CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICA.
In 1720, a small coffee-plant, raised in the garden of the King at
Paris, was transported to the Antilles by Captain Declieux, who, during
a long passage, shared each day his small allowance of water with the
young coffee plant. From this tree have sprung all those since
cultivated in Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, St. Domingo, and the
other islands. The fall of St. Domingo, in 1789, which formerly
furnished 80,000,000 lbs., the disfavour the culture has fallen into in
Martinique and Guadaloupe islands, which used to supply 16,000,000 or
17,000,000 lbs., together with the greater attention given to sugar
cultivation in the West Indies, have transferred the production of
coffee chiefly to Brazil, Ceylon, and Java.
In 1801, 526,000 cwts. of coffee were imported into Great Britain from
the West Indies, and the average annual imports in the six years ending
1806 was 364,000 cwts. The decrease of production is shown by the
following figures:
---------------+------------+------------+------------
| 1829. | 1850. | 1860.
---------------+------------+------------+------------
| lbs. | lbs. | lbs.
Jamaica | 18,690,654 | 4,196,210 | 6,145,362
British Guiana | 7,163,016 | 18,472 | --
Trinidad | 73,667 | 96,376 | --
Dominica | 942,113 | 792 | 10,000
St. Lucia | 303,499 | 39 | --
---------------+------------+------------+------------
JAMAICA.--The coffee-plant is said to have been first introduced into
Jamaica by Sir Nicholas Lawes, in 1728, when it was cultivated on an
estate called Temple Hall, on the plains of Liguanea, not far from
Kingston. In 1752, 6,000,000 lbs. of coffee were exported, and in the
three years ending 1807, the average annual shipment was 28,500,000 lbs.
It was not until the island trade was injured by the dismemberment of
Honduras that the heavy duties on sugar, and the competition of the
French colonies, induced the industrious planters to turn their
attention to coffee. They then petitioned for a protecting bounty, and
for a considerable time this was the only British colony where its
cultivation was much attended to. In 1791 there were 607
coffee-plantations in the island, with 21,000 negroes employed on them.
In 1844, there were 671 plantations, and it was calculated that
20,000,000_l._ sterling was invested in them. Some of the finest and
most productive plantations were at an elevation of 4700 feet, in the
vicinity of the Blue Mountain Peak. Whilst in 1809, 83,250,000 lbs. of
coffee were shipped from Jamaica, the average export for ten years past
has not exceeded 6,000,000 lbs.
In the West Indies and Central America a nursery of young plants is
usually raised from seed. At the age of six months these are
transplanted into the field in squares of 8 to 9 feet apart. Beyond
keeping the field clear of weeds, giving the plants a slight moulding,
and freeing them of suckers or sprouts, they do not require any other
attention for the first three years. At the expiry of this time they
commence to bear fruit, and the coffee is cured either by drying the
entire fruit in the sun, or by passing the fruit through what is called
a pulping mill, which separates the outer pulp or covering from the
beans. The beans are then subjected to a washing in a tank full of
water, in order to remove the glutinous substance which adheres to them;
this causes them to cure or dry more rapidly. They are then left in what
is called the parchment husk, and exposed to the action of the sun on
platforms laid with tiles, until they are perfectly dried, and from this
they are, during crop time, spread on the wooden floors of a building
called a logie, to the depth, in a heavy crop, of 12 to 18 inches.
Whilst thus spread, great attention is necessary to prevent the coffee
getting heated and its colour destroyed, by constantly turning it up,
and by the use of some dry lime or ashes sprinkled over it. After this
the beans are subjected to the operation of what is called a stamping
mill, which separates the parchment husk from the beans. This stamping
mill is merely two large solid wheels fixed on each end of a beam on an
axle, and worked by mules moving round in a circle--the wooden wheels
working in a circular trough filled with the coffee beans. After this
the whole are submitted to the action of a winnowing machine, which
separates the chaff from the beans, and subsequently the beans are
passed through copper sieves to separate the perfect from the broken
coffee, and finally handpicked and put into bags or casks for shipment.
BRITISH GUIANA.--Coffee was for a length of time almost the only staple
of Berbice and Demerara, but the cultivation of the sugar-cane has been
substituted for it. The quantity of coffee, the produce of British
Guiana, exported in 1830 was, 9,472,756 lbs.; in 1840, 3,357,300 lbs.;
in 1849, 100,550 lbs.; and in 1850, 30,000 lbs.; since which it has
almost ceased to be exported, scarcely sufficient being produced to
supply the demand in the colony.
At one time there were about two hundred coffee plantations in the small
island of DOMINICA, and four to five million of pounds of coffee were
exported annually to Great Britain.
PORTO RICO.--In proportion to its extent, this island is twice as
productive as Cuba, and the quality of its coffee and other produce is
of the highest class. There were, in 1862, fifty-three coffee
plantations on the island, producing about 100,000 cwt. of coffee. The
exports of coffee were, in
lbs.
1855 11,506,283
1856 9,935,000
1857 8,245,000
1858 9,814,000
1859 13,457,000
The exports of coffee from the island of CUBA, which were in 1840
upwards of 2,000,000 arrobas, were in 1858 but 21,000; and in 1859, 5000
or 6000.
BRAZIL.--The coffee-plant has been known in Brazil for many years; it is
but about fifty years, however, since the first regular plantation was
made by Mr. Moke, a Belgian, who brought the cultivation of coffee to
great perfection. His plantation is still in the neighbourhood of the
capital, and is carried on by his son with much success. It is
astonishing to what an extent coffee has been cultivated since Mr. Moke
first made his plantation. Two millions of bags of 160 lbs. each are
annually exported from Rio de Janeiro, taking the average of the last
seven years; 1862 was, however, short of this about half a million bags.
At Barahyba do Sul, which is within a few miles of Rio, there are
plantations employing six and seven hundred slaves.
The best plantations are those owned and conducted by
foreigners--chiefly English, French, and Belgian--they have an air of
neatness and comfort about them of which those owned by Brazilians and
Portuguese are totally destitute. The foreigners use improved machinery
also in preparing the berry for market, which the Brazilians, with some
exceptions, do not. The coffee-berry contains two seeds, covered with a
gummy, mucilaginous substance, and enclosed in a skin which is thick,
sweet, and dark and red when ripe. The foreigners take off this skin by
means of machinery, and the beans are washed until they are divested of
the mucilage which covers them. They are then dried and put into bags
ready for market. The Brazilians dry the beans with the skin on. In the
process of drying, the skin first becomes dark, and finally black, and
when crisp, is rubbed off the bean, which is then washed. In this
process, however, there is great danger of fermentation. The skin
contains a vast amount of saccharine matter, and successful attempts
have been made to extract from it sugar and spirit; but either through
poor machinery, or other mismanagement, it was found to be unprofitable,
and the experiment was abandoned. The skin is exceedingly sweet, almost
as much so to the taste as the sugar-cane.
The coffee-plant can be propagated from the seed, but the most prevalent
method in Brazil is by young plants, which may be had by the thousand on
old plantations. The young shrub is taken up in August--generally when
it is about two years old--and planted in good soil. The fourth year it
produces coffee, and the fifth year it commences to bear regular crops,
the yield being from a pound and a half to three pounds per tree. Trees
have been known to last for many years on good rich soil, and some on
Mr. Moke’s plantation are still bearing which were planted forty years
ago; on hill-sides, however, where the soil is light, the plant decays
in the course of eight or ten years. The picking season commences in
July, and in the low lands generally concludes by the end of August;
among the hills, however, where there are frequent showers, and where
there is much shade, the season does not close until some time in
September.
The four coffee-growing provinces of Brazil, properly speaking, are Rio
de Janeiro, San Paulo, Minas, and Bahia. In the two former the
agriculturists have for some time past directed their attention almost
exclusively to this article. In Bahia its cultivation is steadily,
although slowly, increasing. Coffee is grown in the provinces of
Maranham, Parana, and St. Catherine’s, but only to a very small extent,
the amount produced being insufficient to meet the demand. The
cultivation of coffee is rapidly increasing in St. Paulo, and is
promoted by the railroad extending from Santos to Jundiahy. The United
States usually takes one-half of the crop of Brazil coffee.
The following figures give the average quantity of coffee exported from
the empire of Brazil during the undermentioned years, comprising a
period previous and subsequent to the abolition of the slave trade in
1851, and showing a steady increase in the export since 1840:
Annual average.
arrobas.
1840-43 5,507,367
1843-46 6,519,380
1846-49 9,301,967
1849-52 8,542,965
1852-55 10,549,847
1855-58 11,465,719
1858-61 10,501,665
The yearly shipments from Rio in the last four years have been as
follows:
bags.
1859 2,064,837
1860 2,150,188
1861 2,085,974
1862 1,477,904
besides 200,000 to 300,000 bags annually from Santos. The bags contain
rather more than six arrobas, or one cwt. and a half.
COSTA RICA.--The quality of this coffee is recognised as excellent. In
order to place it in a proper degree of estimation in foreign markets,
some proprietors of plantations have not omitted getting it chemically
analysed in Europe; the result of which examination has classed it in
the third degree, among those kinds generally esteemed as the best.
The following figures show the production of coffee in Costa Rica; the
bulk of the crop is sent to Great Britain:
cwts.
1854 70,000
1855 70,709
1856 83,000
1857 95,000
VENEZUELA.--Within the last thirty years Venezuela has made great
progress in coffee culture. The exports, which were not more than
13,000,000 lbs. in 1833, had risen to 15,000,000 lbs. in 1850; but since
then the culture has been much interfered with by civil war. The exports
from La Guayra were, in 1855, 17,375,000 lbs.; in 1856, 12,357,000 lbs.;
and in 1857, 16,031,000 lbs. Washed coffee sells there at 8s. per cwt.
higher than the unwashed.
In Venezuela, the plan followed in drying the coffee is this. The
berries are spread out upon hurdles in the sun, where they undergo the
vinous fermentation from fourteen to twenty days, and then dry. The
beans are freed from the pulpy husk by a mill in two operations, and
from the parchment, &c., by winnowing. Although a single tree may bear
as much as 10 to 20 lbs., the average in Venezuela is under 2 lbs. An
acre planted with 2560 trees yields there an annual crop of about 1100
lbs. of dry beans.
In ECUADOR coffee has of late greatly engrossed the attention of
planters, from its superior quality and the increased demand; it
commands a higher price than any other product of the country in
proportion. As the people are everywhere dedicating themselves to its
culture, in a few years it is probable that this country will export a
considerable quantity. In 1855, 776 cwt. only were shipped; in 1861,
although the harvest was exceedingly scanty, the exports were 1480 cwt.
GUATEMALA.--Some twenty years ago considerable plantations of coffee
were made in different parts of the republic of Guatemala, and had the
undertaking been followed up with proper and steady constancy and
attention, it might, perhaps, by this time, have become an important
article of export. Unfortunately its culture was abandoned, owing to the
insurrections of the Indian population. Some attempts have been made
again to introduce its culture by making fresh plantations, but hitherto
not to any extent worthy of mention. The exports of coffee in 1860 were
about 63 tons. In the department of Vera Paz, there are said to be now
about half a million of coffee plants in bearing, and nurseries of about
a million more plants will soon be ready for transplanting. The greater
part of the plantations are situated in the neighbourhood of Coban,
where the vicinity of Teleman, on the river Polochec, which disembogues
into the gulf of Dulce, affords a convenient channel for shipping the
produce.