widely 
extended estates all over the Malay States. From the introduction 
of Liberian Coffee may be said indeed to have originated the agri- 
culture of Selangor, Perak and Negri Sembilan. Besides the Euro- 
pean estates, a number of natives, Javanese and Chinese also made 
plantations of Liberian Coffee and in 1892 I found a small number 
of plants as far off as the upper reaches of the Tembeling River, 
where, however, the Malays only used the leaves, of which they made 
a kind of tea. The leaves of the plant are indeed commonly added 
to the contents of the tea-pot in Chinese shops to the present day, 
and at one time there was a proposal to start a Company in Java 
for preparing Coffee leaves for native consumption : so popular was 
it. 
Liberian Coffee was originally stated to be proof against Hemi- 
leia, but did not prove so. The harm, however, that this leaf-fungus 
inflicted on the plants was almost negligible and when trees were 
badly affected and injured by it, it was generally considered that 
the soil was unsuitable and the plant weak and bad. There is still 
a good deal of Coffee in the Peninsula, and much of it returns a fair 
to good profit. 
It suffered, however, in 1900 in SelangoV, from a bad attack of the 
Caterpillars of the Bee-hawk moth, which nearly destroyed some 
estates. The fall in price of Coffee, generally due to the vast out- 
put of the product in Brazil and the sudden discovery of the planters 
that Rubber was likely lo prove more remunerative in 1898, a fact 
which attempts had been made to impress on them from 1890 on- 
wards, caused the abandonment of a good deal of the Coffee cultiva- 
tion in favour of the new agriculture. The Coffee, however, had done 
its work. It had opened the way to agriculture in the Malay States, 
brought planters, and money there, and showed that something 
more could be done with the Peninsula that dig tin and gold out 
of it. 
