All About Coffee Part 43

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 lat.i.tude, 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 _cafe 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 _cafe de tierra caliente_, or coffee of the hot land.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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-fas.h.i.+oned 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 surpa.s.s 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 regime 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 owners.h.i.+p 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 owners.h.i.+p 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 quant.i.ty 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 alt.i.tudes 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 alt.i.tudes 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 alt.i.tude by the leaf disease, and has been succeeded by the more hardy _robusta_ and _liberica_ coffees and their hybrids.

Ill.u.s.trating 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_, _Ugandae_, _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_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD-TIME SAILING VESSEL LOADING IN PADANG ROADS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF A DUTCH COFFEE-CLEANING FACTORY, PADANG]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE SCENES IN SUMATRA, NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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, const.i.tutes 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 alt.i.tudes 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 pa.s.sed 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WELL CULTIVATED YOUNG COFFEE TREES IN BLOSSOM]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTRANCE TO A FINCA IN THE HIGHLANDS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 alt.i.tudes 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDIANS PICKING COFFEE, GUATEMALA]

Named in the order of their productivity, the coffee districts are Costa Cuca, Costa Grande, Barberena, Tumbador, Coban, Costa de Cucho, Chicacao, Xolhuitz, Pochuta, Malacatan, San Marcos, Chuva, Panan, Turgo, Escuintla, San Vincente, Pacaya, Antigua, Moran, Amat.i.tlan, 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.