Drinking of coffee by mankind may be attributed to three causes: the

demand for, and the pleasing effects of, a hot drink (a very small

percentage of the coffee consumed is taken cold), the pleasing reaction

which its flavors excite on the gustatory nerve, and the stimulating

effect which it has upon the body. The flavor is due largely to the

volatile aromatic constituents, "caffeol," which, when isolated, have a

general depressant action on the system; and the stimulation is caused

by the caffein. The general and specific actions of these individual

components, together with that of the hypothetical "caffetannic acid,"

are considered under separate headings.

Coffee may be considered a member of the general class of adjuvant, or

auxiliary, foods to which other beverages and condiments of negligible

inherent food value belong. Its position on the average menu may be

attributed largely to its palatability and comforting effects. However,

the medicinal value of coffee in the dietary and _per se_ must not be

overlooked.

The ingestion of coffee infusion is always followed by evidences of

stimulation. It acts upon the nervous system as a powerful

cerebro-spinal stimulant, increasing mental activity and quickening the

power of perception, thus making the thoughts more precise and clear,

and intellectual work easier without any evident subsequent depression.

The muscles are caused to contract more vigorously, increasing their

working power without there being any secondary reaction leading to a

diminished capacity for work. Its action upon the circulation is

somewhat antagonistic; for while it tends to increase the rate of the

heart by acting directly on the heart muscle, it tends to decrease it by

stimulating the inhibitory center in the medulla.[188]

The effect on the kidneys is more marked, the diuretic effect being

shown by an increase in water, soluble solids, and of uric acid directly

attributable to the caffein content of the coffee taken. In the

alimentary tract coffee seems to stimulate the oxyntic cells and

slightly to increase the secretion of hydrochloric acid, as well as to

favor intestinal peristalsis. It is difficult to accept reports of

coffee accomplishing both a decrease in metabolism and an increase in

body heat; but if the production of heat by the demethylation of caffein

to form uric acid and a possible repression of perspiration by coffee be

considered, the simultaneous occurrence of these two physiological

reactions may be credited.

The disagreement of medical authorities over the physiological effects

of coffee is quite pronounced. This may be observed by a careful perusal

of the following statements made by these men. It will be noticed that

the majority opinion is that coffee in moderation is not harmful. Just

how much coffee a person may drink, and still remain within the limits

of moderation and temperance, is dependent solely upon the individual

constitution, and should be decided from personal experience rather than

by accepting an arbitrary standard set by some one who professes to be

an authority on the matter.

A writer in the _British Homeopathic Review_[189] says that "the

exciting effects of coffee upon the nervous system exhibit themselves in

all its departments as a temporary exaltation. The emotions are raised

in pitch, the fancies are lively and vivid, benevolence is excited, the

religious sense is stimulated, there is great loquacity.... The

intellectual powers are stimulated, both memory and judgment are

rendered more keen and unusual vivacity of verbal expression rules for a

short time." He continues:

Hahnemann gives a characteristically careful account of the coffee

headache. If the quantity of coffee taken be immoderately great and

the body be very excitable and quite unused to coffee, there occurs

a semilateral headache from the upper part of the parietal bone to

the base of the brain. The cerebral membranes of this side also

seem to be painfully sensitive, the hands and feet becoming cold,

and sweat appears on the brows and palms. The disposition becomes

irritable and intolerant, anxiety, trembling and restlessness are

apparent.... I have met with headaches of this type which yielded

readily to coffee and with many more in which the indicated remedy

failed to act until the use of coffee as a beverage was abandoned.

The eyes and ears suffer alike from the super-excitation of coffee.

There is a characteristic toothache associated with coffee.

In apparent contradiction of this opinion, Dr. Valentin Nalpasse,[190]

of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, states:

When coffee is properly made and taken in moderation, it is a most

valuable drink. It facilitates the digestion because it produces a

local excitement. Its principal action gives clear and stable

imaginative power to the brain. By doing that, it makes

intellectual work easy, and, to a certain extent, regulates the

functions of the brain. The thoughts become more precise and clear,

and mental combinations are formed with much greater rapidity.

Under the influence of coffee, the memory is sometimes surprisingly

active, and ideas and words flow with ease and elegance.... Many

people abuse coffee without feeling any bad effect.

Discussing the use and abuse of coffee, I.N. Love[191] says:

The world has in the infusion of coffee one of its most valuable

beverages. It is a prompt diffusible stimulant, antiseptic and

encourager of elimination. In season it supports, tides over

danger, helps the appropriate powers of the system, whips up the

flagging energies, enhances the endurance; but it is in no sense a

food, and for this reason it should be used temperately.

Also Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson[192] makes the following weighty

pronouncement:

In reference to my suggestion to give children tea and coffee. I

may explain that it is done advisedly. There is probably no

objection to their use even at early ages. They arouse the dull,

calm the excitable, prevent headaches, and fit the brain for work.

They preserve the teeth, keep them tight in their place, strengthen

the vocal chords, and prevent sore throat. To stigmatize these

invaluable articles of diet as "nerve stimulants" is an erroneous

expression, for they undoubtedly have a right to rank as nerve

nutrients.

But Dr. Harvey Wiley[193] comes forth with evidence on the other side,

saying:

The effects of the excessive use of coffee, tea, and other natural

caffein beverages is well known. Although the caffein is combined

in these beverages naturally, and they are as a rule taken at meal

times, which mitigates the effects of the caffein, they are

recognized by every one as tending to produce sleeplessness, and

often indigestion, stomach disorders, and a condition which, for

lack of a better term, is described as nervousness.... The

excessive drinking of tea and coffee is acknowledged to be

injurious by practically all specialists.

Dr. V.C. Vaughn,[194] of the University of Michigan, speaking of tea and

coffee, expresses this opinion:

I believe that caffein used as a beverage and in moderation not

only is harmless to the majority of adults, but is beneficial.

This verdict is upheld by the results of a symposium[195] conducted by

the _Medical Times_, in which a large majority of the medical experts

participating, among whom may be enumerated Drs. Lockwood, Wood,

Hollingworth, Robinson, and Barnes, agreed that the drinking of coffee

is not harmful _per se_, but that over-indulgence is the real cause of

any ill effects. This is also true of any ingested material.

Insomnia is a condition frequently attributed to coffee, but that the

authorities disagree on this ground is shown by Wiley's[196] contention,

"We know beyond doubt that the caffein (in coffee) makes a direct attack

on the nerves and causes insomnia." While Woods Hutchinson[197]

observes:

Oddly enough, a cup of hot, weak tea or coffee, with plenty of

cream and sugar, will often help you to sleep, for the grateful

warmth and stimulus to the lining of the stomach, drawing the blood

into it and away from the head, will produce more soothing effects

than the small amount of caffein will produce stimulating and

wakeful ones.

The writer has often had people remark to him that while black coffee

sometimes kept them awake, coffee with cream or sugar or both made them

drowsy.

In the course of experiments conducted by Montuori and Pollitzer[198] it

was found that coffee prepared by hot infusion when given by mouth or

hypodermically with the addition of a small dose of alcohol proved an

efficient means of combating the pernicious effects of low temperatures.

Coffee prepared by boiling, and tea, showed negative effects.

The value of coffee as a strength-conserver, and its function of

increasing endurance, morale, and healthfulness, was demonstrated by the

great stress which the military authorities, in the late and in previous

wars, placed upon furnishing the soldiers with plenty of good coffee,

particularly at times when they were under the greatest strain. Various

articles[199] record this fact; and these statements are further borne

out by the data given below in the discussion of the physiological

effects of caffein, to which the majority of the stimulating effects of

coffee may be attributed.

According to Fauvel,[200] with a healthy patient on a vegetable diet,

chocolate and coffee increase the excretion of purins, diminishing the

excretion of uric acid and apparently hindering the precipitation of

uric acid in the organism. This diminution, however, was not due to

retention of uric acid in the organism.

"Habit-forming" is one of the adjectives often used in describing

coffee, but it is a fact that coffee is much less likely than alcoholic

liquors to cause ill effects. A man rarely becomes a slave of coffee;

and excessive drinking of this beverage never produces a state of moral

irresponsibility or leads to the commission of crime. Dr. J.W.

Mallet,[201] in testimony given before a Federal Court, stated that

caffein and coffee were not habit-forming in the correct sense of the

term. His definition of the expression is that the habit formed must be

a detrimental and injurious one--one which becomes so firmly fixed upon

a person forming it that it is thrown off with great difficulty and with

considerable suffering, continuous exercise of the habit increasing the

demand for the habit-forming drug. It is well known that the desire

ceases in a very short period of time after cessation of use of

caffein-containing beverages, so that in that sense, coffee is not

habit-forming.

[Illustration: MEN AND WOMEN LABORERS PICKING COFFEE ON A SÃO PAULO

ESTATE]

[Illustration: SACKING COFFEE IN A WAREHOUSE AT THE PORT OF SANTOS]

[Illustration: PICKING AND SACKING COFFEE IN BRAZIL]

It has been shown by Gourewitsch[202] that the daily administration of

coffee produces a certain degree of tolerance, and that the doses must

be increased to obtain toxic results. Harkness[203] has been quoted as

stating that "taken in moderation; coffee is one of the most wholesome

beverages known. It assists digestion, exhilarates the spirits, and

counteracts the tendency to sleep." Carl V. Voit,[204] the German

physiological chemist, says this about coffee:

The effect of coffee is that we are bothered less by unpleasant

experiences and become more able to conquer difficulties;

therefore, for the feasting rich, it makes intestinal work after a

meal less evident and drives away the deadly ennui; for the student

it is a means to keep wide awake and fresh; for the worker it makes

the day's fatigue more bearable.

Dr. Brady[205] believes that the so-called harmfulness of coffee is

mainly psychological, as evidenced by his expression, "Most of the

prejudice which exists against coffee as a beverage is based upon

nothing more than morbid fancy. People of dyspeptic or neurotic

temperament are fond of assuming that coffee must be bad because it is

so good, and accordingly, denying themselves the pleasure of drinking

it."

The recounting of evidence, both _pro_ and _con_, relevant to the

general effects of coffee could continue almost _ad infinitum_, but the

fairest unification of the various opinions is best quoted from Woods

Hutchinson[206]:

Somewhere from 1 to 3 percent of the community are distinctly

injured or poisoned by tea or coffee, even small amounts producing

burning of the stomach, palpitation of the heart, headache,

eruptions of the skin, sensations of extreme nervousness, and so

on; though the remaining 97 percent are not injured by them in any

appreciable way if consumed in moderation.

So, if one is personally satisfied that he belongs to the abnormal

minority, and has not been argued by fallacious reasoning into his

belief that coffee injures him, he should either reduce his consumption

of coffee or let it alone. Even those most vitally interested in the

commercial side of coffee will admit that this is the logical procedure.

_Effects of Coffee on Children_

The same sort of controversy has raged around the question of the

advisability of giving coffee to children as has occurred regarding its

general action. Dr. J. Hutchinson[207] advocates furnishing children

with coffee, while Dr. Charlotte Abbey[208] is strongly against such a

practise, claiming that use of caffein-containing beverages before the

attainment of full growth will weaken nerve power. Nalpasse[209]

observes that until fully developed the young are immoderately excited

by coffee; and Hawk[210] is of the opinion that to give such a stimulant

to an active school-child is both logically and dietetically incorrect.

Dr. Vaughn[211] advances this scientific argument against the drinking

of coffee by children under seven years of age:

In proportion to body weight the young contain more of the xanthin

bases than adults. They are already laden with these physiological

stimulants, and the additional dose given in tea or coffee may be

harmful.

In a study of the effects of coffee drinking upon 464 school children,

C.K. Taylor[212] found a slight difference in mental ability and

behavior, unfavorable to coffee. About 29 percent of these children

drank no coffee; 46 percent drank a cup a day; 12 percent, 2 cups; 8

percent, 3 cups; and the remainder, 4 or more cups a day. The

measurements of height, weight, and hand strength also showed a slight

advantage in favor of the non-coffee drinkers. If these results be taken

as truly representative, their indication is obvious. However, it seems

desirable to repeat these experiments upon other groups; at the same

time noting carefully the factors of environment, and other diet, before

any criterion is made.

As a refutation to this experimental evidence is the practical

experience of the inhabitants of the Island of Groix, off the Brittany

coast, whose annual consumption of coffee is nearly 30 pounds per

capita, being ingested both as the roasted bean and as an infusion. It

is reported that many of the children are nourished almost entirely on

coffee soup up to ten years of age, yet the mentality and physique of

the populace does not fall below that of others of the same stock and

educational opportunities.[213]

Pertinent in this connection is Hawk's[214] statement that young mothers

should refrain from the use of coffee, as caffein stimulates the action

of the kidneys and tends to bring about a loss from the body of some of

the salts necessary to the development of the unborn child as well as

for the proper production of milk during the nursing period. The caffein

of coffee also increases the flow of milk, but the milk produced is

correspondingly dilute and a later decreased secretion may be expected.

Furthermore, some of the caffein of the coffee may pass into the

mother's milk, thus reaching the child, so that the use of coffee during

the nursing period is undesirable on this ground also. Naturally, the

question arises as to whether this arraignment is purely theoretical or

based upon analytical and clinical data.

It is a difficult matter definitely to set an age below which coffee

should not be drunk, as the time of reaching maturity varies with

climate and ancestral origin. Yet, from a theoretical standpoint,

children before or during the adolescent period should be limited to the

use of a rather small amount of tea and coffee as beverages, as their

poise and nerve control have not reached a stage of development

sufficient to warrant the stimulation incident to the consumption of an

appreciable quantity of caffein.

_Coffee Drinking and Longevity_

There are many who would have us believe that the use of coffee is only

a means toward the end of quickly reaching the great beyond; but it is

known that the habitual coffee drinker generally enjoys good health, and

some of the longest-lived people have used it from their earliest youth

without any apparent injury to their health. Nearly every one has an

acquaintance who has lived to a ripe old age despite the use of coffee.

Quoting Metchnikoff[215]:

In some cases centenarians have been much addicted to the drinking

of coffee. The reader will recall Voltaire's reply when his doctor

described the grave harm that comes from the abuse of coffee, which

acts as a real poison. "Well", said Voltaire, "I have been

poisoning myself for nearly eighty years." There are centenarians

who have lived longer than Voltaire and have drunk still more

coffee. Elizabeth Durieux, a native of Savoy, reached the age of

114. Her principal food was coffee, of which she took daily as many

as forty small cups. She was jovial and a boon table companion, and

used black coffee in quantities that would have surprised an Arab.

Her coffee-pot was always on the fire, like the tea-pot in an

English cottage (Lejoncourt, p. 84; Chemin, p. 147).

The entire matter resolves itself into one of individual tolerance,

resistivity, and constitution. Numerous examples of young abstainers who

have died and coffee drinkers who have still lived on can be found, and

_vice versa_, the preponderance of instances being in neither direction.

Bodies of persons killed by accident have been painstakingly examined

for physiological changes attributable to coffee; but no difference

between those of coffee and of non-coffee drinkers (ascertained by

careful investigation of their life history) could be discerned.[216] In

the long run, it is safe to say that the effect of coffee drinking upon

the prolongation or shortening of life is neutral.

_Coffee in the Alimentary Tract_

When coffee is taken _per os_ it passes directly to the stomach, where

its sole immediate action is to dilute the previous contents, just as

other ingested liquids do. Eventually the caffein content is absorbed by

the system, and from thence on a stimulation is apparent. Considerable

conjecture has occurred over the difference in the effects of tea and

coffee, the most feasible explanation advanced being one appearing in

the London _Lancet_.[217]

The caffein tannate of tea is precipitated by weak acids, and the

presumption is that it is precipitated by the gastric juice and,

therefore, the caffein is probably not absorbed until it reaches

the alkaline alimentary tract. In the case of coffee, however, in

whatever form the caffein may be present, it is soluble in both

alkaline and acid fluids, and, therefore, the absorption of the

alkaloid probably takes place in the stomach.

This theory, if true, goes far toward explaining the more rapid

stimulation of coffee.

The statement has sometimes been made that milk or cream causes the

coffee liquid to become coagulated when it comes into contact with the

acids of the stomach. This is true, but does not carry with it the

inference that indigestibility accompanies this coagulation. Milk and

cream, upon reaching the stomach, are coagulated by the gastric juice;

but the casein product formed is not indigestible. These liquids, when

added to coffee, are partially acted upon by the small acid content of

the brew, so that the gastric juice action is not so pronounced, for the

coagulation was started before ingestion, and the coagulable

constituent, casein, is more dilute in the cup as consumed than it is in

milk. Accordingly, the particles formed by it in the stomach will be

relatively smaller and more quickly and easily digested than milk _per

se_. It has been observed that coffee containing milk or cream is not as

stimulating as black coffee. The writer believes that this is probably

due to mechanical inclusion of caffein in the casein and fat particles,

and also to some adsorption of the alkaloid by them. This would

materially retard the absorption of the caffein by the body, spread the

action over a longer period of time, and hence decrease the maximum

stimulation attained.

In a few instances, a small fraction of one percent of coffee users,

there is a certain type of distress, localized chiefly in the alimentary

tract, caused by coffee, which can not be blamed upon the much-maligned

caffein. The irritating elements may be generally classified as

compounds formed upon the addition of cream or milk to the coffee

liquor, volatile constituents, and products formed by hydrolysis of the

fibrous part of the grounds. It may be generally postulated that the

main causation of this discomfort is due to substances formed in the

incorrect brewing of coffee, the effect of which is accentuated by the

addition of cream or milk, when the condition of individual idiosyncrasy

is present.

Without enlarging upon his reason, Lorand[218] concludes that neither

tea nor coffee is advisable for weak stomachs. Nalpasse,[219] however,

believes that coffee taken after meals makes the digestion more perfect

and more rapid, augmenting the secretions, and that it agrees equally

well with people inclined to embonpoint and heavy eaters whose digestion

is slow and difficult. Thompson[220] also observes that coffee drunk in

moderation is a mild stimulant to gastric digestion.

Eder[221] reported, as the result of an inquiry into the action of

coffee on the activity of the stomachs of ruminants, that coffee

infusions produced a transitory increase in the number and intensity of

the movements of the paunch, but that the influence exercised was very

irregular.

An elaborate investigation of the action of tea and coffee on digestion

in the stomach was made by Fraser,[222] in which he found that both

retard peptic digestion, the former to a greater degree than the latter.

The digestion of white of egg, ham, salt beef, and roast beef was much

less affected than that of lamb, fowl, or bread. Coffee seemed actually

to aid the digestion of egg and ham. He attributed the retarding effect

to the tannic acid of the tea and the volatile constituents of the

coffee--the caffein itself favoring digestion rather than otherwise. Tea

increased the production of gas in all but salt foods, whereas coffee

did not. Coffee is, therefore, to be preferred in cases of flatulent

dyspepsia.

Hutchinson, in his _Food and Dietetics_, opines:

As regards the practical inferences to be drawn from experiences

and observations, it may be said that in health the disturbance of

digestion produced by the infused beverages (tea and coffee) is

negligible. Roberts, indeed, goes so far as to suggest that the

slight slowing of digestion which they produce may be favored

rather than otherwise, as tending to compensate for too rapid

digestibility which refinements of manufacture and preparation have

made characteristic of modern foods.

Regarding increase in secretory activity, Moore and Allanston[223]

report that in their experience meat extracts, tea, caffein solution,

and coffee call forth a greater gastric secretion than does water, while

with milk the flow of gastric juice seems to be retarded. Cushing[224]

and others support this statement. This action is partially explained by

Voit on the grounds that all tasty foods increase gastric secretion, the

action being partly psychological; but Cushing observed the same effects

upon introducing coffee directly into the stomachs of animals.

In general, a moderate amount of coffee stimulates appetite, improves

digestion and relieves the sense of plenitude in the stomach. It

increases intestinal peristalsis, acts as a mild laxative, and slightly

stimulates secretion of bile. Excessive use, however, profoundly

disturbs digestive function, and promotes constipation and

hemorrhoids.[225] There is much evidence to support the view that

"neither tea, coffee, nor chicory in dilute solutions has any

deleterious action on the digestive ferments, although in strong

solutions such an action may be manifest."[226] After conducting

exhaustive experiments with various types of coffee, Lehmann[227]

concluded that ordinary coffee is without effect on the digestion of the

majority of sound persons, and may be used with impunity.

_Coffee in the Dietary--Food Value_

There are three things to be considered in deciding upon the inclusion

of a substance in the dietary--palatability, digestibility without

toxicity or disarrangement, and calorific value. Coffee is as

satisfactory from these viewpoints as any other food product.

The palatability of a well-made cup of good coffee needs no eulogizing;

it speaks for itself. It adds enormously to the attractiveness of the

meal, and to our ability to eat with relish and appetite large amounts

of solid foods, without a subsequent uncomfortable feeling. Wiley[228]

says that the feeling of drowsiness after a full meal is a natural

condition incidental to the proper conduct of digestion, and that to

drive away this natural feeling with coffee must be an interference with

the normal condition. However, if by so doing, we can increase our

over-all efficiency without material harm to our digestive organs (and

we can and do), the procedure has much in its favor both psychologically

and dietetically.

The fact that coffee favors digestion without eventual disarrangement

has been demonstrated above. On the subject of the relative agreement

with the constitution of foods of daily consumption, Dr. English[229]

said:

It is well known that there is no species of diet which invariably

suits all constitutions, nor will that which is palatable and

salutary at one time be equally palatable and salutary at another

time to the same individual. I think the most natural food provided

for us is milk; yet I will engage to show twenty instances where

milk disagrees more than coffee.

Further in this regard, Hutchinson[230] considers that ninety percent of

the "dyspepsias" attributed to coffee are due to malnutrition, or to

food simultaneously ingested, no disease known to the medical profession

being directly attributable to it.

No one cognizant of the facts will contend that a cup of black coffee

has any direct food value; but not so with the roasted bean. This has

quite an appreciable content of protein and fat, both substances of high

calorific value. The inhabitants of the Island of Groix eat the whole

roasted coffee bean in considerable quantity, and seem to obtain

considerable nourishment therefrom. Also, the Galla, a wandering tribe

of Africa, make large use of food balls, about the size of billiard

balls, consisting of pulverized coffee held in shape with fat. One ball

is said to contain a day's ration; and, because of its food content and

stimulating power, serves to sustain them on long marches of days'

duration.

When an infusion, or decoction, of roasted coffee is made, about 1.25

percent of the extracted matter is protein, it being accompanied by

traces of dextrin and sugar. The same dearth of extraction of food

materials occurs upon infusing coffee substitutes. This small amount can

have but little dietetic significance. However, upon addition of sugar

and of milk or cream, with their content of protein, fat, and lactose,

the calorific value of the cup of coffee rises. Lusk and Gephart[231]

give the food value of an ordinary restaurant cup of coffee as 195.5

calories, and Locke[232] gives it as 156.

Mattei[233] found that 8 cc. of an infusion of roasted Mocha coffee of

five-percent strength suppressed incipient polyneuritis in pigeons

within a few hours' time. Their weight did not improve, but otherwise

they were completely restored to health. However, in from four to six

weeks after the apparent cure, the symptoms rapidly returned and the

pigeons perished, with symptoms of paralysis and cerebral complications.

The temporary cure was probably due to caffein stimulation and secondary

actions of the volatile constituents of coffee, which may be related to

the vitamines; for it is not likely that the vitamines would withstand

the heat of roasting. If B-vitamine does occur in roasted coffee, it is

present only in traces.[234]

The inclusion of coffee in the average dietary is warranted because of

its evident worth as an aid to digestion and for its assimilating power,

thus earning its characterization as an "adjuvant food."

_Action of Coffee on Bacteria_

The employment of coffee as an aid to sanitation has been but little

considered. Coffee, when freshly roasted and ground, is deodorant,

antiseptic, and germicidal, probably due to the empyreumatic products

developed during the process of roasting. An infusion of 0.5 percent

inhibits the growth of many pathogenic organisms, and those of 10

percent kill anthrax bacteria in three hours, cholera spirilla in four

hours, and many other bacteria, including those producing typhoid, in

two to six days.[235]

The maintenance of a low rate of contraction of typhoid fever has often

been attributed to drinking of coffee instead of water, the action of

the coffee being partly due to the bactericidal effect of the caffeol

and partly to the boiling of the water before infusion. The stimulating

tendency of the caffein to sustain and to "tide over" those of low

vitalities is also evidenced.

_Use of Coffee in Medicine_

Coffee has been employed in medicinal practise as a direct specific, as

a preventive, and as an antidote. The _United States Dispensatory_[236]

summarizes the uses of caffein and coffee as follows:

Caffein is a valuable remedy in practical medicine as a cerebral

and cardiac stimulant and as a diuretic. In undue _somnolence_, in

_nervous headache_, in _narcotism_, also, at times when the

exigencies of life require excessively prolonged wakefulness,

caffein may be used as the most powerful agent known for producing

wakefulness. In a series of experiments, J. Hughes Bennett found

that within narrow limits there is a direct physiological

antagonism between caffein and morphine. Coffee and caffein in

narcotic poisoning are of value as a means of keeping the patient

awake, and of stimulating the respiratory centres.

As a cardiac stimulant, caffein may be used in any form of heart

failure; the indications for its use are those which call for the

employment of digitalis. It is superior to digitalis in never

disagreeing with the stomach, in having no distinctive cumulative

tendency, and in the promptness of its action. It is pronouncedly

inferior to digitalis in the power and certainty of its action, and

in the permanence of its influence once asserted. As a diuretic it

is superior; it is very valuable in the treatment of _cardiac

dropsies_, and is often useful in _chronic Bright's disease_ when

there is no irritation of the kidneys.

On account of its tendency to produce wakefulness, it is usually

better to mass the doses early in the day, at least six hours being

left between the last dose and the ordinary time for sleep. From

eight to fifteen grams (of caffein) may be given in the course of a

day in severe cases. If tried, it would probably prove a useful

drug in cases of _sudden collapse_ from various causes.

Good effects of coffee are recounted by Thompson.[237]

It removes the sensation of fatigue in the muscles, and increases

their functional activity; it allays hunger to a limited extent; it

strengthens the heart action; it acts as a diuretic, and increases

the excretion of urea; it has a mildly sudorific influence; it

counteracts nervous exhaustion and stimulates nerve centers. It is

used sometimes as a nervine in cases of migraine, and there are

many persons who can sustain prolonged mental fatigue and strain

from anxiety and worry much better by the use of strong black

coffee. In low delirium, or when the nervous system is overcome by

the use of narcotics or by excessive hemorrhage, strong black

coffee is serviceable to keep the patient from falling into the

drowsiness which soon merges into coma. In such cases as much as

half a pint of strong black coffee may be injected into the rectum.

Strong coffee with a little lemon juice or brandy is often useful

in overcoming a malarial chill or a paroxysm of asthma. It is a

useful temporary cardiac stimulant for children suffering collapse.

Dr. Restrepo,[238] of Medellin, Colombia, claims to have cured many

cases of chronic malaria and related diseases with infusion of green

coffee, after quinine had failed. Wallace[239] states that tincture of

green coffee is a natural and efficacious specific for cholera, and that

she knows of more than a thousand eases of cholera and diarrhea which

have been treated with it without an isolated case of failure.

Landanabileo has been quoted as using raw coffee infusion in hepatic and

nephritic diseases, venal and hepatic colics, and in diabetes.

In the Civil War, surgeons utilized coffee in allaying malarial fever

and other maladies with which they had to contend, often under the most

trying conditions, and with severely limited means of combating

disease.[240] Its effect is to counteract the depressant action of low

and miasmatic atmospheres, opening the secretions which they have

checked. Travelers from the colder climes soon find that the fragrant

cup of coffee is a corrective to derangements of the liver resulting

from climatic conditions.[241]

Dr. Guillasse, of the French Navy, in a paper on typhoid fever, says:

Coffee has given us unhoped for satisfaction, and after having

dispensed it we find, to our great surprise, that its action is as

prompt as it is decisive. No sooner have our patients taken a few

tablespoonfuls of it, than their features become relaxed and they

come to their senses. The next day the improvement is such that we

are tempted to look upon coffee as a specific against typhoid

fever. Under its influence the stupor is dispelled, and the patient

arouses from the state of somnolency in which he has been since

the invasion of the disease. Soon all the functions take their

natural course, and he enters upon convalescence.[242]

Also it has been reported that in extreme cases of yellow fever, coffee

has been used most effectively by many physicians as the main reliance

after all other well known remedies have been administered and failed.

According to Lorand,[243] the use of coffee in gout is strictly

prohibited by Umber and Schittenhelm; but he considered it a mistake

absolutely to forbid coffee, as, when a person has good kidneys, the

small amount of uric acid furnished by the caffein can readily be

eliminated. A curious remedy for gout and rheumatism, the efficacy of

which the writer scouts, is said to be[244]--a pint of hot, strong,

black coffee, which must be perfectly pure, and seasoned with a

teaspoonful of pure black pepper, thoroughly mixed before drinking, and

the preparation taken just before going to bed. If this has any value,

it is probably purely psychological in its function.

Several writers[245] attribute amblyopia and other affections of the

sight to coffee and chicory, without giving much conclusive experimental

data. Beer,[246] a Vienna oculist, however, held that the vapor from

pure, hot, freshly-made coffee is beneficial to the eyes.

Coffee and caffein are physiologically antagonistic to the common

narcotics, nicotine, morphine, opium, alcohol, etc., and are frequently

used as antidotes for these poisons. Binz found that dogs that have been

stupified with alcohol could be awakened with coffee. It may thus be

prescribed for hard drinkers to counteract the baleful excitability

produced by alcohol; in fact, many topers taper off after a long debauch

with coffee containing small amounts of alcoholic beverages. Considering

its ability to counteract the slow intoxication of tobacco, it may be

inferred that coffee is indispensable for hard smokers.

In general, the medicinal value of coffee may be said to be directly

attributable to its caffein content, although its antiseptic properties

are dependent upon the volatile aromatic constituents. Its function is

to raise and to sustain vitalities which have been lowered by disease or

drugs. Although some of the cures attributed to it are probably purely

traditional; still, it must be admitted, that by utilizing its

stimulating qualities in many illnesses the patient may be carried past

the danger point into convalescence.

_Physiological Action of "Caffetannic Acid_"

It has been demonstrated in chapter XVII that there is no definite

compound "caffetannic acid," and that the heterogeneous material

designated by this name does not possess the properties of tanning.

Further substantiation of this contention, and more evidence of the

innocuous character of the tannin-like compounds in coffee, are

contained in the testimony of Sollmann.[247] "Tannins precipitate

proteins, gelatine, and connective tissue, and thus act as astringents,

styptics, and antiseptics. The different tannins are not equivalent in

these respects. Some (which are perhaps misnamed) such as those of

coffee and ipecac, are practically non-precipitant.... On the whole, one

may say that the small quantities of tannin ordinarily taken with the

food and drink are not injurious, but that large quantities (excessive

tea drinking) are certainly deleterious. The tannin of coffee is

scarcely astringent, and, therefore, lacks this action," which is proven

by the fact that it does not precipitate proteins.

"It has been claimed that 'caffetannic acid' injures the stomach walls,

but there is no evidence that this is so."[248] Wiley,[249] in reporting

some of his experiments, says: "Apparently the efforts to saddle the

injurious effects of coffee-drinking upon caffetannic acid in any form

in which it may exist in the coffee-extract are not supported by these

recent data." The fact that tannins retard intestinal peristalsis,

whereas coffee promotes this digestive action, lends further proof to

the non-existence of tannin in coffee. These statements by eminent

authorities may be consolidated into the verity that there is no tannin,

in the true sense of the term, in coffee; and that the constituents of

the coffee brew which have been so designated are physiologically

harmless.

_Physiological Action of Caffeol_

The evidence regarding the physiological action of caffeol is

contradictory in many cases. J. Lehmann found in 1853, that the

"empyreumatic oil of coffee, _caffeone_," is active; but more recent

investigations have yielded results at variance with this. Hare and

Marshall[250] believe that they proved it to be active. E.T.

Reichert,[251] however, found it inactive in dogs, excepting in so far

that, when given intravenously, it mechanically interfered with the

circulation. With it Binz[252] was able to produce in man only feeble

nervous excitement, with restlessness and increase in the rate and depth

of respirations.

The general effects, as summated by Sollmann[253] are, for _small

doses_, pleasant stimulation; increased respiration; increased heart

rate, but fall of blood pressure; muscular restlessness; insomnia;

perspiration; congestion; for _large doses_, increased peristalsis and

defecation; depression of respiration and heart; fall of blood pressure

and temperature; paralytic phenomena. It is doubtful whether the

quantities taken in the beverage cause any direct central stimulation.

Investigations have also been conducted with the various known

constituents of this "coffee oil." Erdmann[254] found that in doses of

between 0.5 and 0.6 gram per kilo of body weight, furane-alcohol kills a

rabbit by respiratory paralysis; and that the symptoms of poisoning are

a short primary excitement, salivation, diarrhea, respiratory

depression, continuous fall of the body temperature, and death from

collapse with respiratory failure. In man, doses of from 0.6 to 1 gram

of furane-alcohol increased respiratory activity without producing other

symptoms.

However, man is not as susceptible to these compounds as are the smaller

animals. But even if their relative susceptibility be assumed to be the

same, the lethal dose given the rabbit is equivalent to giving a

140-pound man one dose containing the furane-alcohol content of over

5,000 cups of coffee. Thus, in view of the very apparent minuteness of

the quantity of this compound present in one cup of coffee, together

with the fact that it is not cumulative in its physiological action, the

importance of its toxic properties becomes very inconsequential to even

the most profuse and inveterate coffee drinkers.

Burmann[255] reported the volatile principle to have a reducing action

on the hemoglobin; a depressing effect on the blood pressure; a

depressant action on the central nervous system, disturbing the cardiac

rhythm; and an action on the respiratory centers, causing dyspnea. The

report of Sayre[256] regarding the minimum lethal dose of the

concentrated combined active principles of coffee obtained from dry

distillation is, for frogs, administered intraperitoneally and

subcutaneously, 0.03 cubic centimeters per gram of body weight; for

guinea pigs per stomach, 7.0 cc. per kilogram of body weight, and

administered intravenously and intraperitoneally, about 1.0 cc. per

kilogram.

This evidence regarding the physiological action of caffeol can not in

any wise be construed to indicate a harmfulness of coffee. The

percentage of these volatile substances in a cup of coffee infusion is

so low as to be relatively negligible in its action. And, again, the

caffein content of the brew, as will be seen, tends to counteract any

possible desultory effects of the caffeol.

_General Physiological Action of Caffein_

More attention has been given to the study of the physiological action

of caffein than to that of the other individual constituents of coffee.

Since certain of the effects of coffee drinking have been attributed to

this alkaloid, a brief presentment of the pharmacology of caffein will

be given as an exposition of the many statements made regarding it.

According to the _British Pharmaceutical Codex_[257]:

Caffein exerts three important actions: (1) on the central nervous

system: (2) on muscles, including cardiac: and (3) on the kidney.

The action on the central nervous system is mainly on that part of

the brain connected with psychical functions. It produces a

condition of wakefulness and increased mental activity. The

interpretation of sensory impressions is more perfect and correct,

and thought becomes clearer and quicker. With larger doses of

caffein the action extends from the psychical areas to the motor

area and to the cord, and the patient becomes at first restless and

noisy, and later may show convulsive movements.

Caffein facilitates the performance of all forms of physical work,

and actually increases the total work which can be obtained from

muscle. On the normal man, however, it is impossible to say how

much of the action on the muscle is central and how much

peripheral, but, as fatigue shows itself first by an action on the

center, it is probable that the action of caffein in diminishing

fatigue is mainly central. Caffein accelerates the pulse and

slightly raises blood pressure. It has no action in any way

resembling digitalis; by increasing the irritability of the cardiac

muscle, its prolonged use rather tends to fatigue than to rest the

heart.

Caffein and its allies form a very important group of diuretics.

The urine is generally of a lower specific gravity than normal,

since it contains a lesser proportion of salt and urea; but the

total excretion of solids, both as regards urea, uric acid, and

salts, is increased. Caffein, by exciting the medulla, produces an

initial vaso-constriction of the kidneys, which tends at first to

retard the flow of urine. So in recent years, other drugs have been

introduced, allies of caffein, which act like it on the kidneys,

but are without the stimulant action on the brain. Theobromine is

such a drug.

Another authority states that[258]:

One of the most constant symptoms produced in man by over-doses of

caffein is excessive diuresis, and experiments made upon the lower

animals show that caffein acts as a diuretic not only by

influencing the circulation, but also by directly affecting the

secreting cells, the probabilities being in favor of the first of

these theories of action. According to Schroeder, not only the

water but also the solids of the urine are increased.

The question whether caffein has an influence upon tissue changes

and the consequent nitrogenous elimination can not be considered as

distinctly answered, though the most probable conclusion is that

the action of caffein upon urea elimination and upon general

nutrition is not direct or pronounced. While the therapeutic dose

of caffein is broken up in the body with the formation of

methylxanthin, which escapes with the urine, the toxic dose is at

least in part eliminated by the kidney unchanged.

The metabolism of the methyl purins, of which group caffein is a member,

appears to vary with the quantity ingested. The manner in which the

methyl group is liberated by the cell protoplasm is said[259] to

determine the amount of stimulus which the tissues receive from these

substances. The xanthin group is almost without any excitatory action,

and its metabolic end products are constant. Perhaps the variation in

the excretions of unchanged methylpurins is dependent upon the amount of

total reactive energy they invoke.

Baldi[260] found that caffein in small doses increases muscular

excitability in dogs and frogs. The spinal and muscular hyperic

excitability produced by caffein is, in his opinion, due to the methyl

groups attached to the xanthin nucleus. Fredericq[261] states that

caffein increases the irritability of the cardiac vagus and accelerates

the appearance of pseudofatigue of the vagus which is produced by

prolonged stimulation of the nerve. The action of caffein on the

mammalian heart has also been investigated by Pilcher,[262] who found

that, following the rapid intravenous injection of caffein, there is an

acute fall of blood pressure; and with a maximal quantity of caffein, 10

milligrams per kilogram, the cardiac volume and the amplitude of the

excursions are usually unchanged. With larger quantities, the volume

progressively increases and the amplitude of the excursion decreases.

Salant[263] found that the intravenous injection of 15 to 25 milligrams

of caffein per kilogram in animals was followed by a fall of blood

pressure amounting to 7 to 35 percent in most cases, which was

transitory, although in some animals it remained unchanged. A moderate

rise was rarely observed. Caffein aids the action of nitrates,

acetanilid, ethyl alcohol and amyl alcohol, and increases the toxicity

of barium chloride. In a very thorough study of the toxicity of caffein

which he made with Reiger,[264] a greater toxicity of about 15 to 20

percent by subcutaneous injection than by mouth, and but about one-half

this when injected peritoneally, was found. Intramuscularly the toxicity

is 30 percent greater than subcutaneously. In making the tests on

animals, they found that individuality, season, age, species, and

certain pathological conditions caused variation in the toxic effect of

the administered caffein. Low protein diet tends to decrease resistance

to caffein in dogs, and a milk or meat diet does the same for growing

dogs. Caffein is not cumulative for the rabbit or dog.

As a result of experiments on the action of caffein on the bronchiospasm

caused by peptone (Witte), silk peptone, B-imidoazolyl-ethylamin,

curare, vasodilation, and mucarin, Pal[265] concluded that caffein

stimulates certain branches of the peripheral sympathetic and is thus

enabled to widen the bronchi or remove bronchiospasm.

According to Lapicque[266], caffein produces a change in the

excitability of the medulla of the frog similar to that produced by

raising the temperature of the nerve centers. Schürhoff[267] has

pointed out that the continued use of large quantities of caffein will

produce cardiac irregularity and sleeplessness.

Cochrane[268] cited three cases where caffein was hypodermically

administered in cases of acute indigestion, etc., and concluded that the

cases prove that caffein, or a compound containing it as a synergist,

does indirectly make the injection of morphia a safe proceeding, and

directly increases the force of the heart and arterial tension. However,

Wood[269] found that medium doses of caffein do not produce any marked

rise in blood pressure, and cause a reduction in pulse rate. He

attributes the contradictory results which prior investigations gave, to

employment of unusually large doses and to inaccurate experimental

methods.

Caffein was found by Nonnenbruch and Szyszka[270] to have a slight

action toward accelerating the coagulation time of the blood, being

active over several hours. It inhibits coagulation _in vitrio_. Its

action in the body apparently rests on an increase of the fibrin

ferment. There is no reason to believe that the behavior is dependent on

a toxic action, but there is probably an action on the spleen; for in

several rabbits from which the spleen was removed, no action was

observed.

Experiments conducted by Levinthal[271] gave no positive information as

to the formation of uric acid from caffein in the human organism. The

elimination of caffein has also been studied by Salant and Reiger[272],

who found that larger amounts of caffein are demethylated in carnivora

than in herbivora, and resistance to caffein is inversely as

demethylation, caffein being much more toxic in the former class. In a

similar investigation, Zenetz[273] observed that caffein is very

slightly eliminated from the system by the kidneys, and that its action

on the heart is cumulative; therefore he concludes that it is

contra-indicated in all renal diseases, in arterio-sclerosis, and in

cardiac affections secondary to them. The inaccuracy of these

conclusions regarding the non-elimination of caffein and those of

Albanese,[274] Bondzynski and Gottlieb[275], Leven[276],

Schurtzkwer[277], and Minkowski[278], has been shown by Mendel and

Wardell[279], who point out that many of these experimenters worked with

dogs, in which the chief end-product of purin metabolism is not uric

acid, but allantoin. They observe that the increase in excretion of uric

acid after the addition of caffein to the diet seems to be proportional

to the quantity of caffein taken, and equivalent to from 10 to 15

percent of the ingested caffein. The remainder of the caffein is

probably eliminated as mono-methylpurins.

Regarding the alleged cumulative action of caffein, Pletzer[280],

Liebreich,[281] Szekacs[282], Pawinski,[283] and Seifert[284] all

concluded from their investigations that the action of caffein is

usually of brief duration, and does not have a cumulative effect,

because of its rapid elimination; so that there is no danger of

intoxication.

Dr. Oswald Schmiedeberg says:

Caffein is a means of refreshing bodily and mental activity, so

that this may be prolonged when the condition of fatigue has

already begun to produce restraint, and to call for more severe

exertion of the will, a state which, as is well known, is painful

or disagreeable.

This advantageous effect, in conditions of fatigue, of small

quantities of caffein, as it is commonly taken in coffee or tea,

might, however, by continued use become injurious, if it were in

all cases necessarily exerted; that is to say, if by caffein the

muscles and nerves were directly spurred on to increased activity.

This is not the case, however, and just in this lies the

peculiarity of the effect in question. The muscles and the

simultaneously-acting nerves only under the influence of caffein

respond more easily to the impulse of the will, but do not develop

spontaneous activity; that is, without the co-operation of the

will.

The character of caffein action makes plain that these food

materials do not injure the organism by their caffein content, and

do not by continued use cause any chronic form of illness.

According to Dr. Hollingworth's[285] deductions, caffein is the only

known stimulant that quickens the functions of the human body without a

subsequent period of depression. His explanation for this behavior is

that "caffein acts as a lubricator for the nervous system, having an

actual physical action whereby the nerves are enabled to do their work

more easily. Other stimulants act on the nerves themselves, causing a

waste of energy, and consequently, according to nature's law, a period

of depression follows, and the whole process tends to injure the human

machine." In not a single instance during his experiments at Columbia

University did depression follow the use of caffein.

Of course, caffein, like any other alkaloid, if used to excess will

prove harmful, due to the over-stimulation induced by it. However, taken

in moderate quantities, as in coffee and tea by normal persons, the

conclusions of Hirsch[286] may be taken as correct, namely: caffein is a

mild stimulant, without direct effect on the muscles, the effect

resulting from its own destruction and being temporary and transitory;

it is not a depressant either initially or eventually; and is not

habit-forming but a true stimulant, as distinguished from sedatives and

habit-forming drugs.

_Caffein and Mental and Motor Efficiency_

The literature on the influence of caffein on fatigue has been

summarized, and the older experiments clearly pointed out, by

Rivers[287]. A summary of the most important researches which have had

as their object the determination of the influence of caffein on mental

and motor processes has been made by Hollingworth[288], from whose

monograph much of the following material has been taken.

Increase in the force of muscular contractions was demonstrated in 1892

by De Sarlo and Barnardini[289] for caffein and by Kraepelin for tea.

These investigators used the dynamometer as a measure of the force of

contraction; however, most of the subsequent work on motor processes has

been by the ergographic method. Ugolino Mosso[290], Koch[291].

Rossi[292], Sobieranski[293], Hoch and Kraepelin,[294] Destrée,[295]

Benedicenti,[296] Schumberg,[297] Hellsten,[298] and Joteyko,[299] have

all observed a stimulating effect of caffein on ergographic performance.

Only one investigation of those reported by Rivers failed to find an

appreciable effect, that of Oseretzkowsky and Kraepelin,[300] while

Feré[301] affirms that the effect is only an acceleration of fatigue.

In spite of the general agreement as to the presence of stimulation

there is some dissension regarding whether only the height of the

contractions or their number or both are affected. As might be expected

from the great diversity of methods employed, the quantitative results

also have varied considerably. Carefully controlled experiments by

Rivers and Webber[302] "confirm in general the conclusion reached by all

previous workers that caffein stimulates the capacity for muscular work;

and it is clear that this increase is not due to the various psychical

factors of interest, sensory stimulation, and suggestion, which the

experiments were especially designed to exclude. The greatest increase

... falls, however, far short of that described by some previous

workers, such as Mosso; and it is probable that part of the effect

described by these workers was due to the factors in question."

Investigations of mental processes under the influence of caffein have

been much less frequent, most notable among which are those of Dietl and

Vintschgau,[303] Dehio,[304] Kraepelin and Hoch,[305] Ach,[306]

Langfeld,[307] and Rivers.[308] Kraepelin[309] observes: "We know that

tea and coffee increase our mental efficiency in a definite way, and we

use these as a means of overcoming mental fatigue ... In the morning

these drinks remove the last traces of sleepiness and in the evening

when we still have intellectual tasks to dispose of they aid in keeping

us awake." Their use induces a greater briskness and clearness of

thought, after which secondary fatigue is either entirely absent or is

very slight.

Tendency toward habituation of the pyschic functions to caffein has been

studied by Wedemeyer[310], who found that in the regular administration

of it in the course of four to five weeks there is a measurable

weakening of its action on psychic processes.

Rivers[311], who seems to have been the first to appreciate fully the

genuine and practical importance of thoroughly controlling the

psychological factors that are likely to play a rôle in such

experiments, concludes that "caffein increases the capacity for both

muscular and mental work, this stimulating action persisting for a

considerable time after the substance has been taken without there being

any evidence, with moderate doses, of reaction leading to diminished

capacity for work, the substance thus really diminishing and not merely

obscuring the effects of fatigue."

EFFECT OF CAFFEIN ON MENTAL AND MOTOR PROCESSES

Schematic Summary of All Results

St.=Stimulation. 0=No effect. Ret.=Retardation.

PRIMARY EFFECT

Small Doses

| Medium Doses

| | Large Doses

| | | Secondary Reaction

| | | | Action Time Hrs.

| | | | | Duration

| | | | | in Hrs.

Process Tests | | | | | |

Motor speed 1. Tapping St. St. St. None .75-1.5 2-4

Coordination 2. Three-hole St. 0 Ret. None 1-1.5 3-4

3. Typewriting

(a) Speed St. 0 Ret. None Results show

(b) Errors Fewer for all None only in total

doses days' work

Association 4. Color-naming St. St. St. None 2-2.5 3-4

5. Opposites St. St. St. None 2.5-3 Next

day

6. Calculation St. St. St. None 2.5 Next

day

Choice 7. Discrimination

reaction time Ret. 0 St. None 2-4 Next

day

8. Cancellation Ret. ? St. None 3-5 No

data

9. S-W illusion 0 0 0

General 10. Steadiness ? Unsteadiness None 1-3 3-4

11. Sleep quality Individual differences

12. Sleep quantity depending on body weight 2 ?

13. General health and conditions of

administration

Subsequent to these investigations was that of Hollingworth[312] which

is at once the most comprehensive, carefully conducted, and

scientifically accurate one yet performed. He employed an ample number

of subjects in his experimentation; and both his subjects, and the

assistants who recorded the observations, were in no wise cognizant of

the character or quantity of the dose of caffein administered, the other

experimental conditions being similarly rigorous and extensive.

The purpose of his study was to determine both qualitatively and

quantitatively the effect of caffein on a wide range of mental and motor

processes, by studying the performance of a considerable number of

individuals for a long period of time, under controlled conditions; to

study the way in which this influence is modified by such factors as the

age, sex, weight, idiosyncrasy, and previous caffein habits of the

subjects, and the degree to which it depends on the amount of the dose

and the time and conditions of its administration; and to investigate

the influence of caffein on the general health, quality and amount of

sleep, and food habits of the individual tested.

To obtain this information the chief tests employed were the steadiness,

tapping, coordination, typewriting, color-naming, calculations,

opposites, cancellation, and discrimination tests, the familiar

size-weight illusion, quality and amount of sleep, and general health

and feeling of well-being. A brief review of the results of these tests

is given in the tabular summary.

From these Hollingworth concluded that caffein influenced all the tests

in a given group in much the same way. The effect on motor processes

comes quickly and is transient, while the effect on higher mental

processes comes more slowly and is more persistent. Whether this result

is due to quicker reaction on the part of motor-nerve centers, or

whether it is due to a direct peripheral effect on the muscle tissue is

uncertain, but the indications are that caffein has a direct action on

the muscle tissue, and that this effect is fairly rapid in appearance.

The two principal factors which seem to modify the degree of caffein

influence are _body weight_ and _presence of food_ in the stomach at the

time of ingestion of the caffein. In practically all of the tests the

magnitude of the caffein influence varied inversely with the body

weight, and was most marked when taken on an empty stomach or without

food substance. This variance in action was also true for both the

quality and amount of sleep, and seemed to be accentuated when taken on

successive days; but it did not appear to depend on the age, sex, or

previous caffein habits of the individual. Those who had given up the

use of caffein-containing beverages during the experiment did not report

any craving for the drinks as such, but several expressed a feeling of

annoyance at not having some sort of a warm drink for breakfast.

It is interesting to note that he also found a complete absence of any

trace of secondary depression or of any sort of secondary reaction

consequent upon the stimulation which was so strikingly present in many

of the tests. The production of an increased capacity for work was

clearly demonstrated, the same being a genuine drug effect, and not

merely the effect of excitement, interest, sensory stimulation,

expectation, or suggestion. However, this study does not show whether

this increased capacity comes from a new supply of energy introduced or

rendered available by the drug action, or whether energy already

available comes to be employed more effectively, or whether fatigue

sensations are weakened and the individual's standard of performance

thereby raised. But they do show that from a standpoint of mental and

productive physical efficiency "the widespread consumption of caffeinic

beverages, even under circumstances in which and by individuals for whom

the use of other drugs is stringently prohibited or decried, is

justified."

_Conclusion_

Brief summarization of the information available on the pharmacology of

coffee indicates that it should be used in moderation, particularly by

children, the permissible quantity varying with the individual and

ascertainable only through personal observation. Used in moderation, it

will prove a valuable stimulant increasing personal efficiency in mental

and physical labor. Its action in the alimentary régime is that of an

adjuvant food, aiding digestion, favoring increased flow of the

digestive juices, promoting intestinal peristalsis, and not tanning any

portion of the digestive organs. It reacts on the kidneys as a diuretic,

and increases the excretion of uric acid, which, however, is not to be

taken as evidence that it is harmful in gout. Coffee has been indicated

as a specific for various diseases, its functions therein being the

raising and sustaining of low vitalities. Its effect upon longevity is

virtually _nil_. A small proportion of humans who are very nervous may

find coffee undesirable; but sensible consumption of coffee by the

average, normal, non-neurasthenic person will not prove harmful but

beneficial.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIX

THE COMMERCIAL COFFEES OF THE WORLD

_The geographical distribution of the coffees grown in North

America, Central America, South America, the West India Islands,

Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the East Indies--A

statistical study of the distribution of the principal kinds--A

commercial coffee chart of the world's leading growths, with market

names and general trade characteristics_

A study of the geographical distribution of the coffee tree shows that

it is grown in well-defined tropical limits. The coffee belt of the

world lies between the tropic of cancer and the tropic of capricorn. The

principal coffee consuming countries are nearly all to be found in the

north temperate zone, between the tropic of cancer and the arctic

circle.

The leading commercial coffees of the world are listed in the

accompanying commercial coffee chart, which shows at a glance their

general trade character. The cultural methods of the producing countries

are discussed in chapter XX; statistics in chapter XXII; and the trade

characteristics, in detail, in chapter XXIV, which considers also

countries and coffees not so important in a commercial sense. Mexico is

the principal producing country in the northern part of the western

continent, and Brazil in the southern part. In Africa, the eastern coast

furnishes the greater part of the supply; while in Asia, the Netherlands

Indies, British India, and Arabia lead.

Within the last two decades there has been an expansion of the

production areas in South America, Africa, and in southeastern Asia; and

a contraction in British India and the Netherlands Indies.

_The Shifting Coffee Currents of the World_

Seldom does the coffee drinker realize how the ends of the earth are

drawn upon to bring the perfected beverage to his lips. The trail that

ends in his breakfast cup, if followed back, would be found to go a

devious and winding way, soon splitting up into half-a-dozen or more

straggling branches that would lead to as many widely scattered regions.

If he could mount to a point where he could enjoy a bird's-eye view of

these and a hundred kindred trails, he would find an intricate

criss-cross of streamlets and rivers of coffee forming a tangled pattern

over the tropics and reaching out north and south to all civilized

countries. This would be a picture of the coffee trade of the world.

It would be a motion picture, with the rivulets swelling larger at

certain seasons, but seldom drying up entirely at any time. In the main

the streamlets and rivers keep pretty much the same direction and volume

one year after another, but then there is also a quiet shifting of these

currents. Some grow larger, and others diminish gradually until they

fade out entirely. In one of the regions from which they take their

source a tree disease may cause a decline; in another, a hurricane may

lay the industry low at one quick stroke; and in still another, a rival

crop may drain away the life-blood of capital. But for the most part,

when times are normal, the shift is gradual; for international trade is

conservative, and likes to run where it finds a well-worn channel.

In recent times, of course, the big disturbing element in the coffee

trade was the World War. Whole countries were cut out of the market,

shipping was drained away from every sea lane, stocks were piled high in

exporting ports, prices were fixed, imports were sharply restricted, and

the whole business of coffee trading was thrown out of joint. To what

extent has the world returned to normal in this trade? Were the

stoppages in trade merely temporary suspensions, or are they to prove

permanent? How are the old, long-worn channels filling up again, now

that the dams have been taken away?

We are now far enough removed from the war to begin to answer these

questions. We find our answer in the export figures of the chief

producing countries, which for the most part are now available in detail

for one or two post-war years. These figures are given in the tables

below; and for comparison, there are also given figures showing the

distribution of exports in 1913 and in an earlier year near the

beginning of the century. These figures, of course, do not necessarily

give an accurate index to normal trade; as in any given year some

abnormal happening, such as an exceptionally large crop or a revolution,

may affect exports drastically as compared with years before and after.

But normally the proportions of a country's exports going to its various

customers are fairly constant one year after another, and can be taken

for any given year as showing approximately the coffee currents of that

period.

The figures following are for the calendar year unless the fiscal year

is indicated. Where figures could not be obtained from the original

statistical publications, they have been supplied as far as possible

from consular reports.

BRAZIL. The war naturally increased the dependence of Brazil on its

chief customer, and the proportion of the total crop coming to this

country since the war has continued to be large. Shipments to United

States ports in 1920 represented about fifty-four percent of the total

exports. Figures for that year indicate also that France and Belgium

were working back to their normal trade; but that Spain, Great Britain,

and the Netherlands were taking much less coffee than in the year just

before the war. Germany was buying strongly again, her purchases of

72,000,000 pounds being about half as much as in 1913. Shipments to

Italy were four times as heavy as in 1913. The natural return to normal

was much interfered with by speculation and valorization. Brazil seems

to have come through the cataclysmic period of the war in better style

than might have been expected.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM BRAZIL

1900 1913 1920

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 566,686,345 650,071,337 826,425,340

France 78,408,862 244,295,282 203,694,212

Great Britain 6,442,739 32,559,715 9,597,378

Germany 235,131,881 246,767,144 72,196,934

Aus.-Hungary 71,696,556 134,495,310

Netherlands 102,711,887 196,169,240 49,760,767

Italy 17,559,107 31,364,656 132,543,798

Spain 868,617 14,407,906 6,057,833

Belgium 41,500,638 58,858,562 42,309,469

Other countries 59,432,882 145,896,327 181,796,919

------------- ------------- -------------

Total 1,180,439,514 1,754,885,479 1,524,382,650

The 1900 figures are for the ports of Rio, Santos, Bahia, and Victoria.

"Other countries" in 1913 included Argentina, 32,941,182 pounds; Sweden,

28,045,737 pounds; Cape Colony, 15,930,731 pounds; Denmark, 6,252,931

pounds. In 1920 they included Argentina, 37,736,498 pounds; Sweden,

51,026,591 pounds; Denmark, 18,764,483 pounds; Cape Colony, 26,936,653

pounds.

VENEZUELA. Venezuela's coffee trade was deeply affected by the war; both

because the Germans were prominent in the industry, and because the

regular shipping service to Europe was discontinued. Large amounts of

coffee were piled up at the ports and elsewhere; and when the

restrictions were swept away in 1919, an abnormal exportation resulted.

Although Germany had been one of the chief buyers before the war,

Venezuela was by no means dependent on the German market. In fact, her

combined shipments to France and the United States, just before the war,

were three times as great as her exports to Germany. These two countries

took two-thirds of her total exports in 1920. Spain and the Netherlands

were also prominent buyers.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM VENEZUELA

1906 1913 1920

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 35,704,398 45,570,268 43,670,191

France 21,748,370 46,413,174 4,647,978

Germany 5,270,814 32,203,972 546,363

Aus.-Hungary 289,851 3,015,723

Spain 3,133,012 7,372,839 15,210,756

Netherlands 28,549,920 2,903,806 1,836,209

Italy 315,293 2,805,948 719,850

Great Britain 404,720 98,796 1,518,175

Other countries 2,663,507 1,631,143 5,577,110

------------- ------------- -------------

Total 98,079,885 142,015,669 73,726,632

COMMERCIAL COFFEE CHART

_The World's Leading Growths, with Market Names and General

Trade Characteristics_

--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------

Grand Division| Country |Principal|Best Known |Trade Characteristics

| | Shipping| Market |

| | Ports | Names |

--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------

North |Mexico |Vera Cruz|Coatepec |Greenish to yellow

America | | |Huatusco |bean; mild flavor.

| | |Orizaba |

Central |Guatemala |Puerto |Cobán |Waxy, bluish bean;

America | | Barrios |Antigua |mellow flavor.

|Salvador |La |Santa Ana |Smooth, green bean;

| |Libertad |Santa Tecla|neutral flavor.

|Costa |Puerto |Costa Ricas|Blue-greenish bean;

|Rica |Limon | |mild flavor.

--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------

West |Haiti |Cape |Haiti |Blue bean; rich,

Indies | |Haitien | |fairly acid; sweet

| | | |flavor.

|Santo |Santo |Santo |Flat, greenish-yellow

|Domingo |Domingo |Domingo |bean; strong flavor.

|Jamaica |Kingston |Blue |Bluish-green bean;

| | |Mountain |rich, full flavor.

|Porto | Ponce |Porto |Gray-blue bean;

|Rico | |Ricans |strong, heavy flavor.

--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------

South |Colombia |Savanilla|Medellin |Greenish-yellow bean;

America | | |Manizales, |rich, mellow flavor.

| | |Bogota |

| | |Bucaramanga|

|Venezuela |La Guaira|Merida |Greenish-yellow bean;

| |Maracaibo|Cucuta |mild, mellow flavor.

| | |Caracas |

|Brazil |Santos |Santos |Small bean; mild

| | | |flavor.

| |Rio de |Rio |Large bean; strong

| |Janeiro | |cup.

--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------

Asia |Arabia |Aden |Mocha |Small, short, green

| | | |to yellow bean;

| | | |unique, mild flavor.

|India |Madras |Mysore |Small to large,

| |Calicut |Coorg |blue-green bean;

| | |(Kurg) |strong flavor.

--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------

East India |Malay |Penang |Straits |Liberian and Robusta

Islands |States |(Geo't'n)| |growths from

| |Singapore|Liberian, |Malaysia.

| | |Robusta |

|Sumatra |Padang |Mandheling |Large, yellow to

| | |Ankola |brown bean; heavy

| | |Ayer |body; exquisite

| | |Bangies |flavor.

|Java |Batavia |Preanger |Small, blue to

| | |Cheribon, |yellow bean;

| | |Kroe |light in cup.

|Celebes |Menado |Minahassa |Large, yellow bean;

| |Macassar | |aromatic cup.

--------------+-----------+---------+-----------+---------------------

Africa |Abyssinia |Jibuti |Harar |Large, blue to yellow

| | |Abyssinia |bean; very like

| | | |Mocha.

Pacific |Hawaiian |Honolulu |Kona |Large, blue, flinty

Islands |Islands | |Puna |bean; mildly acid.

|Philippines|Manila |Manila |Yellow and brown large

| | | |bean; mild cup.

--------------+---------+-----------+-----------+---------------------

COLOMBIA. Colombian statistics of foreign trade are issued very

irregularly, and no figures are available to afford comparison between

pre-war and post-war trade. The figures below, however, will show the

comparative amounts of coffee going to the chief buying countries at

different periods. From these it will be seen that the countries mainly

interested in the trade in Colombian coffee are those prominent in the

trade in other tropical American sections. England, France, Germany, and

the United States took the great bulk of the exports. A consular report

written after the outbreak of the war says:

Prior to the war the United States took about seventy percent of

Colombia's coffee crop; the remainder being about equally divided

between England, France, and Germany, with England taking the

largest share.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM COLOMBIA[A]

(From Barranquilla only)

1899 1905 1916

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

Great Britain 22,573,828 7,268,429 442,026

France 6,873,722 496,120 1,685,454

Germany 9,348,028 8,568,131

United States 17,991,500 43,518,704 134,292,858

Other countries 7,396,385 23,753,678

---------- ---------- -----------

Total 56,787,078 67,247,769 160,174,016

[A] These figures are taken from a consular report, which gave

statistics only for the port of Barranquilla and did not include the

total shipments from that port. Shipments from Cartagena, the only other

exporting port of any consequence, amounted to 7,836,505 pounds,

destination not stated. The Barranquilla figures, in the absence of

official statistics, can be taken as fairly representative of the total

trade so far as destination is concerned. They are for fiscal years,

ending June 30.

"Other countries" in 1916 included Italy, 1,135,137 pounds; Venezuela,

20,564,321 pounds; Dutch West Indies, 400,132 pounds.

CENTRAL AMERICA. The three largest producing countries of Central

America, Guatemala, Salvador, and Costa Rica, were all closely linked to

Germany by the coffee trade before the war. German capital was heavily

invested in coffee plantations; German houses had branches in the

principal cities; and German ships regularly served the chief ports.

Accordingly, when the blockade became effective, these countries were

placed in a difficult position. But fortunately for them, a special

effort had been made shortly before by Pacific-coast interests in the

United States to divert a part of the coffee trade to San Francisco[313]

The market to the east being shut off, these countries turned naturally

to the north. This trade with the United States has apparently been

firmly established, and there has not yet been much of a return to

German ports.

GUATEMALA. Of the three countries named, Guatemala was the most heavily

involved in German trade. In 1913 she sent to Germany 53,000,000 pounds

of coffee, a fifth more than in 1900. Her shipments of more than

10,000,000 pounds to the United Kingdom were about the same as at the

beginning of the century. The war turned both these currents into United

States ports, and they continued to flow in that direction through 1920.

The figures follow:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM GUATEMALA

1900 1913 1920

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

Germany 44,416,064 53,232,910 452,206

United States 14,057,120 21,188,444 78,226,508

United Kingdom 11,467,680 10,666,604 2,341,217

Other countries 3,041,584 6,641,936 13,185,638

---------- ---------- ----------

Total 72,982,448 91,729,894 94,205,569

"Other countries" in 1913 included Austria-Hungary, 4,205,400 pounds;

Netherlands, 407,900 pounds. In 1920, they included Netherlands,

10,355,625 pounds; Sweden, 422,421 pounds; Norway, 57,408 pounds; Spain,

97,519 pounds; France, 27,956 pounds.

SALVADOR. Salvador is one of the countries in which the publication of

foreign-trade statistics has been irregular in the past, and none is

available to show the full trade in coffee at the beginning of the

century. A consular report gives figures for the first half of 1900. The

most recent statistics show that the United States still holds much of

the trade gained during the war, although Salvador is sending to

Scandinavian countries many millions of pounds of her coffee that came

to the United States in war-time.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM SALVADOR

1900 (1st 6 mos.) 1913 1920

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 6,700,101 10,779,655 46,262,256

France 22,948,712 15,955,920 6,686,714

Germany 6,607,892 12,120,133 813,166

Great Britain 4,396,465 3,415,187 4,226,061

Italy 4,322,003 9,538,976

Aus.-Hungary 1,335,626 3,557,482

Belgium 210,834 5,508 3,104

Spain 24,799 377,729 364,296

Other countries 3,920 7,193,107 24,509,071

---------- ---------- ----------

Total 46,550,352 62,943,697 82,864,668

"Other countries" in 1913 included Norway, 2,070,220 pounds; Sweden,

2,238,332 pounds; Netherlands, 738,694 pounds; Chile, 609,441 pounds;

Russia, 95,625 pounds; Denmark, 140,665 pounds. In 1920, they included

Norway, 10,726,375 pounds; Chile, 1,772,346 pounds; Netherlands,

1,071,614 pounds; Sweden, 9,635,947 pounds; Denmark, 1,061,772 pounds.

[Illustration: A FLOURISHING COFFEE ESTATE IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO]

[Illustration: LABORERS BRINGING IN THE DAY'S PICKINGS, NEAR BOGOTA,

COLOMBIA]

[Illustration: MILD-COFFEE CULTURE AND PREPARATION]

COSTA RICA. English, French, and German capital was heavily invested in

Costa Rica before the war, and all three nations were interested in the

coffee trade. For many years England had maintained the lead as a coffee

customer, and shipments continued in large volume after the war. The

following figures are for the crop year ending September 30:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM COSTA RICA

1903 1913 1921

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 6,388,236 1,625,866 14,137,605

Great Britain 27,756,661 23,464,827 13,418,527

France 1,241,816 741,548 313,538

Germany 2,676,841 2,581,055 376,649

Other countries 147,925 288,521 1,155,066

---------- ---------- ----------

Total 38,211,479 28,701,817 29,401,385

In 1900 total shipments were 35,496,055 pounds, of which 20,587,712

pounds went to Great Britain; 8,874,014 pounds to the United States; and

3,904,566 pounds to Germany.

"Other countries" in 1903 included Spain, 49,189 pounds; Italy, 4,104

pounds. In 1921, they included Netherlands, 837,496 pounds; Spain,

308,308 pounds; Chile, 9,259 pounds.

MEXICO. Mexico has naturally sent most of her coffee across the border

into the United States, and she continued to do so during and after the

war. But she had worked up a very important trade with Europe, chiefly

with Germany; and German capital, and German planters and merchants were

prominent in the industry. France and England also were interested in

the trade, and purchased annually several million pounds. During the

war, as shown by the exports in its final year, this trade almost

entirely ceased, and the United States and Spain remained as the only

consumers of Mexican coffee. Details of the after-war trade are not yet

available in published statistics. In the following table, 1900 and 1918

are calendar years, and 1913 is a fiscal year.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM MEXICO

1900 1913 1918

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 28,882,954 28,012,655 23,816,044

Germany 10,074,001 10,461,382

Aus.-Hungary 163,934 30,864

Belgium 25,855 39,722

Spain 546,132 184,941 6,184,494

France 3,927,294 4,482,011

Netherlands 220,607 46,296

Great Britain 3,848,605 2,170,669

Cuba 467,201 37,921 171,527

Italy 157,653 347,758

Other countries 655,073

---------- ---------- ----------

Total 48,314,236 46,469,292 30,172,065

In 1913 "other countries" included Panama, 342,131 pounds; Canada,

276,567 pounds; Sweden, 3,079 pounds; British Honduras, 33,179 pounds;

Denmark, 112 pounds.

JAMAICA. The French, more than any other peoples in Europe, have

cultivated a taste for coffee from the West Indies; and France normally

has led all other countries in shipments from the larger producing

islands, including Jamaica, although the island is a British possession.

In the year before the war, France bought nearly 4,000,000 pounds of

Jamaican coffee, more than half the total production. In the year

1900-01 also she took about 4,000,000 pounds, leading all other

countries. This trade was very much cut down during the war, but was not

wiped out. As shown in the figures for 1918, England largely took the

place of France in that year, and Canada increased her purchases several

hundred percent.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM JAMAICA

1901 (fis. yr.) 1913 1918

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

Great Britain 1,849,456 671,440 6,919,808

Canada 109,536 263,872 1,819,328

United States 2,976,512 802,032 643,888

France 3,958,304 3,743,264 729,120

Aus.-Hungary 104,272 303,296

Cuba 114,800

Barbados 226,464 26,992

Other countries 508,704 507,248 97,440

---------- ---------- ----------

Total 9,621,584 6,517,616 10,236,576

"Other countries" in 1901 included British West Indies, 316,512 pounds.

In 1913, they included Netherlands, 125,216 pounds; Norway, 28,896

pounds; Sweden, 70,224 pounds; Italy, 46,592 pounds; Australia, 71,456

pounds.

HAITI. Prior to the taking over of the administration of the customs of

Haiti by the United States, detailed statistics of the exports are

almost wholly lacking. France took most of the annual production,

continuing a trade that dated back to old colonial times. An American

consular report says:

Before the war there was no market for Haitian coffee in the United

States, practically the entire crop going to Europe, with France as

the largest consumer. However, there has been for some time past a

determined effort made to create a demand in the United States, and

this is said to be meeting with ever-increasing success.

The actual success achieved can be measured by the following figures for

the fiscal year ended September 30, 1920:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM HAITI

Exported to Pounds

United States 27,647,077

France 23,921,083

Great Britain 39,583

Other countries 10,362,351

__________

Total 61,970,094

These figures do not include 6,322,167 pounds of coffee triage, or

waste, of which the United States took 2,028,352 pounds; France,

1,491,507 pounds.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. The comparatively small production of the Dominican

Republic was divided among the United States and three or four European

countries before the war. Since the war the exports have been scattered

among the former customers in varying amounts. Germany is again a buyer,

although her purchases have not come back to anything like the pre-war

level.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

1906 1913 1920

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 564,291 506,456 529,831

France 569,215 1,248,418 454,165

Germany 1,562,193 327,843 69,224

Italy [B] 195,294 51,543

Cuba [B] 25,628 132,569

Great Britain [B] 660 54,114

Other countries 221,028 8,154 70,220

_________ _________ _________

Total 2,916,727 2,312,453 1,361,666

[B] No shipments, or included in "other countries."

"Other countries" in 1920 included only the Netherlands.

PORTO RICO. In spite of several attempts on the part of Porto-Rican

planters to make their product popular in the markets of the United

States, the American consumer has never found the taste of that coffee

to his liking. The big market for the Porto-Rican product has been Cuba,

which has depended on her neighbor for most of her supply. This demand

takes a large part of the annual crop, including the lower grades. The

better grades, before the war, went largely to Europe, mostly to the

Latin countries. During the war, the Cuban market carried the

Porto-Rican planters through, although shipments of considerable size

continued to go to France and Spain. Recovery of the pre-war trade with

Europe, however, has been slow, Spain being the only country to take

over 1,000,000 pounds in 1920. Shipments to that country totaled

3,472,204 pounds; those to France, 900,868 pounds. Both countries

increased their purchases considerably in 1921.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM PORTO RICO

1900-01 (fis. yr.) 1913 1921

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 29,565 628,843 211,531

France 3,348,025 6,020,170 1,625,065

Spain 2,590,096 6,851,235 5,705,932

Aus.-Hungary 386,158 6,729,726

Germany 493,891 876,315 363,993

Belgium 9,964 25,867 234,019

Italy 611,033 3,498,157 43,484

Netherlands 8,860 497,938 25,199

Sweden 32,390[C] 633,046 266,550

Cuba 4,633,538 23,179,690 21,135,397

Other countries 13,720 393,586 356,709

_________ _________ _________

Total 12,157,240 49,334,573 29,967,879

[C] Includes Norway.

HAWAII. The war disarranged Hawaii's coffee trade very little, as she

had for many years been shipping chiefly to continental United States.

Recently a considerable trade with the Philippines has developed.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM HAWAII

1901-02 (fis. yr.) 1913 1921

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

United States 1,082,994 3,393,009 4,183,046

Canada 77,900 10,200 11,355

Japan 24,155 49,167 23,950

Germany 2,100 1,612

Philippines [D] 932,640 747,700

Other countries 23,349 49,179 13,070

_________ _________ _________

Total 1,210,498 4,435,807 4,979,121

[D] No exports, or included in "other countries."

ADEN. Lying on the edge of the war area and on the road to India, Aden

felt the full force of the disarrangement of commercial traffic by the

war. Ordinarily, Aden is not only the chief outlet for the coffee of the

interior of Arabia--the original "Mocha"--but it is also the

transhipping point for large amounts from Africa and India. The figures

given below relate for the most part to this transhipped coffee. Exports

of coffee from Aden go chiefly to the United Kingdom, France, and the

United States, and to other ports of Arabia and Africa. Before the war

no great proportion went to the Central Powers. The following figures

apply to fiscal years ending March 31:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM ADEN

1901 (fis. yr.) 1914 (fis. yr.) 1921 (fis. yr.)

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

Great Britain 1,563,632 696,976 466,928

United States 2,412,368 4,300,128 2,507,344

France 3,789,296 2,975,840 814,016

Egypt 1,024,576 3,108,336

Arab. Gulf Pts. 860,160 852,320 606,592

Germany 247,184 465,136

Aus.-Hungary 341,152 553,952

Italy 197,568 811,664 7,504

Br. Somaliland 280,224 23,408

[E] Africa 337,344 2,390,640 292,880

Other countries 1,114,848 2,500,456 1,659,504

_________ _________ _________

Total 12,168,352 15,570,520 9,463,104

[E] Including adjacent islands, but exclusive of British territory.

"Other countries" in 1914 included Australia, 222,320 pounds; Perim,

142,016 pounds; Zanzibar, 148,848 pounds; Mauritius, 154,672 pounds;

Seychelles, 116,704 pounds; Sweden, 118,720 pounds; Norway, 49,168

pounds; Russia, 196,448 pounds. In 1921, they included Denmark, 120,624

pounds; Spain, 124,208 pounds; Massowah, 410,704 pounds.

BRITISH INDIA. As India's trade before the war was chiefly with the

mother country, with France, and with Ceylon, the return to normal has

been rapid. In the year following the war, these three customers were

again credited with the largest amounts exported from India, except for

shipments to Greece, which took little before the war. The following

figures are for the fiscal years ending March 31:

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM BRITISH INDIA

1901 (fis. yr.) 1914 (fis. yr.) 1920(fis. yr.)

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

Great Britain 15,678,768 10,343,536 8,138,144

Ceylon 1,088,528 1,428,112 1,423,072

France 8,430,016 10,924,816 9,256,352

Belgium 617,792 1,021,664

Germany 126,560 1,033,088 25,312

Aus.-Hungary 123,312 1,358,896 8,400

Italy 23,968 22,624 30,912

United States 54,096 16,576

Turkey in Asia 232,176 501,984 986,720

[F] Africa 118,272 113,344 619,696

Other countries 1,106,784 2,360,736 10,021,648

---------- ---------- ----------

Total 27,600,272 29,108,800 30,526,832

[F] Including adjacent islands.

"Other countries" in 1914 included Netherlands, 238,560 pounds;

Australia, 748,608 pounds; Bahrein Islands, 757,568 pounds. In 1920,

they included Greece, 6,487,376 pounds; Australia, 481,152 pounds;

Bahrein Islands, 1,081,696 pounds; Aden and dependencies, 459,984

pounds; other Arabian ports, 890,176 pounds.

DUTCH EAST INDIES. The war played havoc with the coffee trade of the

Dutch East Indies, taking away shipping, closing trade routes, and

causing immense quantities of coffee to pile up in the warehouses. When

the war ended, this coffee was released; and trade was consequently

again abnormal, although in the opposite direction from that it took

during war years. The 1920 figures indicate that the trade is working

back into its old channels.

COFFEE EXPORTS FROM DUTCH EAST INDIES

1900 1913 1920[G]

Exported to Pounds Pounds Pounds

Netherlands 81,489,000 33,323,748[H] [H]50,028,815

Great Britain 88,000 981,201 5,987,598

France 2,560,000 9,081,715[H] 5,410,582

Aus.-Hungary 1,153,000 996,988

Germany 71,000 997,715[H] 75,699

Egypt 5,494,000 104,868 1,418,313

United States 8,408,000 5,695,180 17,274,522

Singapore 9,952,000 4,785,580 8,349,415

Other countries 2,965,000 7,831,732 10,475,509

----------- ---------- -----------

Total 112,180,000 63,798,727 99,020,453

[G] These figures cover only Java and Madura.

[H] Includes shipments "for orders."

"Other countries" in 1920 included, Norway, 2,606,421 pounds; Sweden,

728,580 pounds; Australia, 1,553,495 pounds; British India, 1,912,541

pounds; Italy, 1,964,109 pounds; Denmark, 1,191,643 pounds; Belgium,

166,092 pounds.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: COFFEE TREE IN BEARING AT THE GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIMENT

STATION AT LAMOA, NEAR MANILA, P.I.]

CHAPTER XX

CULTIVATION OF THE COFFEE PLANT

_The early days of coffee culture in Abyssinia and Arabia--Coffee

cultivation in general--Soil, climate, rainfall, altitude,

propagation, preparing the plantation, shade and wind breaks,

fertilizing, pruning, catch crops, pests, and diseases--How coffee

is grown around the world--Cultivation in all the principal

producing countries_

For the beginnings of coffee culture we must go back to the Arabian

colony of Harar in Abyssinia, for here it was, about the fifteenth

century, that the Arabs, having found the plant growing wild in the

Abyssinian highlands, first gave it intensive cultivation. The complete

story of the early cultivation of coffee in the old and new worlds is

told in chapter II, which deals with the history of the propagation of

the coffee plant.

La Roque[314] was the first to tell how the plant was cultivated and the

berries prepared for market in Arabia, where it was brought from

Abyssinia.

The Arabs raised it from seed grown in nurseries, transplanting it to

plantations laid out in the foot-hills of the mountains, to which they

conducted the mountain streams by ingeniously constructed small channels

to water the roots. They built trenches three feet wide and five feet

deep, lining them with pebbles to cause the water to sink deep into the

earth with which the trenches were filled, to preserve the moisture from

too rapid evaporation. These were so constructed that the water could be

turned off into other channels when the fruit began to ripen. In

plantations exposed to the south, a kind of poplar tree was planted

along the trenches to supply needful shade.

La Roque noted that the coffee trees in Yemen were planted in lines,

like the apple trees in Normandy; and that when they were much exposed

to the sun, the shade poplars were regularly introduced between the

rows.

Such cultivation as the plant received in early Abyssinia and Arabia was

crude and primitive at best. Throughout the intervening centuries, there

has been little improvement in Yemen; but modern cultural methods obtain

in the Harar district in Abyssinia.

Like the Arabs in Yemen, the Harari cultivated in small gardens,

employing the same ingenious system of irrigation from mountain springs

to water the roots of the plants at least once a week during the dry

season. In Yemen and in Abyssinia the ripened berries were sun-dried on

beaten-earth barbecues.

The European planters who carried the cultivation of the bean to the Far

East and to America followed the best Arabian practise, changing, and

sometimes improving it, in order to adapt it to local conditions.

_Coffee Cultivation in General_

Today the commercial growers of coffee on a large scale practise

intensive cultivation methods, giving the same care to preparing their

plantations and maintaining their trees as do other growers of grains

and fruits. As in the more advanced methods of arboriculture, every

effort is made to obtain the maximum production of quality coffee

consistent with the smallest outlay of money and labor. Experimental

stations in various parts of the world are constantly working to improve

methods and products, and to develop types that will resist disease and

adverse climatic conditions.

While cultivation methods in the different producing countries vary in

detail of practise, the principles are unchanging. Where methods do

differ, it is owing principally to local economic conditions, such as

the supply and cost of labor, machinery, fertilizers, and similar

essential factors.

[Illustration: IMPLEMENTS USED IN EARLY ARABIAN COFFEE CULTURE

1, Plow. 2 and 3, Mattocks. 4, Hatchet and sickle. Top, Seeder

Implement]

SOIL. Rocky ground that pulverizes easily--and, if possible, of volcanic

origin--is best for coffee; also, soil rich in decomposed mold. In

Brazil the best soil is known as _terra roxa_, a topsoil of red clay

three or four feet thick with a gravel subsoil.

CLIMATE. The natural habitat of the coffee tree (all species) is

tropical Africa, where the climate is hot and humid, and the soil rich

and moist, yet sufficiently friable to furnish well drained seed beds.

These conditions must be approximated when the tree is grown in other

countries. Because the trees and fruit generally can not withstand

frost, they are restricted to regions where the mean annual temperature

is about 70° F., with an average minimum about 55°, and an average

maximum of about 80°. Where grown in regions subject to more or less

frost, as in the northernmost parts of Brazil's coffee-producing

district, which lie almost within the south temperate zone, the coffee

trees are sometimes frosted, as was the case in 1918, when about forty

percent of the São Paulo crop and trees suffered.

Generally speaking, the most suitable climate for coffee is a temperate

one within the tropics; however, it has been successfully cultivated

between latitudes 28° north and 38° south.

RAINFALL. Although able to grow satisfactorily only on well drained

land, the coffee tree requires an abundance of water, about seventy

inches of rainfall annually, and must have it supplied evenly throughout

the year. Prolonged droughts are fatal; while, on the other hand, too

great a supply of water tends to develop the wood of the tree at the

expense of the flowers and fruit, especially in low-lying regions.

ALTITUDE. Coffee is found growing in all altitudes, from sea-level up to

the frost-line, which is about 6,000 feet in the tropics. _Robusta_ and

_liberica_ varieties of coffee do best in regions from sea-level up to

3,000 feet, while _arabica_ flourishes better at the higher levels.

Carvalho says that the coffee plant needs sun, but that a few hours

daily exposure is sufficient. Hilly ground has the advantage of offering

the choice of a suitable exposure, as the sun shines on it for only a

part of the day. Whether it is the early morning or the afternoon sun

that enables the plant to attain its optimum conditions is a question of

locality.

[Illustration: CROSS SECTION OF MOUNTAIN SLOPE IN YEMEN, ARABIA, SHOWING

COFFEE TERRACES

These miniature plantations are found chiefly along the caravan route

between Hodeida and Sanaa]

[Illustration: CLEARING VIRGIN FOREST FOR A COFFEE ESTATE IN MEXICO]

[Illustration: COFFEE NURSERY UNDER A BAMBOO ROOF IN COLOMBIA]

[Illustration: THE FIRST STEPS IN COFFEE GROWING]

In Mexico, Romero tells us, the highlands of Soconusco have the

advantage that the sun does not shine on the trees during the whole of

the day. On the higher slopes of the Cordilleras--from 2,500 feet above

sea-level--clouds prevail during the summer season, when the sun is

hottest, and are frequently present in the other seasons, after ten

o'clock in the morning. These keep the trees from being exposed to the

heat of the sun during the whole of the day. Perhaps to this

circumstance is due the superior excellence of certain coffees grown in

Mexico, Colombia, and Sumatra at an altitude of 3,000 feet to 4,000 feet

above sea-level.

Richard Spruce, the botanist, in his notes on South America, as quoted

by Alfred Russel Wallace,[315] refers to "a zone of the equatorial Andes

ranging between 4,000 and 6,000 feet altitude, where the best flavored

coffee is grown."

PROPAGATION. Coffee trees are grown most generally from seeds selected

from trees of known productivity and longevity; although in some parts

of the world propagation is done from shoots or cuttings. The seed

method is most general, however, the seeds being either propagated in

nursery beds, or planted at once in the spot where the mature tree is to

stand. In the latter case--called planting at stake--four or five seeds

are planted, much as corn is sown; and after germination, all but the

strongest plant are removed.

Where the nursery method is followed, the choicest land of the

plantation is chosen for its site; and the seeds are planted in forcing

beds, sometimes called cold-frames. When the plants are to be

transplanted direct to the plantation, the seeds are generally sown six

inches apart and in rows separated by the same distance, and are covered

with only a slight sprinkling of earth. When the plants are to be

transferred from the first bed to another, and then to the plantation,

the seeds are sown more thickly; and the plants are "pricked" out as

needed, and set out in another forcing bed.

During the six to seven weeks required for the coffee seed to germinate,

the soil must be kept moist and shaded and thoroughly weeded. If the

trees are to be grown without shade, the young plants are gradually

exposed to the sun, to harden them, before they begin their existence in

the plantation proper.

[Illustration: COFFEE TREE NURSERY, PANAJABAL, POCHUTA, GUATEMALA]

[Illustration: DRYING GROUNDS AND FACTORY IN THE PREANGER REGENCY]

[Illustration: NATIVE TRANSPORT, FIELD TO FACTORY, AT DRAMAGA, NEAR

BUITENZORG]

[Illustration: COFFEE SCENES IN JAVA, NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES]

Considerable experimental work has been done in renewing trees by

grafting, notably in Java; but practically all commercial planters

follow the seed method.

[Illustration: COFFEE GROWING UNDER SHADE, PORTO RICO]

PREPARING THE PLANTATION. Before transplanting time has come, the

plantation itself has been made ready to receive the young plants.

Coffee plantations are generally laid out on heavily wooded and sloping

lands, most often in forests on mountainsides and plateaus, where there

is an abundance of water, of which large quantities are used in

cultivating the trees and in preparing the coffee beans for market. The

soil most suitable is friable, sandy, or even gravelly, with an

abundance of rocks to keep the soil comparatively cool and well drained,

as well as to supply a source of food by action of the weather. The

ideal soil is one that contains a large proportion of potassium and

phosphoric acid; and for that reason, the general practise is to burn

off the foliage and trees covering the land and to use the ashes as

fertilizer.

In preparing the soil for the new plantation under the intensive

cultivation method, the surface of the land is lightly plowed, and then

followed up with thorough cultivation. When transplanting time comes,

which is when the plant is about a year old, and stands from twelve to

eighteen inches high with its first pairs of primary branches, the

plants are set out in shallow holes at regular intervals of from eight

to twelve, or even fourteen, feet apart. This gives room for the root

system to develop, provides space for sunlight to reach each tree, and

makes for convenience in cultivating and harvesting. _Liberica_ and

_robusta_ type trees require more room than _arabica._ When set twelve

feet apart, which is the general practise, with the same distance

maintained between rows, there are approximately four hundred and fifty

trees to the acre. In the triangle, or hexagon, system the trees are

planted in the form of an equilateral triangle, each tree being the same

distance (usually eight or nine feet) from its six nearest neighbors.

This system permits of 600 to 800 trees per acre.

SHADE AND WIND BREAKS. Strong, chilly winds and intensely hot sunlight

are foes of coffee trees, especially of the _arabica_ variety.

Accordingly, in most countries it is customary to protect the plantation

with wind-breaks consisting of rugged trees, and to shade the coffee by

growing trees of other kinds between the rows. The shade trees serve

also to check soil erosion; and in the case of the leguminous kinds, to

furnish nutriment to the soil. Coffee does best in shade such as is

afforded by the silk oak (_Grevillea robusta_). In _Shade in Coffee

Culture_ (_Bulletin_ 25, 1901, division of botany, United States

Department of Agriculture), O.F. Cook goes extensively into this

subject.

The methods employed in the care of a coffee plantation do not differ

materially from those followed by advanced orchardists in the colder

fruit-belts of the world. After the young plants have gained their

start, they are cultivated frequently, principally to keep out the

weeds, to destroy pests, and to aerate the earth. The implements used

range from crude hand-plows to horse-drawn cultivators.

FERTILIZING. Comparatively little fertilizing is done on plantations

established on virgin soil until the trees begin to bear, which occurs

when they are about three years of age. Because the coffee tree takes

potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid from the soil, the scheme of

fertilizing is to restore these elements. The materials used to replace

the soil-constituents consist of stable manure, leguminous plants,

coffee-tree prunings, leaves, certain weeds, oil cake, bone and fish

meal, guano, wood ashes, coffee pulp and parchment, and such chemical

fertilizers as superphosphate of lime, basic slag, sulphate of ammonia,

nitrate of lime, sulphate of potash, nitrate of potash, and similar

materials.

The relative values of these fertilizers depend largely upon local

climate and soil conditions, the supply, the cost, and other like

factors. The chemical fertilizers are coming into increasing use in the

larger and more economically advanced producing countries. Brazil,

particularly, is showing in late years a tendency toward their adoption

to make up for the dwindling supply of the so-called natural manures. As

the coffee tree grows older, it requires a larger supply of fertilizer.

[Illustration: THE FAMOUS BOEKIT GOMPONG ESTATE, NEAR PADANG, ON

SUMATRA'S WEST COAST

Showing the healthy, regular appearance of well-cultivated coffee

bushes, twenty-six years old. Also note the line of feathery bamboo

wind-breaks]

PRUNING. On the larger plantations, pruning is an important part of the

cultivation processes. If left to their own devices, coffee trees

sometimes grow as high as forty feet, the strength being absorbed by the

wood, with a consequent scanty production of fruit. To prevent this

undesirable result, and to facilitate picking, the trees on the more

modern plantations are pruned down to heights ranging from six to twelve

feet. Except for pruning the roots when transplanting, the tree is

permitted to grow until after producing its first full crop before any

cutting takes place. Then, the branches are severely cut back; and

thereafter, pruning is carried on annually. Topping and pruning begin

between the first and the second years.

[Illustration: COFFEE ESTATE IN ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA, SHOWING

WIND-BREAKS]

Coffee trees as a rule produce full crops from the sixth to the

fifteenth year, although some trees have given a paying crop until

twenty or thirty years old. Ordinarily the trees bear from one-half

pound to eight pounds of coffee annually, although there are accounts of

twelve pounds being obtained per tree. Production is mostly governed by

the cultivation given the tree, and by climate, soil, and location. When

too old to bear profitable yields, the trees on commercial plantations

are cut down to the level of the ground; and are renewed by permitting

only the strongest sprout springing out of the stump to mature.

CATCH CROPS. On some plantations it has become the practise to grow

catch crops between the rows of coffee trees, both as a means of

obtaining additional revenue and to shade the young coffee plants. Corn,

beans, cotton, peanuts, and similar plants are most generally used.

PESTS AND DISEASES. The coffee tree, its wood, foliage, and fruit, have

their enemies, chief among which are insects, fungi, rodents (the

"coffee rat"), birds, squirrels, and--according to Rossignon--elephants,

buffalo, and native cattle, which have a special liking for the tender

leaves of the coffee plant. Insects and fungi are the most bothersome

pests on most plantations. Among the insects, the several varieties of

borers are the principal foes, boring into the wood of the trunk and

branches to lay _larvae_ which sap the life from the tree. There are

scale insects whose excretion forms a black mold on the leaves and

affects the nutrition by cutting off the sunlight. Numerous kinds of

beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and crickets attack the coffee-tree

leaves, the so-called "leaf-miner" being especially troublesome. The

Mediterranean fruit fly deposits _larvae_ which destroy or lessen the

worth of the coffee berry by tunneling within and eating the contents of

the parchment. The coffee-berry beetle and its grub also live within the

coffee berry.

Among the most destructive fungoid diseases is the so-called Ceylon leaf

disease, which is caused by the _Hemileia vastatrix_, a fungus related

to the wheat rust. It was this disease which ruined the coffee industry

in Ceylon, where it first appeared in 1869, and since has been found in

other coffee-producing regions of Asia and Africa. America has a similar

disease, caused by the _Sphaerostilbe flavida_, that is equally

destructive if not vigilantly guarded against. (See chapters XV and

XVI.)

The coffee-tree roots also are subject to attack. There is the root

disease, prevalent in all countries, and for which no cause has yet been

definitely assigned, although it has been determined that it is of a

fungoid nature. Brazil, and some other American coffee-producing

countries, have a serious disease caused by the eelworm, and for that

reason called the eelworm disease.

Coffee planters combat pests and diseases principally with sprays, as in

other lines of advanced arboriculture. It is a constant battle,

especially on the large commercial plantations, and constitutes a large

item on the expense sheet.

_Cultivation by Countries_

Coffee-cultivation methods vary somewhat in detail in the different

producing countries. The foregoing description covers the underlying

principles in practise throughout the world; while the following is

intended to show the local variations in vogue in the principal

countries of production, together with brief descriptions of the main

producing districts, the altitudes, character of soil, climate, and

other factors that are peculiar to each country. In general, they are

considered in the order of their relative importance as producing

countries.

BRAZIL. In Brazil, the Giant of South America, and the world's largest

coffee producer, the methods of cultivation naturally have reached a

high point of development, although the soil and the climate were not at

first regarded as favorable. The year 1723 is generally accepted as the

date of the introduction of the coffee plant into Brazil from French

Guiana. Coffee planting was slow in developing, however, until 1732,

when the governor of the states of Pará and Maranhao urged its

cultivation. Sixteen years later, there were 17,000 trees in Pará. From

that year on, slow but steady progress was made; and by 1770, an export

trade had been begun from the port of Pará to countries in Europe.

[Illustration: UP-TO-DATE WEEDING AND HARROWING, SÃO PAULO]

The spread of the industry began about this time. The coffee tree was

introduced into the state of Rio de Janeiro in 1770. From there its

cultivation was gradually extended into the states of São Paulo, Minãs

Geraes, Bahia, and Espirito Santo, which have become the great

coffee-producing sections of Brazil. The cultivation of the plant did

not become especially noteworthy until the third decade of the

nineteenth century. Large crops were gathered in the season of 1842-43;

and by the middle of the century, the plantations were producing

annually more than 2,000,000 bags.

[Illustration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.

GENERAL VIEW OF FAZENDA DUMONT, RIBEIRAO PRETO, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL]

Brazil's commercial coffee-growing region has an estimated area of

approximately 1,158,000 square miles, and extends from the river Amazon

to the southern border of the state of São Paulo, and from the Atlantic

coast to the western boundary of the state of Matto Grosso. This area is

larger than that section of the United States lying east of the

Mississippi River, with Texas added. In every state of the republic,

from Ceará in the north to Santa Catharina in the south, the coffee tree

can be cultivated profitably; and is, in fact, more or less grown in

every state, if only for domestic use. However, little attention is

given to coffee-growing in the north, except in the state of Pernambuco,

which has only about 1,500,000 trees, as compared, with the 764,000,000

trees of São Paulo in 1922.

The chief coffee-growing plantations in Brazil are situated on plateaus

seldom less than 1,800 feet above sea-level, and ranging up to 4,000

feet. The mean annual temperature is approximately 70° F., ranging from

a mean of 60.8° in winter to a mean of 72° in summer. The temperature

has been known, however, to register 32° in winter and 97.7° in summer.

While coffee trees will grow in almost any part of Brazil, experience

indicates that the two most fertile soils, the _terra roxa_ and the

_massape_, lie in the "coffee belts." The _terra roxa_ is a dark red

earth, and is practically confined to São Paulo, and to it is due the

predominant coffee productivity of that state. _Massape_ is a yellow,

dark red--or even black--soil, and occurs more or less contiguous to the

_terra roxa_. With a covering of loose sand, it makes excellent coffee

land.

Brazil planters follow the nursery-propagated method of planting, and

cultivate, prune, and spray their trees liberally. Transplanting is done

in the months from November to February.

Coffee-growing profits have shown a decided falling off in Brazil in

recent years. In 1900 it was not uncommon for a coffee estate to yield

an annual profit of from 100 to 250 percent. Ten years later the average

returns did not exceed twelve percent.

[Illustration: FAZENDA GUATAPARA, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL, WITH 800,000 TREES

IN BEARING]

In Brazil's coffee belt there are two seasons--the wet, running from

September to March; and the dry, running from April to August. The

coffee trees are in bloom from September to December. The blossoms last

about four days, and are easily beaten off by light winds or rains. If

the rains or winds are violent, the green berries may be similarly

destroyed; so that great damage may be caused by unseasonable rains and

storms.

The harvest usually begins in April or May, and extends well into the

dry season. Even in the picking season, heavy rains and strong

winds--especially the latter--may do considerable damage; for in Brazil

shade trees and wind-breaks are the exception.

Approximately twenty-five percent of the São Paulo plantations are

cultivated by machinery. A type of cultivator very common is similar to

the small corn-plow used in the United States. The Planet Junior,

manufactured by a well known United States agricultural-machinery firm,

is the most popular cultivator. It is drawn by a small mule, with a boy

to lead it, and a man to drive and to guide the plow.

The preponderance of the coffee over other industries in São Paulo is

shown in many ways. A few years ago the registration of laborers in all

industries was about 450,000; and of this total, 420,000 were employed

in the production and transportation of coffee alone. Of the capital

invested in all industries, about eighty-five percent was in coffee

production and commerce, including the railroads that depended upon it

directly. An estimated value of $482,500,000 was placed upon the

plantations in the state, including land, machinery, the residences of

owners, and laborers' quarters.

[Illustration: Copyright by Brown & Dawson.

PICKING COFFEE IN SÃO PAULO]

In all Brazil, there are approximately 1,200,000,000 coffee trees. The

number of bearing coffee trees in São Paulo alone increased from

735,000,000 in 1914-15 to 834,000,000 in 1917-18. The crop in 1917-18

was 1,615,000,000 pounds, one of the largest on record. In the

agricultural year of 1922-23 there were 764,969,500 coffee trees in

bearing in São Paulo, and in São Paulo, Minãs, and Parana, 824,194,500.

[Illustration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.

INTENSIVE CULTIVATION METHODS IN THE RIBEIRAO PRETO DISTRICT, SÃO PAULO]

Plantations having from 300,000 to 400,000 trees are common. One

plantation near Ribeirao Preto has 5,000,000 trees, and requires an army

of 6,000 laborers to work it. Another planter owns thirty-two adjacent

plantations containing, in all, from 7,500,000 to 8,000,000 coffee trees

and gives employment to 8,000 persons. There are fifteen plantations

having more than 1,000,000 trees each, and five of these have more than

2,000,000 trees each. In the municipality of Ribeirao Preto there were

30,000,000 trees in 1922.

[Illustration: Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.

PRIVATE RAILROAD ON A SÃO PAULO COFFEE FAZENDA

Showing coffee trees and laborers' houses in the middle distance at

right]

The largest coffee plantations in the world are the Fazendas Dumont and

the Fazendas Schmidt. The Fazendas Dumont were valued, in 1915, in cost

of land and improvements, at $5,920,007; and since those figures were

given out, the value of the investment has much increased. Of the

various Fazendas Schmidt, the largest, owned by Colonel Francisco

Schmidt, in 1918 had 9,000,000 trees with an annual yield of 200,000

bags, or 26,400,000 pounds, of coffee. Other large plantations in São

Paulo with a million or more trees, are the Companhia Agricola Fazenda

Dumont, 2,420,000 trees; Companhia São Martinho, 2,300,000 trees;

Companhia Dumont, 2,000,000 trees; São Paulo Coffee Company, 1,860,000

trees; Christiana Oxorio de Oliveira, 1,790,000 trees; Companhia

Guatapara, 1,550,000 trees; Dr. Alfredo Ellis, 1,271,000 trees;

Companhia Agricola Araqua, 1,200,000 trees; Companhia Agricola Ribeirao

Preto, 1,138,000 trees; Rodriguez Alves Irmaos, 1,060,000 trees;

Francisca Silveira do Val, 1,050,000 trees; Luiza de Oliveira Azevedo,

1,045,000 trees; and the Companhia Caféeria São Paulo, 1,000,000 trees.

The average annual yield in São Paulo is estimated at from 1,750 to

4,000 pounds from a thousand trees, while in exceptional instances it is

said that as much as 6,000 pounds per 1,000 trees have been gathered.

Differences in local climatic conditions, in ages of trees, in richness

of soil, and in the care exercised in cultivation, are given as the

reasons for the wide variation.

The oldest coffee-growing district in São Paulo is Campinas. There are

136 others.

Bahia coffee is not so carefully cultivated and harvested as the Santos

coffee. The introduction of capital and modern methods would do much for

Bahia, which has the advantage of a shorter haul to the New York and the

European markets.

On the average, something like seventy percent of the world's coffee

crop is grown in Brazil, and two-thirds of this is produced in São

Paulo. Coffee culture in many districts of São Paulo has been brought to

the point of highest development; and yet its product is essentially a

quantity, not a quality, one.

COLOMBIA. In Colombia, coffee is the principal crop grown for export. It

is produced in nearly all departments at elevations ranging from 3,500

feet to 6,500 feet. Chief among the coffee-growing departments are

Antioquia (capital, Medellin); Caldas (capital, Manizales); Magdalena

(capital, Santa Marta); Santander (capital, Bucaramanga); Tolima

(capital, Ibague); and the Federal District (capital, Bogota). The

department of Cundinamarca produces a coffee that is counted one of the

best of Colombian grades. The finest grades are grown in the foot-hills

of the Andes, in altitudes from 3,500 to 4,500 feet above sea level.

[Illustration: THE CONDUCTING SLUICEWAY AT GUATAPARA

The running water carries the picked coffee berries to pulpers and

washing tanks]

[Illustration: COFFEE PICKING AND FIELD TRANSPORT]

[Illustration: COFFEE CULTURE IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL]

[Illustration: A NEAR VIEW OF A HEAVILY LADEN COFFEE TREE ON A BOGOTA

PLANTATION]

[Illustration: PICKING COFFEE ON A BOGOTA PLANTATION]

Methods of planting, cultivation, gathering, and preparing the Colombian

coffee crop for the market are substantially those that are common in

all coffee-producing countries, although they differ in some small

particulars. About 700 trees are usually planted to the acre, and native

trees furnish the necessary shade. The average yield is one pound per

tree per year.

While _Coffea arabica_ has been mostly cultivated in Colombia, as in the

other countries of South America, the _liberica_ variety has not been

neglected. Seeds of the _liberica_ tree were planted here soon after

1880, and were moderately successful. Since 1900, more attention has

been given to _liberica_, and attempts have been made to grow it upon

banana and rubber plantations, which seem to provide all the shade

protection that is needed. _Liberica_ coffee trees begin to bear in

their third year. From the fifth year, when a crop of about 650 pounds

to the acre can reasonably be expected, the productiveness steadily

increases until after fifteen or sixteen years, when a maximum of over

one thousand pounds an acre is attained.

Antioquia is the largest coffee producing department in the republic,

and its coffee is of the highest grade grown. Medellin, the capital,

where the business interests of the industry are concentrated, is a

handsome white city located on the banks of the Aburra river, in a

picturesque valley that is overlooked by the high peaks of the Andean

range. It is a town of about 80,000 inhabitants, thriving as a

manufacturing center, abundant in modern improvements, and is the center

of a coffee production of 500,000 bags known in the market as Medellin

and Manizales. Another center in this coffee region is the town of

Manizales, perched on the crest of the Andean spurs to dominate the

valley extending to Medellin and the Cauca valley to the Pacific.

There-about many small coffee growers are settled, and several hundred

thousand bags of the beans pass through annually.

One of the interesting plantations of the country was started a few

years ago in a remote region by an enterprising American investor. It

was located on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains 3,000 to 5,000

feet above sea-level, about twenty-five miles from the city of Santa

Marta. An extended acreage of forest-covered land was acquired, about

600 acres of which were cleared and either planted in coffee or reserved

for pasturage and other kinds of agriculture. When the plantation came

to maturity, it had nearly 300,000 trees. In 1919, there were 425,000

trees producing 3,600 hundred-weight of coffee.

A typical Colombian plantation is the Namay, owned by one of the bankers

of the Banco de Colombia of Bogota. It is located a good half day's

travel by rail and horseback from the city, about 5,000 feet above the

level of the sea. There are 1,000 acres in the plantation, with 250,000

trees having an ultimate productive capacity of nearly 2,000 bags a

year. During crop times, which are from May to July, about two hundred

families are needed on an estate of this size.

VENEZUELA. Seeds of the coffee plant were brought into Venezuela from

Martinique in 1784 by a priest who started a small plantation near

Caracas. Five years later, the first export of the bean was made, 233

bags, or about 30,000 pounds. Within fifty years, production had

increased to upward of 50,000,000 pounds annually; and by the end of the

nineteenth century, to more than 100,000,000 pounds.

Situated between the equator and the twelfth parallel of north latitude,

in the world's coffee belt, this country has an area equal to that of

all the United States east of the Mississippi river and north of the

Ohio and Potomac rivers, or greater than that of France, Germany, and

the Netherlands combined--599,533 square miles.

The chain of the Maritime Andes, reaching eastward across Colombia and

Venezuela, approaches the Caribbean coast in the latter country. Along

the slopes and foot-hills of these mountains are produced some of the

finest grades of South American coffee. Here the best coffee grows in

the _tierra templada_ and in the lower part of the _tierra fria_, and is

known as the _café de tierra fria_, or coffee of the cold, or high,

land. In these regions the equable climate, the constant and adequate

moisture, the rich and well-drained soil, and the protecting forest

shade afford the conditions under which the plant grows and thrives

best. On the fertile lowland valleys nearer the coast grows the _café de

tierra caliente_, or coffee of the hot land.

[Illustration: ON THE ALTAMIRA HACIENDA, VENEZUELA

The long pipe crossing the center of the picture is a water sluiceway

bringing coffee down from the hills]

Coffee growing has become the main agricultural pursuit of the country.

In 1839 it was estimated that there were 8,900 acres of land planted in

coffee, and in 1888 there were 168,000,000 coffee trees in the country

on 346,000 acres of land. In the opening years of the twentieth century

not far from 250,000 acres were devoted to this cultivation, comprised

in upward of 33,000 plantations. The average yield per acre is about

250 pounds. The trees are usually planted from two to two and a quarter

meters apart, and this gives about 800 trees to the acre. The triangle

system is unknown.

[Illustration: CARMEN HACIENDA, FRONTING ON THE ESCALANTE RIVER,

VENEZUELA]

In this country, the coffee tree bears its first crop when four or five

years old. The trees are not subject to unusual hazards from the attacks

of injurious insects and animals or from serious parasitic diseases.

Nature is kind to them, and their only serious contention for existence

arises from the luxuriant tropical vegetation by which they are

surrounded. On the whole their cultivation is comparatively easy. On the

best managed estates there are not more than 1,000 trees to a

_fanegada_--about one and three-quarters acres of land--and it is

calculated that an average annual yield for such a _fanegada_ should be

about twenty quintals, a little more than 2,032 pounds of merchantable

coffee. It is to be noted, however, that the average yield per tree

throughout Venezuela is low--not more than four ounces.

There are no great coffee belts as in Mexico and Central America. Many

districts are days' rides apart. The plantations are isolated, and there

is lacking a co-operative spirit among the growers.

Methods of cultivating and preparing the berry for the market are

substantially those that prevail elsewhere in South America. Most

plantations are handled in ordinary, old-fashioned ways; but the better

estates employ machinery and methods of the most advanced and improved

character at all points of their operation, from the planting of the

seed to the final marketing of the berry.

JAVA. Java, the oldest coffee-producing country in which the tree is not

indigenous, was producing a high-grade coffee long before Brazil,

Colombia, and Venezuela entered the industry; and it held its supremacy

in the world's trade for many years before the younger American

producing countries were able to surpass its annual output. The first

attempt to introduce the plant into Java took place in 1696, the

seedlings being brought from Malabar in India and planted at Kadawoeng,

near Batavia. Earthquake and flood soon destroyed the plants; and in

1699 Henricus Zwaardecroon brought the second lot of seedlings from

Malabar. These became the progenitors of all the _arabica_ coffees of

the Dutch East Indies. The industry grew, and in 1711 the first Java

coffee was sold at public auction in Amsterdam. Exports amounted to

116,587 pounds in 1720; and in 1724 the Amsterdam market sold 1,396,486

pounds of coffee from Java.

From the early part of the nineteenth century up to 1905, cultivation

was carried on under a Dutch government monopoly--excepting for the

five years, 1811-16, when the British had control of the island. The

government monopoly was first established when Marshal Daendels, acting

for the crown of Holland, took control of the islands from the

Netherlands East India Company. Before that time, the princes of

Preanger had raised all the coffee under the provisions of a treaty made

in the middle of the eighteenth century, by which they paid an annual

tribute in coffee to the company for the privilege of retaining their

land revenues. When the Dutch government recovered the islands from the

British, the plantations, which had been permitted to go to ruin, were

put in order again, and the government system re-established.

[Illustration: A HEAVY FRUITING OF COFFEA ROBUSTA IN JAVA]

A modification of the first monopoly plan of the government was put into

effect later in the régime of Governor Van den Bosch, and was maintained

until into the twentieth century. Under the Daendels plan, each native

family was required to keep 1000 coffee trees in bearing on village

lands, and to give to the government two-fifths of the crop, delivered

cleaned and sorted, at the government store. The natives retained the

other three-fifths. Under the Van den Bosch system, each family was

required to raise and care for 650 trees and to deliver the crop cleaned

and sorted to the government stores at a fixed price. The government

then sold the coffee at public auctions in Batavia, Padang, Amsterdam,

or Rotterdam.

This method of fostering the new industry resulted in government control

of fully four-fifths of the area under the crop, only the small balance

being owned or worked independently by private enterprise. For many

years after the cultivation had been fully started, this condition of

the business persisted. Most of the privately-operated plantations had

been in existence before the government had set up its monopoly system.

Others were on the estates of native princes who, in treating with the

Dutch, had been able to retain some of their original sovereign rights.

While these plans worked well in encouraging the industry at the outset,

they were not conducive to the fullest possibilities in production.

Forced labor on the government plantations was naturally apt to be slow,

careless, and indifferent. Private ownership and operation bettered this

somewhat, the private estates being able to show annual yields of from

one to two pounds per tree as compared with only a little more than

one-half pound per tree on government-controlled estates.

In the course of time, the system of private ownership gradually

expanded beyond that of the government; and before the end of the

nineteenth century, private owners were growing and exporting more

coffee than did the Javanese government. The government withdrew from

the coffee business in Java in 1905, and the last government auction was

held in June of that year. The monopoly in Sumatra was given up in 1908.

After that, however, coffee continued to be grown on government lands,

but in much less quantity than in the years immediately preceding. The

Dutch government withdrew from all coffee cultivation in 1918-19.

According to statistics, the ground under cultivation for all kinds of

coffee in Java and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies in 1919

was 142,272 acres, of which 112,138 acres were in Java. Of this area,

110,903 acres were planted with _robusta_, 15,314 acres with _arabica_,

4,940 with _liberica_, and 11,115 with other varieties.

There were more than 400 European-managed estates in 1915, covering a

planted area of about 209,000 acres. Three hundred and thirty of these

estates, representing 165,000 acres, were in Java. On that island

production in 1904 was 47,927,000 pounds; in 1905, 59,092,000 pounds; in

1906, 66,953,000 pounds; in 1907, 31,044,000 pounds; 1908, 39,349,000

pounds. The total crop in 1919 for all the Netherlands East Indies was

97,361,000 pounds, as against 140,764,800 pounds for 1918.

Intensive cultivation methods on the European-operated plantations in

Java have been practised for many years; and the Netherlands East Indies

government has long maintained experimental stations for the purpose of

improving strains and cultivation methods.

[Illustration: ROAD THROUGH A COFFEE ESTATE IN EAST JAVA]

In some parts of the island, especially in the highlands, the climate

and soil are ideal for coffee culture. The _robusta_ tree grows

satisfactorily even at altitudes of less than 1,000 feet in some

regions; but its bearing life is only about ten years, as compared with

the thirty years of the _arabica_ at altitudes of from 3,000 to 4,000

feet. The low-ground trees generally produce earlier and more

abundantly. On some of the highland plantations, pruning is not

practised to any great extent, and the trees often reach thirty or forty

feet in height. This necessitates the use of ladders in picking; but

frequently the yield per tree has been from six to seven pounds.

[Illustration: NATIVE PICKING COFFEE, SUMATRA]

Coffee is produced commercially in nearly every political district in

Java, but the bulk of the yield is obtained from East Java. The names

best known to European and American traders are those of the regencies

of Besoeki and Pasoeroean; because their coffees make up eighty-seven

percent of Java's production. Some of the other better known districts

are: Preanger, Cheribon, Kadoe, Samarang, Soerabaya, and Tegal.

The _arabica_ variety has practically been driven out of the districts

below 3,500 feet altitude by the leaf disease, and has been succeeded by

the more hardy _robusta_ and _liberica_ coffees and their hybrids.

Illustrating the importance of _robusta_ coffee, Netherlands East India

government in a statement issued August, 1919, estimated the area under

cultivation on all islands as follows: _robusta_, eighty-four percent;

_arabica_, five and one-half percent; _liberica_, four and one-half

percent. The balance, six percent, was made up of scores of other

varieties, among the most important being the _canephora_, _Ugandæ_,

_baukobensis_, _suakurensis_, _Quillou_, _stenophylla_, and

_rood-bessige_. All of these are similar to _robusta_, and are exported

as _robusta-achtigen_ (_robusta_-like). The _liberica_ group includes

the _excelsa_, _abeokuta_, _Dewevrei_, _arnoldiana_, _aruwimiensis_, and

_Dybowskii_.

[Illustration: PALATIAL BUNGALOW OF ADMINISTRATOR, DRAMAGA, IN THE

PREANGER DISTRICT, JAVA]

SUMATRA. Practically all the coffee districts in Sumatra are on the west

coast, where the plant was first propagated early in the eighteenth

century. Padang, the capital city, is the headquarters for Sumatra

coffee. With climate and soil similar to Java, the island of Sumatra has

the added advantage that its land is not "coffee _moe_", or coffee

tired, as is the case in parts of Java. Some of the world's best coffees

are still coming from Sumatra; and the island has possibilities that

could make it an important factor in production. Sumatra produced

287,179 piculs of coffee in 1920. The total production of all the

islands that year was 807,591 piculs.

[Illustration: OLD-TIME SAILING VESSEL LOADING IN PADANG ROADS]

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A DUTCH COFFEE-CLEANING FACTORY, PADANG]

[Illustration: COFFEE SCENES IN SUMATRA, NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES]

[Illustration: ADMINISTRATOR'S BUNGALOW ON THE GADOENG BATOE ESTATE,

SUMATRA]

The districts of Ankola, Siboga, Ayer Bangies, Mandheling, Palembang,

Padang, and Benkoelen, on the west coast, have some of the largest

estates on the island; and their products are well known in

international trade. The east coast has recently gone in for heavy

plantings of _robusta_.

As in Java, coffee for a century or more was cultivated under the

government-monopoly scheme. The compulsory system was given up in this

island in 1908, three years after it was abandoned in Java.

OTHER EAST INDIES. Coffee is grown in several of the other islands in

the Dutch East Indian archipelago, chiefly on the Celebes, Bali, Lombok,

the Moluccas, and Timor. Most of the estates are under native control,

and the methods of cultivation are not up to the standard of the

European-owned plantations on the larger islands of Java and Sumatra.

The most important of these islands is Celebes, where the first coffee

plant was introduced from Java about 1750, but where cultivation was not

carried on to any great extent until about seventy-five years later. In

1822 the production amounted to 10,000 pounds; in 1917, the yield was

1,322,328 pounds.

SALVADOR. Coffee, which is far and away the most important crop in

Salvador, constitutes in value more than one-half the total exports. It

has been cultivated since about 1852, when plants were brought from

Havana; but the development of the industry in its early years was not

rapid. The first large plantations were established in 1876 in La Paz,

and that department has become the leading coffee-producing section of

the country.

The berry is grown in all districts that have altitudes of from 1,500 to

4,000 feet. Besides those of La Paz, the most productive plantations are

in the departments of Santa Ana, Sonsonate, San Salvador, San Vincente,

San Miguel, Santa Tecla, and Ahuachapan. In contrast with several of the

adjoining Central American republics, native Salvadoreans are the owners

of most of the coffee farms, very few having passed into the hands of

foreigners. The laborers are almost entirely native Indians. A

considerable part of the work of cultivating and preparing the berry for

the market is still done by hand; but in recent years machinery has been

set up on the large estates and for general use in the receiving

centers.

[Illustration: WELL CULTIVATED YOUNG COFFEE TREES IN BLOSSOM]

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO A FINCA IN THE HIGHLANDS]

[Illustration: COFFEE CULTURE IN GUATEMALA]

It is estimated that now about 166,000 acres are under coffee, nearly

all the land in the country suitable for that purpose. As in most other

coffee-raising countries, the trees begin bearing when they are two or

three years old, reach full maturity at the age of seven or eight years,

and continue to bear for about thirty years. Intensive cultivation and a

more extensive use of fertilizers have been urged as necessary in order

to increase the crop; but, so far, with not much effect, the importation

of fertilizer being still very small. Crop gathering begins in the

lowlands in November, and gradually proceeds into the higher regions,

month by month, until the picking in the highest altitudes is finished

in the following March.

GUATEMALA. Guatemala began intensive coffee growing about 1875. Coffee

had been known in the country in a small way from about 1850, but now

serious attention began to be given to its cultivation, and it quickly

advanced to an industrial position of importance. Within a generation it

became the great staple crop of the country.

Guatemala has an area of 48,250 square miles, about the size of the

state of Ohio. Its population is about 2,000,000. Three mountain ranges,

intersecting magnificent table lands, traverse the country from north to

south; and there is the great coffee territory. The table lands are from

2,500 to 5,000 feet above sea-level, and have a temperate climate most

agreeable to the coffee tree. On the lower heights it is necessary to

protect the young trees from the extreme heat of the sun; and the banana

is most approved for this purpose, since it raises its own crop at the

same time that it is giving shade to its companion tree. On the higher

levels the plantations need protection from the cold north winds that

blow strongly across the country, especially in December, January, and

February. The range of hills to the north is the best protection, and

generally is all sufficient. When the weather becomes too severe, heaps

of rubbish mixed with pitch are thrown up to the north of the fields of

coffee trees and set afire, the resultant dense smoke driving down

between rows of trees and saving them from the frost.

[Illustration: INDIANS PICKING COFFEE, GUATEMALA]

Named in the order of their productivity, the coffee districts are Costa

Cuca, Costa Grande, Barberena, Tumbador, Cobán, Costa de Cucho,

Chicacao, Xolhuitz, Pochuta, Malacatan, San Marcos, Chuva, Panan, Turgo,

Escuintla, San Vincente, Pacaya, Antigua, Moran, Amatitlan, Sumatan,

Palmar, Zunil, and Motagua.

Estimates of coffee acreage vary. One authority, too conservatively,

perhaps, puts the figure at 145,000. Another estimate is 260,000 acres.

Under cultivation are from 70,000,000 to 100,000,000 trees from which an

annual crop averaging about 75,000,000 pounds is raised, and the

exceptional amounts of nearly 90,000,000 and 97,000,000 pounds have been

harvested. Several plantations of size can be counted upon for an annual

production of more than 1,000,000 pounds each.

Before the World War German interests dominated the coffee industry,

handling fully eighty percent of the crop, and growing nearly half of

it.

Planting and cultivation methods in Guatemala are about the same as

those prevailing in other countries. The trees are usually in flower in

February, March, and April, and the harvesting season extends from

August to January. All work on the plantation is done by Indian laborers

under a peonage system, families working in companies: wages are small,

but sufficient, conditions of living being easy. As elsewhere in these

tropical and sub-tropical countries, scarcity of labor is severely

felt, and is a grave obstacle to the development of the industry in a

land that is regarded as particularly well adapted to it.

[Illustration: THE COFFEE PLANTER'S LIFE IN GUATEMALA IS ONE OF

PLEASANTNESS AND PEACE]

HAITI. Haiti, the magic isle of the Indies, has grown coffee almost from

the beginning of the introduction of the tree into the western

hemisphere. Its cultivation was started there about 1715, but the trees

were largely permitted to fall into a wild natural state, and little

attention was given to them or to the handling of the crop. Fertility of

soil, climate, and moisture are favorable, and the advancement of the

industry has been retarded only by the political conditions of the negro

republic and a general lack of industry and enterprise on the part of

the people.

Haiti is an island with three names. Haiti is used to describe the

island as a whole, and to denote the Republic of Haiti, which occupies

the western third of its area. The island is also known as Santo

Domingo, and San Domingo, names likewise applied to the Dominican

Republic which occupies the eastern two-thirds of the land unit.

Plantations now existing in Haiti have had, with rare exceptions, a life

of more than ten or twenty years. It is estimated that they cover about

125,000 acres, with about 400 trees to the acre.

When the French acquired the island in 1789, the annual production was

88,360,502 pounds. During the following century that amount was not

approached in any year, the nearest to it being 72,637,716 pounds in

1875. The lowest annual production was 20,280,589 pounds in 1818. The

range during the hundred years, 1789-1890, was, with the exceptions

noted, from 45,000,000 to 71,000,000 pounds.

MEXICO. Opinions differ as to the exact date when coffee was introduced

into Mexico. It is said to have been transplanted there from the West

Indies near the end of the eighteenth century. A story is current that a

Spaniard set out a few trees, on trial, in southern Mexico, in 1800, and

that his experiments started other Mexican planters along the same line.

Coffee was grown in the state of Vera Cruz early in the nineteenth

century; and the books of the Vera Cruz custom house record that 1,101

quintals of coffee were exported through that port during the years

1802, 1803, and 1805.

In the Coatepec district, which eventually became famous in the annals

of Mexican coffee growing, trees were planted about the year 1808. Local

history says that seeds were brought from Cuba by Arias, a partner of

the house of Pedro Lopez, owners of the large _hacienda_ of Orduna in

Coatepec. The seeds were given to a priest, Andres Dominguez, who sowed

them near Teocelo. When he had succeeded in starting seedlings, he gave

them away to other planters there-about. The plants thrived, and this

was the beginning of coffee cultivation in that section of the country.

[Illustration: THIRTY-YEAR-OLD COFFEE TREES, LA ESPERANZA, HUATUSCO,

MEXICO]

It was, however, nearly ten years later before the cultivation was on a

scale approaching industrial and commercial importance. About 1816 or

1818 a Spaniard, named Juan Antonio Gomez, introduced the plant into the

neighborhood of Cordoba. This city, now on the line of the Mexican and

Vera Cruz Railroad, 200 miles from Mexico City, and sixty miles from

Vera Cruz, is 2,500 feet above sea-level, and is situated in the most

productive tropical region of the country.

Having been started in Coatepec and Cordoba, the industry was centered

for a long time in the state of Vera Cruz. For many years practically

all the coffee grown commercially in Mexico was produced in that state.

Gradually the new pursuit spread to the mountains in the adjacent states

of Oaxaca and Puebla, where it was taken up by the Indians almost

entirely, and is still followed by them, but not on a large scale.

Although cultivation is now widely distributed in most of the more

southern states of the republic, the principal coffee territory is still

in Vera Cruz, where lie the districts of Cordoba, Orizaba, Huatusco, and

Coatepec. In the same region are the Jalapa district, and the mountains

of Puebla, where a great deal of coffee is grown. Farther south are the

Oaxaca districts on the mountain slopes of the Pacific coast, and still

farther south the districts of the state of Chiapas. Planting in the

Pluma district in Oaxaca was begun about fifty years ago, and it now

produces annually, in good years, nearly 1,000,000 pounds. The youngest

district in this section is Soconusco, one of the most prolific in the

republic, having been developed within the last thirty years. The region

is near the border of Guatemala, and the coffee is held by many to

possess some of the quality of the coffee of that country. The influence

of Guatemalan methods has been felt also in its cultivation and

handling, especially in increasing plantation productiveness. On the

gulf slope of Oaxaca, there are plantations that annually produce

222,000 to 550,000 pounds. Several United States companies have become

interested in coffee growing in this state, and their output in recent

years has been put upon the market in St. Louis.

Two principal varieties of coffee are recognized in Mexico. A

sub-variety of _Coffea arabica_ is mostly cultivated. This is an

evergreen, growing only from five to seven feet. It flourishes well at

different altitudes and in different climes, from the temperate plains

of Puebla to the hot, damp, lower lands of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, and

other Pacific-coast regions. The range of elevation for it is from 1,500

to 5,000 feet, and it is satisfied with a temperature as low as 55° or

as high as 80°, with plenty of natural humidity or with irrigation in

the dry season. The other variety is called the "myrtle" and is widely

grown, although not in large quantities. It is distinguished from

_arabica_ by the larger leaf of the tree and by the smaller corolla of

the flower. It is a hardier plant than the _arabica_ and will stand the

higher temperature of low altitudes, thriving at an elevation of from

500 to 3,000 feet above sea-level. Mostly it is cultivated in the

Cordoba district.

It is claimed by many that the Mexican coffee of best quality is grown

in the western regions of the table lands of Colima and Michoacan, but

only a small quantity of that is available for export. The state of

Michoacan is especially favored by climate, altitude, soil, and

surroundings to produce coffee of exceptionally high grade, and the

Uruapan is considered to be its best.

Trees flower in January and March, and in high altitudes as late as June

or July. Berries appear in July and are ripe for gathering in October or

November, the picking season lasting until February.

Trees begin to yield when two or three years old, producing from two to

four ounces. They reach full production, which is about one and a half

pounds, at the age of six or seven years, though in the districts of

Chiapas, Michoacan, Oaxaca, and Puebla, annual yields of three to five

pounds per tree have been reported.

Since the World War American buyers have shown greater interest in the

Tapachula coffee grown in Chiapas.

[Illustration: MEXICAN COFFEE PICKER, COATEPEC DISTRICT]

PORTO RICO. Coffee culture in Porto Rico dates from 1755 or even

earlier, having been introduced from the neighboring islands of

Martinique and Haiti. Count O'Reilly, writing of the island in the

eighteenth century, mentions that the coffee exports for five years

previous to 1765 amounted in value to $2,078. Old records show that in

1770 there was a crop of 700,000 pounds and that seems to be the first

evidence that the new industry was growing to any noticeable

proportions. For a hundred years, at least, only slow progress was made.

In 1768 the king, of Spain issued a royal decree exempting coffee

growers on the island from the payment of taxes or charges for a period

of five years; but even that measure was not materially successful in

stimulating interest and in developing cultivation.

Porto Rico is a good coffee-growing country; soil, climate, and

temperature are well adapted to the berry. The coffee belt extends

through the western half of the island, beginning in the hills along the

south coast around Ponce, and extending north through the center of the

island almost to Arecibo, near the west end of the north coast. But some

coffee is grown in the other parts of the island, in sixty-four of the

sixty-eight municipalities. Mountain sections are considered to be

superior.

The largest plantations are in the region which includes the

municipalities of Utuado, Adjuntas, Lares, Las Marias, Yauco, Maricao,

San Sebastian, Mayaguez, Ciales, and Ponce. With the exception of Ponce

and Mayaguez, all these districts are back from the coast; but insular

roads of recent construction make them now easily accessible, and there

is no point on the island more than twenty miles distant from the sea.

[Illustration: RECEIVING AND MEASURING THE RIPE BERRIES FROM THE

PICKERS, MEXICO]