BOURBON, JAVA, AND THE EAST.
It was from Beit-el-Faguil, the European factory near Mocha, that the
coffee-tree was transported to the island of Bourbon, in the year 1718,
and it is remarkable that the islanders recognised the plant as natural
to their own country, and brought the astonished importers abundance
from their native mountains. In Bourbon they distinguish four varieties
of the coffee-plant.
1. The Mocha, which is very delicate, for the plants degenerate and
often perish after a good crop.
2. The Levoy, which is more hardy, but the coffee is inferior in
quality.
3. The Myrtle, a variety of the Mocha, very hardy, and yielding abundant
crops.
4. The Marron, or wild coffee, with such bitter and narcotic properties
that it can only be used by admixture with the berries of one of the
other varieties.
JAVA.--In Java, coffee is a government monopoly, and the planters bring
their coffee to a central government depôt for sale at a fixed price.
The island exports about 1,250,000 cwts. of coffee annually. Java coffee
has lost much of its former repute from being largely saturated with
moisture, artificially to the extent of 14 per cent.; this increases the
weight, but must injure the quality in transport.
At the Paris Exhibition of 1855, the Netherlands Commercial Association
contributed a very varied collection of two dozen varieties of coffees
from the Dutch government possessions in Java, under the following
classification: Brown, clear brown, deep yellow, yellow, yellowish,
white, whitish, pale of Havana kind, blue, fine green, handsome green,
green, greenish, mottled green, deep green West India kind, green West
India kind, pale green West India kind, dark Demerara kind, green
Demerara kind, deep grey, triage, common black, greenish Menado, and
white Padang. The Netherlands Society sell about 1,000,000 bags or bales
of coffee annually.
The following were the exports of coffee from Java in 1862:
piculs.
To Holland on private account 128,047
To other countries 165,116
By the Netherlands Trading Company 877,241
---------
1,170,404
The position of the coffee trade of Java is shown in the figures
annexed, for five years:
EXPORT AND VALUE OF COFFEE.
tons. value.
1858 66,575 £2,614,505
1859 59,769 2,565,137
1860 54,638 2,486,115
1861 61,783 2,850,518
1862 63,286 3,465,747
Three kinds of Java coffee are commonly brought to Europe--Jacatra
(usually sold as Java), Cheribou, and Samarang. The first is the best,
the second is generally a little lighter colour and of somewhat inferior
quality, and the third has yellowish brown, or green, flattened beans.
What is generally sold in the Dutch markets as Samarang is, however,
simply a kind of “triage,” with black beans of a coarse flavour.
SIAM.--On the hilly districts of the east coast of the Gulf of Siam the
cultivation of coffee is carried on to a limited extent, and some very
fine samples of Siam coffee were shown at the International Exhibition
of 1862, sent me by Messrs. Markwold and Co., and by Sir Robert
Schomburgk, the British Consul-General.
SUMATRA is one of the worst kinds of coffee received from the Eastern
Archipelago. The beans are large, dark yellow or brown, and occasionally
even black, and the flavour varies considerably. The production in
Sumatra averages about 5 to 6,000,000 lbs., but has often been double
that amount.
CELEBES.--With the exception of Menado, which has large beans of a pale
greenish or yellow colour, Celebes coffee is greatly inferior to Java,
and it is questionable whether the colour when brought to market is not
given by artificial means. The production is about 1,000,000 lbs.
PHILIPPINES.--Manilla coffee is one of the best of the Eastern kinds,
and quite equal to Java. The average production is about 3,000,000 lbs.
The beans are medium-sized, and of a pale greenish colour. The coffee is
shipped in bags of about 150 lbs., or in cases or chests of 200 lbs. to
300 lbs.
OTHER SOURCES.--The cultivation of coffee is making rapid progress in
the Sandwich Islands. There are now considerably more than half a
million trees in bearing on the island, producing upwards of 2,000,000
lbs. annually--the largest proportion of which is shipped to California.
Queensland and the northern districts of Australia could raise large
quantities of coffee. It is much less laborious than cotton, more fitted
for women and children, and, being adapted to the mountain ranges of
tropical climates, of course more healthy and invigorating than the
sultry plains. The range of mountains varying from twenty-five to thirty
miles from the northern coast of Australia, towards Torres Straits,
would be admirably suited to the culture.