SECTION VIII.. Culture in the West Indies and America.

CULTURE IN THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICA.

In 1720, a small coffee-plant, raised in the garden of the King at Paris, was transported to the Antilles by Captain Declieux, who, during a long passage, shared each day his small allowance of water with the young coffee plant. From this tree have sprung all those since cultivated in Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, St. Domingo, and the other islands. The fall of St. Domingo, in 1789, which formerly furnished 80,000,000 lbs., the disfavour the culture has fallen into in Martinique and Guadaloupe islands, which used to supply 16,000,000 or 17,000,000 lbs., together with the greater attention given to sugar cultivation in the West Indies, have transferred the production of coffee chiefly to Brazil, Ceylon, and Java.

In 1801, 526,000 cwts. of coffee were imported into Great Britain from the West Indies, and the average annual imports in the six years ending 1806 was 364,000 cwts. The decrease of production is shown by the following figures:

---------------+------------+------------+------------ | 1829. | 1850. | 1860. ---------------+------------+------------+------------ | lbs. | lbs. | lbs. Jamaica | 18,690,654 | 4,196,210 | 6,145,362 British Guiana | 7,163,016 | 18,472 | -- Trinidad | 73,667 | 96,376 | -- Dominica | 942,113 | 792 | 10,000 St. Lucia | 303,499 | 39 | -- ---------------+------------+------------+------------

JAMAICA.--The coffee-plant is said to have been first introduced into Jamaica by Sir Nicholas Lawes, in 1728, when it was cultivated on an estate called Temple Hall, on the plains of Liguanea, not far from Kingston. In 1752, 6,000,000 lbs. of coffee were exported, and in the three years ending 1807, the average annual shipment was 28,500,000 lbs. It was not until the island trade was injured by the dismemberment of Honduras that the heavy duties on sugar, and the competition of the French colonies, induced the industrious planters to turn their attention to coffee. They then petitioned for a protecting bounty, and for a considerable time this was the only British colony where its cultivation was much attended to. In 1791 there were 607 coffee-plantations in the island, with 21,000 negroes employed on them. In 1844, there were 671 plantations, and it was calculated that 20,000,000l. sterling was invested in them. Some of the finest and most productive plantations were at an elevation of 4700 feet, in the vicinity of the Blue Mountain Peak. Whilst in 1809, 83,250,000 lbs. of coffee were shipped from Jamaica, the average export for ten years past has not exceeded 6,000,000 lbs.

In the West Indies and Central America a nursery of young plants is usually raised from seed. At the age of six months these are transplanted into the field in squares of 8 to 9 feet apart. Beyond keeping the field clear of weeds, giving the plants a slight moulding, and freeing them of suckers or sprouts, they do not require any other attention for the first three years. At the expiry of this time they commence to bear fruit, and the coffee is cured either by drying the entire fruit in the sun, or by passing the fruit through what is called a pulping mill, which separates the outer pulp or covering from the beans. The beans are then subjected to a washing in a tank full of water, in order to remove the glutinous substance which adheres to them; this causes them to cure or dry more rapidly. They are then left in what is called the parchment husk, and exposed to the action of the sun on platforms laid with tiles, until they are perfectly dried, and from this they are, during crop time, spread on the wooden floors of a building called a logie, to the depth, in a heavy crop, of 12 to 18 inches. Whilst thus spread, great attention is necessary to prevent the coffee getting heated and its colour destroyed, by constantly turning it up, and by the use of some dry lime or ashes sprinkled over it. After this the beans are subjected to the operation of what is called a stamping mill, which separates the parchment husk from the beans. This stamping mill is merely two large solid wheels fixed on each end of a beam on an axle, and worked by mules moving round in a circle--the wooden wheels working in a circular trough filled with the coffee beans. After this the whole are submitted to the action of a winnowing machine, which separates the chaff from the beans, and subsequently the beans are passed through copper sieves to separate the perfect from the broken coffee, and finally handpicked and put into bags or casks for shipment.

BRITISH GUIANA.--Coffee was for a length of time almost the only staple of Berbice and Demerara, but the cultivation of the sugar-cane has been substituted for it. The quantity of coffee, the produce of British Guiana, exported in 1830 was, 9,472,756 lbs.; in 1840, 3,357,300 lbs.; in 1849, 100,550 lbs.; and in 1850, 30,000 lbs.; since which it has almost ceased to be exported, scarcely sufficient being produced to supply the demand in the colony.

At one time there were about two hundred coffee plantations in the small island of DOMINICA, and four to five million of pounds of coffee were exported annually to Great Britain.

PORTO RICO.--In proportion to its extent, this island is twice as productive as Cuba, and the quality of its coffee and other produce is of the highest class. There were, in 1862, fifty-three coffee plantations on the island, producing about 100,000 cwt. of coffee. The exports of coffee were, in

lbs. 1855 11,506,283 1856 9,935,000 1857 8,245,000 1858 9,814,000 1859 13,457,000

The exports of coffee from the island of CUBA, which were in 1840 upwards of 2,000,000 arrobas, were in 1858 but 21,000; and in 1859, 5000 or 6000.

BRAZIL.--The coffee-plant has been known in Brazil for many years; it is but about fifty years, however, since the first regular plantation was made by Mr. Moke, a Belgian, who brought the cultivation of coffee to great perfection. His plantation is still in the neighbourhood of the capital, and is carried on by his son with much success. It is astonishing to what an extent coffee has been cultivated since Mr. Moke first made his plantation. Two millions of bags of 160 lbs. each are annually exported from Rio de Janeiro, taking the average of the last seven years; 1862 was, however, short of this about half a million bags. At Barahyba do Sul, which is within a few miles of Rio, there are plantations employing six and seven hundred slaves.

The best plantations are those owned and conducted by foreigners--chiefly English, French, and Belgian--they have an air of neatness and comfort about them of which those owned by Brazilians and Portuguese are totally destitute. The foreigners use improved machinery also in preparing the berry for market, which the Brazilians, with some exceptions, do not. The coffee-berry contains two seeds, covered with a gummy, mucilaginous substance, and enclosed in a skin which is thick, sweet, and dark and red when ripe. The foreigners take off this skin by means of machinery, and the beans are washed until they are divested of the mucilage which covers them. They are then dried and put into bags ready for market. The Brazilians dry the beans with the skin on. In the process of drying, the skin first becomes dark, and finally black, and when crisp, is rubbed off the bean, which is then washed. In this process, however, there is great danger of fermentation. The skin contains a vast amount of saccharine matter, and successful attempts have been made to extract from it sugar and spirit; but either through poor machinery, or other mismanagement, it was found to be unprofitable, and the experiment was abandoned. The skin is exceedingly sweet, almost as much so to the taste as the sugar-cane.

The coffee-plant can be propagated from the seed, but the most prevalent method in Brazil is by young plants, which may be had by the thousand on old plantations. The young shrub is taken up in August--generally when it is about two years old--and planted in good soil. The fourth year it produces coffee, and the fifth year it commences to bear regular crops, the yield being from a pound and a half to three pounds per tree. Trees have been known to last for many years on good rich soil, and some on Mr. Moke’s plantation are still bearing which were planted forty years ago; on hill-sides, however, where the soil is light, the plant decays in the course of eight or ten years. The picking season commences in July, and in the low lands generally concludes by the end of August; among the hills, however, where there are frequent showers, and where there is much shade, the season does not close until some time in September.

The four coffee-growing provinces of Brazil, properly speaking, are Rio de Janeiro, San Paulo, Minas, and Bahia. In the two former the agriculturists have for some time past directed their attention almost exclusively to this article. In Bahia its cultivation is steadily, although slowly, increasing. Coffee is grown in the provinces of Maranham, Parana, and St. Catherine’s, but only to a very small extent, the amount produced being insufficient to meet the demand. The cultivation of coffee is rapidly increasing in St. Paulo, and is promoted by the railroad extending from Santos to Jundiahy. The United States usually takes one-half of the crop of Brazil coffee.

The following figures give the average quantity of coffee exported from the empire of Brazil during the undermentioned years, comprising a period previous and subsequent to the abolition of the slave trade in 1851, and showing a steady increase in the export since 1840:

Annual average. arrobas.

1840-43 5,507,367 1843-46 6,519,380 1846-49 9,301,967 1849-52 8,542,965 1852-55 10,549,847 1855-58 11,465,719 1858-61 10,501,665

The yearly shipments from Rio in the last four years have been as follows:

bags. 1859 2,064,837 1860 2,150,188 1861 2,085,974 1862 1,477,904

besides 200,000 to 300,000 bags annually from Santos. The bags contain rather more than six arrobas, or one cwt. and a half.

COSTA RICA.--The quality of this coffee is recognised as excellent. In order to place it in a proper degree of estimation in foreign markets, some proprietors of plantations have not omitted getting it chemically analysed in Europe; the result of which examination has classed it in the third degree, among those kinds generally esteemed as the best.

The following figures show the production of coffee in Costa Rica; the bulk of the crop is sent to Great Britain:

cwts. 1854 70,000 1855 70,709 1856 83,000 1857 95,000

VENEZUELA.--Within the last thirty years Venezuela has made great progress in coffee culture. The exports, which were not more than 13,000,000 lbs. in 1833, had risen to 15,000,000 lbs. in 1850; but since then the culture has been much interfered with by civil war. The exports from La Guayra were, in 1855, 17,375,000 lbs.; in 1856, 12,357,000 lbs.; and in 1857, 16,031,000 lbs. Washed coffee sells there at 8s. per cwt. higher than the unwashed.

In Venezuela, the plan followed in drying the coffee is this. The berries are spread out upon hurdles in the sun, where they undergo the vinous fermentation from fourteen to twenty days, and then dry. The beans are freed from the pulpy husk by a mill in two operations, and from the parchment, &c., by winnowing. Although a single tree may bear as much as 10 to 20 lbs., the average in Venezuela is under 2 lbs. An acre planted with 2560 trees yields there an annual crop of about 1100 lbs. of dry beans.

In ECUADOR coffee has of late greatly engrossed the attention of planters, from its superior quality and the increased demand; it commands a higher price than any other product of the country in proportion. As the people are everywhere dedicating themselves to its culture, in a few years it is probable that this country will export a considerable quantity. In 1855, 776 cwt. only were shipped; in 1861, although the harvest was exceedingly scanty, the exports were 1480 cwt.

GUATEMALA.--Some twenty years ago considerable plantations of coffee were made in different parts of the republic of Guatemala, and had the undertaking been followed up with proper and steady constancy and attention, it might, perhaps, by this time, have become an important article of export. Unfortunately its culture was abandoned, owing to the insurrections of the Indian population. Some attempts have been made again to introduce its culture by making fresh plantations, but hitherto not to any extent worthy of mention. The exports of coffee in 1860 were about 63 tons. In the department of Vera Paz, there are said to be now about half a million of coffee plants in bearing, and nurseries of about a million more plants will soon be ready for transplanting. The greater part of the plantations are situated in the neighbourhood of Coban, where the vicinity of Teleman, on the river Polochec, which disembogues into the gulf of Dulce, affords a convenient channel for shipping the produce.