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] From the Sierra Luquillo range, which rises to a height of 1,500 feet, and from Yauco, Utuado, and Lares, come excellent coffees; and, on the whole, these are considered to be the best coffee regions of the island. A fine grade of coffee is also grown in the Ciales district. Figures compiled by the Treasury Department of the insular government for the purpose of taxation showed that for the tax year 1915-16 there were 167,137 acres of land planted to coffee and valued at $10,341,592, an average of $61.87 per acre. In 1910, there were 151,000 acres planted in coffee. In 1916 there were more than 5,000 separate coffee plantations. Originally the coffee trees of Porto Rico were all of the _arabica_ variety. In recent years numerous others have been introduced, until in 1917 there were more than 2,500 trees of new descriptions on the island. The virgin land in the interior of the island is admirably adapted to the coffee tree, and less labor is required to prepare it for plantation purposes than in many other coffee-growing countries. It is cleared in the usual manner, and the trees are planted about eight feet apart, an average of 680 trees to the acre. The seeds are planted in February; and if the seedlings are transplanted, that is done when they are a year or a year and a half old. The guama, a big strong tree of dense foliage, is used for a wind-break on the ridges; and the guava, for shade in the plantation. Plow cultivation is generally impossible on account of the lay of the land, and only hoeing and spade work are done. Pruning is carefully attended to as the trees become full grown. Flowering is generally in February and March, or even later. Heavy rains in April make a poor crop. Harvesting begins in September and extends into January, during which time ten pickings are made. [Illustration: SINGLE PORTO RICO COFFEE TREE IN FULL BEARING, PROPPED UP WITH STAKES] The average yield per acre is between 200 and 300 pounds; but expert authority--Prof. O.F. Cook--in a statement made to the Committee on Insular Affairs of the United States House of Representatives, in 1900, held that under better cultural methods the yield could be increased to 800 or 900 pounds per acre. One estimator has calculated that an average plantation of 100 acres had cost its owner at the end of six or seven years, the bearing age, about $13,100 with yields of 75 pounds per acre in the third and in the fourth years, 400 pounds per acre in the fifth year, and 500 pounds in the sixth year, the income from which would practically have met the cost to that time. It is held by the same authority that an intensively cultivated, well-situated farm of selected trees, 880 to the acre, should yield some 880 pounds of cleaned coffee to the acre. COSTA RICA. Costa Rica ranks next to Guatemala and Salvador among the Central American countries as a producer of coffee, showing an average annual yield in recent years of 35,000,000 pounds as compared with Guatemala's 80,000,000 and Salvador's 75,000,000 pounds. Nicaragua has an average annual production of 30,000,000 pounds. Coffee was introduced into Costa Rica in the latter part of the eighteenth century; one authority saying that the plants were brought from Cuba in 1779 by a Spanish voyager, Navarro, and another saying that the first trees were planted several years later by Padre Carazo, a Spanish missionary coming from Jamaica. For more than a century six big coffee trees standing in a courtyard in the city of Cartago were pointed out to visitors as the very trees that Carazo had planted. The coffee-producing districts are principally on the Pacific slope and in the central plateaus of the interior. Plantations are located in the provinces of Cartago, Tres Rios, San José, Heredia, and Alajuela. In the province of Cartago are several extensive new estates on the slope to the Atlantic coast. The San José and the Cartago districts are considered by many to be the best naturally for the coffee tree. The soil is an exceedingly rich black loam made up of continuous layers of volcanic ashes and dust from three to fifteen feet deep. Preferable altitudes for plantations range from 3,000 to 4,500 feet, although a height of 5,000 feet is not out of use and there are some estates that do fairly well on levels as low as 1,500 feet. [Illustration: THE MODERN IDEA IN COFFEE CULTIVATION, COSTA RICA] INDIA. Tradition has it that a Moslem pilgrim in the seventeenth century brought from Mecca to India the first coffee seeds known in that country. They were planted near a temple on a hill in Mysore called Baba Budan, after the pilgrim; and from there the cultivation of coffee gradually spread to neighboring districts. Aside from this legend, nothing further is heard about coffee in India until the early part of the nineteenth century, when its existence there was confirmed by the granting of a charter to Fort Gloster, near Calcutta, authorizing that place to become a coffee plantation. [Illustration: PICKING COSTA RICA COFFEE] [Illustration: COFFEE ESTATE IN THE MOUNTAINS OF COSTA RICA] Planting was begun on the flat land of the plains, but the trees did not thrive. Then the cultivation was extended to the hills in southern India, especially in Mysore, where better success was achieved. The first systematic plantation was established in 1840. For the most part, the production has always been confined to southern India in the elevated region near the southwestern coast. The coffee district comprises the landward slopes of the Western Ghats, from Kanara to Travancore. About one-half of the coffee-producing area is in Mysore; and other plantations are in Kurg (Coorg), the Madras districts of Malabar, and in the Nilgiri hills, those regions having 86 percent of the whole area under cultivation. Some coffee is grown also in other districts in Madras, principally in Madura, Salem, and Coimbator, in Cochin, in Travancore, and, on a restricted scale, in Burma, Assam, and Bombay. The area returned as under coffee in 1885 was 237,448 acres; in 1896, as 303,944 acres. Since then there has been a progressive decrease on account of damage from leaf diseases difficult to combat, and by competition with Brazilian coffee. New land that had just been planted with coffee in plantations reported for 1919-20 amounted to 7,012 acres; while the area abandoned was 8,725 acres, representing a net decrease in cultivated area of 1,713 acres. [Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF A COFFEE ESTATE IN MYSORE, INDIA] Of the total area devoted to coffee cultivation (126,919 acres), 49 percent was in Mysore, which yielded 35 percent of the total production; while Madras, with 23 percent of the total area, yielded 38 percent of the production. The total production for the year 1920-21 is reported as 26,902,471 pounds. Yield varies throughout the country according to the methods of cultivation and the condition of the season. On the best estates in a good season, the yield per acre may be as high as 1,100 or 1,200 pounds, and on poor estates it may not be over 200 or 300 pounds. The _arabica_ variety is chiefly cultivated. The _robusta_ and _Maragogipe_ have been tried, but without much success. A representative plantation is the Santaverre in Mysore, comprising 400 acres, at an elevation of from 4,000 to 4,500 feet, where the coffee trees, cultivated under shade, produce from 100 to 250 tons of coffee a year. Other prominent estates in Mysore are Cannon's Baloor and Mylemoney, the Hoskahn, and the Sumpigay Khan. NICARAGUA. Coffee trees will grow well anywhere in Nicaragua, but the best locations have altitudes of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level. At such elevations the yield varies from one pound to five pounds per tree annually; but above or below those, the average production diminishes to from one pound to one-half pound a tree. Lands most suitable for the berry are on the Sierra de Managua, in Diriambe, San Marcos, and Jinotega, and about the base of the volcano Monbacho near Granada. Good land is also found on the island Omotepe in Lake Nicaragua, and around Boaco in the department of Chontales, where cultivation was begun in 1893. There are also plantations in the vicinity of Esteli and Lomati in the department of Neuva Segovia. The most extensive operations are in the departments of Managua, Carazo, Matagalpa, Chontales, and Jinotega, and from those regions the annual crop has attained to such quantity that it has become the chief agricultural product of the republic. Poor and costly means of transportation on the Atlantic slope have operated to retard the development of the industry there, even though conditions of climate are not unfavorable. [Illustration: COFFEE GROWING UNDER SHADE, UBBAN ESTATE, INDIA] ABYSSINIA. In the absence of any conclusive evidence to the contrary, the claim that coffee was first made known to modern man by the trees on the mountains of the northeastern part of the continent of Africa may be accepted without reserve. Undoubtedly the plant grew wild all through tropical Africa; but its value as an addition to man's dietary was brought forth in Abyssinia. Abyssinia, while it may have given coffee to the world, no longer figures as a prime factor in supplying the world, and now exports only a limited quantity. There are produced in the country two coffees known to the trade as Harari and Abyssinian, the former being by far the more important. The Harari is the fruit of cultivated _arabica_ trees grown in the province of Harar, and mostly in the neighborhood of the city of Harar, capital of the province. The Abyssianian is the fruit of wild _arabica_ trees that grow mainly in the provinces of Sidamo, Kaffa, and Guma. The coffee of Harar is known to the trade as Mocha longberry or Abyssinian longberry. Most of the plantations upon which it is raised are owned by the native Hararis, Galla, and Abyssinians, although there are a few Greek, German, and French planters. The trees are planted in rows about twelve or fifteen feet apart, and comparatively little attention is given to cultivation. Crops average two a year, and sometimes even five in two years. The big yield is in December, January, and February. The average crop is about seventy pounds, and is mostly from small plots of from fifty to one hundred trees, there being no very large plantations. All the coffee is brought into the city of Harar, whence it is sent on mule-back to Dire-Daoua on the Franco-Ethiopian Railway, and from there by rail to Jibuti. Some of it is exported directly from Jibuti, and the rest is forwarded to Aden, in Arabia, for re-exporting. Abyssinian, or wild, coffee is also known as Kaffa coffee, from one of the districts where it grows most abundantly in a state of nature. This coffee has a smaller bean and is less rich in aroma and flavor than the Harari; but the trees grow in such profusion that the possible supply, at the minimum of labor in gathering, is practically unlimited. It is said that in southwestern Abyssinia there are immense forests of it that have never been encroached upon except at the outskirts, where the natives lazily pick up the beans that have fallen to the ground. It is shelled where it is found, in the most primitive fashion, and goes out in a dirty, mixed condition. Formerly, much of this Kaffa coffee was sent to market through Boromeda, Harar, and Dire-Daoua. An average annual crop was about 6,000 bags, or 800,000 pounds, of which something more than one-half usually went through Harar. A customs and trading station has lately been established at Gambela, on the Sobat River: and with the development of this outlet, there has been a substantial and increasing exploitation of the wild-coffee plants since 1913. Large areas of land have been cleared, with a view to cultivation, and attention is being given to improved methods of harvesting and of preparing the coffee for the market. At one time a fair amount of coffee from this region went to Adis Abeba on the backs of pack mules, a journey of thirty-five or forty days, and then was carried to Jibuti, nearly 500 miles, part of the way by rail. Now practically all of it goes to Gambela, thence by steamers to Khartoum, and by rail to the shipping-point at Port Sudan on the Red Sea. OTHER AFRICAN COUNTRIES. Practically every part of Africa seems to be suitable for coffee cultivation, even United South Africa, in the southern part of the continent, producing 140,212 pounds in 1918. To name all the countries in which it is grown would be to list nearly all the political divisions of Africa. Among the largest producers are the British East African Protectorate, 18,735,572 pounds in 1918; French Somaliland, 11,222,736 pounds in 1917; Angola, 10,655,934 pounds in 1913; Uganda, 9,999,845 pounds in 1918; former German East Africa, 2,334,450 pounds in 1913; Cape Verde Islands, 1,442,910 pounds in 1916; Madagascar, 707,676 pounds in 1918; Liberia, 761,300 pounds in 1917; Eritrea, 728,840 pounds in 1918; St. Thomas and Prince's Islands, 484,350 pounds in 1916; and the Belgian Congo, 375,000 pounds in 1917. [Illustration: A GALLA COFFEE GROWER, AND HIS HELPER, IN HIS GROVE OF YOUNG TREES NEAR HARAR] ANGOLA. Coffee is Angola's second product, and there are large areas of wild-coffee trees. With a production of nearly 11,000,000 pounds, Angola ranks about third in Africa as a coffee-growing country. The coffee is gathered and sold by the natives, and there are also several European companies engaged in the coffee business. The chief coffee belt extends from the Quanza River northward to the Kongo at an altitude of 1,500 to 2,500 feet. In the Cazengo valley the wild trees are so thick that thinning out is the only operation necessary to the plantation-owner. When the trees become too tall, they are simply cut off about two feet above ground; and new shoots appear from the trunks the following season. The largest coffee plantation, owned by the Companhia Agricola de Cazengo, produced in 1913, a record year, nearly 1,500 tons. LIBERIA. Coffee is native to Liberia, growing wild in the hinterland of the negro republic, and in the natural state the trees often attain a height of from thirty to forty feet. Cultivated Liberian coffee, _Coffea liberica_, has become a staple of the civilized inhabitants of the country, and is grown successfully in hot, moist lowlands or on hills that are not much elevated. On account of the size of the trees, only about four hundred can be planted to the acre. In recent years the native Africans have been planting thousands of trees in the district of Grand Cape Mount. Coffee is grown in all parts of the republic, but chiefly in Grand Cape Mount and Montserrado. GENERAL OUTLOOK IN AFRICA. In the African countries under control of European governments much recent progress has been made in promoting coffee growing and in improving methods of cultivation. British interests were reported in 1919 as having started a movement toward reviving interest in the coffee growing industry in the British possessions in Africa. The report stated that Uganda, in the East African Protectorate, had 21,000 acres under coffee cultivation, with 16,000 acres more in other parts of the Protectorate, and 1,300 acres in Nyasaland; also that there is no hope of an immediate revival of the industry in Natal, where it was killed twenty years ago by various pests; "but it should certainly be established in the warmer parts of Rhodesia; and in the northern part of the Transvaal an effort is being made to bring this form of enterprise into practical existence." Coffee growing possibilities in British East Africa (Kenya Colony) are alluring, according to reports from planters in that region. Late in 1920, Major C.J. Ross, a British government officer there, said that "British East Africa is going to be one of the leading coffee countries of the world." Coffee grows wild in many parts of the Protectorate, but the natives are too lazy to pick even the wild berries. On the more advanced plantations in all parts of Africa the approved cultivation methods of other leading countries are carefully followed; especial care being given to weeding and pruning, because of the rank growth of the tropics. On the whole, however, little attention is given to intensive methods. ARABIA. Whether the coffee tree was first discovered indigenous in the mountains of Abyssinia, or in the Yemen district of Arabia, will probably always be a matter of contention. Many writers of Europe and Asia in the fifteenth century, when coffee was first brought to the attention of the people of Europe, agree on Arabia; but there is good reason to believe the plant was brought to Arabia from Abyssinia in the sixth century. Once all the coffee of Arabia went to the outside world through the port of Mocha on the eastern coast of the Red Sea. Mocha, which never raised any coffee, is no longer of commercial importance; but its name has been permanently attached to the coffee of this country. _Mocha_ (_Moka_, or _Morkha_) coffee (i.e. _Coffea arabica_) is raised principally in the vilayet of Yemen, a district of southeastern Arabia. Yemen extends from the north, southerly along the line of the Red Sea, nearly to the Gulf of Aden. With the exception of a narrow strip of land along the shores of the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden, it is a rugged, mountainous region, in which innumerable small valleys at high elevations are irrigated by waters from the melting snows of the mountains. Coffee can be successfully grown in any part of Yemen, but its cultivation is confined to a few widely scattered districts, and the acreage is not large. The principal coffee regions are in the mountains between Taiz and Ibb, and between Ibb and Yerim, and Yerim and Sanaa, on the caravan route from Taiz to Sanaa; between Zabeed and Ibb, on the route from Taiz to Zabeed; between Hajelah and Menakha, on the route from Hodeida to Sanaa, and in the wild mountain ranges both to the north and south of that route; between Beit-el-Fakih and Obal; and between Manakha and Batham to the north of Bajil. The plant does best at elevations ranging from 3,500 to 6,500 feet. [Illustration: WILD KAFFA COFFEE TREES NEAR ADIS ABEBA] In the Yemen district, coffee is generally grown in small gardens. Large plantations, as they exist in other coffee-growing countries, are not seen in Arabia. Many of these small farms may be parts of a large estate belonging to some rich tribal chief. The native Arabs do not use coffee in the way it is used elsewhere in the world. They drink _kisher_, a beverage brewed from the husks of the berry and not from the bean. Consequently, the entire crop goes into export. But bad conditions of trade routes, political disturbances, and small regional wars, absence of good cultivation methods, and heavy transit taxes imposed by the government, have combined to restrict the production of Yemen coffee. Land for the coffee gardens is selected on hill-slopes, and is terraced with soil and small walls of stone until it reaches up like an amphitheater--often to a considerable height. The soil is well fertilized. For sowing, the seeds are thoroughly dried in ashes, and after being placed in the ground, are carefully watched, watered, and shaded. In about a year the shrub has grown to a height of twelve or more inches. Seedlings in that condition are set out in the gardens in rows, about ten to thirteen feet apart. The young trees receive moisture from neighboring wells or from irrigation ditches, and are shaded by bananas. At maturity the trees reach a height of ten or fifteen feet. Since they never lose all their leaves at one time, they appear always green, and bear at the same time flowers and fruits, some of which are still green while others are ripe or approaching maturity. Thus, in some districts, the trees are considered to have two or even three crops a year. All the trees begin to bear about the end of the third year. [Illustration: A RARE PICTURE SHOWING MOCHA COFFEE GROWING ON TERRACES IN YEMEN, ARABIA] CUBA. Coffee can be grown in practically every island of the West Indies, but owing to the state of civilization in many of the lesser islands, little is produced for international trade, excepting in Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad, and Tobago. In past years a considerable quantity of good-quality coffee was produced in Cuba, the annual export in the decade of 1840 averaging 50,000,000 pounds. Severe hurricanes, adverse legislation, the rise of coffee-growing in Brazil, the increase in cultivation of sugar and other more profitable crops, practically eliminated Cuba from the international coffee-export trade. MARTINIQUE. This is a name well known to coffee men, the world over, as the pioneer coffee-growing country of the western hemisphere. Gabriel de Clieu introduced the coffee plant to the island in 1723 by bringing it through many hardships from France. For a time, coffee flourished there, but now practically none is grown. Such coffee as bears the name Martinique in modern trade centers is produced in Guadeloupe, and is only shipped through Martinique. JAMAICA. Coffee was introduced into Jamaica in 1730; and so highly was it regarded as a desirable addition to the agricultural resources of the island, that the British Parliament in 1732 passed a special act providing for the encouraging and fostering of its cultivation. Later, it became one of the great staples of the country. Disastrous floods in 1815, and the gradual exhaustion of the best lands since then, have brought about a decline of the industry, which is now confined to a few estates in the Blue Mountains and to scattered "settler" or peasant cultivation in the same districts but at lower altitudes. The tree was formerly grown at all altitudes, from sea-level to 5,000 feet; but the best height for it is about 4,500 feet. Four parishes lead in coffee producing: Manchester, with an area of 5,045 acres; St. Thomas, with 2,315 acres; Clarendon, with 2,172 acres; St. Andrew, with 1,584 acres. Nine other parishes that raise coffee have less than 1,000 acres each under cultivation. There were 24,865 acres devoted to coffee in 1900. In addition, it was estimated that there were 80,000 acres suitable for the cultivation, nearly all being owned by the government. [Illustration: PICKING BLUE MOUNTAIN BERRIES, JAMAICA] DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Coffee was once the leading staple in the Dominican Republic as in the adjoining Haitian Republic; but in recent years cacao, sugar, and tobacco have become the predominating crops. Said to have the world's richest and most productive soil, one-half of the republic's area is particularly suited to the cultivation of a good grade of coffee of the highland type. But political and industrial conditions have made for neglect of its cultivation by efficient methods. Lack of suitable roads has also militated against the development of the coffee industry. In spite of many drawbacks, it is to be noted that, from the beginning of the twentieth century, the coffee-growing area has been gradually expanded until exports increased from less than 1,000,000 pounds to 5,029,316 pounds in 1918, although in the next two years there was a recession in the total exports to 1,358,825 pounds in 1920. The principal plantations are in the vicinity of the town of Moca and in the districts of Santiago, Bani, and Barahona. Generally speaking, the methods of cultivation in the Dominican Republic are somewhat crude as compared with the practise in the larger countries of production in Central America and South America. GUADELOUPE. Guadeloupe has an area of 619 square miles, and about one-third of this area is under cultivation. About 15,000 acres are in coffee, giving employment to upward of 10,000 persons. The average yield of a plantation of mature trees is about 535 pounds to the acre. In the early years of the industry in Guadeloupe, production and export were considerable. From old records it appears that in 1784 the exports amounted to 7,500,000 pounds. During the closing years of the eighteenth century the annual exports were from 6,500,000 to 8,500,000 pounds, and in the beginning of the next century they registered about 6,000,000 pounds. Toward the middle of the nineteenth century the growing of sugar cane overtopped that of coffee in profit, and many planters abandoned coffee. After 1884, with the decadence of the sugar industry, coffee was again favored, the government giving substantial encouragement by paying bounties ranging from $15 to $19 per acre for all new coffee plantations. In recent years, considerable _liberica_ and _robusta_ have been planted in place of the exhausted _arabica_. [Illustration: COFFEE PICKERS RETURNING FROM THE FIELDS, GUADELOUPE] TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago are small factors in international coffee trading. Coffee can be grown almost any place on the islands; but its cultivation is confined principally to the districts of Maracas, Aripo, and North Oropouche. Both the _arabica_ and the _liberica_ varieties are grown. HONDURAS. Soil, surface, and climate in Honduras, as far as they relate to the cultivation of coffee, are similar to those of the adjoining regions of Central America. The tree grows in the uplands of the interior, thriving best at an altitude of from 1,500 to 4,000 feet. Scarcity of labor and insufficient means of transportation have been the chief obstacles in the way of the large development of the industry. The departments of Santa Barbara, Copan, Cortez, La Paz, Choluteca, and El Paraiso have the principal plantations. The ports of shipment are Truxillo and Puerto Cortés. Annual production in recent years has been about 5,000,000 pounds. In 1889 the United States imported 3,322,502 pounds, but in 1915 its importations fell away to 665,912 pounds. BRITISH HONDURAS. British Honduras has never undertaken to raise coffee on a commercial scale despite the fact that conditions are not unfavorable to its cultivation. It has failed to produce enough even for domestic consumption, importing most of what it has needed. Annual production, as recorded in recent years, has been upward of 10,000 pounds. [Illustration: THREE-YEAR-OLD COFFEE TREES IN BLOSSOM, PANAMA] PANAMA. Panama presents a very favorable field for the growing of coffee. The best district is situated in the uplands of the district of Bugaba, where vast areas of the best lands for coffee-growing exist, and where climatic and other conditions are most favorable to its growth. No shade is required in this country; and the only cultivation consists of three or four cleanings a year to keep down the weeds, as no plowing, etc., are necessary. Coffee matures from October to January. Water power being abundant, it is used for running all machinery. The annual output of the province of Chiriqui, which produces the bulk of the coffee, is approximately 4,000 sacks of 100 pounds each; all of which is produced in the Boquete district at present, as the coffee planted in the Bugaba section is still young and unproductive. The local supply does not meet the domestic demand; and instead of exporting, a great deal is imported from adjoining countries, although, there is a protective tariff of six dollars per hundred pounds. THE GUIANAS. Coffee has had a precarious existence in the Guianas. Plants are said to have been brought by Dutch voyagers from Amsterdam in 1718 or 1720. They flourished in the new habitat to which they were introduced, and in 1725 were carried from Dutch Guiana into the district of Berbice in British Guiana and into French Guiana. There the berry was a considerable success for a time; Berbice coffee especially acquiring a good reputation; and when Demerara was settled, coffee became a staple of that region. Shortage of native labor, and the difficulty of procuring cheap and capable workers from outside the country, ultimately compelled the practical abandonment of the crop in all three sections, Dutch, French, and British. In British Guiana it is now grown mainly for domestic consumption, and the same is true of French Guiana, which also imports. From the time of its introduction, about 1718, until about 1880, the only coffee grown in Surinam, or Dutch Guiana, was the _Coffea arabica_. It was not a bountiful producer, and with labor scarce and unreliable, its cultivation was expensive. Therefore experiment was made with the _liberica_ plant. This proved to be very satisfactory, growing luxuriantly, producing abundantly, and requiring minimum labor in care. In 1918 some 16,000,000 pounds were produced. ECUADOR. Though not of great commercial importance, coffee in Ecuador grows on both the mainland and on the adjacent islands. The area planted to coffee is estimated at 32,000 acres having an aggregate of about 8,000,000 trees. The trees blossom in December, and the picking season is through April, May and June. Coffee ranks third in value among the exports of the country. PERU. Although possessed of natural coffee land and climate, little has been done to develop the industry in Peru. A finely flavored coffee grows at an altitude of 7,000 feet, while that grown in the lowlands along the Pacific coast is not so desirable. Such small quantities as are grown are cultivated in the mountain districts of Choquisongo, Cajamarca, Perene, Paucartambo, Chaucghamayo, and Huanace. The Pacific-coast district of Paces-mayo also grows a not unimportant crop. BOLIVIA. Comparatively little attention is given to coffee cultivation in Bolivia. Agricultural methods are crude, and are limited to cutting down weeds and undergrowth twice a year. The coffee is planted in small patches, or as hedges along the roads or around the fields of other crops. The first crop is picked at the end of one and a half or two years. The trees bear for fifteen to twenty years. The average yield is from three to eight pounds per tree. The best grades of coffee are grown at 2,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level. Coffee is cultivated in the departments of La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, El Beni, and Chuquisca. In the department of Santa Cruz there are plantations in the provinces of Sara, Velasco, Chiquitos and Cordillera. In the Yungas and the Apolobamba districts of La Paz, its cultivation reaches the greatest importance, but even there is not of large proportions. CHILE, PARAGUAY, AND ARGENTINA. Coffee is of minor, almost insignificant, importance in the agriculture of Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. In Uruguay the climate is altogether unsuitable for it. Argentina and Paraguay each have small growing districts. In the first named, only the provinces of Salta and Jujuy have, at the latest reports, a little more than 3,000 acres under cultivation. In Paraguay some householders have grown coffee in their yards solely for their own use. In the Paraguayan district of Altos, north of Asuncion, a small group of plantations was started before the outbreak of the World War, and produced about 300,000 pounds of coffee in a year. CEYLON. Coffee planting in Ceylon was an important industry for a century, until the so-called Ceylon leaf disease attacked the plantations in 1869, and a few years later had practically destroyed all the trees of the country. Although coffee raising has continued since then, there has been, especially since the beginning of the twentieth century, a steady decline in acreage. There were 4,875 acres under cultivation in 1903, 2,433 acres in 1907, 1,389 in 1912, and 941.5 in