1 Dec., 1897.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 4.55 
Comparing the above results with the published reports from Mr. Cowley, 
of the Kamerunga State Nursery, he states that 1 lb. of pulp (berries) gave 
3 0z. of pure coffee. He again says that from 60 lb. of berries the return 
was 112 ]b. of pure commercial coffee. This is equal to 2°97 oz. of clean 
coffee beans from 1 1b.’ of ripe berries, or 18°51 per cent. 
The first test—as detailed above—of the Southern coffee is equal to 23% 02, 
of clean coffee from 1 lb. of ripe coffee! berries, or 174 per cent. 
As to the cost of picking the ripe berries, which is the heaviest item, it 
appears that enough labour at present can be had at an expense of 3d. for each 
pound of coffee berries. Assuming that the average return was only 23 oz. of 
clean coffee from 1 lb. of berries, the cost of picking would be 3d. perlb.* The 
selling price or the price which the merchants now pay for clean commercial 
coffee is 11d. to 1s. per lb., so that, after paying for picking and all other 
expenses, the margin left is ample to give a very handsome profit to the 
planter. 
In putting the coffee on the Queensland market it is by no means necessary 
to send it in as fully cured and cleaned commercial coffee. Hulling machinery 
can be dispensed with ; so far as the planter is concerned, it is parchment-cured. 
coffee that is required.f That proper curing (drying) is absolutely necessary to 
produce the best quality of coffee, will be admitted without question. Lord 
Brassey, in an interesting visit to a large coffee estate near Rio, says in 
“Voyages and Travels,” vol. i., page 92, that by drying the coffee on 
concrete barbecues instead of on earthern floors (as was formerly the custom) 
the quality had improved, and Brazilian coffee rose from 10s. to 21s. an 
arroba (32 1b.). But to come nearer home: T'wo sample parcels of Queens- 
land coffee have been unfavourably reported on by London experts, owing to 
the curing not being up to the mark; the remedy is in our own hands, but the 
subject of proper curing will not enter into the present communication—suflice 
it to say, no elaborate artificial heating plant or expensive barbecues are 
required, A substitute can be had which is adapted to modern requirements 
for properly sun-drying the coffee, and in its working is effective, economical in 
cost, and labour saving. Probably few are aware of the great quantity of 
coffee likely to be produced from an area, of 50 acres containing 1,000 trees to 
the acre. A full crop over such an estate may be put down at an average of 
2 lb. parchment-cured coffee per tree, ornearly 45 tons. If sold at 83d. per 1b., 
100,000 lb. would give over £3,540. A comparatively small capital is required in 
coffee cultivation, but with good management, combined with proper plant and 
other requisites, no other industry has attractions equal to it. The Minister 
for Agriculture and other heads of the Department deserve every credit for 
being so fully alive to the possibilities—or rather certainties—attached to 
the extension of coffee-growing. The State nurseries and individual planters 
haye practically shown the growth of the tree from a seed to its full bearing 
capacity. The growth of the plant in Australia gives new experience, owing 
to its adaptability to soils and climate, to which, in the previous history of the 
tree, no parallel can be shown. Queensland should, therefore, without delay 
take its proper place as a coffee-growing country. With the labour of school 
children and other white labour required during the crop season, it would 
appear that we can now and will be in the future quite independent of 
coloured labour. 
The early maturity of the coffee-tree in Queensland does not necessarily 
mean a short life, as there exist many trees in the neighbourhood of Brisbane 
over thirty years of age and still bearing. In the city itself the Botanic 
Gardens possess a fine cluster of coffee-trees which the records show were 
planted a quarter of a century ago. -‘These trees exhibit no appearance of 
* Mr, Cowley states that a white labourer in a day of ten hours picked 90 lb. of ripe berries. 
With a full crop in the first picking a maximum of about 140 lb. might be expected by a youth 
with sharp eyes and nimble fingers. i ; 
+ In cleaning the coffee the loss in weight is 25 per cent. or less; but the loss in bulk is about 
one-half in Queensland. Two bags of parchment cured will equal in bulk one bag of commercial 
coffee-beans, 
